A Defense Of Viserra Targaryen

A Defense of Viserra Targaryen

I just realized I've never actually collected these thoughts in one place, so it's time for me to do so.

This is the main quote from F&B used as character evidence for Viserra:

No squire was ever going to win Viserra, Queen Alysanne knew; not her heart, and certainly not her maidenhead. She was far too sly a child to go down the same path as her sister Saera. "She has no interest in kissing games, nor boys," the queen told Jaehaerys. "She plays with them as she used to play with her puppies, but she would no more lie with one than with a dog. She aims much higher, our Viserra. I have seen the way she preens and prances around Baelon. That is the husband she desires, and not for love of him. She wants to be the queen."

EXCEPT PRINCE AEMON IS STILL ALIVE AND HEALTHY. BAELON IS NOT THE HEIR. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO INDICATION FOR VISERRA THAT MARRYING BAELON WOULD MAKE HER THE QUEEN. ALYSANNE WOULD HAVE NO REASON TO BELIEVE THIS.

So, what gives?

Maybe this is a situation of "George forgot." He's infamously bad with numbers, after all. Maybe he got his timelines mixed up, and didn't realize that Prince Aemon outlives Viserra by five years and Baelon isn't the heir at the time of her death.

Except Fire & Blood is deliberately written as an in-universe history, and we're supposed to treat it as such, with the understanding that some of what Archmaester Gyldayn says is biased or not 100% accurate. This quote is supposedly from Alysanne to Jaehaerys. Who would have heard this? Who would have written it down? Combine that with the straight up factually incorrect information it's based upon, and this has the makings of an apocryphal quote from a bad source. The factual error undercuts the validity of this entire section, and I don't think it can be blindly accepted as proof of Viserra's character.

So, onto the Baelon incident.

(note: the entire existence of the Baelon Incident can also be called into question, given that Gyldayn begins that section with "if court gossip can be believed." We are not all maesters at the Citadel with access to his bibliography and primary sources, though, so I'll leave that alone for now and choose to treat it as fact.)

Here are our facts: Viserra Targaryen is 15 years old. Her parents have arranged a marriage to an old Northern Lord who has been widowed 4 times already. They have refused to break the betrothal. Viserra has a drinking problem. While drunk (and apparently unsupervised) she manages to sneak into Baelon's bed, naked, in an attempt to "seduce" him.

What's the more likely motive here? That she's a sly manipulative ambitious girl who's just so determined to be queen that she'll seduce poor widowed Baelon? Or that she's drunk and desperate and scared and trying to get her brother to rescue her the same way Jaehaerys once rescued Alysanne?

I rest my case.

Aegon was really a rapist in book?

This is a difficult question. Firstly, we need to decide how to analyze this story - from the point of view of the morality of Westeros or from the point of view of the morality of the twenty-first century. For example, we have this passage:

From the point of view of modern morality, this is sexual harassment, but I'm really not sure that from the point of view of Medieval morality, such behavior of the prince could be condemned.

Next, we have this situation:

These are Mushroom's words who isn't a reliable witness and they're refuted a couple of lines below by the septon:

However, he denies only her origin, but not her age, and here it's up to you to decide whether it can be considered r*pe (we don't have any evidence of this in the story). Anyway, there's not a single scene in the book where Aegon would force a woman to have sex with him using physical force, this happened only in the series (thanks to the screenwriters).

mutuals know this is me whenever i like your vent posts

magnet family for the soul and the 5 people who care

asoiaf meme: ½ pov characters

You are the Lady Asha of House Greyjoy?

I am Asha of House Greyjoy, aye. Opinions differ on whether I’m a lady.

did you find it uncomfortable when Aegon's character was introduced in e6? because for me, I don't like that the writers went through with that.

Oh, yeah that was really gross, especially if you take into account the character's age. (I believe the producers made him thirteen or fourteen?) That shouldn't have even been in the script let alone filmed. To show this kid was troubled, we could have literally just had a segment of him spiralling with alcoholism or even with the kid crying or something. But nobody asked to see... THAT.