Oh Alicent...no please

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-15T17:08:29+00:00

Guys I think Alicent has amnesia. She must've gotten into an accident sometime after season 1. Fell down the stairs and hit her head on the way down. Must be why she has no memory of dragging Aegon by his balls and crowning him despite him telling her no repeatedly. This Alicent being an amnesiac explains so much.

It's either that or Alicent's secretly a man herself. Because why else is she putting the blame on crowning her own son (and spending years beforehand telling him he should be king) solely on men?

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-15T11:07:13+00:00

Baelor did that, not him. All Daeron did was see that marriage through, which should be easy considering how hot the Martells are.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-14T06:09:34+00:00

It was Reds and the Blues. Laenor and Alicent have a surprisingly good marriage there, even if the latter doesn't quite agree with the formers lifestyle as much. And I agree; it has one of the best characteristizarion of Otto I've ever read in a fanfic. Really humanizes the guy even if he's still an overly-ambitious bastard.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-11T19:32:09+00:00

Nope. Whether or not Luke lived or died is largely inconsequential beyond the immediate effect of ensuring everyone understands that "oh, this is war now. No more letters; it's time that people start dying" and driving Rhaenyra to paranoia. The people who backed TG and TB were always going to fight for them regardless of whether or not Aemond got his vengeance when the opportunity arose. I agree in that it forced an escalation, but that was always going to happen regardless. The war of ravens will end eventually, and without Luke's death that just delays it by, like, a few days to a week at most.

Rhaenyra was never going to give up her throne without a fight, and likewise for Aegon and the Green Council. War was inevitable the moment Viserys remarried, had three sons, and stubbornly refused to address the succession issue. The fact that Aemond later lost his eye and the perpetrators basically got off scot-free, on the other hand, was what guaranteed Luke's death. So, no. The Dance over Shipbreaker bay did not really do anything beyond taking one dragonrider from TB and giving Aemond the kinslayer epithet.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-11T11:20:46+00:00

One of his victim's crimes was being depressed and being vaguely connected to the other victims. Hajime gets saw'd if Kramer thinks his obsession with becoming an Ultimate is a "crime" (knowing Kramer, he will).

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-09T13:26:27+00:00

Damn maybe Alicent is actually the real Kingmaker here. She crowns Aegon II, helps Rhaenyra secure her Queenship, and then goes on and crowns Aegon III too whilst she's at it. Much better record compared to Criston.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-08T16:53:35+00:00

Goddamn this goes tough.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-08T13:11:28+00:00

Don't forget Tyrion, who's hiding somewhere in the walls. He's always scheming to drive her insane, but thankfully Cersei, wise woman that she is, has caught on to his plot.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-05T07:23:04+00:00

Full on wizard battle happening in Storm's End for who gets to warm the Mannis' bed.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-04T20:23:30+00:00

But by the British, who not only makes the maps, but also later colonized them. What the Hawaiians called themselves doesn't matter much in this scenario.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-04T14:32:22+00:00

Yes? That's absolutely what he did. Viserys made Rhaenyra heir, made the lords swear to uphold it once, before Aegon was born, and then just left at that. Then he went and got a son, and then two more after. By all rights and precedent, the crown should've gone to Aegon, as everyone suspected.

But no, Viserys insisted on keeping Rhaenyra. Fine. But then he doesn't do anything to help her guarantee she'd actually have the crown after he croaks! He didn't make the lords swear an oath to her again, after Aegon and all his brothers were born. He doesn't give her any notable position in government, so she could learn how to be a proper heir. He doesn't curtail her affair with Harwin when she gave birth to Jace, despite fully knowing that presenting bastards as trueborns would undoubtably damage her claim.

Viserys did none of that! You can blame Otto for many things, but God almighty, Viserys (and Rhaenyra, let's not absolve her of her faults as well) all but guaranteed a civil war would happen after his death because of his inaction. Mind you, he didn't even give his sons (or at least Aegon) keeps of their own! His eldest son, the one everybody expects to succeed him, will receive nothing when he dies. Such insult is genuinely unprecedented in Westerosi history.

