#kitsnicket

*rubs hands* oh excellent

I'd say one way would be to pick characters or events you'd like to read about the most and start with the texts focusing on them. @fuckyeaharthuriana has a lot of lists of different works, including those sorted by character (links in the blog description). Then, if you decide you enjoy Arthuriana in general, you can move to other texts. Another way would be to start with something well-known and short. I believe Sir Gawain and the Green Knight fits the bill well. The translation linked is more like an example, because there's a lot of them, and I frankly don't know which to suggest best; the one I read is by Bernard O’Donoghue, but I can't find it online. I've also heard very good things about Tolkien's translation - understandable, because duh, Tolkien - but haven't read it (yet). The works of Chrétien de Troyes are also very good and readable and imo very well represent what a medieval romance is. My favourite is Yvain: Knight of the Lion, and I haven't read his Perceval yet, but I liked all the other of his romances too. (Ok, maybe not Erec and Enide, but that's because I found the main character very annoying)

I've compiled a small list of Arthurian texts I recommend before when answering a similar ask, and I still stand by it, except, taking into account what I've read since then, I'd also add La Tavola Ritonda - an Italian Arthurian romance mostly focused on Tristan and Isolde, weird and violent but also very enjoyable, in my opinion, Parzival (vol. 1, vol. 2) by Wolfram Von Eschenbach - a German romance and my favourite version of the Grail story so far, and Lancelot-Grail aka the Vulgate Cycle + the Post-Vulgate. I'm not sure starting with the latter is a good idea, though, because it's five huge volumes, very readable (except for The History of the Holy Grail. You can skip that, if you ask me) and with a great impact on the later Arthurian texts, including Le Morte d'Arthur, but HUGE, it took me half a year, lol. (Le Morte is also long and often drier in style, but still not THAT long). But I simply had to mention it because it's such a foundational work. A part of the Vulgate Cycle has been adapted by Patricia Terry and Samuel N. Rosenberg as Lancelot and the Lord of the Distant Isles or, The Book of Galehaut Retold. It's short and beautiful, and you don't need to be familiar with the rest of the Vulgate to read it.

Oh, and if you're interested in more modern retellings, Idylls of the Queen by Phyllis Ann Karr is an episode from Le Morte d'Arthur retold as a murder mystery solved by Kay and Mordred, and it's amazing. Also The Squire's Tales series by Gerald Morris is a lot of fun, kind of for a younger reader but very well-written and funny, even though some of his choices regarding certain characters drive me up the wall a little bit.

( @kitsnicket you open a dangerous door my friend, i am a notorious monologuer.)

the thing is, alicent becomes a mother young. she has her first child at, maximum, sixteen years old, then her second at eighteen, and then her third at either nineteen or twenty. this is also a time when she doesn't have a lot, if any friends her own age, or at all really, her relationship with her husband is basically that of patient and nurse with a side offering of marital rape on the side, and she has a very flimsy support structure in the form of her father, that gets yanked out from under her and remains kept away from her for the next decade. aegon and helaena and aemond were, for a time and during their own formative years, all she had. alicent's closest relationships (absenting criston cole, but that's a different one due to the class dynamics and power differentials), the longest and most enduring, are with her kids.

and they each have a very different dynamic with her.

aemond's is the most straightforward, he appears to just be utterly devoted to her and she clearly adores him with little complication into that feeling. he goes to her immediately for comfort after he's bullied, and he appears to be the one who's retained most of her influence in their upbringing (i see you aemond, with your devout clasped hands while your mom prays, perfect lil angel asking the seven to preemptively forgive you for the ten million war crimes in the riverlands, i love him). alicent is also his fiercest defender during the most pivotal moment in his life, the night he lost an eye. that entire scene is filled with aemond's half sister asking that he be tortured for information, his dad caring more about insults to his nephews than to the fact that he lost an eye, and the rest of court, including his own full siblings, too scared of the situation to speak up. alicent is the only one fighting for him, alicent is the only one asking for any sort of justice or restitution, alicent literally steals a knife from the king's person to go attack his named successor in a crowded room. that has to have stuck with him over the years, especially during as long an arduous a process as recovering from a grievous injury and learning to live with a lifelong disability you got overnight. at storm's end, aemond is clearly seething with unspoken rage over what happened to him and what he felt he was denied and how he was treated, but it's also for his mother. does he say he wants luke's eye for himself? no, he says he wants to give it to his mother as a present, as a reminder to when she tried to take luke's eye for him all those years ago, the only person standing up for him, and he wants to pay that forward. there is probably no one alive aemond loves more than alicent, and alicent again clearly loves him too, is close enough to him not only try to defend and shield him where she can, but to respect him when he makes his own choices (like going to find aegon) and to trust in him as a person even as she remains devoted to him as a mother (which is why i'm going to lose it if they keep to the book's report that alicent was deeply horrified by what happened to luke, because i'm supposed to be fine with aemond, who adores his mother, faced with her disappointment and fear when it was literally an accident? i'm not gonna be fine).

