#alyrie hightower

[alicentsgf]

controversial opinion? talking specifically abt hotd (not fire and blood) i dont think alyrie living would have saved alicent in any way. she would have lived the exact same life. in fact the only good i can see coming from it is i think she might have had more of a sense of herself/been more like book alicent

[green-watcher]

Alyrie Florent 🪻

[puritanpansies]

so. romola garai as alyrie florent. you agree.

as an added bonus: she has previously established fabulous chemistry with rhys ifans!

[killpilled]

Hcs on Alerie Florent ?

i think what's most interesting to me is not what alyrie was like in real-life, but what she was like according to alicent. i think for alicent she represents the archetype of the mother - merciful, loving, holy - which alicent strives for but fails constantly. i think it's crucial that alyrie died before alicent could really know her as a person (rather than an ideal) with flaws and contradictions and all. when aemma died, rhaenyra was old enough to know not to idealize her mother's life and see it as a cautionary tale. alicent does not have that at all and she has no realistic idea of what a mother is, she only has a childish, idealized image to follow. i think alyrie dying so young is also the reason why alicent kind of takes her place in otto's eyes. alicent is promoted to The Mother when she's barely an adult and therefore she sucks at it.

that being said, I think she absolutely figured into alicent's relationship with rhaenyra. the maiden is supposed to be chaste and innocent and those are the ideals imposed onto alicent by her mother and imposed onto rhaenyra by alicent. as children, they are both maidens and if alicent could even realize her romantic attraction to rhaenyra, she probably realized them as pure, innocent and very spiritual. she cannot fathom rhaenyra as a sexual being because in her mind, they are both supposed to be holy maidens. i think it was olivia cooke who said alyrie probably caught the two of them kissing once, and i think that would be neat. alyrie probably tried to "course-correct" alicent into a more spiritual, non-sexual kind of love for rhaenyra, which made alicent famously sexually very normal. i think that could also be what alicent tried to get from otto when she tried to tell him about criston, but couldn't get from him.

i think alyrie both connects rhaenyra and alicent (because they both lost their mothers so young, they are both mothers now who love their children, and because they both do not want a war) and separates them (alicent birthing aegon is what drove them apart, rhaenyra being both not chaste and mother to bastards makes alicent look down on her, and of course they keep indirectly killing each other's children). they even both swear on their dead mothers when they are lying/wrong. ultimately, we can only judge alyrie by the influence she had on others. i think alicent tries to imitate what she thinks alyrie was (and fails, fails, fails) and rhaenyra intentionally tries to avoid aemma's fate (and does so sucessfully). and, ironically, rhaenyra is the better mother now.

[prideprejudce]

Rhaenyra Arryn and Alicent Florent

[alvsanne]

Lady Alyrie of House Florent, her daughter Queen Alicent Hightower, granddaughter Queen Helaena Targaryen, and great-granddaughter Queen Jaehaera Targaryen.

You look so much like your mother in certain lights.

[sunfyrisms]

i swear, if i see one more person on tiktok put down alicent because her motherhood manifests in a different way than rhaenyra’s, i am going to scream.

rhaenyra had the privilege of picking her own husband. literally no girl in westeros had ever gotten such a privilege at that point. yes, she eventually had to marry leanor, the result a mixture of her own stubbornness and politics beyond her. i do not fault her for said stubbornness, especially because she just lost her mother after the woman suffered for years. but she found solace in harwin, a genuinely kind man who clearly loved her and their sons. from what little we saw of him, we know he was a doting father and loving partner.

alicent was fifteen. fifteen. when she was made a bride to viserys. the man was almost as old as her father. she had no friends. she was forced to be pregnant for, essentially, three consecutive years. she was raped repeatedly. women in this world are taught to obey their husbands. but the king? she could not say no to him. she could not speak about their conversations to rhaenyra because he told her to. even if she did, what could rhaenyra do? nothing. everyone loved it when rhaenyra put the elderly man in his place during her tour. he was as old as her father, as she pointed out. but a lot of people cannot seem to grasp the horror of alicent’s situation.

alicent was a child who was made a mother. that’s it. the father of her children—who, again, was the same age as her own father—was not involved in their lives whatsoever, from what we can infer. he was not affectionate, he did not love them, he only loved rhaenyra as strongly as he did as a result of his own guilt. otto was sent away. alyrie was long dead.

alicent had truly no one to rely on (aside from criston, but that is for another time). she did not know how to be a mother. she did not know how to be a parent. she tried. she did her best with what she had. did she make mistakes? yes. absolutely. but she loves her children more than anything. she will die for them. she will kill for them.

her trauma, her connection to motherhood, is incredibly complex. it is not at all the same as rhaenyra’s. one’s actions does not make the other a bad or good mother. they are mothers, they love their children. but how they had those children is vastly different, and wildly impacted they were able to properly bond with those children. the trauma and motherhood alicent and rhaenyra have is not a competition. it is not comparable.

