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The amount of ppl who don’t realize that Alicent choosing Helaena’s safety over her sons and Helaena willingly giving up her son to protect her daughter are direct parallels drives me crazy. LIKE ITS SO OBVIOUS!!!!! And it’s such an important part of the message of the show and also Alicent’s character development!!!!
I think that’s why it makes me so mad when ppl berate Alicent in the finale for “choosing Rhaenyra”! Because she wasn’t choosing Rhaenyra, she was choosing her daughter! Her now being able to be at peace with Rhaenyra was an obvious benefit, because her love for Rhaenyra is also important, BUT she never would have made that choice for JUST Rhaenyra.
It’s all about making sacrifices as a mother. And how when it comes down to it, society wants you to choose your sons, because they’re the heirs, and they’re the ones who are “more important”. I mean, come on people, the reason why Aemma died is because Viserys was so obsessed with having a son. That’s a major part of the message about misogyny.
And so Alicent and Helaena choosing their daughters was their rebuttal against the patriarchy, and the only one they could really make.
And when it comes down to it, it was also Alicent choosing her younger self. This season also showed that Alicent really sees herself in her daughter, so in a way, choosing Helaena was also her way of making things up to her younger self. So, she also chose herself over her sons. Which again, she never would have done if she wasn’t protecting Helaena. But it annoys me when people call this selfish, because it’s like…. Yeah! She’s allowed to be selfish for once in her life. I was shocked by the amount of ppl who are self proclaimed “Alicent apologists” being annoyed once they perceived her as not a saint anymore. I also admired her love for her kids in the first season, but I’m also proud of how she’s growing to choose herself! And while she’s definitely not evil like her weird misogynistic haters make her out to be, she DOES have flaws. She’s a genuinely complex character, which is the reason why I thought everyone who liked her liked her in the first place.
But yeah it just annoys me when people say the finale was out of left field because I thought that Alicent’s actions in it made a lot of sense honestly. Idk maybe it’s because it’s different from the book and I’ve never read the book…
But during Blood and Cheese when Helaena chose her daughter I was like “I sense a parallel coming” … this is going to show Alicent something important… and I was not surprised when the parallel delivered 🤷
Idk if this is real or I’m just going crazy from sleep deprivation, but am I the only one that thought in the most two recent episodes Rhaenyra and Alicent were being paralleled in their internalized misogyny? (Not a hate post, I love both of them and I think it’s impossible NOT to have internalized misogyny in that setting. Just talking about something I noticed.)
Like in episode two we see Alicent having Helaena do the whole political funeral thing, and it’s so obvious that before, during, and after it, Alicent sees herself in Helaena. The whole thing is like Alicent reliving her earliest days as Queen all over again where not only was she also just a political pawn for the men in her life, but also where her biggest fear started. This fear being something happening to the kids she was forced to have. While the political pawn thing is majorly important too to the generational misogyny discussion, I think the more major relation that registers within Alicent’s brain is the fear of her children dying, and her consciously forcing Helaena to suffer through an extended version of that pain, and it is what will be relevant later in my post. Keep that in mind.
Similarly, in episode three, we see Rhaenyra narrowing Rhaena down to nothing more than an idea of motherhood. Rhaenyra basically tells Rhaena that her main purpose in the war is to take care of her children, even though Rhaena is less than enthusiastic about it. Even before I made the distinction that I make in this post, this whole scene struck out as odd to me, because my first thought was “teenage Rhaenyra would have hated to be told this,” yet Rhaenyra didn’t seem to care about Rhaena’s feelings at all. And then I realized that was the point. Sure, Rhaenyra’s fear of motherhood surrounded around childbirth mainly, but still, her greatest fear had been motherhood for most of her life, specifically being forced to mother children she didn’t want, and yet she forced it onto Rhaena without a second thought.
So. Alicent’s greatest fear, suffering the loss of a child, befell Helaena, and instead of comforting her in her time of need, Alicent furthered her daughter’s pain. Rhaenyra’s greatest fear, being forced into motherhood, was easy for her to force onto another young girl. It’s disturbing, and shocking, and upsetting, but it’s such a good decision for their characters. It shows how easily women can forget their girlhood fears when they come into more power, contributing to the misogyny around them. But that’s not all. Because then I realized something else.
Despite the idea haunting her for almost her entire life, Alicent never had to suffer the loss of a child. But Rhaenyra did.
And in the end, Rhaenyra did get to choose who the father of her children was, and when she had them. But Alicent didn’t.
They lived each other’s worst fears. It adds another layer of tragedy to them, because it would have been so easy for them to understand each other, their fears and grievances matching perfectly, but they never really got the chance because of how they viewed the other as having caused their issues in the first place. And even later, they get another chance to understand both themselves and each other through their daughters, but it makes no difference.
None of them will ever win, because they don’t help each other. Everyone complaining that “so-and-so” is better than “this character” because “so-and-so” is a true feminist and “this character isn’t” doesn’t understand the point of the show.
The point is that they won’t help their mothers, they won’t help their best friends, and they won’t help their daughters. If you think any of the men in House Of The Dragon are an ideal image of feminism…. I don’t even know how you’re on my page in the first place. And all the women in the show are only looking out for their own best interests. Which is totally fair for the time period theyre in, and I would probably do the same. But it all goes to show that they could’ve been so much stronger if they all stood together.
