#when imo the point is even if the characters are in peril the players should still have fun telling stories about those characters in peril

[ghostsontelevision]

one of my favorite things about apocalypse keys is last session one of my players hit a point where the rules said “one of two bad things happen to your character” and she said “... can both bad things happen?” and i said “you know what? sure!” because it’s the kind of game where even when your characters are in peril, having a bad time, in a bad place, it’s still fun to play, and sometimes when your characters lose, it’s actually more fun than if they’d done perfectly

[kiss-my-freckle]

The mark: Neville or Constantin

Red: A confluence of peril had entered your life, and I wanted to be within reach, to have influence.

I started theorizing Tom’s character in 2x19 due to Red’s confluence of peril reference. imo, a second “unknown” employer for Tom was introduced in that moment.

Red: The secrets she took with her could compromise any number of players on that map. They’ll be coming. They’ll be coming for you.

In Arioch Cain (3x5), the enemy coming for Masha branched off. It’s my opinion that Red was preparing for a war against Neville Townsend up until the moment he received the “Rostova” painting, but once he received the painting, knew that it was Constantin Rostov coming for her. imo, those “secrets” Red spoke to in 3x11 would be the secrets contained in the Sikorsky Archive that Katarina stole in 1990. 

Red: As I feared would happen, elements from Katarina’s past are circling Elizabeth like a pack of wolves in the night. I put Tom Keen in her life to keep an eye on her, and he married her. Kate: This isn’t about Tom Keen. It’s about your need for control. Red: Indeed. I need to control the danger to Elizabeth. I’ve built a vast criminal network predicated on that very principal. It’s time to live up to my mission statement.

In 4x17, Red connected Tom to Katarina in his own dialogue. One must consider her deceased since 1990 given her fake death and change of identity. That’s why her name had been lost to history. 

Red: Katarina Rostova was a name that had been lost to history. 

To connect Tom to Katarina Rostova specifically, he had to be connected to her through someone or something that existed up to but not surpassing 1990. The only thing I saw (at any time throughout the series) connecting Tom to the past was the mark in his go-box. This mark immediately connected him to the night of the fire because the mark had to be there in order to scar her.

Forget about Berlin. He had NOTHING to do with Red's surrender.

What I'm stuck with now, is choosing which of these two men Tom worked for because both are directly connected to Katarina Rostova, while only one was said to be the reason Red turned himself in.  

Constantin Rostov vs Neville Townsend

1. Both connect to Katarina Rostova in 1990 (or prior to). 

Katarina: Seeing Masha with Constantin makes me think of my own father. I wonder what he would say now about the choices I’ve made.Look at me - in love with the man I was sent to seduce and betray. An American. Raymond wants me to run, take Masha and disappear with him. But how could I do that to her? She’s my entire life. She’s everything.

Woman: N-13 is an operative. The “N” stands for “neopoznanny,” the Russian word for “unidentified.” 13 represents the 13 packets of intel he stole from Lubyanka Square in 1990.

2. Both could’ve been at the fire, but I lean toward Neville. 

Kirk: Do you know what I’m thinking, Raymond? That house by the water, holding a gun in your mouth… I should have pulled the trigger.

Kirk: One day I came home, and you were gone. He’d taken you. I never thought I’d ever see you again… until there you were - in the news, you… and Reddington - the most wanted fugitives in the world.

While Constantin spoke of the house by the water, he never thought he’d see Masha again after she was abducted, which means he didn’t see her after she was taken from the campus. He could’ve went after Reddington at the beach house at any time prior to that. 

Katarina: Listen, carefully - you stay here with Masha. Speak to no one. Do not answer the door or the telephone. Don’t go out unless you absolutely have to. Listen. When it’s safe, I’ll call with instructions. I’ll ring once, hang up, and call back. Understand? Lock the door behind me.

Katarina's actions at the motel room with Kate gave off the impression that she and Masha were already being tracked by someone even though the motel was an hour’s drive away from the fire. 

Either one could’ve scarred Masha, but I have a hard time believing Constantin left both Katarina and Masha at the fire. I believe he would’ve waited for them to exit the beach house and made sure they got home safely.

