#ruthless alicent

[sansacherie]

a little spider

I will have her head.

Alicent remembers these words, infected with rage, as she awaits the arrival of Lady Talya.

Talya appears, escorted by Ser Willis Fell. Queen Alicent had commanded that she be brought to her once freedom of movement was allowed again in the Red Keep.

Talya curtsies. To her credit, only her green eyes betray her with their wary look. But there is nothing, nothing that shows she is a liar who knows that her time has come.

Of course, all the best liars appear truthful.

“Your Grace,” Talya’s voice is calm. “You have need of me?” She gives the half-smile that Alicent has become familiar with. Or was that not her true one at all, and she instead had another one hidden away, like she had another mistress?

Was it Alicent’s failing that Talya was even in alliance with this White Worm? She must have done something awful to deserve this treachery. She would almost prefer that tale, rather than the one Larys has given her – that Lady Talya of Ashdown Keep is loyal to nobody but herself, that she would have turned on Rhaenyra just as easily as if it had been the Princess she attended instead of Alicent.

She steels herself. It does not matter if she was the fault behind Talya’s doing or not. What matters is her children. From the very moment her firstborn drew breath, Alicent has stood with them.

Stood in front of death for them.

“Yes, Talya,” Queen Alicent replied. She sighs. “You may have noticed that good Ser Willis has escorted you here himself.”

Alicent continues in the deepening silence. Ser Willis is but a ghost in the room with them. Talya bites her lip. Just for a moment.

“You see, I did not want you to perhaps get lost…and find yourself in the company of your good friend.”

Talya’s face collapses under shock. She sways on the spot.

“My queen, please-,” Talya begins, speaking as if it were the first lines of a prayer.

“Be quiet,” Alicent hissed. “Until I say so, you have no tongue.”

Trembling, Talya nods.

Alicent looks down at one of her rings. Viserys had gifted it to her, for their fifth wedding anniversary. Or their sixth. She does not remember.

Viserys has only just died, but Alicent Hightower already knows that when she herself goes, she will not be buried in anything he gave her. She’ll leave instructions for his jewellery to be sold. Sold to someone rich, perhaps a magister or a lord’s proud wife who would delight in wearing something that once belonged to a queen. The gold from this exchange would then go to an alms-house.

“I wonder, how good of a friend was she?”

Talya senses the invitation to answer. “Your Grace, I-I have made a grievous mistake, and I beg your forgiveness.” She is breathing heavily.

“The Mother will forgive you,” Alicent says softly. “But my concern is not forgiveness, my lady, but trust.”

“Now, if you had broken my trust for a trivial matter, we perhaps would not be here now. But due to the… nature of what you’ve done, you must know the debt.”

Talya begins crying then.

“I had thought of taking your head. In fact, I was ready to. A war is perhaps approaching, and with it perhaps many heads. Yours would just be one of them.”

She paused, and to Talya it must have felt like a thousand years.

“But then I realized how little that would help.”

Talya’s eyes are torn between hope and disbelief.

“You will continue as you were,” Queen Alicent tells her. “Only this time, you are my eye, not this White Worm. Do this, and you may keep your worthless head.”

Talya falls to the hem of Alicent’s gown and kisses it. The sight repulses her.

“Thank you, thank you-,” She babbles.

Alicent points, and Ser Willis pulls the woman, not ungently, to her feet.

“We are not finished. You must understand that I do not just hold you in my power. I hold your family as well.”

Lady Talya was a younger daughter of a landed knight, who had been very honoured to have her serve as a lady in waiting to the queen herself. The truth was there were stronger candidates than Talya who had more to recommend them, those with both impressive lineage and whose character were unquestioned. But Talya’s father and brothers had all fought valiantly in the Stepstones. Talya’s own betrothed had not returned with them. Alicent's decision had been a kindness.

“If at any point I learn that you have turned on our deal….”

She tucks a strand of hair behind Talya’s ear.

“Prince Aemond will burn your keep.”

Talya chokes back a sob, but nods fervently.

“And remember Talya, just as you will watch your White Worm, you too will be watched,” Queen Alicent smiles.

[shvroyism]

The hotd casting directors are very unserious, because why would they think I could ever hate someone with THIS face. That’s prettiest and saddest woman i’ve ever seen actually, and I will stand besides her no matter what.

[spaceofunknown]

Something something Rhaenyra wearing bright red after wearing black and maroon all season and Alicent wearing blue after wearing green all season, both reverting back to the colours they wore as their younger selves.

[lullaebies]

Kinda obsessed with a Criston interpertation where he indeed stands by Alicent's side for years on end but also still acts as a lord commander and proper kingsguard by keeping her away from poisoning Viserys and convinces her to let Viserys die on his own. "A kingsguard's duty is to protect the king from everyone and anything that comes his way, but there is one thing that not even I can shield him from; The Stranger, that digs his claws into your husband every time he sits the Throne. The King will die, and when he does, I'll have a new king to protect, ordained by law the realm whole knows — your son."

[rosehippiefield]

I don't really like Reko's deaths but demise from her own copy is ironic and bitter. I saw posts somewhere that her doppelganger killing her ties into her arc of starting as rough and becoming kinder and I see the appeal

Like that's her past, who Reko was (not to say she was a horrible person, it's just that she was a bit more selfish and harsh on people, she had flaws she worked on and grew as a person). She changed for better, mellowed out, reflected on her worldview. Reko knows her mistakes, she moved on more or less, she's a different person now! Let past be the past...

