#to paraphrase s1 alicent WHAT does she know about duty??? WHAT does she know about sacrifice??? fuck off

[petr1kov]

it's also kind of insane that they're still trying to sell alicent as unreasonable for having opposed rhaenyra all of those years when the climax of this episode was rhaenyra explicitly stating what alicent had been saying for years (and was called crazy and paranoid for believing): that in order for her to be queen, alicent's sons must die, starting with aegon. the fact that it happened now makes people argue that it's just because it is too late, but that's clearly bullshit. it's not just because they are already at war and it's not because aegon took the throne first.

no matter what they did, his mere existence (and that of his brothers) as a more traditionally 'suitable' male heir to the throne would always, inevitably put her claim to the throne at risk, and that would remain being the case for her supporters and everyone else around her even if she herself didn't want to kill them. they would always be a liability, and rhaenyra either didn't notice or didn't care to remedy that situation.

so, what was alicent to do? well, apparently, she should've just given rhaenyra their heads on a silver platter from the start, as this finale has shown us. jsut do like rhaenys did and not let the fact that (as far as she knows) her son was murdered because he stood in the way of what rhaenyra wanted really get to her, because the good guys always side with rhaenyra. ugh.