3. Masha’s paternity and the fabricated DNA report. 

In 1x22, Tom whispered to Liz that her father’s alive. Despite what many believe, he had no idea Raymond Reddington was her father. I believe he was speaking of Constantin Rostov. 

Kirk: I had proof that she was my daughter. A DNA test. Red: You saw what Katarina wanted you to see. She lied to you about everything.

If Neville is connected in any way to Constantin, the KGB, Moscow, or perhaps even a Russian official, he may have been given a copy of Rostov’s fabricated DNA report. Constantin had reason to believe he was the father because Red told him Katarina fabricated it. Either way, either of these two men could’ve given Tom a copy of Kirk’s fabricated DNA report, but I don’t believe it was in Kirk’s SVR file. Neville would have to believe Constantin was the father, despite the possibility of him questioning Masha’s paternity after the fire. 

4. The Russian connection. 

Gina Zanetakos, Berlin and fake Berlin, Constantin and his possible fake are all of Russian descent. If Neville connects through Russia, he could be connected to one or all of these characters. Same can be said of Constantin. If Tom was employed by either one, they could be how he connects to all of these characters. 

Tom: Did the same thing last month. It’s probably why you don’t recognize me. Constantin. Berlin, man, he’s tough. I had to get away for a while, go to Germany, figure a few things out. Constantin: I come here for the peace and quiet. Tom: Sure. Sorry. Gosh, you know, I just thought maybe you could help me. Man: He said to piss off, pal. Tom: Just take a minute. Constantin: I don’t know who that is. Tom: I think you do. Why don’t you take another look?

5. The Drexel painting, the blood pool, and the Devry map.

While it's hard to say what woman commissioned the painting of Masha Rostova on behalf of Alexander Kirk, it could've been anyone. Gina, Odette, and Scottie are my suspects. I'm not even sure the woman who commissioned the painting is relevant at this point, only that Kirk was the one who had it sent to Red. 

What I am interested in is the Devry map and the message Red sent in blood in Arioch Cain. If he were doing as I believe - preparing for a war against The Townsend Directive in 3x12, then I believe his message in that blood pool in Arioch Cain was directed toward Neville. Because Neville could be connected to Constantin, he may have reached out and waited to see if Constantin would force Katarina to surface. After all, Constantin had no idea his wife was a KGB agent, so it's likely he had no idea she had a bounty on her head. 

The Devry map makes more sense for Neville because of the parallels they’ve thrown in to the Fulcrum and the Cabal with that Sikorsky Archive. I'd expect Cabal’s competition to be much larger and consider the Townsend Directive a better fit for actual competition against them. And as I’ve said before, the way Red spoke of those secrets Katarina took with her fits more in line with Neville than Rostov. He was after a woman he believed could save his life, not secrets Katarina had. If Constantin had no idea his wife was a KGB agent, he’d have no idea she took these secrets with her anyway. Certainly not secrets that could compromise any number of players on the map. It just fits more in line with Neville.  

6. Tom’s three passports.

Either Neville or Constantin could've issued those three passports Red mentioned in 1x18 and Liz questioned him about in S2. imo, he lied about Red issuing those passports.

Red: Lizzy, I’ve been monitoring Tom since he entered your life. About a year ago, I discovered that he had purchased three passports from a trusted forger I use in Warsaw.

Liz: Can you be honest about the passports? Tom: The passports? Liz: They’re real - Government issue. Where’d you get them? Tom: Berlin had a guy. Liz: I guess not. Tom: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I can’t. Not about this. Liz: That’s not how the truth works. You don’t get to pick and choose. Not if you want to learn how to swim.

Tom: I’ve been thinking about what you said – About needing to tell you the truth. So I’m gonna tell you the truth. Liz: I don’t understand. Tom: The passports - The passports came from Reddington.

What it would look like....

Red told Liz in the pilot, “Someone tried to hurt you.” Liz herself made several mentions to the idea that she got the scar from her father. This could speak to either Raymond or Constantin. However, if she’s getting the roles reversed in her head (as Dr. Orchard spoke of in 2x10), it could’ve been anyone. 