But in this case her past literally comes back and kills her. Someone that she no longer is. With flaws she no longer has. As if life hasn't forgotten about how selfish Reko was. It's not like it was irredeemable of fake Reko to kill the real one because the former had identity crisis and a threat of death. But it still chases our Reko down as a reminder of her past rough personality

[ararebloom]

larys's "the beacon on the hightower, do you know what color it glows when oldtown calls its banners to war?" vs. criston's "she saved my life... since then, she has been the beacon i follow" 👀

[alleyskywalker]

I'm sure this has been talked about already as it's fairly obviously, really, and not to re-open the wound, but I did want to get this out and I had to calm down some to do it I guess lol. But the thing about Alicent's character assassination in the finale is the utter stupidity that, in addition to everything else, it undermines the show's own oh-so-belabored messaging. Like, the scene where Aemond removes Alicent from the council and, to a lesser extent, where he tells Criston that Alicent is a fool for holding love for their enemies, are framed by the show like "oooh looook, misogyny!!!" Except…he's right?? He was right all along, as it turns out??

Effectively, Aemond pegs Alicent early on as someone who is too hesitant, too emotionally involved with the enemy, too unwilling to lock in for their side. This makes her unreliable. Not because she's a woman, but because anyone like that would and should be considered not reliable enough to be trusted with sensitive war secrets. In that context removing her from the small council makes sense as she presents a liability. And I guess the show may have meant to say that the reason she gets judged like this by the men around her is because they see her gender paired with her feminine urge desire for peace as inherent weakness… But then the finale goes and proves Aemond completely right. She was a liability. She went and betrayed everyone because she…idk couldn't get over her girlhood love for Rhaenyra? Didn't have the stomach for war? Whatever. But the point is that there's no way those scenes can be read in good faith as "oooh sexism" in light of the finale, even though the show really wanted them to be just that.

[awsok]

in light of rhaenyra's actions in that episode I can't stop thinking about alicent's own turn to religion after 1x07 – but where alicent was driven by guilt and a desire to redeem herself, rhaenyra seems to have found purpose and justification for the sins she has yet to commit. if rhaenyra does continue down this path, i'm so curious as to how alicent will react to this, especially with the implications that her dip in the lake has acted as a sort of rebirth for her.

[alicent-archive]

Y’all look, film updates are at it again 😭.

[cogito-ergo-amo]

"Agatha controlled herself and didn't kill Billy, she could've controlled herself and saved Ali, she's lying about not being able to control her powers!"

Agatha was shown absorbing the powers of witches who attacked her and genuinely meant to harm her.

Ali attacked Agatha as an attempt to protect the rest of the coven. Doesn't matter whether or not she intended to kill Agatha, she used her power to damage Agatha enough to stop the rampage. Plus this was the trial where Agatha was possessed and psychologically tortured by her mother.

Billy was trying to help Agatha when he used his power on her. He's also a surrogate son, a representation of the one thing her power couldn't save and that she can never fully put right. Even then it's down to the wire, Billy is clearly being drained and brought to the brink of what he can handle and it's a tremendous effort on Agatha's part to stop even then.

Also, and I'm gonna hold your hand when I say this, characters have arcs and journeys. By the end of a story a character may be able to do things they could not do at the start of the story. The events, the plot, their relationships with other characters, all of these can can change what a character is or is not able to do.

I am still sad and mildly annoyed that Alice's story ended where it did and how it did. A character's arc does not have to be THAT cruel and tragic to make the point that death is often cruel, senseless and tragic. It still doesn't mean that Agatha could already control herself by that point but chose not to for the lols.

I'm mad that Alice ended up being the sacrificial lamb for this, but we still needed to see onscreen that at earlier points in the story Agatha still couldn't control this aspect of her power so that the moment where we do see her control it has the greatest impact.

Whether or not she genuinely cared about the rest of the coven by that point is debatable but she's pragmatic enough to know that killing another coven member deliberately when she could've chosen not to, especially when there were still multiple trials ahead, would only hinder her on the rest of the path.

[dreaming-for-an-escape]

🤭

[germ-t-ripper]

23NOV24 44OH Gang warfare!

[dutybcrne]

Me, chilling vibing: :)

My brain: So, what if Diluc also had time spent in the Abyss while in his jaunt in Snezhnaya bc he'd fallen to it in trying to escape pursuit by the Fatui/a Harbinger, and thus his particular pursuit of the Abyss Order happened to result of the things he'd seen there and the creatures that tried to prey on his grief/negative emotions, thus wanting to protect the people of Mondstadt from such things. Part of the reason he was able to survive using the Delusion constantly happened to be unwittingly being tainted by it. Though not without price-

[thesilverlady]

I'm not enough of a book purist to not being able to enjoy headcanons, crackships etc (as a matter of fact I do love them). But seeing newbies unironically and completely serious considering aemond to "trying to be the perfect son", or "heleana is the people's princess" or "rhaenyra is calm, collected and strategic", "Daemon is the family's clown, the agent of chaos" legit gives me a headache because they are nothing like that.

And I'm not talking about ppl writing fanfics with this type of characterization, but ppl legit having takes based on the terrible portrayal of the show. And even when they go to read f&b they still have the image the show gave them because they don't seem capable of letting go.

it just feels like Jon Snow/Daenerys Targaryen character assassination all of again.

There are so many people who consider Jon to be basically ned 2.0 and Dany a mad queen-girlboss-slay

I just wish we could seperate books from adaptations. That's all

[squish--squash]

I just finished watching someone play the entirety of Detroit: Become Human for the first time and I am both chewing and being chewed on by this game I am insane over it rn like why aren't people still talking about this game constantly???

[laymedowninsheetsoflinen]

realisation of the night! dagmar is who people think alicent is! tearing my hair out <3