Your Margaret Beaufort and Alicent Hightower post is perfect! They parallel each other greatly. I also think her relationship with Criston in F&B is like Margaret with Jasper Tudor.
Jasper Tudor was the uncle of Henry VII, an important member of Tudor faction like Criston was of Targtowers. Criston was the kingmaker and a trusted confidant of the greens. Maggy and Jasper in the white princess mirror book Alicent and Criston. Mutual respect and courtly love bound by common enemy and goal. And they both succeeded albeit for a short time.
Maggy and Jasper walked so Alicole could run!
Heyyy thanks so much! I'm glad you liked it 💚
I think you are right about Criston and Alicent mirroring Jasper and Margaret's relationship in the book, but also in the show. I still can't get over how many times Margaret and Jasper referred to Henry VII as "our son" and "our child" in The White Queen/The White Princess. It's insane that Henry VII saw Jasper as his real father, the only father he'd ever known who took care of him and taught him everything he needed to know to be King. All these scenes are reminiscent of Criston training Aegon and Aemond with the sword, all his "fatherly" moments when looking for Aegon all over KL with Aemond in tow, his overprotectiveness over Alicent and the kids at Driftmark, standing beside Aegon at his coronation, and then how he blames himself for B&C in S2 and how he goes after a burned Aegon to return all that's left of him back to Alicent. Criston is the father of Alicent's kids because he was there to see them grow up, he spent time with them, bonded with them, and undoubtedly, they look up to him as a father figure.
And then there's Henry's side-eye and his hostility towards his mother Margaret after he realizes that she and his uncle Jasper harbor feelings for each other. He openly confronts her about it, reminds her that she is married, and then marries Jasper off to Catherine Woodville to keep both of them in check and spite his mom. It is later revealed that Margaret and Jasper had a fling in the past and remained secretive about it for decades, and Criston and Alicent secretly pursue their relationship in S2. I mean, if ever Aegon, or Aemond (or maybe Daeron) find out about it, their reaction could be similar to Henry's (which will make the parallels all the more juicy).
And yes, both couples rely on each other to further advance their political goals and safeguard the position of their "son" as a rightful King and ruler. The angst of it all, the courtly romance of Jasper worshipping Margaret as the most devout, clean, pure, Christian woman he's ever met and Criston calling Alicent his beacon, his literal guardian angel who saved his life and gave it a whole new meaning, make them so similar and now I will not stop thinking about them as mirrors of each other.