Constantin

If employed by Constantin Rostov, would simply appear that he was trying to reunite Masha with a man he believed to be her real father. He’s a quick and easy connection, but he’d need to be the reason Red reentered Liz’s life when he did. Did Red kneel on the seal because he saw this mark and connected it to Constantin Rostov? I doubt it. Red's pre-pilot scene with Kate in 4x17 came off urgent and rather desperate. He considered this enemy an immediate threat. 

Neville

I can’t even begin to describe how this looks in current story. Neville put a bounty on Katarina's head. He wanted her dead. Period. Setting up the woman from Paris (imposter Katarina) was done in an effort to protect Masha, so Dom felt she was in direct danger of Neville using her as leverage to get to Katarina. 

Young Dom: Do you know they’ve assembled a directive? The Russian Vory, KGB, the Americans - her enemies - have pooled their resources and put a bounty on her head. They’re calling it the Townsend Directive. Young Ilya: Neville Townsend? Young Dom: He’s at the top of a very long list of people who want her dead. Young Ilya: Are you worried they’ll find you? Young Dom: I’m worried they’ll find Masha, try and leverage her. Young Ilya: Look, Dom, I - I can’t help you. Young Dom: You made a promise! To Katarina. You told her you would look after Masha if anything happened to her. Young Ilya: Yes, but I can’t call off Townsend. And he will not stop looking. Young Dom: Sure, he will. He’ll stop looking. And so will the rest of them if Katarina’s dead.

Young Dom: He’ll never stop. And instead of protecting my granddaughter, we’ve put a target on her back. Young Ilya: Oh, stop using the child as an excuse! This was about you, Dom. Young Dom: This was about Masha!

In seeing Tom with this mark, Red would see Neville in Masha’s life and consider her in immediate danger because Neville would use her as leverage. This would give him enough reason to turn himself in. 

If he's connected to the mark in Tom's box, Neville was introduced in the very pilot and had been discussed several times since then.

Red: But if I die you’ll never know the truth about your husband.

Red: You’ve discovered something curious about your husband, haven’t you, Lizzy?

Red: Tell me about your husband. Does he know you as well as you know him? Does he know about you as a child? Does he know about the fire?

Red: Right now, the only thing that matters is the immediate threat - your husband - finding out who he is and who he works for. The rest will come. I promise you.

If he's connected to the mark, in framing Red and Gina with it, Tom removed his own association to Neville and made it appear as though Red and Gina were assisting Neviille in finding and killing her mother.

Red: God willing, Katarina’s daughter will live a private life of quiet courage. But if anyone learns her identity, the only way I can stop the threats from rising is to rise up as a greater threat than all of them.

Liz already sought revenge against Red for Tom's death in S5. In 8x4's sneak peek, she's having pretty little flashbacks of Tom proposing to her on the pier in S3. She pulled Tom's go-box from her vent in S7. There are parallels to future episodes from what I've seen of audition spoilers, so Tom's box continues to play into the storyline through dialogue. There have been numerous mentions to him throughout the series since his death in S5. In current storyline, imagine what it would look like for Liz to be seeking revenge against Red for killing a woman she believes is her mother, only to turn around and find out that her dead husband worked for the very man who put a bounty on her mother's head.

Red: I turned myself in to the FBI to point you toward a truth that inevitably you would have to discover for yourself.

If he's connected to the mark, Neville Townsend and Tom’s connection to him was the truth Red was trying to point Liz to from the very beginning. The very man who would’ve scarred her at the fire, which would've given him reason to question her about it in the pilot. 

Red: Someone tried to hurt you.

Even better if I’m right about Liz’s second memory wipe and Tom was involved in Red’s Vanessa Cruz shooting. Because Red is Liz’s mother.

[bigskydreaming]

All right, you have officially sold me on Bobby Drake. Where do I start reading?

Its a good question, lol! Honestly, it mostly just depends on how far back you want to go. I mean, he’s been around for sixty years, lol, so there’s a shit ton of appearances to wade through, and it depends on how familiar you are with the X-Men as a whole. 

