#lyonel strong

1. Ser Simon Strong 2. Nobleman Strong 3. Lord Lyonel Strong 4. Ser Harwin Strong 5. Lord Larys Strong 6. Prince Jacaerys Velaryon 7. Nobleman Strong 8. Alys Rivers 9. Prince Lucerys Velaryon 10. Noblewoman Strong 11. Noblewoman Strong 12. Prince Joffrey Velaryon 13. Paxter Strong 14. Germund Strong 15. Nobleman Strong

Rhaenyra darling, this is how the grandfather of your children spoke of them, of you, your lover, and your dad.

Please, not everyone says "No" to you and refuses applause your actions necessarily be bad or jealous or hypocrite or hateful.

You cannot emphasise and grab the legitimacy of your throne, as in you are the heir your father named 20 years ago, then force people to turn either blind, mute, or dead when they speak of other kinds of legitimacy.

Just already the beginning of the episode how Alicent forces Rhaenyra to come to her, up stairs, after she has just given birth to see her newborn. Yet, she has the gall to act surprised of how Rhaenyra should be resting when she was the one who requested Rhaenyra's presence in the first place!! And all because she wanted to see for herself if Rhaenyra's third child is a "bastard."

And then how Alicent has the nerve to call Rhaenyra'a children "savages" all because her own son Aegon, Lucerys, and Jacaerys played that pig with dragon wings prank on Aemond who does not have a dragon. Yes, it was cruel and out of line, but the fact that Alicent refuses to even acknowledge that her own son Ageon torments his brother Aemond is just. Even Viserys questioned whether Aegon wasn't the primary instigator. Like Alicent just uses any little excuse to hate Rhaenyra's children. Children who have no control and are not at fault for the circumstances of their birth or who their parents are. And nevermind the fact that Viserys, the king, sees Rhaenyra's children as legitimate. Literally the king's word is law. If he accepts them then that is all that matters.

Alicent is just bitter and miserable from her father's own early poisoning of her - forcing her to marry Viserys in the first place and as Queen forced to give birth and have children. Again, she is a victim of the patriarchy as I have said previously in other posts and reblogs, but she desperately seeks to undermine Rhaenyra because she hates the fact Rhaenyra goes against the system and actively has romantic/sexual autonomy. Alicent claims to care about "decency," but no she doesn't. Plain fact is that she is angered another woman can navigate and rebel against a harmful patriarchal system in a manner she could not.

Furthermore, Alicent actively sought to poison her own children against Rhaenyra. When she tells Aegon Rhaenyra would become queen and thus, Jacaerys would succeed her, Ageon's reaction was literally to say, "So?" Aegon never cared about being king in the first place!!! It didn't matter to him!!! The Dance of Dragons ahould never have happened. But no, Alicent has to poison her children with her own bs that stemmed from her father - your life will be in danger because Rhaenyra will see you, my children, as a threat to her claiming the throne. Like bruh, Rhaenyra has never been the type of person to murder an innocent person as clearly shown when later on she states Haelana is "innocent" when it was thought she ordered the killing of Haelana's child. So, literally, Alicent's children were never in danger from Rhaenyra in the first place.

And then when Rhaenyra proposes that Jacaerys be married to Haelana so they can unite their families like the one they are, Alicent later tells Viserys that Rhaenyra is desperate and trying to bury the transgressions against her. Like what is she even talking about???? What transgressions??? Rhaenyra has literally never done anything to Alicent. Alicent just sees Rhaenyra living her own life, making her own free choices and she just seethes over literally nothing. And if it's about the treatment of her children that shouldn't even be what she's so upset about because again, her own children participate in the mistreatment of their sibling. So, further just shows Alicent's hypocrisy.

Another example, is how Alicent laments her father was removed from being hand ten years ago. She says, that Harwin Strong's father, Lyonel, cannot be partial as hand of the king because of the rumors that Harwin is the true father of Rhaenyra's children. Yet, she states her father would have been "partial to me!" So, again, she doesn't care about fairness and neutrality in a hand or care about the good of the realm, only in having supporters in who will help her destroy Rhaenyra's reputation and that of Rhaenyra's children.

All in all Alicent is hypocritical and only sees herself as a victim. And while yes she was a victim of the patriarchal system, still she seeks to uphold it because she cannot stand to see a woman like Rhaenyra enforcing her own free autonomy under the guise of saying it's like a slap to Viserys and the throne.