[daeron-targs]

Was doing some thinking about Otto and Alerie and wha their relatation must've been. I think it's safe to say that they loved each other, or he loved her at the very least. It's pretty evident in this exhange from episode one of the first season:

Otto: You made a vow before the Seven to honor your wife in marriage

Daemon: Well, I'd gladly give Lady Rhea to you, Lord Hightower, if you're in want of a woman to warm your bed. Your own lady wife passed recently. Did she not? Perhaps you aren't ready to move on just yet.

After this comment from Daemon, Otto is clearly upset and Viserys has to diffuse the situation before it gets any uglier. It's also made even clearer by this exhange between him and Viserys in episdoe two:

Otto: I dearly loved my own lady wife. The pain of her passing still haunts me. And to be compelled to replace her for duty's sake...you are the king, but I do not envy you.

So yeah Otto really loved Alerie, and it also means that she died fairly recently. We're not what the cause was, or when it happened exactly, but that it is still something that has had a deep impact on him (and Alicent by extension of course).

As for how their marriage must've been like, I imagine it started out as any other marriage between two people of noble birth. The marriage was definitely arranged, neither of the two really knew each other before they first met.

Maybe they occasionally saw each other at banquets and feasts that their families, or other houses in the Reach, threw. They were married in the Starry Sept in Oldtown, which at the time was the center of the Faith of the Seven, and both took their vows seriously. Over time they began to care about each other, especially after Gwayne was born (in the book he's Alicent's youngest brother, but he's the eldest in the show). Eventually that care for one another grew into a deep love that they both had for each other.

And the story we all know played out. They had some more sons and then baby Alicent came along. Eventually, Otto was given the position of the Hand and they moved to King's Landing. They were happy for a time, both becoming friends with Viserys and Aemma. But after a few years that happiness is shattered, Alerie dies and Otto hasn't been the same since.

[coldraindropsss]

Alyrie Florent holding baby Alicent .

[greenqueenhightower]

the greens are so shakespearean to me. like alicent forced to be a mother but can’t bring herself to be loving in her children’s hour of need. the horrible cycle of duty and costs of power feel like they are only being paid for by the green kids. they truly don’t know anything other than being on their own

That is excellently said, anon! 💚

I like to imagine that a look into the Otto x Alyrie failmarriage would have given us great context. Or perhaps Otto really loved Alyrie but couldn't show affection to Alicent as she was growing up since she was the image of her mother and the memory of Alyrie's death was painful for him. I think we will get more insight into their family dynamics as soon as Gwayne appears.

But yes, Alicent not being able to console her grieving kids is telling of how she has learned to process grief herself. And again it's coming from Otto I think... Alicent tells us in S1 that when her mother died, everyone spoke to her in riddles. All she wanted was someone to say they felt sorry for her. So I imagine that Otto kept his grief private and did not share it with Alicent. He also kept her mother's dresses for Alicent to wear as she grew older, never really able to let go of the ghost of her... She learned to keep her grief private too, and now she cannot console her son and daughter. They are all processing their suffering alone. They truly are in a vicious circle of unhealed trauma, hungry for power and control as an antidote to loneliness and lack of self-worth.

They are so Shakespearean, you're right!

[alicentzwaitinglady]

alicent's relationship with her mother is so special to me. it alicent praying to feel closer to alerie and wearing blues when she's sad or feels like nothing is going well. it's the flower embroidery on them. gods i love alerie florent and the way she haunts the hightower/targaryen family. gwayne speaking of being motherless at 8yrs old bc that's when they probably left for king's landing. otto speaking of her with such fondness and not marrying after her death.

[alicentsgf]

brb gonna go draw alicents mama in a gaudy white and gold outfit

[green-watcher]

"You look so much like your mother in certain lights." ✨

[redrosesandcharmingsouls]

IF YOU GUYS WONT WRITE OTTO/ALERIE FAILMARRIAGE DOOMED COUPLE FANFIC I WILL

[killpilled]

mother's cloak

[alyrie-targaryen]

Alyrie's Ladies-In-Waiting

Bethany Hightower (Played by Holliday Grainger), Daughter of Lord Ormund Hightower

Sansara Tarly (Played by Amelia Gething), Younger Sister of Lady Sam, Daughter of Lord Tarly

Maris Baratheon (Played by Sai Bennett), Third Daughter of Borros Baratheon, One of the Four Storms

Valaena Velaryon (Played by Stephanie Levi-John), Daughter of Aethan Velaryon, Niece of Corlys and Vaemond Velaryon

Tyshara Lannister (Played by Tessa Bonham Jones), Heiress of Casterly Rock, Eldest Child of Lord Jason Lannister

Cerelle Lannister (Played by Tamzin Merchant), Second Daughter of Lord Jason Lannister

Alysanne Blackwood (Played by Anna Popplewell), "Black Aly", Lady of House Blackwood, Sister of Lord Samwell Blackwood and Willem Blackwood