If you’re not familiar with the X-Men or Marvel in general, this is actually a really good time to jump in with reading the current books without much prior knowledge. Just last year the X-books underwent a huge status quo shakeup in the two limited series House of X and Powers of X, that pretty much like....transformed their entire place in the Marvel Universe as a whole and gave them a whole new playing field that was all pretty clearly laid out within just those two series. So its a really good starting point to kinda catch up quick to where things stand now and then just branch out from there to whatever catches your interest. 

Bobby’s a main character in a book called Marauders currently, which is only on issue #6 or #7 right now, and the book is pretty central to the major happenings in the X-Men’s corner of the universe. Plus a lot of great characters in the rest of the cast - Storm, Bishop, Emma Frost, etc.

If you want to start from way far back and have a good long, consistent read, the original X-Factor (the first series, vol 1) is where I would go. I don’t think anyone really needs to read the original X-Men series from the 60s to get a handle on the characters or universe, and personally I’ve always found X-Factor a much better read using all the same characters except with the added bonus of no Xavier. As he is. The Worst. 

Between the original X-Men run and X-Factor’s debut, Bobby, Angel and Beast popped up on various other superteams, like Bobby and Angel were on the Champions together for a bit, and then the three of them were on a team called the Defenders for a while...if you can find old Defenders issues online (this would have been back in the 70s/early 80s), they’re worth checking out just for Bobby’s brief romance with a shapeshifting character named Cloud who he first met as a woman but later shifted into a man. And while they decided to just be friends at that point, given that this was the era of the Comics Code when gay relationships were ‘frowned upon,’ this was the earliest and most blatant gay-coding of Bobby, literal decades before he was made canon gay in the comics. Plus, they’re just pretty fun stories and Bobby and Cloud were super cute together.

But yeah, then X-Factor ran for a number of years without interruption, staying consistent with the same core cast of just the original five X-Men and the supporting characters they introduced in that series, like Rictor (another future famous gay X-character, just a wee punk teenager at the time, lol). It was pretty fun overall, IMO, should give anyone new to the Marvel U a pretty solid grasp of all the major players in it, and its where a lot of big names like Apocalypse made their debut. And of course, I think Bobby was well written throughout it. X-Factor was also where a couple of the things I mentioned in that post happened, like the storyline where Loki kidnapped Bobby to use his powers to make his army.

After that.....basically, the original X-Men left that title to rejoin the X-Men when Marvel relaunched the X-Men line with a brand new X-Men #1 in the early 90s....and at the same time, they kept the already existing Uncanny X-Men title going, which was around #280 at that time. 

Since they had such a huge cast of characters at that point, they split the X-Men into two fairly iconic lineups, the Blue and the Gold....the Blue team were the chronicled in the adjectiveless X-Men book, and featured Cyclops, Gambit, Psylocke, Beast, Wolverine, Rogue and others, while the Gold team were the main characters of the continuing Uncanny X-Men title from again, around #280 and onward. The Gold team was Bobby, Jean Grey, Colossus, Storm, Archangel, and then later Bishop as well, etc. 

This era was where a lot of the best Bobby stories took place, IMO. Very early after the Gold team was formed, Bobby had a mishap with Mikhail Rasputin, the older brother of Colossus, whose powers shifted Bobby into his organic ice form for the very first time, where he became living ice that he could control and shapeshift and heal, rather than just cover himself with ice. This was the beginning of them exploring the versatility of Bobby’s powers and what eventually led to them making him an omega level mutant, though even back in X-Factor they’d established that he was far more powerful than anyone had realized before that.

Then Uncanny X-Men #311 continued this and launched one of the most pivotal periods in Bobby’s development. An accident led to a comatose Emma Frost’s mind jumping into Bobby’s body and taking control, and she used his body and powers to seek revenge for the deaths of her own students, and in the process pushed his powers even further than anyone had thought possible. This is where he came to realize he could literally teleport by melting into any body of water and recreating himself anywhere else connected to that body of water, like traveling from one end of a river to another, or even across oceans instantly....as well as proving to him that he could literally get holes blown in his ice form and just fill them up with new ice and transform back into his flesh and blood self, none the worse for wear. 

