for she was born on a night of stars

For people who didn't read Fire and Blood.

After the Battle of Tumbleton the main reason that Daeron and the Main Green Army didn't march on King's Landing despite smashing the Main Black Army to splinters - slaughtering the Starks and the Riverlords to the man - was that Rhaenyra was holding the entire city hostage. She was using the Smallfolk and Alicent as human shields so that Daeron would not attack the city.

The fear of being human shields to Daeron's retribution after the Butcher's Ball and the murder of Maelor was so palpable that when Helaena dies, the Smallfolk revolted against Rhaenyra out of both Love for Helaena, justice or her children, and fear of Daeron's revenge after the absolute tear he went on when Maelor was murdered and the Black Army showed up with Criston's head on the main Royal Standard at Tumbleton.

Now Sara Hess is taking that storyline and flipping it to White Wash Rhaenyra. Claiming that Ormund and Daeron are holding the population of Tumbleton hostage is a malpractice of writing that should be prosecutable.

They're literally stealing plots from the Heroes of the Greens like Daeron and Helaena to make Rhaenyra something she never was in order to own George R.R. Martin and "The Chuds" by ruining the 'naysayers' favorite characters as a middle finger to fans and the author of the fucking lore.

Because yeah out of the two of them Rhaenyra is a kinder and gentler mother, but saying she's a better mother off just that takes away from how different Alicents experience to motherhood is compared to Rhaenyras.

Cause Alicent never had a say on when her children were born or made, all of her children are products of rape. Alicent had no choice, on when, on with who, or if she is wanted more children. Where as Rhaenyra had a say, she got to chose when, with who, and didn't need to fear if the man shearried or is sleeping with will harm her or force themselves on her.

Then there's the fact Rhaenyra had someone to turn too for help raising her children, Alicent did it alone and in fear for her children. Rhaenyra had support and never feared for her children besides if they got to inherit or not. So one had someone to lean on and the other had to deal with a neglectful father who forced these children he is now neglecting upon her.

Also there is the fact that by the time Rhaenyra was birthing her FIRST child, Alicent was raising all FOUR of hers. While Rhaenyra was 19, a adult in modern standards and a woman who is well into her birthing age in the time of the show, becoming a mother, alicent was 14 young even for that time period, 14 was the earliest doctors or maesters in this case, recommended so the mother would live without many complications. Those two in its self is VERY different experiences.

So for people to act like Alicent and Rhaenyra were on even playing fields and can be assessed as if they are, is completely unfair.

Cause this is the Alicent who birthed ALL her children

And this is the Rhaenyra who birthed ALL of hers besides Jace.

You can't redeem yourself for mass murder by taking care of two children when dozens, if not hundreds, of other children were left orphaned as a result of your actions.

And you'd think that such a "super progressive leftist fandom" would remember that kids without royal blood are just as important, but nope!!!!

#zero doubt in my mind every single feanorian has killed multiple children in their lives.#they were behind 4 kinslayings. 3 of which were major populations containing children who never recovered from it.#maglor feeling pity and later growing affection for his child hostages does not in any way redeem him or his brothers of their crimes#especially since the moral thing to do would have been 1) not to kinslay in the first place 2) not take child hostages away from their home#and the people they loved who could impart on them their history and culture unblemished 3) surrender them to gil’galad#or any other elven host immediately for their own wellbeing and safety.#forcing his child captives to trauma bond to him was an act of irreversible harm not love.#they lost out on a true childhood. they lost their history and culture and friends and people overnight. it rendered them incapable of#ruling any sindarin/iathrim faction afterwards or be truly accepted as leader as dior was because they were raised by the enemy.#furthermore adult elrond has entirely estranged himself from maglor in the series.#he does not dispatch a search party looking for him or host him in rivendell nor does he as a ruler of a significant realm beseech for#maglor in any way or try to repair his tainted reputation among elvenkind.#elrond canonically chooses to become immortal to preserve thingol’s line. which speaks of his true loyalties given who he was raised by.#he does not want to be associated with turgon even though he did not partake in any kinslaying at alqualonde. elrond simply does#not fuck with him because of the ban. which tells us elrond all but reviled the feanorians as an adult after processing his#childhood and trauma away from maglor’s influence.#when he introduces himself he calls earendil his sire not maglor and goes on at length to tie himself to his maternal sindarin heritage.#his sons carry on the el-naming tradition honoring elwe that began with dior eluchil. he wears a grey mantle and so do his kids.#he is named after thingols hall. he is a walking museum of his lost biological family and to me that’s more interesting than the ultra#sanitization of ~kidnap fam. elrond tells ppl he loved maglor once as a kid and not afterwards. there's a gaping vacuum there that#he fills with his biological heritage instead. he becomes a loremaster to preserve his family's history & all that is good wise & beautiful#he's not interested in aligning himself with a dispossessed house that was the cause of so much bloodshed and terror.#he opens a big house that functions like doriath and sirion - a refuge for the weary and the oppressed. the opposite of the feanorians.#that textual version of elrond is so interesting to me. because elrond cannot be as 'kind as summer' if he honors the murderers of children#he cannot be a wise kind and benevolent figure if he presumes to 'forgive' maglor on behalf of all his victims just because maglor did not#kill HIM as a child and did the bare minimum of treating a hostage kindly after violently ripping him from everything he loved.#elrond knows that maglor killed OTHER children which imo explains why adult elrond is written the way he is. he does not prioritize#maglor over his victims. instead he throws himself into healing and protecting THEM! and tries to undo the hurt and harm that maglor caused#fandom weaponizing elrond's kindness will never sit well with me bc kindness has boundaries & doesnt prioritize the comfort of oppressors#over the safety and dignity of the people they hurt. a kind elrond will always honor the children and innocents lost!

