#alicent is just so frustrating

[jillapril]

+++ Analyzing Alicent - HotD S2Ep2 +++

Alright. Overall, I liked episode 2. Loved Rhaenyra in it and I am glad that I don’t feel the need to explain her actions the way I feel I have to do so with Alicent. It was a difficult episode for Alicent. My thoughts…

- Now we know for sure, she feels guilty for having sinned - for having had sex - and she fears the gods have sent her a punishment by killing her grandson.

- I felt a glimpse of relief when she closed the door, leaving Criston outside, as she was about to take a bath. She was acting cold towards him, kind of passive aggressive. No signs of tenderness. When he says that there is no absolution for what he has done, I guess she thinks the same about herself - but is still in a kind of denial.

- Daeron was mentioned. I don’t know what she thinks of him, I found her reaction rather weird. Like none at all. But she did not want Otto to go to Oldtown. Could be because she does not want Daeron to get involved into this mess now, too - though it seems inevitable. Or maybe she does not have any relationship to him at all and really just thinks taking care of Highgarden is more important. I just thought it was weird.

- However, what I didn’t get: Does she know, that Criston has sent Arryk to kill Rhaenyra?! Otto must have told her, as this was key to him arguing with Aegon and getting fired. So I suppose she must know?! If so, I found her reaction rather underwhelming. I mean it is not just the fact that Rhaenyra could really get murdered now, something Alicent was actually trying to avoid - it is also that her knight opposed her and the council by acting behind their back. How can she stay this calm?!

- Her trying to tell Otto about her sin… Like she was trying to have a friend within the Red Keep and just finding out - once again - that she has none. It is sad, yet I am baffled that she still even tries with Otto. However, I guess this also was a confirmation for her that there won’t be any absolution, in form of love or just empathy, for her either.

- Alicent not being able to comfort Aegon… She looked like she felt his pain. But she is so estranged from him, he has caused her so much trouble on various levels throughout the years - she did not know what to do. Though I totally get her difficulty with Aegon, I also think she’s no better here than Otto was with her a few minutes ago. The Hightowers obviously are all really afraid of dealing with emotions.

- Criston waiting for her on her bed. Ugh… I think this was provocative and him being there was not something they had agreed on. Also the way he stared at her - it was just a huge provocation, maybe a kind of revenge for her being cold towards him before. Like his gaze was telling her: You know it, I am in charge now. Her aggression was completely reasonable and I enjoyed that part.

- However - this resulting in her looking like it just really turns her on and thus having sex with him again… Well… that was the problematic part of the episode to me. To the casual viewer with a heteronormative perception, I believe this must look like her passion for Criston is just so huge, she cannot stay mad at him, she just wants him too much. Like she finds it hot that he deceived her, ordered Rhaenyra’s assassination, became more powerful, demanding her body now by just showing up in her chambers - yea, she just throws away any thoughts about sins and does it all even more passionately again… Really, I cannot even express how much I hate this. Can’t see any sort of sexual liberation or emancipation here, sorry. I mean, what are we to think of this? That deep down in her heart she truly enjoys being dominated by men? That she really feels passion for this guy who she knows behaves like a psychopath every now and then?! I still remember her horrified look when he killed Ser Beesbury in S1Ep9. And now she just finds it all so hot? I really, really hope this is not it and we are yet to find out what this was really all about.

- But, trying to make sense of it from my Rhaenicent-point-of-view - I guess one could still argue that she uses sex for keeping Cole in control. As Otto is about to go away again, Alicent is about to be even more alone than she is already. All that there is left is Cole and he just gained power, so she has to fight even harder to keep him at bay. Giving in to his sudden power rush. Kissing him. Making him feel like it must be real passion or even a kind of love there between them. She knows how hateful he behaved after Rhaenyra had rejected him - so she probably does not want to make the same mistake.

So all in all - I guess we still have to wait and see to find out what her motivations really are. There still is hope, I guess. But I also can’t deny I am really irritated by this development and her portrayal by now.

[sukibenders]

Aegon, Aemond, Helaena, and Daeron looking at Alicent after she washes her hands of a war, that she (and Otto) dragged them into, and the throne, that she (and Otto) forced them to grasp/fight over even though they obviously didn't want it, and goes off to live her best life while they are all still stuck in a cycle forced on to them without their input (obviously this is about the s2 final):

[sylvancastor]

Even if the alicole scene happens during B&C, that in no way makes it Alicent and Criston's fault or diminishes how I view Alicent as a character. If it had not happened then, it would have happened at some other time. That's the whole point of Cheese's presence in the plan is to find a perfect time to strike.

