#trins thoughts

It was a strange moment, not one that I expected but I did enjoy it, even when I knew what was to come. I saw it as Aemond wanting to comfort Jace but he was so afraid of being rejected, because in his mind, even in grief Jacaerys wouldn't want his comfort (also comforting him over the death of Harwin would be an admittance to Jace's true heritage). And then there's Jacaerys, who watches him walk away, in what one might suspect is disappointment and sadness. He wanted Aemond to comfort him, allowing him the space to grieve and actually talk about that grief, because no one else would.

It makes me wonder what would have happened and how things would have turned out differently had Aemond actually went through with comforting Jace.

But oh, when it comes to Alicent? We must look at this from a modern point of view, to further victimize her. Alicent is a child bride (by our standards), Alicent faced marital rape (by our standards), and therefore her pain is justification for the pain she inflicts on Rhaenyra and why she should be allowed to usurp Rhaenyra’s throne for her rapist son. But, if we were to apply the same logic that green stans apply to Rhaenyra, the logic that we should not be applying a modern lense to these characters because "everyone is wrong and bad", then Alicent was in fact not a child bride nor did she face marital rape or anything else that simply wasn't normal for Westeros. Viserys started courting her when was 15, then six months afterward announced his plans to marry her. By then, she would have been 16 or nearing 16, which in Westerosi society is the age of majority/consent. The real world equivalent would the age of consent laws in the USA which states that the legal age of consent is 18. Therefore by Westerosi standards, Alicent was in fact not a child bride. Nor was she a victim of marital rape, the concept does not exist in Westeros. There hasn't been any feminist movements or feminist thought to even  introduce the concept of marital rape, so how can she be a victim of something that Westeros doesn't even know exist? Viserys was simply claiming his rights as her husband, and no one in Westeros would call him a rapist for that. Furthermore, Alicent’s circumstances are not unique to her. Almost every Westerosi lady is married off at the age of 16 (sometimes younger) and often times to a man far older then her with the expectation of producing heirs. Just look at Lysa Tully.

So you see, if we applied the same logic to Alicent that is applied to Rhaenyra, then neither women is a victim of patriarchy and therefore their actions are not justified because everyone one is bad and you're not supposed to pick sides!!! But you see, you are supposed to apply a modern lense to this story. When you see Alicent married off at age 16 to a man old enough to her father, you're supposed to feel uneasy. When you see her popping out heirs left and right at such a young age you're supposed to feel uneasy. When you see Viserys claiming his rights, regardless of her own desires, you're supposed to feel uneasy. Even though all of those things are normalized in Westeros, you're not supposed to find those things acceptable, you're supposed to apply a modern lense to the situation and be rightfully disgusted! So why then can't this same logic be applied to Rhaenyra?

We are supposed to feel enraged by the misogyny Rhaenyra faces, we're supposed to feel enraged by how her children are spoken of, we're supposed to feel enraged when she's usurped simply for being a woman. She herself is not a feminist, the concept doesn't exist in Westeros, but her story in itself is a feminist one, about a woman defying patriarchal standards/status quo and fighting for what is hers by right against all odds. When she is called a bitch and a whore, when she is detested and slandered for being defiant and daring to fight for what is hers, you are not supposed to side with the people using misogynistic ideologies and language against her. You're supposed to apply a modern lense and understand that it's wrong for those characters to do so, even if it's normalized in Westeros. Because not everything that's normalized is morally good.

He is a reflection of his mother. Her strength and defiance and pride and heart and kindness. All of her charm and her wit, her bravery, her incessant need to prove herself worthy of the burden that's been placed on her shoulders. Send us, they both say, decades apart. Send us to face death so that we may prove ourselves worthy of this pain, is what they mean.

Together, walking the fine line between woman and heir and bastard and heir, hand in hand. These faults taint their souls, breed insecurity. Rhaenyra cannot be too much of herself, willful and wanting and sometimes weak, she cannot be human because she is a woman. Jace cannot be anything but the pinnacle of perfection lest he prove every stereotype about his kind right, he cannot be human because he is a bastard. If Rhaenyra’s mirror is already broken then Jace himself is not the broken mirror, but the perfect reflection, without faults. There’s no broken glass in his visage. Even if he wants to shatter, he holds himself together beneath the strain. But the strain chaffs against his skin. He was the first of Rhaenyra’s children by Harwin Strong. Brown eyed, brown haired, and detested. The second in line to the Iron Throne, but his mother's first failure, her first weakness, her first downfall. Before Lucerys and Joffrey were born, he faced the brunt of the insults and looks and whispers alone,  faced them still even after. Became a shield to protect his brothers from the same. It doesn't matter what they think, he tells Luke, his words an echo of his mother’s. You're a Targaryen, that's all that matters.