This period also led to him showing up in Generation X a lot, where Emma became one of the teachers for that generation of young mutants, because during this time, Bobby and Emma like....clashed a lot, because Bobby had a lot of issues about her hijacking his body and then taking it on what was essentially a suicide run at the time, and was also resentful of her being instantly able to do things with his powers he hadn’t even conceived of with years of training with them, and Emma was....prickly at the best of times, back then even moreso than now, so she tended to taunt him with this and push his buttons by insinuating she knew more about him than he did himself, and she knew what really was holding him back all these years, etc, etc....but then they eventually formed a very unconventional but real rapport, and decades later, they still have this weird thing where they’d probably never admit to even liking each other, but they probably respect each other more than just about any other of their teammates combined. (Also, the Christian that Bobby is currently with in the comics is Emma’s older brother).

Back to Uncanny X-Men....to take his mind off of everything that the body-jacking by Emma had brought up for him, and because Rogue was having a lot of similar issues due to her new relationship with Gambit and the glimpse of various secrets of his that she’d gotten via her own powers....Bobby and Rogue decided to take a road trip together, that went on for about a dozen issues all in all, and are some of my all time favorite Bobby stories. This includes Uncanny #319, where they go visit Bobby’s parents together and Bobby tells off his dad in epic fashion (this was literally the first comic I ever read, and still one of my faves today, lol....also he made a giant ice palace off the coastline that was as big as a city and that has nothing to do with anything except for the fact that it was very pretty and very gay. Foreshadowing!)

Then there were a couple of big iconic crossover events that took over all the titles for awhile - the first was the alternate universe Age of Apocalypse event - and its worth tracking down and reading in its entirety, IMO. Definitely one of the most pivotal ‘events’ in Marvel history, but it was actually pretty good, too? LOL. And the Age of Apocalypse version of Bobby was pretty bad ass. (He returned in Rick Remender’s X-Force title about fifteen years later, but we don’t speak of Rick Remender or that return, for both are bad and wrong).

Then reality was restored, and the Onslaught crossover happened, and like.....really the only thing you need to know about that is its basically where the entire Marvel Universe teamed up to fight the evil brain baby slash hatechild of Professor X and Magneto. I’m just saying. Read it at your own peril. I’m not even saying its BAD, I’m just saying. Read it at your own peril.

Then in Uncanny X-Men #340.....that’s the issue where Bobby left the team for awhile to take care of his dad after he was almost killed at that hate rally I mentioned in one of my Bobby posts today, so I forget where the whole ‘going undercover in Graydon Creed’s campaign’ storyline started, but back up a bit from there and you’d be good to go. He and Sam (Cannonball) went undercover together and that was basically the start of the epic Bobby and Sam bromance slash subtextual romance that I still love to this day, too.

Then he was out of the books for awhile, off taking care of his dad, and didn’t really return until this big event called Operation: Zero Tolerance happened, wherein the government went after the X-Men directly and captured pretty much all their big guns, and Bobby came back to help and had to single-handedly rescue a bunch of random mutants from Sentinels and make an interim team with which to like, save the day themselves. O:ZT is actually a really good story for him, I really like how competent he was portrayed there, and also it was the introduction of Dr. CeCe Reyes, who is also a fave. She was also briefly a sorta/not sorta love interest for Bobby, that of course didn’t ultimately go anywhere. On account of, y’know. His Massive Gayness.

Then Bobby left the team again to go return to taking care of his dad, and also because certain writers hated him (though tbh, Bobby’s actually one of the longest running heroes in the Marvel U, as in....he’s spent the longest consecutive times active in various books/teams without taking breaks, compared to pretty much all other characters who aren’t Wolverine, Captain America or Spider-man. He was a constant presence in books pretty much from his creation up until the mid-90s, so like, he was due for some time-off. I GUESS. WHATEVER).

From this point, he didn’t return until a storyline called The Twelve. It was very bad, and very dumb, and you should not read it. Your brain cells will thank me later.