[juniorfor2]

For all the racism that’s very obvious in the show, I really think one big one has been missed - C&H’s decision to make the Velaryon boys bastards, instead of Laenor’s sons by blood, simply because of their skin color.

Due to the writers’ decision to make the Velaryons black, but Jace, Luke, and Joffrey white, this was used to support the idea that they must be bastards. Rather than using hair color, only skin color is brought up as an issue (or at least that’s what’s obviously implied). Because the writers think that kids come out looking like a 50/50 mix of their parents. That if they aren’t exactly in the middle of Laenor and Rhaenyra’s skin color, then they can only be bastards.

But this just isn’t how real life works. Kids come out looking all sorts of ways, lighter or darker than both their parents, right in the middle, or only like one parent. My own mother is from Pakistan, but I came out looking exactly like my white, American father (except as a girl).

And that has consequences for a lot of people. Those who come out looking different from one parent can often experience difficulties as others refuse to see them as part of their group or culture. Biracial children are often forced to choose one race over the other, or are deliberately excluded from one group because they aren’t light or dark enough.

And the thing is, this issue is actually raised in the show. Vaemond actually gets the closest to the real life issue, when he says to Rhaenyra, “you wouldn’t know Velaryon blood if you saw it.” Because they are white, they are excluded from being Velaryon. They are viewed almost as weird colonizer-parallels, “stealing” from the only black family in the show, thereby erasing any racial culture the Velaryons currently have.

Even Alicent, despite not being part of the dispute, shows so much disgust towards the boys. They aren’t darker skinned, and so she views them as unworthy and unable to be part of the Velaryon family. It’s not even her fight, but she still is vitriolic towards them - and that’s how so many biracial people are actually perceived and treated in real life.

The issue of how biracial children are perceived should have been a fairly easy message to portray and resolve. We could have seen how Jace was ostracized and pushed away because of his looks, how much it hurt him for everyone to say he wasn’t Velaryon, even while Laenor raised him and viewed him as his son. We could have then seen how Jace eventually resolves this, realizing that it doesn’t matter what he looks like, because all that mattered was that Laenor was his father who loved him and raised him with Velaryon culture. That Corlys accepted him as well, despite the rumors.

But C&H, because they are both racist and mainly ignorant of how skin color works in real life, went the easy route and didn’t try to even find a single explanation for why the kids could be Laenor’s children by blood. I don’t need a complete reversal to make them undoubtedly Laenor’s, but some ambiguity would have been nice.

[scarysanctuary]

I'm sure there are Criston Cole fans, and that's totally okay!! (don't keep reading this post though lol) but personally, whenever he shows up on screen, I'm like this

I do not like this man, he's always given me incel vibes, like he doesnt know how to take responsibility for his own actions, and tends to blame the woman in his life instead. Its not his own fault for sleeping with Rhaenyra, she forced him, and she's also the evil one for refusing to drop her whole life and duty to her family, to go run off with him. He's unrealistic and never stopped to ask Rhaenyra what she wanted and what her plans were for the future, he just assumed that they would get married, the only thing that mattered was that he'd get to absolve his sins. He continues to lose his temper, and has killed innocent people as a result. He breaks his vows, and then proceeds to accept roles and positions that require certain honor and skill that he knows deep down he's simply not qualified for. He is unfair to Rhaenyra's kids when they were younger and helped train Alicent's kids instead, showing he is a bitter and vengeful person, not caring who gets caught in the crossfire as long as he gets a good shot in. Even when he decided to kill himself in season 1, sure, he felt guilty for breaking his vows, and thought suicide was the only way to atone for that sin now that marriage was out of the picture, but he stopped when yet again, another woman "saved" him, another woman he can latch onto and then resent when they cannot be everything he needs them to be (not to mention, his sudden suicide after their fight would have been incredibly selfish/cruel to Rhaenyra who would have been riddled with guilt for who knows how long). He has no real agency over his life and actions otherwise, hell, he wasnt even the one that decided he should continue to live, he needed Alicent to do that for him, he doesnt make his own way through the world, he follows orders, and then acts like he had no part in it when things go wrong. He doesn't have a real identity outside of the cloak/pin that he wears, and the women that he beds, yes, he's a flawed character like everyone else in the show, but, what bothers me about him most, is not that he kinda sucks, its because he sucks while also acting like he is above it all, that he's better than everyone else, when really he's just a weak child, looking for love and reassurance, a child that becomes dangerous and hateful when he doesn't get what he wants, i just can't respect a character like this.