alicent's relationship with helaena is more complicated, mostly because the show hasn't really done much with helaena beyond some autism coding and making her a dragondreamer, so it's kind of hard to interpret personal relationships for someone who doesn't have a lot of personality written down yet. but alicent, again as with all her children, clearly cares for and loves her daughter, and there is likely something there in the fact that helaena is her only daughter, and mother daughter bonds and all of that. it's also very interesting that when helaena is a baby, alicent is still taking an active role in the nurturing process. we see her twice, in episode 4 and episode 5, comforting a crying helaena as best as she can, in close enough succession to be inferred as a common occurrence. and alicent doesn't seem particularly enthused by this, she's very disengaged as she's doing it and doesn't try anything like shushing or humming or distraction or anything beyond just holding and bouncing her, but this is a queen with an army of nursemaids and servants at her disposal, who we've seen take care of both her toddler and helaena herself. and yet still, alicent is trying to connect with her child as she raises her. we also see that alicent continues that well beyond babyhood, at least attempting to have an interest in helaena's bug fascination, asking her questions about it (engaging with your neurodivergent child's special interest, we love a #ally), trying to continue that connection with her, even though helaena isn't the most receptive due to the apparent autism coding. we also see that alicent is much more protective of helaena than she is of her sons. we don't necessarily know why, because again lack of characterization, but it could be a combination of both just helaena being more sensitive (such as immediately turning to hold her when daemon kills vaemond and helaena has a bad reaction) and her maternal devotion. in the dragonpit, which I Will Get To, alicent is obviously focused on aegon, who she thinks rhaenys sees as the primary threat/target, but she still makes sure criston gets helaena and tries to get her to safety, even though helaena is a dragonrider in her own right and doubtless in less danger than criston or alicent herself. it is, in alicent's mind, potentially one of her final acts alive, and it is to make sure that, if she can, her daughter is safe, not entirely different to wanting to personally comfort helaena as a baby. and i do hope they explore that dynamic more in season 2, particularly after the blood and cheese debacle, which happens in alicent's chambers as helaena is bringing the kids to visit alicent, with helaena and alicent being the adults most affected by it, what with alicent having been physically assaulted in her own rooms and helaena, her only daughter, her own child, enduring the worst psychological torture imaginable. i wish i could say more about how helaena feels about alicent in turn, but again, we don't get anything from helaena really, though i'm making the executive decision that she clearly loves her mom as both mother and protector, and clearly wants to communicate with her, as i interpreted her anger and shrugging off of alicent's touch during episode 9 to be more frustration that alicent isn't understanding her warnings rather than an aversion to alicent, given that she accepts alicent's embrace the day before in episode 8.

