#im so so so sorry for this rant

[fondwand]

it's really annoying that people keep being like 'waaa the greens aren't sympathetic enough!' as if traditional gender essentialism, straight up sexism, obsession with power, righteous religious morality, selfishness and Conservative ideals should be made sympathetic. I love him but watching alt shift x and he off the cuff suggests that rhaenyras affair with harwin us the original sin of the conflict, and that it's rhaenyras fault that this all happened because she should have slept with someone who looked more like laenor and had kids with them. so first of all, suggesting that the problem with rhaenyras children is that their bastardry is too obvious and not the fact that they're bastards is so politics of him and it really gets to the root of alicent et als hypocrisy. is the problem here a problem of morality or of audaciousness? if it's a problem of morality, well I hate to break it to you but what rhaenyra did is only immoral by the standards of her fucked society, everyone involved was consenting and happy with the sitch, and is certainly not straight up inherently evil. we aren't actually Catholic here guys.

secondly! rhaenyra's kids father is not the reason, or original sin of the conflict and if it is then the greens are just straight up evil because rhaenyra has the backing of the King, has not been officially accused of any crime, and doesn't under westerosi political law lose her right to the throne because of it. if rhaes first three kids being bastards is the only problem with her ascent to the throne, then guess what, she has two legitimate children with daemon and through her line, which is the official line stated by the king and therefore the true line, if rhae was disinherited because of her adultery the next heir to the throne would be aegon the younger. so the greens are still wrong and their position is all obfuscation and arm flapping to hide the fact that alicent and otto and their hangers on just want power. they don't think that aegon the elder is the rightful heir, they just want to maintain power through him and that's the entire fucking reason the greens are the bad guys. and they ARE the bad guys. that doesn't mean they can't be sympathetic, but it does mean they are wrong. remember, otto was manipulating alicent to wrongfully sieze the thrown before rhaenyra had even had children. the conflict isn't about rhaenyras kids and if rhaenyra had only legitimate, blonde haired valyrian looking children the conflict would still have happened.

the greens are the bad guys. the conflict is about sexism. that's it. it's just about sexism. the whole conflict and story of the dance is about sexism, based loosely on a historical event that was about sexism. (matilda vs stephen). sexism is bad. sexism is the villain. the greens are defenders and upholders of sexism. the greens are bad.

rhaenys should have been queen over viserys, but sexism of the Lords of westeros prevailed. despite the fact that woman do inherit titles over their male relatives if they're next in line within the great and lesser houses. that is an injustice, and shouldn't have happened

viserys chose rhaenyra as his successor, and never ever wavered on that decision, especially never in any official capacity or away from the private sector. it doesn't matter what alicent suggested viserys said on his death bed, it wasn't in official capacity and so it isn't legal. rhaenyra is the next in line to the throne and absolutely should succeed her father, regardless of the status of her children. that is, unless you allow sexism to prevail and the point of the story is that you shouldn't.

no, the story isn't about rhaenyra being the best Queen ever and therefore inherently worthy of the throne. but it is about the fact that the only reason rhaenyra isn't crowned is becuase of sexism. becuase rhaenyra is a woman. rhaenyra should absolutely have been queen, without contention. if rhaenyra said it to be so while monarch, Jace should have been king after her. if youre bothered by jace's bastard status or think that should preclude him, maybe look at history and remember that Elizabeth the first was legally considered illegitimate her entire reign. and also, legitimacy is a made up thing and shouldn't effect people's lives, just like sexism shouldn't.

if you have a problem with the greens being portrayed as they are, then you have a problem with the greens. as you should. because they're being portrayed exactly as grrm wrote the conflict, and actually with a lot more sympathy then they originally had.

the basic facts and the entire moral point of the story, especially with how it pertains to asoiaf, is that the greens lust for power and sexism stole rhaenyras crown and caused a pointless war where both sides suffered immense losses and smallfolk and dragons alike were destroyed out of greed and folly. it isn't, oh yeah you're right women shouldn't be allowed to rule because they'll just fuck the wrong people and men will be uncomfortable with it, damn, these quasi catholics have some good points about oppression and lack of personal freedom of expression. the story is about how women within westeros have their entire lives ruined and defined by sexism, alicent included even though she's a propagator of it, and how that's wrong. it's not actually about sides, guys. it's just about sexism.

get a grip. you can like alicent as a character and still admit that she's on the wrong side. I do it all the time.