#color's always been an important part in asoiaf and especially in the dance

[navree]

Hey, hello!

I was wondering what you thought but something regarding the relationship between Viserys and his non-Rhae children: How much do you think of V's neglect of A's children might be caused by A dressing them in greens?

(I'm in no way suggesting this rw the children or A's fault. He was a grown man who decided that, instead of trying to avoid the need of green by dotting on his children, he would made the abyss between them bigger which caused a bigger divide between blacks and greens and didn't allow for A and her children to feel así if they were safe)

Hey, thanks so much for the ask!!! Always down to talk about the Greens and slam Viserys for being a shit, lol.

It's an interesting idea, but I don't think the color green necessarily had too much to do with it. It likely contributed to the gulf growing between Alicent's children and Rhaenyra's children, considering that it became public knowledge that "the greens" was the shorthand for people partial to Alicent's side (and the claims of her children and their families over Rhaenyra's children), and likely could have signaled to Rhaenyra and her people that they shouldn't see these children necessarily as members of the family but as an entire separate faction (which is still stupid). But I don't think it contributed to how Viserys saw the children all that much.

Viserys's issue when Alicent showed up in The Green Dress at the wedding feast was that Alicent, by arriving not only late but also while he was talking, and in such stunning fashion, was upstaging him, taking the attention away from him and focusing it squarely on her. Harwin says that "the king will not like this, right in the middle of his speech" because Alicent, as a wife and a queen, isn't supposed to have attention shone down on her, she's supposed to be a support and a prop for her husband. That's why that scene was also so pivotal to Alicent's character, because after being a tool used by Otto (for his dynastic ambitions) and Viserys (for his sexual pleasures and his desire for male heirs) and even Rhaenyra (for her plans to get people to believe her lie re: that night in King's Landing over what others might say), she finally decided to be her own person and make this public moment her own, along with the subtle messaging through using not necessarily House Hightower colors, but the colors House Hightower specifically uses to show that they're at war. If Alicent had worn any other color, Viserys still would have been annoyed, because she still would be arriving as an independent and attention drawing woman, rather than just someone on his arm.

It's also that Viserys never shows a problem with Alicent wearing green after that. It's strange, he doesn't care about her as a person all that much, and has no concern with her physical or mental wellbeing, but he does like her. He liked her as a companion during their "courtship", he somewhat enjoyed her company in the moments we saw in episodes 3 and 4, and he certainly likes having her as a nursemaid after the first timejump. So I don't think he would have minded that Alicent was wearing green, or dressing their kids in green either; Rhaenyra wore a lot of yellow in the first four episodes of the show but that doesn't mean that he was starting to think she was declaring her allegiance to the Lannisters or Baratheons.

Viserys's neglect of his children by Alicent, and their own reticence towards him, is ultimately due to a lot of factors: his love for Aemma and guilt over her death caused him to blatantly favor Rhaenyra over any of them to an extraordinary degree, the rift between their mother also influenced any lack of closeness they had towards Rhaenyra specifically, even beyond the age gap, which didn't endear them to him either (because that's what kids need to do Viserys, they need to show you that they're worthy of your time and attention, I hate him!!), and the children themselves most likely started distancing themselves from him and stopped trying to get close (especially after Driftmark where Aemond had to learn that his dad doesn't care about him even if he's grievously injured and Aegon is screamed and treated so dismissively with Viserys calling him "boy" as if that ain't his fucking kid, and Helaena was also a witness of that whole exchange as well), which meant that not only was there no instigation on his part, there was nothing to respond to.

And as they grew older, continuing to dress so firmly on their mother's side of things, while Viserys became increasingly infirm, that might have widened the gulf somewhat. But I think whatever part it played in adding to his treatment of Aegon and Helaena and Aemond (and Daeron, wherever you are bby) was likely negligible.