sansahightower

[sansahightower]

I have been dealing with a lot in grad school, personal health, familial health, financial stuff, and honestly, my life has been a pressure cooker.

So I only saw the first three episodes of HotD. Ngl, the entire fandom, black and green, looks like chaos. Maybe I’ll wait until I’m in a better place mentally to finish 👀

[sansahightower]

"But the Rhaenyra and Alicent sept meeting is fantastical because Rhaenyra's smarter than that–" Rhaenyra Targaryen has never thought anything through in her entire life let's be serious.

[sansahightower]

i actually think the writers of the show made alicent misunderstand viersys to have the audience be able to sympathize with the character in the future. but in doing so they showed that they themselves didn’t believe any of her other reasons to crown her son were valid. it’s so strange to me how they’re making her seem stupid when:

- viserys chose her to be his second queen.

- she bore him legitimate sons who lawfully should be in line for the throne before rhaenyra

- viserys was an awful husband and father to her children

- otto and alicent have both stated that her sons would be a threat to rhaenyra’s claim which she would cut down if needed and 1x07 proved that to be true

- alicent saw what happened to people who tried to tell the truth about the bastard children

- alicent believes rhaenyra and daemon had laenor killed

- she suffered all those years for what????? if i was in her shoes, i would have wanted something for it all to be worth it

there are many things that i’m forgetting probably and the list can go on. i just….don’t get how the writers lack such critical thinking.

[sansahightower]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON (2022–) Season 2, Episode 3, “The Burning Mill”

[sansahightower]

Baby, don’t you know we’re a tragedy?

[sansahightower]

“Do as you're told, sweetling, it won't be so bad. Wolves are supposed to be brave, aren't they?”

sansa stark moodboard

[sansahightower]

The primary reason I love the Greens is that they are so messed up. They are not perfect, they are not disinfected and favored by the narrative, and they are raw to the bone; they are real.

Aegon is as real as a devastated and soul-crushed father gets whose grief translates to anger and violence. Helaena’s silent inner turmoil and anguish haunt the Red Keep. Alicent has become a wreck as she weighs this tragedy the only way she knows how: against her own failed moral compass, holding herself responsible.

Otto sees his strings of power stretch and snap as he pursues the unattainable dream once more. Criston feels unworthy and consoles himself with the deception that he remains unsullied by still bearing a white cloak to his name, having been absolved of his original oath-breaking years before. And Aemond refuses to acknowledge any weakness or softness in front of his family so he seeks consolation elsewhere.

This green family doesn’t know how to process emotions, doesn’t know how to grieve together, and can’t find solace in each other’s suffering despite yearning for comfort. Otto doesn’t know how to comfort Alicent, Alicent doesn’t know how to comfort Aegon, and Aegon doesn’t know how to comfort Helaena.

Larys exerts his influence and puppeteers Alicent to his own liking by giving her a much-desired grasp of agency over political affairs. Alicent finds escape in undiscovered indulgences that give her the intoxicating illusion of control over a lifetime of servitude. Criston succumbs to the addictive drug of being desired and wanted on equal terms. The Greens live in a vicious circle of unhealed trauma, a bottomless pit of fears and insecurities, and a tangled web of deception and control.

They are wounded, dysfunctional, and forsaken, and that makes them so intriguing.

[sansahightower]

Why thanks ☺️ I wish I could take credit for that first one, but someone before me was more clever lol

it makes me literally sick to think about alicent's relationship to her children. like. they are all she has. she loves them more than anything and hates them just as much. each of them is a shackle around her neck. they are her babies even though she was a baby herself, forced to be their mother. she'll pick up a knife for them. they are her living prison. everything she ever does is for them. their very existence makes her sick. she understands them and yet doesn't know them at all. they are her future. they stole her past.

she was 15 years old tethered to a rotting body of a man entirely against her will, watching each of her children invade her body as a result of martial rape. how were they ever supposed to have a normal relationship!!!!!!!

[sansahightower]

it makes me literally sick to think about alicent's relationship to her children. like. they are all she has. she loves them more than anything and hates them just as much. each of them is a shackle around her neck. they are her babies even though she was a baby herself, forced to be their mother. she'll pick up a knife for them. they are her living prison. everything she ever does is for them. their very existence makes her sick. she understands them and yet doesn't know them at all. they are her future. they stole her past.

she was 15 years old tethered to a rotting body of a man entirely against her will, watching each of her children invade her body as a result of martial rape. how were they ever supposed to have a normal relationship!!!!!!!

[sansahightower]

Besides it being like, morally wrong….