Labour by Paris Paloma is for Alicent Hightower and Vampire by Olivia Rodrigo is for Rhaenyra Targaryen. Just for if anyone was wondering.
Nancy Wheeler, Sam Larusso, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Lori Grimes, and Alicent Hightower, I will always defend you from your misogynistic haters.
The "loving SIX The Musical" to "loving Alicent Hightower" pipeline.
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.
Thinking about how it’s canon that Viserys knew Otto was forcing Alicent to read to him and comfort him and talk to him and yet he was so selfish and so pleased by the fact that she was giving him attention that he just…went along with it?
Like he knew that marrying Laena, a girl three years younger than Alicent was wrong, and he KNEW that Otto was forcing Alicent into that position and he just…didn’t care. He forced her into a marriage she didn’t want, forced three kids on her before she turned twenty, and then proceeded to not only ignore her but ignore his children by her because they didn’t turn out the way he wanted them to.
Thinking about how he started to resent Alicent the moment she showed up in Green at the wedding because she dared to have a mind of her own. And how that led to him neglecting her and her children (because they are hers) for sixteen years.
I hope Viserys Targaryen is rotting in the depths of hell.
Ok so here’s the thing. I love both Alicent and Rhaenyra, but my love of them is very different. I think they are both extremely interesting characters.
But the difference between them for me is this:
With Alicent, I genuinely believe that she is a good person. Like everything she’s done I completely understand, and it’s always been with the intention of defending herself, her children, or Rhaenyra. But you guys probably know how much I love Alicent by now and this post is mostly about Rhaenyra so I’m gonna move on.
With Rhaenyra, I think she’s more morally gray. She’s done some things that I would definitely label as bad. I wouldn’t call her a good person. Honestly, I agree that she’s selfish. But that’s part of the reason why I like her.
The thing is, she’s a victim just like Alicent. It’s just that she’s less victimized in the show, and amongst her own fans. (For some reason people think being a victim makes you less of a girlboss, but whatever).
Just like Alicent, she had a crusty old man grooming her.
And Viserys and Otto weren’t exactly the same, but they were certainly both shitty fathers.
My point being, I definitely feel sympathy for her. And she’s not the villain.
The similarity between Alicent and Rhaenyra is that they were both young girls who were groomed and manipulated by the men in their lives. But the difference is the results of this.
Alicent was made to be more mature than her age. She was exposed to some very harsh realities very early on. And now she’s paranoid and pessimistic. So of course she’s scared for her life and the lives of her children.
Rhaenyra was made to be more childish. Viserys made it so that she never had to face any consequences. And Daemon has tried to keep her powerless and immature. And now, as a grown woman, she’s extremely disconnected from reality. While Alicent is overly aware of how in danger she is, Rhaenyra is incredibly naive and oblivious.
I don’t really know what else to say. I guess I just needed to rant a little. Basically the point I’m trying to make is that Rhaenyra antis annoy me because she was a victim and she’s not evil or dumb, but Rhaenyra Stans that make her out to be a saint also annoy me because she’s far from perfect, and she’s far from selfless.
Please I’m begging on my hands and knees. Are there any more people out there who like Rhaenyra but also like Alicent? PLEASE IM BEGGING.
EXACTLY NO ONE UNDERSTANDS 😭
Like if she was mad about the sex then she would have told people and gotten Rhaenyra and Criston in trouble. But we see that she has no problem with Criston after he admits to her that he had sex with Rhaenyra. In fact, she stops him from killing himself and becomes allies with him. She didn’t care about the sex, she just wanted honesty.
And this was when Alicent was starting to get paranoid because she was realizing that she was on her own, and her father was trying to put all these crazy ideas in her head that she couldn’t trust Rhaenyra.
Rhaenyra not telling Alicent about Criston when Alicent gave her the chance proved that Rhaenyra wasn’t 100% trustworthy, and was willing to lie to everyone. If she broke that rule, how many more would she break?
And sure, murdering children is a big leap away from having sex, but it’s her and her children’s lives on the line. I mean, would you gamble with your children’s lives just to support someone who ignored you and blamed you when you were forced to marry an old man as a child, who you now know has lied to you, on the chance that she might be forgiving you for something that was never your fault? Probably not.
Also I understand why Rhaenyra was upset with Alicent. She herself was a child and was obviously not in the right mindset to judge who the true victim was. This is not an anti-Rhaenyra post, I’m not criticizing her reaction to Viserys and Alicent’s marriage. I’m just trying to say that from Alicent’s point of view, it probably seemed like no one was genuine and that they wouldn’t hesitate to leave her in the dust in times where she would be vulnerable. (Which to an extent, is true.)
the way people think alicents decision to choose her own family was just because rhaenyra slept with criston, when it’s actually because she realized rhaenyra no longer trusts her enough to share the truth with her… and if rhaenyra doesn’t trust her how can she put the safety of herself and her children into rhaenyras hands and leave their fates to her mercy… she has to choose herself and her children or else no one will