Anti Aegon Ii Targaryen - Blog Posts

Labour by Paris Paloma was written for Alicent Hightower btw.

do you think alicent sees aegon as the nail in the coffin that determined the rest of her life. like she was married to viserys and that was bad enough but i wonder if she thought at the start of their marriage what reconciliation with rhaenyra would look like and how far away it was, how maybe if she was infertile or maybe if she only had girls maybe there was still something, some impossible chance that one day she wouldn’t have to face the choice that birthing a son would bring—to watch him either be put to the throne or rhaenyra’s sword. i wonder if every night of her first pregnancy chipped away at her hope. i wonder if when she had aegon she knew nothing could ever be the same and tried to bury it nonetheless. but then to watch him grow into this thing that he is and to love him because he’s her son but resent him because he’s a man who does exactly what other men did to you, and he turns other girls into the girl you once were, it’s like—when does the resentment overpower the love? how can they coexist? or do they have to coexist because every love you’ve ever had has been tinged by resentment and any other kind no longer makes sense? how else do you love? what do you have to do to deserve it? what does reconciliation look like, how far away is it????? and now on his deathbed the man who put you here, put your son here and never once cared, who hammered the nail in your coffin, tells you something that makes you believe that maybe it was all worth it. maybe the love can be bigger than the resentment, just this once. so rhaenys is standing in front of her on a roaring dragon and alicent would die for her son without question in that moment (in any moment, i think, but especially now) because despite being the worst thing to happen to her, he’s also the only evidence she has that what she went through meant anything at all.

"Alicent should have killed Aegon for what he did to Dyana. Is this how she defends SA victims?"

Has to be one of the shittiest takes I've ever had the displeasure of reading in the hotd fandom.

I genuinely cannot believe that a lot of people think this, like, are you guys insane??? Lmao casually saying this as if they aren't demanding a mother to execute her child.

I get it blacks, you are mad that Aegon raped Dyana, trust me, it upsets me too. It's horrible and unexcusable, I don't condone at all. It would be very concerning if I did.

With that said, what exactly were you expecting Alicent to do?

Tell all of Westeros that because the prince assaulted a servant ( I would like to remind you, a generous chunk of nobles has certainly done it as well to some degree.) he has to face justice and be executed.

Whaaat? Westeros is not in the 21st century, it doesn't work like that, by their standards it probably wasn't even considered rape! They would just think the prince had honored her with his attention and she had showed ungratefulness.

She would be punished instead for attempting to taint his image and have her tounge cut out or something. We're in the middle ages!!

Rape in Westeros is unfortunately super normalized, his execution would cause a shit show. Oh and sorry, how are you demanding a mother to have her firstborn killed?

Ali is veery disappointed with her son for many reasons, obviously including this one, and she's not shy to say it to his face, slap him and tell him he's no son of hers. But he is still her son, and she will always love him no matter what. There is no way in hell she would ever kill one of her kids.

Lmao if one of the strong boys did the same thing would you demand Rhaenyra to kill her sons as well?

Oh and also kinslaying. The circumstances of it are irrelevant, kinslaying is always considered one of the worst crime one can commit in Westeros. Hell even people who unwillingly kill their kin are cursed and ostracized, imagine what the realm would think of a mother, the fucking queen, killing her son.

Team black will really find any excuse to shit on Alicent, even if said reason is dumb as hell and devoid of any logic.

Alright. THATS IT. TIME TO LOSE MY SHIT.

The fact that Alicent is even ON THIS LIST is just flabbergasting. Now, to their credit, she’s second to last on this list (somehow worse than JAMIE LANNISTER?!). But still. Most evil characters?!

So, for fun, I thought I’d take a look at her characterization according to the writer of this list and rebut.

For the sake of organization, I will post the whole paragraph below and then go point by point:

“This one is fairly low on the rankings as it's not quite clear how villainous Alicent could become, with her moral standing leaning toward "complicated" rather than straightforward good or evil. However, she isn't quite the most innocent character in House of the Dragon either, with her manipulation of the grieving and ailing King Viserys, covering up her son's sexual crimes and fiendish proclivities and politically maneuvering an underhanded coup from her former best friend raising more than a few eyebrows about how far she'll go to protect her family.”

