#in this house we stan a shortsighted queen

[horsegirlcahir]

ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀɪsʏ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ ᴠᴀʟʟᴇʏs — "the ash will nourish the soil. in spring, the valley will blossom anew."

[drakaripykiros130ac]

TG stans: “It’s so unfair how Daemon is given a free pass by fans, while Alicent is constantly criticized. They are both gray characters. Fans only forgive Daemon because he is played by a hot actor.”

No. No. No. And no.

You can try to spin it however you want but Alicent will never be considered a gray character. Not even the shitty show version of her.

Book Alicent - there is nothing to debate here. She is a greedy, manipulative upstart b*tch who got hers in the end. Evil stepmother and her evil sons perished. Happy ending. Bye bye.

Show Alicent - oh boy. Here we go.

Being a gray character often implies doing some pretty terrible or at least immoral things for the greater good. And a lot of other characters around them have a hard time understanding that what this gray character did was for the best. This character’s actions are often misunderstood and perceived to be done with selfish intent (and most of the time, greater good and selfishness overlap).

In what way does Alicent fit this description? In the show, she was driven by jealousy and resentment and done some pretty unnecessary and cruel things simply because she could:

1. Demanding that Rhaenyra’s newborn be brought to her immediately after birth. A disgusting display of cruelty. As a mother herself of four children, she surely understands the difficulty of labor, the vulnerability of a newborn baby as well as the immediate motherly instinct to protect her young (which is why Rhaenyra took the child herself, refusing to part with him).

2. Turning her children against Rhaenyra. As the Queen, and stepmother of the heir to the throne, it was her responsibility to attempt to forge relationships between her children and her stepdaughter, because this stepdaughter would one day be the reigning Queen and the fate of Alicent’s children would rest with her. But no, she was bitter, jealous and shortsighted and somehow thought that turning her children against Rhaenyra would somehow…what…do her family good?

3. Cheating on her husband by offering sexual services to a deranged clubfooted freak, in exchange for information. Call it whatever you like, but sexual favors in exchange for something is called “whoring”. I am not even going to debate this. No one forced her. This was her choice.

4. Taking a known murderer as her sworn shield for the single reason that he turned against Rhaenyra and that reason would benefit her.

5. Badmouthing children to their grandfather. The vendetta Alicent pursued against Jaecaerys, Lucerys and Joffrey is reprehensible. It was unnecessary, cruel and it certainly hadn’t done any good to anyone.

6. Showing up at Rhaenyra’s wedding in a dramatic manner and wearing the Hightower color for “war” simply because her ex-friend lied to her. Ironic, considering that she herself didn’t tell her friend that she was sneaking into her father’s chambers late at night, seducing him and getting him to marry her (I don’t give a damn that Otto made her).

7. Replacing the Targaryen heraldry with symbols of the Seven. Naturally, she couldn’t put up the Hightower symbols without “Hey look at me! I am committing treason!” written all over her face. Subtle, but it got the point across. And no, she wasn’t trying to “find comfort” or “honor her mother” or whatever bullshit TG stans like to invent. It was a strategic move through which she showed very clearly that she was turning her back on the House who made her everything she is.

These are just a few examples. If you take into account Alicent’s actions, none of them were done for the greater good. They served only her, and her own ambitions.

She married into the most powerful family in Westeros. She was a lady in waiting, a daughter of a second son from a low-ranked House with few prospects who was helping the Crown Princess dress.

When she married into House Targaryen, she was expected to remain loyal to House Targaryen. It was a privilege. One she completely disregarded in order to further the ambitions of House Hightower. It was Otto’s plan at first, but she pretty much took over in the long run. Simply because she was jealous and bitter. Because she didn’t know how to suck it up and accept that her father screwed her over, and her husband figured out their “master plan”.

Nothing about Alicent Hightower spells out “gray”. As much as the showrunners attempt to whitewash her, she remains the antagonist in this story. The war that started was one she had been nourishing for years.

Say what you will about Daemon but he is the very definition of “gray”. Whether or not his actions also benefitted him is irrelevant. His actions, although immoral and sometimes cruel, were for the greater good of the royal family, a House he belonged to, one he never betrayed. And despite the constant attempts of the showrunners to make him out to be the “bad guy” by pilling on him things he never actually did in canon, it still makes him look a whole of a lot complex and gray than Alicent ever will be.

Daemon is forever loyal to his family, and the House who rightfully holds the power in Westeros. Despite his actions, that makes him the anti-hero of the story. Alicent betrayed the House she married into, betrayed her husband, and committed high treason when she attempted to change the line of succession, for the sole reason that it benefitted her side of the family. That makes her the anti-villain (and I am being generous here, acknowledging the very few good qualities she possesses in the show, but her deeds are ultimately done in the name of evil).

