#like maegor killed aegon in BATTLE and aegon was STUPID for picking that fight

[atopvisenyashill]

looking back i DO wish i whacked rhaenyra more in that one ask i got about “it’s just kind of stupid for rhaenyra to execute one of her siblings right” i got really focused on that show moment from alicent’s perspective because…shamefully i will admit………….as an aligon shipper i was like how dARE THEY DO THIS TO ME like i’m still heated tbh i know how they wanted that scene to hit and i did NOT feel it on the alicent/aegon end.

but like that’s the point i’m always on about, is the kinslaying thing is SERIOUS and there’s simply no way for rhaenyra to recover politically from publicly executing or being explicitly linked to aegon’s death when she’s ALREADY facing maegor allegations!! and rhaenyra knows this it’s why she’s so angry at daemon. optics are simply so much more important for her & if she’s trying to take the throne while she’s a woman and she’s got these fucking andal/first men looking kids, she can’t just DO SHIT LIKE THAT. and how do i know she can’t recover politically? it’s bc she doesn’t lmao helaena is the precursor the city needs to explode in part because of the kinslaying taboo!!! nyra’s a woman clearly aware of the optics, she talks about how she’s perceived constantly when she tries to emulate visenya, when she does her ding dong ditch routine with aemond, when she slaps whatshisface and talks about fear, even if she’s colossally bad at judging how her actions will look, she knows how shes SUPPOSED to be looking. so it was like rhaenyra. that’s a dumb ultimatum and you KNOW it’s dumb, there's NO WAY these people will forgive you for executing YOUR OWN BROTHER after your party (regardless of who is to blame, again, something she KNOWS) just murdered his child while he was sleeping in bed.

so that was why that convo annoyed me to the level it did. i didn’t love the sept scene for example but at least the general conversation they were having fit the characters - the stubborn rhaenyra “we need to sue for peace” vs the frustrated alicent “we live in reality not your head” IS a common argument w those two, so i do Get what they’re going for on a character level. but the finale scene didn’t feel like an argument between two people who have known each other their whole lives, there simply weren’t enough low blows. i think rhaenyra could get away with out and out killing aemond bc of the luke death but literally anyone else named targaryen looks just soooo bad so it was frustrating not only for rhaenyra to stupidly suggest this but then alicent crumbling immediately made me gasp at my screen i was so mad.