alicent's most complicated relationship, but also the one that makes me gnash my teeth the most tbf, is with aegon. this is for a lot of reasons, not one of least being that aegon is a bit of a shit. don't ask me why this was a conversation we ever had, but my mom once told me that she would always love me, even if i killed someone in cold blood, but that she'd be upset and disappointed with me even while loving me. alicent can be deeply disappointed and upset with her son's actions and how he behaves towards nearly everyone he knows, and still love him anyway. which she does. alicent clearly loves him, is clearly as involved in raising him as she is with helaena and likely aemond (we see her being as active a mother with aegon as she is with helaena in episode 3, just with more limitations due to her being heavily pregnant at the time), but her love for aegon is also tinged with a load of other emotions. disappointment in what he does, for one, but also a very real fear. aegon is a two year old when otto ingrains into alicent's head (which rhaenyra accidentally reinforces through the lying debacle) that aegon is at risk of being murdered in cold blood the second rhaenyra ascends the throne. aegon's entire life is passed with alicent tamping down utter fear that if she doesn't prepare him enough, if she doesn't get him ready fast enough, he, her firstborn, for a while the only thing she had, will be killed. and what's horrible is aegon interprets that fear as him letting her down! we as kids are not necessarily the most emotionally intelligent where our parents are concerned, and aegon doesn't seem to see that this is terror borne out of love for him and desire to see him safe, he just sees him failing his mother's expectations and what she wants from him over and over and over again. aegon's a character i can do a whole separate thing about himself, because he's got no simple relationships and he's so fucked up in so many ways, but this is a deeply wounded person who, among many other things, does not believe that his parents love him, and that this may even make him unlovable, even though he loves her. when aemond decides to implicate aegon in the strong bastards thing, rather than his mother (again, because aemond is a giant momma's boy and isn't going to do anything to hurt her), aegon is also asked where he heard it from. does he say he heard it from alicent? does he throw her under the bus, at viserys's mercy? no, he lies, he protects her and doesn't name her as the originator and instead goes on to point out that two plus two equals four to his dipshit dad. aegon also has his own influences from his mother, he is hiding in a literal sept, the house of worship that his deeply religious mother often frequents, and the first person he asks for isn't his grandfather, the king's hand, it isn't even his dad who he's not sure is dead yet, it's alicent. he literally says "i want my mother". later, in the dragonpit, if you look closely, when alicent goes in front of aegon, he puts his arm in front of her, as if he's about to try and protect her himself or shove her back. alicent is the one who has to move his hand away from in front to behind her, it's why she's holding onto his wrist for the remainder of the shot. because as much as aegon clearly loves his mother, wants to do right by her, wants to protect her and be close to her, he also wants her to love him in return. and alicent does. alicent has loved him all of his life, and when he puts it to her bluntly, when he bears himself to her in a way we haven't seen him do the entire show and asks whether or not she does, all she can say is "you imbecile" because to her, it's a given. there is no conflict, or question there like there is for aegon. of course she loves you, you imbecile. she goes to stand up to a dragon for you. and not only does she do that just to protect him, but to at the very least make sure that if rhaenys does let loose, aegon won't die alone, that he'll have his mother by his side, holding his hand, being there for him and with him.

it's a fraught relationship on both sides, due to differences in personalities and the way they've both been screwed up (alicent having had aegon so young and dealing with a good chunk of traumas, aegon in turn feeling unloved and unlovable and also having enough genre awareness to hate his life) and how they've coped and how that's mutated their interactions over the course of aegon's life. and there's bitterness and recriminations and feelings of not being good enough and feelings of disappointment and failure and abandonment and wants for more than what they're getting, but there is a deep and unending love there, over everything. aegon loves his mother fiercely, in spite of himself and his demons, and alicent in turn loves him just as much as she does her other children, in spite of all the stuff that's coming with it.

there's obviously more to all of this than just love for her kids. alicent is a mother in a deeply patriarchal and misogynistic society that will always value the kids she's birthed (especially the sons) rather than her own person. and alicent has spent nearly her entire marriage hearing about how she needs to support aegon, prepare for aegon to rule, seat aegon on the throne, and this idea of "support your children at the expense of yourself" has bled over into her relationships with helaena and aemond as well, like having criston protect helaena rather than herself, and putting herself at risk of imprisonment and execution trying to defend aemond. and there is the fact that alicent is very isolated, especially in her youth, and therefore likely latched onto her relationship with her children as her saving grace, while the kids in turn latched onto her because she's the only parent to have shown them love and care and devotion or even a basic desire to parent them, since viserys vacillates between too sick and not giving a shit about any of them. but that doesn't mean she doesn't love them. that doesn't mean she wouldn't die for them, alicent at this point is clearly someone who would gladly take a wound so that the kids won't have to.

Hey guys, new chapter about Kit & Olaf is just out - “All the wrong and unfortunate events - Fourth One”!!! 

Please, check it out and let me know what you think! <3  

you can have two, because i couldn't decide if it was better to pick something i am unlikely to ever finish or from the wrong fandom.

When Bertrand Baudelaire first met Lemony Snicket, he was flushed and sweaty, his hair stood on end, and he had a wide smile on his face—genuinely happy but clearly also pleased with himself. As first impressions of Lemony Snicket went, it was a rather unique one, though Bertrand didn’t know that at the time.

from the post atwq ot3 fic, which has a lot of nebulous plot in my head that i am unlikely to actually put on paper. (bertrand walks in on lemony and beatrice fencing.)

“No. It is, truly. For all you try to hide it, with your regality and artifice, you are, unimpeachably, a person.”

She sensed a presence over her shoulder. A breath against her ear. She took a shaky breath to prepare for whatever came next.

"Your books are out of order."