And P.S: Let’s not pretend like the main obsession certain fans have with Alicent Hightower isn’t because she is portrayed by Olivia Cooke. If she were portrayed by a perceived-ugly/average actress, no one would be so quick to defend the character.

[dulcewrites]

I love how Targ stans are like Visenya, Alysanne, Rhaenyra, Dany are so great but then they turn around and say Naerys, Rhaella and other Targ queens who weren't dragonriders suck. And I saw a comment on YouTube that it's funny how Targ princesses position lowered (well, it was never very high but after death of dragons it went to basically 0) after death of dragons and they lost significance in eyes of many when they weren't dragonriders. Well it's not hard to understand that those girls are only impressed when Targ princesses threaten to burn everything to assert dominance as if it was a sing of being powerful 😂 and when they lack dragons they are worth less than spitting on the ground even though they had to put up with their toxic and violent brothers-husbands. If to them Targ princesses value depends on whether they have a dragon or not, do we really need to wonder if they are feminist? Because they are clearly not, what's more they think Targ princesses cannot possibly be powerful without giant lizard spitting fire so it just reminds me of words from Tony Stark to Peter Parker If you're nothing without this suit then you shouldn't have it and the same could be applied to all those girlbosess Targ princesses that certain people love and refuse to see they are not perfect. What are all of them without dragons? Okay, Visenya knew how to fight, Alysanne was very intelligent, but Rhaenyra and Dany just spoiled child and arrogant child and they both don't know how game of thrones is played. Just look at basically legendary player, Olenna Tyrell and how many times did she threaten someone directly? Only twice, with High Sparrow and Littlefinger and with High Sparrow it was because he imprisoned Loras and Margaery and Littlefinger because she predicted he would go to Cersei and say she poisoned Joffrey and at the end of conversation it was Littlefinger who needed to rethink his strategy because if he spoke a word about Olenna murdering Joffrey, she would also play at this game and she will say Littlefinger was also involved in this so that's why she said our fates are joined, together we murdered the king, meaning if Littlefinger will expose her and her house, she would do the same to him. But Olenna talk with Tywin, it's so great because 1) Tywin couldn't harm her or her house after they helped Lannisters defeat Stannis 2) they were both head of their houses and there is so much between the lines, so much unspoken things and that's the beauty of game of thrones. It's all about plotting, look at Varys and Littlefinger and then look at Rhaenyra and Dany. Come on, does anyone take this crazy stans seriously? When I was watching how Hightowers interact with others it's all about being subtle, it's getting what they want but not in brutal way like Targs are known for, because it doesn't matter whether you have a dragon or not, but when you are stupid, others will manipulate you and play smart and use you for their own benefit and that's why I don't respect Targs as family because almost all of them act like entitled to everything all the time and their arrogance causes them to be shortsighted and they think just because they wear crown, have dragons that it means they are the most powerful people in the world, but that's wrong, because they are not.

I do think a large appeal of the Targaryens is their dragons which like… fine whatever. Dragons are cool. I think the mythos behind their family is cool. But I think a lot of people maybe project certain ideas of the Targaryens to frankly make them seem more competent or more politically savvy.

Much of the power they wield is in their dragons (for a time) and by telling themselves, and by proxy, others that they should be seen as gods because of said dragons. Once the rider is stripped of that dragon or any some cases does not have one yet, they are isolated or seen as less targaryen. Regardless of how much blood they may have. I think the whole targ family, Jaehaerys with the doctrine in particular, do themselves a disfavor by focusing so much on dragons.

It’s funny you mention this sort of dynamic with the women and their dragons bc Rhaenyra and fmo reader have an interesting (imo) conversation about the privileges and disadvantages of being a dragon rider. How ephemeral power can be when you are a woman in the realm. Rhaenyra was never taught how to access power outside of her name and dragon. A great example would be how weird it was (to me) to have a woman that just ripped a baby out of her hop on a dragon to ~scare~ people. I get it was supposed to be a callback to ep 2 but like ???. It’s just funny bc Rhaenyra doesn’t know how to extend any power bc her father was too incompetent to show her (or even do it himself). In Daemon’s words “dreams didn’t make up kings, dragons did”. Which is just ironic. Rhaenyra and dany, frankly through the men in the lives, really never stood a chance. I think that’s why it is funny when people love these women but can’t even point out the clear system in the Targaryen family that in the end negative affects these women. I personally enjoy book dany, I can’t really speak on her show counterpart much. And I’m still eh about how I feel about both book and show Rhaenyra.

The whole soft power versus hard power, in this context. Because people who use hard power tactics (in this case having literal dragons) would maybe look down on those who use soft power (coercion or economic withdrawal). Fear can only take you so far especially against people who already don’t fuck with you. In general I think there are pros and cons to both ways of political strategy. Certain characters can get away on one versus other based on: gender, resources, race, age, etc