People body-shaming and hating on Ewan Mitchell is legitimately deranged. Any other fandom, people would be obsessing. But no. This toxic fandom we are saddled with had to be fucking rude and toxic about the actor… AGAIN.

As if he wouldn’t be an amazing Tolkein elf. As if he wouldn’t be an amazing live-action Alucard.

Uncultured swine smh.

[sansahightower]

I'm seeing on tiktok tons of fangirls turning on Aemond, saying that they got the ick.

Seriously? Because he's not actually the sadistic mafia dom of your fanfics? Because he was vulnerable? Because it's mommy issues and not horny girls proudly screaming daddy every two seconds?

The double standards, the gender roles gendering, the faux feminism of it all...

[sansahightower]

In general, I have noticed Cersei Lannister fans are usually very clever and nuanced, offering thoughtful character analyses. They make me want to experience the books and show all over again.

I haven’t personally really observed a ton of hostility from them either. Overall, they leave a good impression. She was never my main fav, but she’s always been interesting. However, I might go back just so I can watch her with a more sympathetic eye.

[sansahightower]

After this next batch of leaks, I feel like Ryan Condal just wants us all to suffer in the trenches. My god. I’m about to ask him why he hates me personally.

[sansahightower]

i'm still at the end of the day perplexed when it comes to the double standard of alicent and how she treats aegon. or when she is kind and empathetic to helaena (and helaena, though touch repulsed attempts to climb into alicen't lap during a panic attack) people ignore her.

but let's talk about her and aegon, and her not comforting aegon. these are coming from the same people who want to stone alicent because she 'put a rapist on the throne'.

to me it is telling how people either laughed at how otto shut alicent out in the scene before, when she was crying to him for absolution and for him to listen, but when alicent did the same thing to Aegon they crucify her for it. i know this fandom doesn't know what media literacy is, but alicent had just been rejected by her own father and that is basically how she was raised. in that instant we saw how her childhood would and how her emotions were neglected. it is hard, if not impossible for her to be emotionally available to Aegon. and you know, that isn't completely true. Alicent was there for Helaena.

But a lot of you forget that Aegon has just wounded them. He killed hundreds of innocent people, co-signed a awful, assinsation attempt on Rhaenyra and then made Criston Cole of all people, hand of the king. Aside with dealing with her own emotions and grieving, she is angry at him.

And this is right after Aegon was allowed to excuse himself from the procession but Helaena and Alicent were forced to do so like puppets.

Of course she is angry at him. She loves him, she cares for him but she is angry. And how can she not be, when all the work that she had done just crumbled before her, when her own father rejects her.

but my god, if she comforted him, you guys would still have awful things to say about her too, wouldn't you?

[sansahightower]

The reason why women on TB side excuse what Rhaenyra does and hate Alicent so much, while most guys defend her. Is because Rhaenyra is cheap power fantasy where those girls self insert while Alicent is the constant reminder of what a real and flawed woman look like and so they direct all their internalized hate and project their misogyny on her.

[sansahightower]

there’s a certain, probably overlapping, subset of asoiaf readers and succession watchers who don’t understand that the point of both texts is that the entire power structure in which the characters operate is bad and shouldn’t be exist, and consequently get caught up in actively rooting for their faves to “win”. i’m talking people who are unironically #teamkendall or think that king jon would like, fix westeros. very weird behavior!

[sansahightower]

I do often wonder why people are surprised when HotD characters, especially green characters, act broken.

Of course Alicent struggles to nurture her kids, especially Aegon. She’s been broken dozens of times and he’s the product of her being raped at 14/15.

Of course Aegon is volatile. He never truly felt loved or approved of by his father.

Of course Aemond is coming unglued and cannot do a thing in a remotely healthy way. He was bullied and then mutilated as a child and no one paid for that.

And this applies to almost every character on the show.

Their actions aren’t good or healthy or whatever. But that’s the point. Humans, in reality, are often shaped by their own experiences. And those who have dealt with trauma have to work so so very hard for it to not dictate their actions. They get saddled with this thing they did not ask for or deserve and then it becomes a sort of looming demon that they have to contend with. Some people are able to navigate this fairly well, especially if they have a great support system. Others are not.

And truthfully, we are only just now really uncorking about generational cycles and trauma.

So yeah. House of the Dragon characters will be doing some fucked up things. They are fucked up and broken. I have complaints about some things in the show, but showing these horrible cycles of brokenness is not a flaw. It’s a feature. I know it’s easy for most people to fall into black and white thinking of a person or action being just good or bad. But truthfully, you’ll have a better time if you don’t do that and instead investigate why a character might have done something.