But it's too heavy and he’s felt the weight of this burden (the burden of being his mother's heir, Harwin Strong’s son, the eldest son, the dutiful son, the bastard son, the protector, his mother's strength and consolation) his whole life. Even as a child, he is told he must put duty first, cannot mourn the man he knows to be his father. He smothers his grief in the crib lest he become a weakness instead of a strength. He loves his mother and his family too much to ever be a burden to them, to put his own personal whims and selfish human desires before his family. Where Rhaenyra threw caution to the wind, Jace held it close. He pours his soul into his mother’s cause, pours until there is nothing left, until he is dead. 

They think she's selfish and entitled to something that is hers by right. They think she's selfish and entitled for choosing a partner that she sexually desired and didn't mind having the children with, even if they were born out of wedlock. Constantly parading around that duty and sacrifice quote because in their minds Rhaenyra should have suffered to. They mock the death of her children, of which she loves with her whole heart. They make fun of her stillbirth pregnancy and the daughter she never got to have. They've gotten very creative with the names they use to describe the child that she lost because of Alicent’s actions which caused her so much stress that she miscarried.

For one, the characters should have been older, especially with all the innuendo and euphemisms that at times made me raise an eyebrow whenever I remembered the characters I'm reading about are like 16/17. Simply making them regular 18,19,20 year old college students wouldn't have really hurt the plot or magical systems. Just have Abatement happen when their 40, which according to some is where young adulthood ends and mid-life begins, and have their prime magical Scion years be 18 to 25 or 18 to 30, when most people will be at their physical and mental adult prime anyhow.

It would have made more sense to, story wise, for Bree's mom to freak out about an 18 year old Bree going to NCU, because she'd actually be enrolling a full 4 years into college, instead of a simple early college program. It also would have been more symbolic, because that's the age Bree's mother attended that college. I just feel like the author had to go through these unnecessary hoops to explain why a 16 year old was in college, far away from home, surrounded by adult college students, when simply making Bree an 18 year old college student would have resolved that issue. In my opinion, making the characters older would have made the story unfold more naturally.

Another critique I have is the pacing. While reading the book it felt like weeks were going by within the story only to find out the whole story transpired over the course of one to two weeks. I feel like stretching it to five weeks would have been better. Same story, same plot and character development, just over the course of 5 weeks instead of one or two. That way it realistically makes sense for Bree and Alice to eventually reconcile, for Bree to come to terms with her mothers death, for Bree to gain the trust of the round table (with a few exceptions of course), for her volatile powers to grow, for her to learn the ins and outs of root/aether along with the lore related to both magical systems, and for her relationship with both Nick and Sel to evolve into something more. Pacing is crucial to character/plot development and world building.

The story was already phenomenal on its own but with simple pacing and older characters it would have been better.

A fem Jace, let's just call her Jocelyn, would still be second in line to the Iron Throne, would still be Rhaenyra’s heir but the difference in sex changes what you can do with her in regards to marriage. Simply put, she can marry one of Alicent’s sons. Sexism will work in her favor on that matter. The Greens (Otto) would be amenable to a marriage like that because they'd see it as Alicent’s sons (Aegon, Aemond or Daeron) eventually coming into his rightful rule and being of equal standing as Jocelyn or just outright overriding her in power due to gender. Wedding Rhaenyra’s -who was named heir by the king- blood will also strengthen their claim to throne. Otto might still plot to get rid of Rhaenyra to speed the process along but it'll be in a subtle way and the stakes will be all the higher. And it’s a win for the Blacks because, well, they can prevent a war of succession that'll challenge Rhaenyra’s ascent to the Iron Throne, especially if Jocelyn and Alicent’s son has children.

A marriage like this might actually end the conflict between both factions by binding those claims together, in the way the Greens wanted to do with Rhaenyra and Aegon, long before their little cold war can grow hot. Both bloodlines would eventually inherit and sit on the Iron Throne, and any children born between Fem Jace and Alicent’s son would all but cement this fact. Let's not even get into the emotional aspect, at least show-wise, with the friends turned enemies Rhaenyra and Alicent, seeing their children wed and bloodlines united. It would be very symbolic and the political intrigue would be delicious. I could go on and on.

Like, what would a marriage between Jocelyn and Aegon be like? Or Jocelyn and Aemond? Jocelyn and Daeron? Though, for me personally, there is something very delicious about the possible parallel between Jocelyn/Aemond and Rhaenyra/Daemon. The whole first born daughter marrying the second son dynamic, with Jocelyn being a perfect reflection of Rhaenyra (the dutiful heir Rhaenyra always wanted to be for Viserys) and Aemond a broken mirror of Daemon (disfigured and resentful for that disfigurement), but not quite. Because one dynamic marries for love and the other marries out of duty.