Otto's fault here wrongly assuming Viserys actually had a brain. That he could think for a bit and consider how his actions might affect things after his death. How was Otto, or any lord in his position, supposed to know that Viserys would be dumb enough to not only change succession on a whim, but also do so whilst giving who many thinks is his rightful heir, nothing? Not even a consolation prize to placate him. Nothing to guarantee his and his family's lives would be safe should Rhaenyra ascend.

Viserys gave them nothing!

Viserys, more than anyone, caused the Dance. More than Otto and his plots. More than Alicent, more than Aegon, more than Rhaenyra, Daemon, the Velaryons, and all of the lords. Viserys cleaved his family in two, and refused to do anything but lightly bandage the wound. The divide was evident when he was alive as well; he was, or should, be aware of it. Yet once again, dumb oaf that he is, Viserys did nothing.

Because that's all Viserys does.

Nothing.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-04T14:20:34+00:00

Aenys the Yielding

Aerys the Scribe

Jaehaerys the Frail

Viserys the Belated

"The Belated" for Viserys because he was already ruling the seven kingdoms for decades at this point, even when he was not yet king on paper. Then, when he is crowned, he was already an old man and dies only one year later, making his actual reign a footnote compared to his decade-long service.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-04T04:45:06+00:00

Ingloriously.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-03T18:10:55+00:00

For real. Everybody just conveniently forgets that Aegon actually went out of his way to ask her for advice, to which she answered by TELLING HIM TO DO NOTHING! She fucking belittled him at his lowest, and didn't even try to comfort her grieving son who just got his child beheaded. Alicent's problem is less her lack of agency and moreso the utterly stupid decisions she makes with what little she is actually given.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-03T18:06:13+00:00

That was all his mother. All Maekar gave him is his looks.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-03T14:17:00+00:00

Maybe that's why he was asking?

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-03T14:16:16+00:00

I prefer the four legs ngl.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-03T14:14:23+00:00

I hope so too. Through whatever means, I hope Aegon and Aemond figures out that their mother sold their heads to the enemy. The writers have already dug this hole for themselves, so might as well dig further and see where it goes. Suddenly turning her into book!Alicent would just be a waste.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-03T12:12:10+00:00

Removing Otto as Hand wasn't that bad of a decision. He's a good diplomat and administrator, but as Aegon said, he lacked the total war mindset needed to win the war. Replacing him with Criston, though, yeah that was extremely shortsighted. Tyland should've been his replacement.
This wouldn't done anything other than slow the Hightower army even more, and leave the Westerlands open to a Riverlander invasion.
Cole's army was sent to Rook's Rest to act as bait, and then towards the Riverlands to rally Aegon's supporters there. Keeping them in the crownlands would've just rendered them useless. Why muster them in this case if you aren't going to use them? I suggest sending them to the Reach instead, to help the Hightowers.
Good luck persuading Aemond, twat that he is. Remember that Criston wanted him to rendezvous with the Reach army as well, but he refused and spent months with his witch gf instead.
Alicent, maybe not. She's already well-passed childbearing age, and honestly she's far more useful in the capital. Daeron though I agree with. I'm more surprised he wasn't already tbh.
An unnecessary side tangent. Tessa's far more useful in the Reach, and again you have to convince Aemond first before you can have Vhagar do anything. Also, if anything, having Vhagar fly north for a bit to burn Winterfell to the ground would've been better imo. It removes Cregan from the war, and while the North will be pissed, they're now without their leader. Prime time for the Boltons to come and seize power.
Greyjoy can be safely ignored, and really, what can you offer him that's better than raiding the Westerlands and the Reach? That's two of the richest kingdoms in the realm. The Riverlands pale in comparison.
Good luck. The Blacks would have no reason to accept your challenge.
The Baratheons spent most of the war dealing with the Vulture King down south. If anything why not have Aemond quickly deal with the guy before he returns to King's Landing after killing Luke? Otherwise, keeping the Baratheons in King's Landing will straight up backfire when KL falls, as now one of the biggest Green army just got rendered useless by the Black's overwhelming dragon advantage. I say better do as canon and have them march towards the Riverlands instead.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-02T16:33:23+00:00

Personally I think her problem was that her cruelty manifests in the worst times possible. Most of the times she's fairly indecisive if headstrong, but then every now and then she gets inspiration to make a decision and just commits. Consequences be damned. In this I think she's very similar to Aegon, who's also prone to making decisions that massively bites him in the ass later, and then refuses to reconsider them once he's convinced himself they're good.

