I don’t even care about this show anymore, it was clear to me early on that they aren’t going to do this story justice. But the way they’ve basically given the female characters almost no agency and made Alicent be a victim of sexual exploitation multiple times for no reason is gross. There were other ways to make her more sympathetic. Not to mention, her character is so inconsistent and confusing. Like she lived with Rhaenyra and her kids for 10 years and couldn’t consider reconciling, but one speech at a dinner party and she wants to be bffs again? One episode she’s screaming at Aegon that he’s going to be king one day, but all of a sudden she had no idea that her father and his allies were planning for him to usurp the throne? And why on EARTH would she have genuine grief for the man who basically raped her and neglected her children? Give me one-dimensional evil step-mother Alicent from the book over this wishy washy bs any day.
I was super confused by her reactions to things this episode but didn't care enough to really explore the confusion because when she was crying over Viserys I was like ... ... do you actually mean this? Why tho?
And then her freaking out at the mention of killing Rhaenyra and Daemon just had me like, this is extremely naive thinking for a character who is supposed to be hardened. Why are we doing this?
And then the scene with Larys, so I've seen people say it was supposed to make her seem more sympathetic and I was like I don't see how they thought that would achieve this, they already did that pointed conversation about how she can't even imagine herself as queen but instead chooses to give herself away to men, we
And I'm also not sure why Alicent wasn't sympathetic before. Like I stand by what I've said about these characters, they lack interiority and depth and nuance and, well, life to make them anything more than cutouts, really, but she hasn't actually done anything that makes her unsympathetic.
And the thing with the complaint that none of the female characters have agency on this show is not that it's invalid but it's just, what does agency look like on this show? But actually. Because what the are the men actually doing? Like what is anyone doing?
Criston is basically unhinged muscle for Alicent, Aemond stands around pouting, Alicent and her father are supposed to be in this kind of chess match but he doesn't ever seem to actually be ahead of her even though we're meant to think he is but there's nothing to suggest that except that Larys tells him that he could potentially benefit from what he tells Alicent, Daemon kills people to get closer to a goal he seems nowhere near getting, like...
The ending of the episode is actually the perfect summation of HOTD as a whole, you had a whole ass dragon and burned no one just had it scream and then flew away, the lack of tension or consequences just makes this whole show an exercise in being pointless.
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