#targtowers

i don't really get the "its all otto's fault for poisoning alicent and her kids against rhaenyra" narrative. he did push alicent to viserys that's true but that's really it. it was viserys who ultimately chose to marry her and he would have married someone regardless since his council was pushing for it. then if he had sons, the exact same succession problem would occur because a male heir has a stronger claim. if anything, otto was right. rhaenyra did come for alicent's children because their very existence is a threat to her. the moment aegon was born, rhaenyra's position was in danger. she knew it, otto knew it, everyone knew it. you know who's actually to blame for this mess tho? viserys. if he had refused to remarry and kept pushing rhaenyra as his sole heir or at least married rhaenyra to aegon then maybe things would have turned out better but the moment he got married and had more kids, it was lowkey over

My favorite part of Aemond’s 3x07 Alicent dream-vision is when she tells him she failed him because “I was too young. ... I was just a child” and he tries to deny her self-depreciation, because—since the Harrenhal visions aren’t made up from scratch but are excavations of one’s psyche and subconscious—this indicates he understands and sympathizes with the fact his mom was a baby having babies, and while she loves them and tried, she wasn’t given the material, the guidance, or even the context to really be the mother they needed.

It hurts to see Alicent and young!Aemond's scenes. He was her little boy, dare I say her favorite child... And then he turned into one more man that she isn't safe with. It's so sad, so disturbing, how every man in her life hurt her (even the ones she loved). And to know no matter what she did she would still hurt her children even if she had a choice it's like it was never going to end up okay. Her choices would always lead them to tragedy. And they will resent her for that. Now she can't love them anymore, she never really quite knew how...

The fact that the greens are always serving better entertainment

This Dance of the Dragons-era Hightower line's generational damage is somethin' else. Alicent knows she wasn't given the material to be a good mother + their environment is toxic ("Nothing is clean here") so she sends her baby to be raised elsewhere, and welp 💀. Forget dripping through, the poison is chasing these people.