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ALICENT + AEGON, HELAENA, AND AEMOND

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aegon targaryen and roman roy and their mommy issues 

inspired by this post

screens from x x x x

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— I love you, man.

— I fucking hate you.

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Aegon II Targaryen in House of the Dragon x Please Look After Mom by Shin Kyung-sook

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i NEED daeron to be the only normal one out of all his siblings. yes he was raised by failson gwayne but at least he didn't grow up near his deadbeat father and the capital's cringe and probably got to go swimming as a kid

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CRISTON COLE & GWAYNE HIGHTOWER HOUSE OF THE DRAGON — 2x04

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awful but catastrophically funny that Gwayne and Criston’s subplot this episode was “Criston Cole experiences one billion microagressions from a dude he’s not allowed to just kill because it’s his girlfriend’s racist brother and it pisses him off so bad that for the first time ever he becomes the most level headed person in the room and saves everyone”. Task failed successfully, good job team

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✨Hightowers ✨

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Alicent realizes during Criston’s first council as Hand that things will be more difficult to control without her father’s influence.

So she calls for her brother to keep an eye on Criston and to keep him in check. It’s a power move, folks.

(I also couldn't help but notice Gwayne’s nod as he kissed her hand like: “don't worry sis, I've got this”).

And in this tug of war between them, Criston might have been named Hand of the King, but the upper hand is still Alicent’s.

I loved this scene.

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House of the Dragon+ Tumblr text posts

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Something deeply Freudian tells me that if Aegon had come out looking like that (i.e. looking like Alicent photocopied herself) the entire dance would have been avoided because Rhaenyra would have agreed to marry him SO fast.

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it makes me literally sick to think about alicent's relationship to her children. like. they are all she has. she loves them more than anything and hates them just as much. each of them is a shackle around her neck. they are her babies even though she was a baby herself, forced to be their mother. she'll pick up a knife for them. they are her living prison. everything she ever does is for them. their very existence makes her sick. she understands them and yet doesn't know them at all. they are her future. they stole her past.

she was 15 years old tethered to a rotting body of a man entirely against her will, watching each of her children invade her body as a result of martial rape. how were they ever supposed to have a normal relationship!!!!!!!

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Game of Thrones (2011 - 2019) // The Fallen Angel, Alexandre Cabanel // House of the Dragon (2022 - ) (x)

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the funeral (a grotesque display of two queens’ grief, forced on them against their will) being interjected by images of aegon beating blood into a bloody ruin says something about how women’s grief is exploited and paraded around as a virtue while male grief is only allowed to exist in conjunction with violence.

female sorrow is expected to be public, dignified, and even noble, it serves as a symbol of quiet strength and resilience. otto uses it as a tool to gain sympathy for their cause. notice how he forced alicent and helaena into it, while he allowed aegon not to participate. wouldn‘t the king being at the funeral send a powerful message? yes, it would. but otto looks at aegon with contempt, the other councilmen and alicent do not know what to do with his tears. the realm cannot be allowed to see the king grieve. not like this.

male grief is denied its own space and validity unless it manifests in aggressive or destructive acts. aegon realizes this to some degree too— he lashes out publicly by killing the rat catchers. he shows his grief by being violent, by spilling blood.

the toxicity of it all is very effectively shown at the end when aegon is crying by himself. did he retreat there to be alone and finally let it all out? his mother is either letting him have that moment alone or she’s deeply uncomfortable with it and chooses to leave. no matter what motivated alicent in acting the way she did— the moment still reveals how male vulnerability is something people fear. it shows that even the most human expressions of pain are not acceptable for some.

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Sunfyre moved his wing to shield Aegon from Vhagar's fire.

He landed on his wounded belly, which means even though he fell out of the sky backwards, he angled his body to avoid crushing Aegon and take the full brunt of the fall.

Eventually, when Aemond found him, he curled up around his rider.

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rhaenyra and alicent clashing with their sons over responsibility and duty and rhaenyra assuaging jace’s fears by trusting him with aegon’s dream and affirming him as her true heir and beloved son for his eventual ascendancy of the throne vs. alicent telling aegon that the most useful thing he can do is nothing because he will never grow into his throne and can’t be trusted with anything.