As a side note. Do not get me started on Criston Cole. Just how much of a victim he see himself as too. Oh, I sullied my vow of chasity and dishonored myself as commander of the kingsguard by sleeping with Rhaenyra. But because she refused to runaway with me to restore my honor, I remain bitter 10 years later and take it out on innocent children by pitting Rhaenyra's children against Alicent's children during training practice. I use the excuse of the real battlefield and in a real battle you will not know who your opponent is, thus, a match a taller, older and more skillful Aegon against a younger and less skillful, Jacaerys. I am brutal in this training egging Aegon on to keep beating Jacaerys. And when I am rightfully called out by Harwin, I belittle him by insinuating he is the father of these "bastard" children. Yes, what a good man I am who has been such a victim. Clearly, Rhaenyra took advantage of me even though I equally as much wanted to bed her. How can you expect a man like me to resist such temptation from a woman throwing themselves at me?! Don't people know only men can be whores and not women too?!! Rhaenyra was selfish for wanting to pursue her own ambitions over living a life with me as a commoner. The selfishness of this spoiled cunt!!

Like literally, I do not know how anyone can side with Cole. The fact that like Alicent he remains bitter and miserable all these years later, but worse takes it out on Rhaenyra's children who are innocent and have done literally nothing to him.

I don't even remember his motive anymore, lol. Either because he wanted to please Alicent and show his willingness to do anything, or because of his own aspirations. Perhaps both. And I don't remember how his own father and brother actually treated him. Maybe they didn't show it, lol. But I like to think that overall they treated him well (correct me if I'm wrong!). At least Harwin came across as a good man. And I can imagine him loving his little brother. I can also see Larys clearly growing up in his shadow due to his birth defect and eventually coming to hate him. And he turned out to be a real piece of shit, lol. But even so, I like to imagine that after getting so close to Aegon and getting to know him better, Larys at some point thought, "Damn, my older brother really wasn't that bad." Lmao. Like, Larys and Aemond are both younger brothers, both with defects that affect their lives, and both have older brothers. But Larys had this perfect, goddamn good Harwin. And Aemond had this fucking Aegon. And I can just see Larys thinking, “Damn, if I had a brother like Aegon, I'd totally go nuts”

Harwin straight-up had illegitimate children with the crown princess. And yes I know it takes two to tango but Harwin could have stopped it, though as we see in episode 6 he is more than down with this arrangement. The fact that the children just kept coming out looking nothing like her and he still kept seeing Rhaenyra. After Jace he should have taken a step back, I guess he wanted to see if things would change with Luke? Clearly not. The rumors about Rhaenyra's children just tarnished her reputation and put a target on their children's backs. This was him supporting Rhaenyra too and all he was doing was making things worse.

Larys is a whole nother level. The man flipped sides more than a pancake on a stove. The man was plotting against everyone, I swear. He was undermining anyone who wasn't outright helping him. He even got some personal hits in by helping force Rhaenyra out of King's Landing and then poisoning Aegon. This man was made for chaos and he happened to be born in the right time for it.

Lyonel is rarely talked about but it needs to be said, if Viserys neglected the growing problems so did Lyonel. He watched for years as his son, the commander of the city watch, got close to the princess and her having children who looked suspiciously like him yet said nothing. It's not until Criston Cole mentions it that he confronts Harwin. Like just because no one has had the guts to say doesn't mean no one was thinking it. He said it himself Harwin is committing treason that can result in the exile/death of Harwin, Rhaenyra, and the children but again why say it this late?

Just when you thought all the Strongs were dead after Aemond's attack on Harrenhal, enter Alys Rivers. Whether you believe that she cast a spell on Aemond or not, she followed her family tradition of messing with the Targaryens. Intentionally or not, she led Aemond to Daemon and was there to witness them kill each other. Single handily, she killed two Taragryens as well as two dragons: Vhagar and Caraxes. Then she ran off with baby Aemondcito to vibe at her vacant family home.

Say what you will about the Hightowers, I have never seen such a collected group effort by one family (unintentional or not) to cause so much chaos to another family. They were on opposing sides at some points yet still through every step were petty and screwed over the Targaryens. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk. This was mostly me highlighting how weirdly funny it is how involved House Strong was in taking down the Targaryens before they themselves went extinct as a house. No hate to anyone just weird how connected they are with everything.