Then there was a miniseries called X-Men Forever - this you SHOULD read, as its where the term omega mutant was essentially coined for the first time in the way its been used ever since, and its where both Bobby and Jean found out they were omega level mutants for the first time. And Mystique and Toad and Juggernaut were also there because....idk, tbh. That was all very strange to me. But! Still! Worth a read!

Then came a veeeeery underrated Iceman solo miniseries of four issues, that is weird but also very worth tracking down as it was a great Bobby, very poignant and also kinda sad, but like. I’d highly recommend. Especially as it was pretty much the last good Bobby for awhile, with the exception of Joe Casey, who wrote a decent Bobby but a terrible Everyone Else.

Then we enter the Dark Ages of Bobby. Where everything is bad and all the writers are the worst.

First up is Chuck Austen. Bobby was a core member of his X-Men lineup, throughout his run. This is not a good reason to read Chuck Austen’s run. Do not read Chuck Austen’s run. You’re welcome.

Then there was Peter Milligan’s run. Peter Milligan’s run was not as bad as Austen’s run. This is not a good reason to read Peter Milligan’s run. Do not read Peter Milligan’s run. You’re welcome.

Then Mike Carey took over. You CAN read Mike Carey’s run. You probably even SHOULD read Mike Carey’s run. He is not perfect, but he liked Bobby and we like him for liking Bobby. His Bobby actually spoke in complete sentences and displayed more than one emotion per issue. And Supernovas is a pretty good arc and was actually where the Children of the Vault were first introduced, and they were just brought back in the most recent X-Men issue to be a recurring antagonist, so they’re like. Relevant and stuff.

And then there’s Messiah Complex, which is basically the Advent of Oh Hai, Everything’s About To Get Just Fucking AWFUL For Mutants From Here For the Next Ten Years Or So, and there’s like....blechness with Bobby and Mystique, which...I mean....all else aside, she’s Rogue’s MOM, but WHATEVER. Look, there were....plot reasons. Kinda. So. Whatever. Just blink rapidly and move on from that as quickly as you can.

You can pretty safely jump ship at that point, because Divided We Stand is No, Second Coming is Ugh, and Schism is Why. And also there’s Age of X in there somewhere, which is to be avoided because Age of X basically just wanted to be Age of Apocalypse and its not Age of Apocalypse. Just like Age of X-Man is similarly not Age of Apocalypse, and even Age of Apocalypse 2.0 is not Age of Apocalypse. Stop trying to be Age of Apocalypse, everybody. NONE OF YOU ARE AGE OF APOCALYPSE.

You may have one (1) year of Marjorie M. Liu writing Astonishing X-Men, as a treat. She wrote a great Bobby, this was where the whole ‘freezing the whole Earth, whoopsie’ thing happened, and it was a great and very underrated story.

Then post Schism there’s stuff like Wolverine and the X-Men, where Bobby’s a main character after being lured to take Logan’s side in the Schism instead of Scott’s, with the promise of Being Relevant. ‘Twas a lie. Bobby ‘twas there, but hardly relevant. And Jason Aaron is not as good a writer as advertised, since he’s mostly the one doing the advertising and like.....dude should not trust his own hype. There’s weird and whimsical, and then there’s just plain WEIRD, and most of Wolverine and the X-Men is the latter, claiming to be the former, and like. You can’t trust anyone these days.

Then comes the Era of Bendis. Die, Era of Bendis, Die. 

Do not read the Era of Bendis. Do not speak of the Era of Bendis. If the Era of Bendis bursts into flames on the street next to you, look pointedly away, and trip anyone who runs up to try and douse the Era of Bendis with a bucket of water.

Just trust me. The Bendis, and then the Hopeless (that’s the name of the actual writer who took over on All New X-Men, but it pretty well sums up the feelings of Bobby fans on the matter too, ‘twas fate), and then the Bendis again....bad, bad, bad and also Superbad, but not the movie.

You will hear promises, siren songs, of a young, teenage time-displaced Bobby Drake having his first boyfriend, an Inhuman named Romeo. THIS IS A LIE. ITS A TRICK! A TRAP! DO NOT FALL FOR IT! 