[strawberrybyers]

one thing the asoiaf/got/hotd fandoms are going to do is completely miss the point of the story being told; the complexities of the characters; the imprisonment of the monarchy, classism, intergenerational trauma, bloodlines, and misogyny.

somehow millions of people love the shows and books and yet, cannot for the life of them be able to figure out why the characters maneuver the way they do. it’s being highlighted again just how much the mark is missed within the fandom based on how alicent and rhaenyra are talked about. sure, have your takes. dislike one, love the other. but the character analysis that follows with the reasoning as to why you feel the way you do about a character (especially the female characters) seems to sometimes lack the actual context that is given.

look at how women are treated. look at the ages of the characters. look at how everyone is just a pawn in someone’s game. look at the relationships amongst the families. look at how literally a fucking title and iron throne can control someone’s values because that’s what they’ve been taught is priority.

once again: nothing wrong with having different perspectives on the characters, but for the love of god, please look at the dynamics of the environment these characters are in and ask yourself: well, how could they respond to this in this way if they’ve never been taught anything different?? what other options do they have if they’ve never been given them?? if they are aware of other choices— how can they release themselves from the shackles they were born into when everyone else around them either supports it or is nonchalant because “it’s the way things are”. how can you expect a lone wolf to go into a room of armed hunters and beg to be spared?? ask yourselves these things, then maybe you’ll finally understand why alicent is who she is and why rhaenyra is who she is.

[comradekarin]

“you have no ideas the sacrifices that were made to put you on that throne” this is great and all, but aegon did NOT ASK FOR ANY OF THIS. alicent and otto’s plan relies on playing aegon like a puppet. aegon seats the throne merely because he’s the first son, and they will have their power and influence through him. from what is shown, aegon lacks political awareness, diplomatic skills, and foresight—which is no mistake, for alicent and otto need a fool to easily manipulate yet this fool is also king, who’s word is law. it’s a risky gamble on their part. interesting how aegon and rhaenyra are facing a dilemma with their respective councils—both feeling helpless and ignored and unsure of what to do in this war. it’s even more interesting when you realize that both aegon and aemond know rhaenyra was viserys’ true heir, and the green faction has essentially stolen nyra’s birthright. do i think aegon would harm alicent? no. but these scenes aegon has with her is so telling because prior to his rushed coronation, aegon wanted nothing to do with the crown, nor did he care rhaenyra would seat the iron throne. he’s stuck between a rock and a hard place, and aegon, presumably, doesn’t even know where he stands with his mother outside of him being the crown.

[aphemera]

was aemond’s scene with the brothel lady strange and disgusting? yes but also I get it because just like aemond I have been searching for the comfort of my mother’s embrace for years, my memories being made up more of my wanting than actually receiving, and so its with much regret that I must compare myself to one of alicent’s kids but i guess it was also inevitable as my own mother shares even more similarities with her

[gece-misin-nesin]

Toxic yuri is actually when you swear revenge on your sister-in-law who rose from the dead for destroying your country even though you murdered her to be queen. then you spend the next 500 years plotting her demise and she also fights you because you want to destroy the world and she wants to stop it but then you find out that she is actually The God majority of the world worships but she doesn't know and your whole purpose in existing is to destroy said god. then you topple the kingdom she fights for and murder her friends just to fuck with her. you also possess her body for a while, then you possess the daughter of one of her dead friends. she murders your 14 year old son. you duel and then suddenly you two are in the same body with one other woman and the three of you form a separate consciousness. a few centuries later your soul gets put in a doll and there's some guy pretending you're his daughter that you're really attached to. then she comes and murders him. afterwards, she destroys the world. disappointed, you try to go back in time to make things right but you get stuck in a time loop where you are the previous queen of your home country and she & her brother, who are the country's gods, deceive and take advantage of you by pretending to be your parents. then they destroy your country and then your soul fuses with your other self and then- *time loop* *time loop* *time loop* *time loop*

[dirtytransmasc]

Alicent after her husband damns her children, the ones he forced onto her, the ones she carried and birthed and loved and spent her whole life protecting. after he leaves her, dying a pathetic death, leaving her and her children alone in the world, even more than he had before. after her children are robbed from her, meeting fates promised to them at birth, ones she tried so hard to change. after being left to roam an empty keep, the sounds of her children's antics now long gone. after hearing her own cries echo in the septs, but never reaching the gods, rattling the walls of her chambers, yet falling on deaf ears. Alicent after she decides she will be king, in her eldest's stead, she will weild her own sword in place of her most trusted friend and closest son, she will fill the world with her words like her daughter had, she will take revenge as she sees fit as her youngest had:

[sil-te-plait-tue-moi]

DUDE ive been binge listening to all of wolf alice's albums and ive just finally clocked where your display name is from

HELP I LOVE WOLF ALICE THEY’RE MY FAVOURITE FAAAAVOURITE BAND

i need to inject your love’s whore into my veins!!! but visions of a life is my favourite album of theirs, banger after banger - my Spotify wrapped 2023 was literally just wolf alice 😭😭 zero variation

[reel-fear]

Honestly, every single time the whole 'poppy playtime is a bendy rip-off' stuff ever shows up I find it all extremely unconvincing and silly.

For one thing, rip-off usually is meant to imply that it's a cheap lazy copy of a better more polished thing, and uh. Sorry but even from chapter 1? Poppy Playtime is a better game than Bendy, it has a simple but understandable story, the game manages to be thrilling, creepy, and very intense at times... I mean that Huggy chase in the vents ALONE puts it way above Batim for me.

I mean BATDR had the most slow stupid chase I've ever seen [and every other encounter with the ink demon is text telling u he's there and then a timer goes down and u get jumpscared] and batim's chases were either silly or just not nearly as theatric or terrifying as that.

When making the vent sequence I mean not only is it absolutely horrifying to realize how fast Huggy is in there but also it's so theatric and cool? The fact that you round a corner after thinking you escaped only to see a terrifying animation of that thing crawling toward you is awesome! I wish Bendy had stuff like that!

And all the stuff it shares with Bendy are generic things Bendy ripped from other horror games/media anyways. I'm not saying Poppy Playtime isn't inspired by Bendy I for sure think it is but Bendy is such a generic story that somehow fails to do tropes 100 other horror games have done any comparison only makes Poppy Playtime look better.

"It has employees being sacrificed for their company" That is not a concept Bendy invented, literally look at any of the sci-fi horror series Bendy is very inspired by. This is literally a twist in the original Alien.

"It has a scary woman forcing you to do tasks for her" Once again, not a concept Bendy invented, a scary mysterious person forcing you to do fetch-quests is a concept found in tons of horror media. And at least Poppy Playtime gave you a chase with her and let you defeat her, look at poor malice. She's barely on screen for more than 10 minutes before she gets stabbed.

"It has a cult worshipping the monster" This is something tons of horror games and media have done too. I mean In The Tall Grass has a guy who worships a giant magical rock in the middle of a grass maze, Bioshock [which Bendy has only been taking more and more direct inspiration from while failing to grab any of the compelling parts] also had a lot of themes of religion and cult-ish behavior, almost every horror media franchise has at one point done a cult thing.

Bendy couldn't even come up with a reason Sammy worships the ink demon, the best motivation we've ever gotten is just that 'he's crazzyyyy the ink made him insaneeee'. Who is the cheap rip-off here?

At least Poppy Playtime gave their cultist a motive for worshipping the monster + a proper boss fight that feels intense and looks awesome! Bendy didn't even let you kill Malice [she got stabbed in front of you and then just collapsed on the floor how thrilling] meanwhile you get to kill three of the villains in Poppy Playtime and the gameplay and action in those scenes have only gotten better as the game went on.

I mean Sammy walks into a room and goes "AAA SCARY I'M BEING MURDERED" then later shows up and for NO REASON sees a normal human man and assumes it's the ink demon before once again someone else kills him for you. In Poppy Playtime you defeat Catnap as he floods the world with this horrible nightmare-inducing gas that intensifies the color palette and his design. Fight off versions of him that are illusions that you need your flare gun for, then watch in a wonderful animation as he mistakes the monster for his savior before getting killed by it, in a brutal way I might add, which game are we accusing of being cheap, lazy garbage again?

I just find this argument to be people who Really Really need to find a reason to hate Poppy Playtime which I think is silly. The devs being weird, shady people is already enough reason to dislike the game, you don't need to invent reasons why secretly every part of the game is malicious or bad. But esp when I see Bendy fans saying they don't support Poppy Playtime or dislike it bc of its devs or even saying its cringe ummmm.