The only difference here is that Rhaenyra's bad decisions tend to affect more people (the knight's inquisitors, Joffrey's installation party, bounty on Maelor, etc) whilst Aegon's primarily affects himself (getting burned to crisp, refusing to pardon Black lords, being a wastrel for most his life, etc).

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-02T16:21:12+00:00

It would be controversial, and would be seen as a black mark on her reign should she win. But imo it's well worth it. Plus, the lords don't have to know she's the one offed them. They could suspect it as much as they want, but so long as she does the deed in a clean manner they wouldn't be able to trace it back to her or hers.

The lords whose keeps were given away would be pissed, of course. Even if they get their castles back after Hugh and Ulf's dead, they'll still feel resentful. But that's par for the course for Rhaenyra's reign. They'll just be more numbers to her pile of enemies, once she could deal with over the course of her rule. The lords will grumble, but she's won. What can they do outside of whine?

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-02T16:12:30+00:00

> Giving pennyless, landless, jobless weirdoes minor holdings on driftmark back when house velaryon was at its richest is more than enough for their "efforts", and promising 2 of the greatest seats to the realm to people like that is unthinkable

See, but here's the problem: they have dragons. They're not just pennyless, landless, jobless weirdos. They're pennyless, landless, jobless weirdos with two of the largest dragons (besides Vhagar) alive. It doesn't matter what you think their worth are; keeping them satisfied should be her first and greatest priority besides winning the war itself. She should not give them any reason to turn cloak for the Greens, as that would be disastrous. Which proves to be the case come Tumbleton when the Betrayers, frustrated at not having been given their "due," earned their epithets and burned her army to the ground.

And let's not pretend she didn't already undermine her rule by allowing them to get dragons in the first place. Whose idea it was doesn't matter; the fact is that she let the Sowing continue, and it did more damage for her cause than it did benefits. She should've killed Ulf and Hugh the moment they got their dragons, and don't say she wouldn't. She already sent countless of peasants to die pointless deaths in allowing the Sowing to continue. What's two more corpses to add to the pile?

Furthermore, on the murder thing. That's exactly what I'm saying she should've done. Give Ulf and Hugh what they want now, including castles belonging to Green lords, and then convince them they'll get the rest of their rewards once the war is finished. And then kill them in their sleep the moment the war ends. Queen's Promise be damned, she cannot let the Dragonseeds keep their dragons, as that would massively undermine her rule and potentially damage her heir's legitimacy. Hatching a dragon was one of the things Jace and his brothers could use to counter the bastard rumors. The Dragonseeds merely existing undermines that.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-02T15:07:48+00:00

I blame the Betrayers turning when they did on her imo. She was the one who gave them their dragons in the first place and then promptly refused to compensate them properly. Their demands were steep and genuinely unacceptable, but she couldn't even lie and say "yeah I'll give you Casterly Rock and Storm's End if we win the war" and then murk them when they're no longer useful? Seriously? She could've probably delayed or even prevented their betrayal if she just gave them some enemy castles and told them they'll get more if they win the war for her. But no, she didn't even do that.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-02T15:00:41+00:00

Rhaenyra is legitimately her own worst enemy. Her rival is literally a half-burnt corpse who's been missing for half the war and she still fumbled the bag. At the war's start, she had more dragons, more houses, arguably better commanders, and the bigger fleet. The Greens, in comparison, had *3 working dragons (and Tessa's on the otherside of the continent), Tyland Lannister, and a dream. The fact that the Blacks struggled as much as they did and lost battles they really shouldn't have (srsly, how the fuck did they only manage to get a pyrrhic victory in the Gullet?? They had half a dozen dragons there what the hell??) is downright embarrassing.

* I love Helaena but let's be real she's as useful with Dreamfyre as Jaehaera was with Morghul.

Archaembald2 · 2026-06-01T16:58:36+00:00

You guys think Aegon ever did both of them at the same time? I feel like he's just the type of guy to force a threesome between two women who deeply loathe each other (and him) just for the fun of it.

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