Basically everything is blah blah blahful for awhile....until the Bobby solo series by Sina Grace, which gets a bad rap, but I maintain its worth the read. Like, I’m not going to call it my favorite take on him or anything like that, but its still good fun and a vastly more competent and compelling Bobby than anything Bendis ever eked out.

And that basically catches us up to the present, where we’re at with Marauders.

So!

There you go! Umm....this was supposed to be just a brief list of arc titles to check out, but then I went and hyper-fixated like a BUFFOON, so....umm. Yeah! Have at it!

[moonlitgleek]

How do you feel about Alicent Hightower? I used to feel some sympathy towards her, mostly because she's smarter than both Rhaenyra and her son, but she lost me with her cruel treatment of Aegon III in F&B. (Though tbh for someone who asked for peace twice, it felt OOC to have her be so petty and vengeful later on, it seemed that GRRM wanted to sideline her and couldn't find a better way to do so than turning her into a Hysterical Woman).

My feelings towards Alicent are complicated. Certainly, I’m not prone to thinking that a person who constantly refers to Rhaenyra as a whore, wishes for her death in childbed and lets her own husband rot while she plans a takeover is a good person. However, I’m somewhat bothered by how she gets discussed in fandom because more often than not, it’s Alicent’s desire to see her son succeed to the throne despite Viserys’ expressed wishes to the contrary that gets singled out as something to condemn. I get that it’s the root of a lot of Alicent’s actions thereafter, but of all the crappy things she did or said, wanting her son to be king is a weird thing to hold against her imo considering that any lady in her position would have had the same expectation. Alicent was not an outlier in either expecting or advocating for a son to come before a daughter of the same generation. It really did not matter who Viserys married; his wife was always going to expect her trueborn son to inherit ahead of his sister, though of course the way she went about it might have differed. Viserys I set up a a rather knotty succession debate then did nothing to resolve or mitigate it so a conflict over the throne on his death was always going to happen irrespective of the identity of his wife. It might or might not have been as bloody as the Dance of the Dragons, but it was assuredly happening.

That said, I disagree with your assessment of Alicent’s treatment of Aegon III being OOC. Alicent was not remotely a kind or a peaceful person by nature. I’m generally iffy on how much credit to give her for her peace offers considering she only proposed the idea of a Great Council when she was defeated and in Rhaenyra’s control - where was that willingness when she had control of King’s Landing after Viserys’ death and Rhaenyra’s loyalists were being thrown in the black cells and/or killed? The thing to note about Alicent’s peace offers is that her motives were purely personal; she tried to broker peace after the tide started turning towards the blacks and her children were in terrible danger.

Words of these plans [to kill Daeron the Daring and his dragon] soon reached the ears of the Dowager Queen, filling her with terror. Fearing for her sons, Queen Alicent went to the Iron Throne upon her knees, to plead for peace. This time the Queen in Chains put forth the notion that the realm might be divided; Rhaenyra would keep King’s Landing and the crownlands, the North, the Vale of Arryn, all the lands watered by the Trident, and the isles. To Aegon II would go the stormlands, the westerlands, and the Reach, to be ruled from Oldtown.

Rhaenyra rejected her stepmother’s proposal with scorn. “Your sons might have had places of honor at my court if they had kept faith,” Her Grace declared, “but they sought to rob me of my birthright, and the blood of my sweet sons is on their hands.“Bastard blood, shed at war,” Alicent replied. “My son’s sons were innocent boys, cruelly murdered. How many more must die to slake your thirst for vengeance?”

