Been seeing a couple of takes that try to say that jace, luke and joffreys paternity “doesnt matter” or that theyre not bastards because theyve been “claimed” by both rhaenyra and laenor/house velaryon. I dont know what the real life practices were in relation to bastard children, but that is absolutely not true by asoiaf standards. (and yes you do have to interpret the issue of parentage in the show based on the in-universe context.)
First, Rhaenyras children are bastards. Lets just get that out of the way first. someone tried to assert that since its Rhaenyra who has the claim the children are Targaryen through her and therefore not bastards, but if Alicent were to have bastard children they would be bastards because she herself has no claim which is.. incorrect. In asoiaf, a bastard is any child born out of wedlock. Lollys Stokeworth’s son is still a bastard, despite any possible inheritance of his coming from his mother (Jaime II, AFFC). Theres no question on whether or not Rhaenyra’s kids are bastards- they are. Its a settled definition. You cannot simply tweak the definition of bastards and tie their legitimacy to Rhaenyra’s claim. Thats not how it works. Any child born out of wedlock is a bastard. Next question.
Second. Laenor and Rhaenyra “claiming” the children as theirs does not erase their bastardry. Again, I have no idea how real life bastardry was addressed, but I do know there is no such thing as ‘claiming’ bastard children in asoiaf. There are two other concepts though - acknowledgement, and legitimization. A parent may acknowledge their bastard child, and acknowledged bastards get region-typical surnames (Storm, Stone, Flowers, Sand, Snow, etc). Best example? Jon Snow, who was acknowledged by his ‘apparent’ father. Remember, this doesn’t make Jon not a bastard - Jon is still very much a bastard throughout the GOT timeline, he’s just an acknowledged one. The same goes for all the sand snakes- their last name is Sand because Oberyn acknowledged them. Gendry, on the other hands, doesnt use the surname Waters because he was never acknowledged by Robert, whereas another one of Roberts bastards is Edric Storm, who has the bastard surname storm because Robert acknowledged him as his bastard son by Delena Florent (Davos I, ACOK). Edric is still a bastard, because Robert didnt legitimise him. (If he had, Edric would be Edric Baratheon instead). The acknowledgement does NOT change the bastardry.
The only thing that could possibly change their bastardry is having them legitimised, but only a king or queen can legitimise a bastard. We see this with Ramsay Bolton, who was previously Ramsay Snow but was legitimised by Tommen (Jaime IX, ASOS). Similarly, Robb (when crowned King in the North) legitimises Jon (in ASOS I believe). That still holds weight, even if Robb isnt sitting the iron throne at the time, because he’s been crowned King in The North. F&B readers will know about two other bastards who are legitimised later, but I wont bring that up bc spoilers.
Heres where things get spicy. Rhaenyra can never legitimise her children. Why? Because for them to be legitimised, she has to first admit they were bastards in need of legitimising in the first place. You’d only need to remove the status of bastardry from a child if you recognise that they werent trueborn to begin with. Any attempt to legitimise them would only prove to everyone around her that she lied about their parentage all this while. Its her very own catch-22, and IMO its one of the really well written details of F&B.
What Rhaenyra is doing is neither acknowledgement nor legitimisation nor ‘claiming’, because again, there is no such thing in-universe. What Rhaenyra is doing is, very simply, lying about her childrens parentage. And just to be clear, I’m not anti-black or anti-green (I love the dance because its a story of mutual destruction, I have zero interest in taking sides). But I am anti-misinformation and anti-misinterpretation of the text. If you can find one example of a bastard child in ASOIAF who wasnt considered a bastard because they were ‘claimed’ by their parent, then (and I mean this sincerely) I invite you to disagree with me, but until then.
Meanwhile in Washington DC, people are projecting the Ukrainian flag on the Russian embassy (back entrance) & embassy staff trying to blank it out with a white light.
you start csm like haha look at this guy with a chainsaw for his head and then you read it and you’re like. capitalism breeds evil and the fight for survival of the fittest can turn even the most moral men into willing candidates for violence. even so the human desire for connection and peace persists. at some point down the line of your own misery, when your basic needs are met you’ll understand that all you ever wanted was to be loved unconditionally. even when you didn’t know what that meant. even when you mistook it for lust or sex. after you stop starving you just want to belong and you want to be surrounded by your belonging. all forms of vegenance you might seek fade. even the most inhuman of us crave that and you find yourself always the same. of course you just wanted a hug. the only difference between a devil and a human is not accepting your vulnerability. look at this vomit panel tho ew haha
bruce, internally: there he is, my favourite person in the world. my life partner in justice. oh to spend more hours of the day with him, to talk strategies and secret fears. to whittle away at the cold confines of our duties together
bruce, out loud: what the FUCK do you want. tractor peasant