Young Ned Stark & Ashara Dayne. Because I Find Them Intriguing.

Young Ned Stark & Ashara Dayne…. because I find them intriguing.

Leaders of the Great Houses during the Dance of the Dragons

Annual reminder that despite all memes and adaptations to the contrary, Jonathan ‘If I die I hope Mina gets my diary as a goodbye :’c’ Harker acknowledged that something ominous was up as of DAY 2 in his little Transylvania travelogue. The only reason he wasn’t turning his ass around was, you know. Needing to Do This Incredibly Vital Assignment for His Brand New Job. If you put this boy in [PICK ANY HORROR MOVIE], he would be out of there two seconds after the opening credits

Halloween night in Haddonfield? My guy isn’t sticking around to meet Michael Myers and his killer kitchenware

Camp Crystal Lake is very lovely, he’s sure, the nice nubile college kids should send him and Mina a postcard while they’re hanging out at home

What’s that? There’s a haunted house with spirits chucking furniture around and you want to record it all for posterity? Neat, cool, awesome, write to him about it while he’s off in a restaurant somewhere talking up a chef and posting nice foodie reviews

This guy knows when horror story bullshit is happening even while being unaware of the fact that he is one of the main characters of Dracula.

He can smell what genre he’s in and does Not like it and would be out of there if he could, do not paint him as a one brain cell oblivious baby man

And she had them! She was just a daughter of a second son. What would she have as a dowager queen at Rhaenyra’s court, knowing that they despise each other and Rhaenyra probably won’t respect the Widow’s Law (as we saw with Vaemon Velaryon, she wasn’t the nicest person either)? Nothing, even if - and it’s a big IF - Rhaenyra really wanted to give her siblings high positions at her court (and let’s be real: she probably didn’t). Alicent fight for her survival and position as well, as any other woman would do in her shoes. You think Laena as a queen wouldn’t fight for her potentional son’s rights to the Iron Throne? Or, I don’t know, Jeyne Arryn or any other noble lady Viserys would marry after Aemma?

The truth is, Alicent wasn’t a wicked villain from the very start. She had good relationship with Rhaenyra first but it was destroyed after Aegon and Aemond’s births - and probably Alicent wasn’t the only force here, because it was in her best interest to keep Rhaenyra happy, so she would be easier to manipulate. There were many opponents of Otto at court and they probably weren’t afraid to tell a growing princess that her stepmother will try to usurp her position as an heir because it was in their best interest to pit Rhaenyra and Alicent against each other. Alicent even suggested at first to marry Rhaenyra to Aegon and let’s be real: with that age difference, it would be Rhaenyra who would be the real ruler then.

Alicent always had reasonable motives. She wasn’t a saint, but she wasn’t a hag either. She’s very humane character hidden behind deeply misoginistic narration of FaB. It’s not only maesters, it’s also that GRRM himself visibly DOESN’T LIKE Greens and is not interested in making them nuanced in any way. So it was always easy for readers to frame Alicent as a wicked stepmother with fairy tale-villain’s mindset, against Rhaenyra who isn’t a girlboss feminist icon either. They believe every bad word about Alicent in FaB so easily but suddenly it’s radio silence if you ask them whether they believe that Rhaenyra sent Alicent AND Helaena to brothel so they will be r*ped until they get pregnant. And it also comes from Mushroom’s stories and Mushroom was 100% pro-Rhaenyra, so? This apparently is not true but EVERYTHING BAD that is said about Alicent is? Because what? Because it fits your narration?

my point about alicent and the fandom was the she can’t win, couldn’t win, and never will win. it’s not possible…

some people want her to be one dimensional evil hag that they can hate. some people want her to be complex villain they can hate. some people hate her because she isn’t like from the books - some (same people) people hated her in the books. some people want her to be another cersei, so they can hate her. some people say that cersei was awesome and alicent can never be her and so they hate her. some people hate her now more because she will in the future be mean to rhaenyra. some people hate her now because she isn’t mean enough. some people think that she is misogynistic witch in the books because she is pro patriarchy. some people think her portrayal as being without agenda is misogynistic. some people thinks she has agenda from the beginning…

alicent is meant to be rhaenyra’s opposite in the story. clearly, they try to make her more sympathetic to the viewer, so that her change in attitude hits harder and the already obvious patriarchy is more visible and prevalent. if you don’t vibe with that, that’s cool.

like i’m sorry, if you hate this character you would hate her no matter what. you hate her now because she is too nice and you will hate her when olivia cooke plays her and she’ll try to stab rhaenyra. it. doesn’t. matter.

alicent hightower can’t win and won’t win.

The person who reblogged this from you is rooting for your success.

certain someones: it’s CONCERNING how people are shipping alicent and rhaenyra. CLEARLY you haven’t read the book. you SHOULD read it because then you would NEVER ship them. you just WAIT. you know NOTHING. in the BOOK they have big AGE DIFFERENCE. they are NOT FRIENDS. alicent is her STEPMOTHER. but you don’t know that so i’ll TELL you. they are ENEMIES.

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