I have bad news about the fact Bendy's devs are worse and it took not one, but TWO over an hour long videos to cover it all. Plus the Bendy games are just the worse games in every aspect, if I could sell my batim copy for a copy of Poppy Playtime I wouldn't hesitate at all.

Saying this as a bendy fan, we have no right to be super judgy towards Poppy Playtime. If Poppy Playtime is embarrassing cringe, Bendy is too and is way more embarrassing of an interest. We shouldn't spread misinformation just because we all want to hate Poppy Playtime, you can dislike Poppy Playtime without making up a bunch of nonsense to justify it.

Honestly seeing people just blatantly be unfairly mean to Poppy Playtime only makes its critics look worse and makes it hard to take any backlash to the games seriously. Because surprise surprise if you spread misinformation to make a point people will quickly stop listening to Anything you have to say bc they won't trust you're telling the truth anymore.

[tell-them-the-north-remembers]

No but I am writing a new chapter for a fic of mine and I just realized that young Alicent (and older Alicent too) has not a single named friend besides Rhaenyra. Like, really???? Couldn't give her a few ladies-in-waiting from noble houses after her marriage either?

[baylardian-1]

Kinda an unprompted Threshold AU idea I'd had a while ago surrounding Protectors and Kathryn feeling her lil baby kick for the first time. :)

I'd imagined she'd be stirring in bed contemplating whatever future awaits her return to the Delta Quadrant as Fleet Commander when she'd feel a flutter for the first time. And then proceeds to stay up reading and sporadically feeling the sensation. And Philippa would notice the light on outside of her room and goes to investigate.

[bibiana112]

There's nothing wrong with people having their dearest most specialest blorbo be Eric ztd it is unironically good for the ecosystem and I always love seeing the different perspectives from other fans but what I am here today to ask is why is no one like that about Mira. whatever happened to feminism.

[victorluvsalice]

-->And then I went and bought a bunch of photography “stand here” markers from Build/Buy for the front walk in the hopes that I could line up at least Smiler, Victor, and Marm for a good picture in front of the front steps! Because I really wanted that shot, damn it. Unfortunately, getting them to stand on the marks proved harder than anticipated, as Victor got distracted cheering Rory's existence as a werewolf (I enjoy having my "Occult Likes/Dislikes" mod, yes, but that bit tends to get old fast) – and when Smiler DID stand on one, I found that I’d placed them the wrong way around. *facepalm* Figures. I then tried to have Alice just set up a photoshoot the old-fashioned way, but while Victor, Smiler, and Marm all came to stand in front of the camera – the action of taking a picture never actually completed. They just all stood there until I got frustrated and canceled it out. *heavy sigh* Between this and Rory kicking over the gang’s trash bin for no good reason, Family Reunions are starting to feel a little bit like Weenie Roasts.

-->Fortunately for my sanity, at this point the party was nearly over, and the NAP inspector, Jaclyn, and Thomas had all fucked off. So I just said “fuck it,” sent Marm to watch the cooking channel on the TV as he desperately needed fun (and given his starting aspiration, I figured he'd enjoy it), had Alice clean up the trash outside after scavenging it for parts (though she had to catch some stinkbugs first as they weren’t letting me click on the trash), had Victor relieve himself, and let everyone else basically do their own thing (mainly more dancing to Smiler’s radio) until the timer finally completed a few Sim-minutes later. At least Smiler got another Gold on the party! Even if it didn’t count toward completing their “Party Animal” aspiration. *grumbles* That damn thing needs to be updated soooo bad…

-->Anyway – with the party FINALLY over, and everyone FINALLY leaving, I allowed Victor to go to bed, then (with a LOT of coaxing, because for some reason the damn interaction wouldn’t complete – not to mention Alice tried to shower in the rain AGAIN in the middle of it) got Alice to wash poor filthy Shadow. Smiler, meanwhile, went and sat with Marm (who was finally happy again now that they were away from all those strangers). They had a good chat, fortunately, and Smiler even got Marm to take a selfie or five with them. Which, I wish I could have pulled that off DURING the family reunion, but… At least I got SOME pictures of the robot happy! I finally left things with a tired Alice joining Victor in bed and Marm and Smiler watching the Romance channel together and getting flirty. No, I do not know what that means for the polycule. XD

Whew – that was SOMETHING, wasn’t it? I love my Sims but they are truly exhausting sometimes. XD But at least the party went well, despite, everything, and Marm is starting to settle in as a new member of the family! Next time, we'll be heading off to the store to see how Marm does helping the trio run THAT whole thing! Hope to see you then!