“Her manipulation of the grieving and ailing King Viserys”

First of all: Alicent was a 15 year old girl, the same age as Viserys’s own daughter, and his daughter’s best friend. Viserys is a full grown man and also the most powerful person in the entire kingdom as, you know, the king. Grief is a powerful thing and can certainly cause us to act contrary to our characters; however, that is not an excuse to have sex with and marry a child you have watched grow up alongside your own child.

Second of all: Alicent was not the master manipulator in this situation. She tried to fight back against the plan as much as she was capable as a girl and child, against her father who is the second most powerful man in the kingdom. The blame should go solely on Otto for this.

Blaming Alicent for “manipulating” Viserys when: she was a child forced to do this by her father, she fought against the idea, she was 15 and Viserys was a full grown man, and most of all HE WAS THE FUCKING KING, is crazy. Alicent had no power in this situation, nor did she want it. It was Otto’s idea and Viserys’s fault. Y’all blaming a child and acting like she’s an insidious master manipulator instead of criticizing the full grown man who had sex with her is crazy. Grief is no excuse. The men in this situation took advantage of Alicent. Not the other way around.

“Covering up her son’s sexual crimes and fiendish proclivities”

Where is the accountability on the deadbeat dad? Everyone keep blaming Alicent for how awful Aegon is. But nobody utters a word on how the other parent in this situation has done absolutely nothing. Viserys is also Aegon’s father (though this may be a shock to even Viserys himself seeing how neglectful and abusive he is to his children by Alicent). Viserys is the king. He has the power to implement whatever he wants but sits back and does nothing. But sure, Alicent is to blame because she’s actually involved and therefor her son being ruined is only her fault.

Alicent does her best at parenting Aegon and dealing with the shit he generates. What exactly could Alicent do to Aegon, a prince of the realm, to rectify the situation? Y’all are never happy when she does anything. When she disciplines Aegon, you scream she’s “abusive”. When she tries to compensate and fix the situation to the best of her ability, you scream that she’s enabling and covering up crimes. She will never win. And btw, she didn’t cover up for Aegon. Alicent listened to Dyana and tried to compensate for the pain. There’s literally nothing else she could do.

Y’all will blame Alicent for all the actions of the men in her life. Why not hold Aegon, the actual rapist, accountable for the situation. Not Alicent for trying to fix it. Because guess who’s not on the fucking list…AEGON. How will you penalize Alicent for trying to help fix the situation her son caused, but not penalize the man who actually committed the sexual crime? It reeks of sexism.

“Politically maneuvering an underhanded coup from her former best friend”

Ok. Let’s get this out of the way. Alicent believes Viserys said it was Aegon who is the heir. Stupid or not she does. But even without that Alicent does not stage a coup in some sort of villainous attempt to seize power for herself and away from Rhaenyra. She does it to protect her family. She has seen what happens when one of them is harmed, nothing. There will be nothing stopping team black from killing her or her children. This is a fight for survival. Not villainy. Fear.

Also it’s worth reminding that Alicent is the only one defending Rhaenyra’s life. Otto and other greens are perfectly fine with murdering Rhaenyra. Alicent is the only one fighting to protect her and counseling Aegon not to harm her.

In the end, Alicent is not a villain. She is the personification of how the patriarchy has abused women and torn them down in every way. Alicent has done her best to make everyone in her life happy. She has tried desperately to satisfy the selfishness and power-hungry nature of all those around her and reconcile everyone in her life. Alicent is not malicious or evil. She’s not seeking war or bloodshed. She wants her children and herself to be safe. Nobody should have “raised brows” at her defending herself and her family after she has spent decades being abused and seen more than enough proof that she is not loved or protected.

Villainizing Alicent can only happen if you’re willing to admit all this as well:

Grown men can never be held liable for having sex with teenage girls.

Teenage girls are at fault for the feelings adult men have for them.

Women are responsible for how their children turn out and men have no accountability in raising children or how they grow up.

Deadbeat father’s are ok, and the women left with the children are at fault for anything bad their kids do because they didn’t do a good enough job at being both parents.

Teenage mothers need to be perfect parents and can never make mistakes or have no idea what they’re doing because they, themselves are children.

Parents (specifically mothers) are responsible for the crimes of their children

Men shouldn’t be held accountable for rape. It’s their mom’s fault

And most of all: women who experience consistent trauma and abuse for years must hold it all in, accept further abuse with a smile, and “keep to their place”

Go ahead black fans. Admit this all. Admit you hate women and have deeply sexist beliefs. Then I’ll let you call her a villain :)