Yes to all of this. One hundred times yes.

I take great comfort in knowing that canon Elrond has nothing to do with the fandomized version of him that people flatten into a "Feanorian heir" who has no respect or love for the heritage of his actual parents, who hates his mother, and who refers to the murderers of his people as "his fathers."

"oh yes, why not! lets casually mock the tragic deaths of two little kids, one who got brutally beheaded by two incompetent idiots and the other who literally killed herself out of trauma, both of whom had literally done no wrong in their lives—because children dying in war is JUST COLLATERAL that ALWAYS HAPPENS; but then when someone tries to say the same thing about uwu baby lucerys' death (who was in fact guilty of triggering aemond) we're gonna chase them down the streets because how DARE they say something so CRUEL and HEARTLESS against an iNnOcEnT CHILD??????????"

To be fair, they did show us that Corlys Velaryon was ambitious and built his identity around his status, becoming an important man in that world. They also showed his brother, who despised Rhaenyra and wanted power for himself and his family, again because (like Corlys) he believed they deserved it, considering all the hardship they went through to rise in status

As for Criston, who is also a man of color, again, his background, race, and family (who came from a much lower social class than the nobility) were never explored. These are all important aspects that could’ve added layers to his character and made him more sympathetic or at least understandable

Okay, so the creators don’t want to explore race? Fine. Just use other tools to develop characters, give them more complexity, make their actions more justified! We understood Viserys’ internal struggles very well in season one. We saw Larys’ depth, driven by ambition and his shared physical disability with Aegon. We saw Rhaenyra torn apart by the limitations of her gender. We understood Daemon’s thirst for the throne

There’s just such a palpable hatred for who she is in the book and was in season 1 and it comes out in these absolute outrageous story changes for her character and (ill say it) borderline torture porn they inflict upon her.

This is about hating women of the past and punishing them for their lack of agency, completely ignoring the context surrounding their situations. And Alicent exists as the perfect puppet to represent them that the writers can degrade and punish with glee and the support of thousands of fans who also just want to fantasize about this.

The so-called “feminist” writers of this show don’t believe in feminism, nor do they empower women. Instead they see women (especially in history) as deserving of humiliation and destruction when they make do with their situation and use it to their advantage instead of bringing about violent rebellion.

Yes, Viserys was an idiot to remarry. No, it didn’t matter if he had married Laena—Corlys’ greed made Otto look like a saint. Unlike the book, Rhaenyra was old enough to be married off and have children of her own; remarrying with enough children to populate a new house was Viserys’ own greed and pride. Blame Viserys for Rhaenyra’s inevitable downfall

Yes, naming Aegon heir would’ve solved a lot of issues. Namely, the fact that literally no one would have contested that claim. Not even Rhaenyra, who spent her entire life up Aemma’s death as conveniently not-the-heir.

No, naming Rhaenyra queen and abdicating while he was alive would not have stopped the Dance, merely pushed it down a generation. Y’all seem to keep forgetting that Jace and Co are very obvious bastards; if not Aegon v Rhaenyra, it would be Aegon v Jace or Jace v Aegon the Younger v Jaehaerys

No, Jace’s reign was not secured or safe. Again —> very obviously a bastard, surrounded by what’s going to be dozens of white-haired sons and daughters. Ntm, I doubt the many lords would let him rest easy for it. A very harmful precedent there

No, Jace and Helaena would not have been enough. The claim to contest are Aegon and his brothers’, which still exist even if Helaena married Jace. Aegon and Baela would’ve been the better option, but that would only work if Baela were to inherit Driftmark—and we all know Rhaenyra would never allow it.

No, it really doesn’t matter that Aegon was a mediocre-to-bad king. Viserys was a shit king, Rhaenyra was a shit queen, Daemon would’ve been terrible—they all sucked. The Council matters way more than the king does, and the Black Council as it stands are all fucking morons. Jace has the most sense there and he’s 16; that’s how bad it is

Rhaenyra’s not exactly the pinnacle of genius. Girlie’s also stupid as fuck, because for someone who does want to rule and knows that her rule is constantly contested on, she decides to run away and do nothing for close to seven years. Might as well hangup the claim and the crown, for all the effort she placed into securing it. Which was basically none. Maybe start by not having such obvious bastards, or marrying the man you were named heir to keep away from the crown and producing even more bastards.