Alicent’s twisted logic aside, peace for her was explicitly tied to the safety of her own children, all of whom were in perilous positions at this point as far as she knew. But not only did Alicent dismiss the loss of Jace and Luke as inconsequential due to their bastardy, she deliberately misconstrued Luke’s death because Luke didn’t die at warbut was cruelly murdered by Aemond, and completely ignored young Viserys’ presumed death.Rhaenyra naturally rejected Alicent’s peace because why should she be interested in sparing her brothers’ lives when her brothers killed her sons? But Rhaenyra’s rejection of Alicent’s offer meant that the two factions continued to clash, and two of Alicent’s sons were killed by Rhaenyra’s supporters whereas Helaena committed suicide after a depressive episode suffered as a result of Daemon’s “a son for a son” vengeance. Alicent’s pleas for her sons’ lives were rebuffed and she ended up losing two of them as the third suffered permanent injuries. In that context, I find it logical that Alicent would be as uninterested in any scenario that spared Rhaenyra’s Aegon as Rhaenyra was in one that spared Alicent’s sons. Too, it is very in-character for Alicent to pursue vengeance; don’t forget that she had previously demanded that the 5-year-old Lucerys’ eye be put out as a punishment for him taking out Aemond’s eye, so the willingness to maim children as a form of vengeance and a statement wasn’t new to Alicent. The bad blood that turned this war into a circle of vengeance and violence long preceded Viserys I’s death.

I’d also disagree that Alicent’s vengeance was an attempt from GRRM to sideline her, simply because Alicent was not sidelined at this point. For all intents and purposes, she acted as a regent in her sons’s absence. She was the main political authority in King’s Landing prior to Aegon II’s return from Dragonstone. It was Alicent who negotiated the reclaiming of the Red Keep during the Moon of Madness. It was her who proclaimed a curfew, had the City Watch reformed and had the three pretender kings arrested. It was her who betrothed Aegon II to Cassandra Baratheon and accepted Corlys Velaryon’s fealty on Aegon’s behalf.It was her machinations, along with Larys Strong, that prevented Alyn Velaryon from attacking Aegon II on Dragonstone and succeeded in bringing him back to King’s Landing. Even after Aegon’s return, Alicent remained a power player in his court and a constant presence in his councils.

With his half-sister slain and her only surviving son a captive at his own court, King Aegon II might reasonably have expected the remaining opposition to his rule to melt away…and mayhaps it might have done so if His Grace had heeded Lord Velaryon’s counsel and issued a general pardon for all those lords and knights who had espoused the queen’s cause. Alas, the king was not of a forgiving mind. Urged on by his mother, the Queen Dowager Alicent, Aegon II was determined to exact vengeance upon those who had betrayed and deposed him.

Though years would need to pass before Morning grew large enough to be ridden to war, the news of her birth nonetheless was of great concern to the green council. If the rebels could flaunt a dragon and the loyalists could not, Queen Alicent pointed out, smallfolk might see their foes as more legitimate. “I need a dragon,” Aegon II said when he was told

“Your Grace,” the Sea Snake said, when the rump of the once proud green council had assembled, “you must surrender. The city cannot endure another sack. Save your people and save yourself. If you abdicate in favor of Prince Aegon, he will allow you to take the black and live out your life with honor on the Wall.”

“Will he?” King Aegon said. Munkun tells us he sounded hopeful.

His mother entertained no such hope. “You fed his mother to your dragon,” she reminded her son. “The boy saw it all.”The king turned to her desperately. “What would you have me do?”

“You have hostages,” the Queen Dowager replied. “Cut off one of the boy’s ears and send it to Lord Tully. Warn them he will lose another part for every mile they advance.”

“Yes,” Aegon II said. “Good. It shall be done.”

Alicent was not sidelined at all. The one decision she took that Aegon went against was agreeing to the betrothal between Princess Jaehaera and Aegon the Younger, and that can’t really be described as him going against her wishes because Alicent was negotiating in bad faith with Corlys Velaryon and had no intention of allowing Aegon to actually wed Jaehaera. Aegon listened to her in all else.

Finally, I wouldn’t characterize desiring vengeance as a sign of a hysterical woman, especially not in the context of the Dance where Martin had previously contrasted the reaction of men and women to the loss of a child, doubling down on his pattern of broken mothers in having both Rhaenyra and Helaena fall into depression and retreat from court in the aftermath of Luke and Jaehaerys’ death at the same time that Daemon and Aegon II swore vengeance. Because men get to act while women get to break. If there is a problem in Alicent’s characterization here, I’d say it is in her ultimate fate being an imprisonment where she “spent more time weeping than reading or sewing. One day she ripped all her clothing into pieces” which may be understandable in the context of the story but is also a part of a consistent problematic pattern in the narrative.