Olivia Cooke Thinks She Only Has One Fan So…

"Uhm hair colour is not proof of the boys parentage, it's not that important of a detail."

EXCUSE ME FRIENDS NED STARK WOULD LIKE TO TAKE A MOMENT TO EXPLAIN TO YOU THE PLOT OF A GAME OF THRONES

BAN ON CONVERSION PRACTICES IN THE EU. GO SIGN IT. DEADLINE IS FUCKING MAY 17. WE'RE STILL MISSING 800.000 signatures. FUCKING DO IT.

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Team Green as Pigeons just because…

alicent shouldnt stripe rhaenyra out from her birthrights and rhaenyra shouldnt do that for alicent's kid either, because other lovely anon: friendly reminder that in HOTD all rhaenyra's kids are bastards and her natural heir is aegon... sooo... yeah, i'd say they are even. 👍

Sure they're even! I'd dare say that in Alicent's eyes, Rhaenyra's cold indifference for her siblings and her future hurts as much as her childhood betrayal did all those years ago... Because Rhaenyra herself could have acknowledged and recognized Alicent's fears about her children and done something about it... formed an "I-will-never-under-any-circumstances-hurt-your-children-and-my-siblings" pact, but she wanted Aemond "to be sharply questioned" instead, and insisted on naming Jacaerys her heir which further jeopardized Aegon and his siblings because everyone knew they were the real male Targaryen heirs who could be easily used by anyone who disliked Rhaenyra as pawns to claim the throne from her. As long as the legitimate male heirs were alive, and Rhaenyra continued the stance of enmity, hostility, and complete disregard toward them, they would remain a threat and challenge to her reign and claimants to the throne, and Alicent would do everything in her power to make sure they stayed alive by having Aegon sit that throne himself.

This meme is inescapable on French insta so I'm posting it here for all to enjoy

Alicent and Viserys I discussing THE LEGITIMACY OF RHAENYRA’S SONS House of the Dragon | 1x06 “The Princess and The Queen”

requested by anonymous (part I)

what if he doesn't want it to mean anything?? (lie)

this post has been haunting me

Alicent's New Bedroom: Book vs Show and Impact on Blood and Cheese

This is the Red Keep. It's made up of distinct towers and structures.

Maegor's Holdfast is the place of the royal residence, where the king's apartments are located. This is where the king and/or queen and their immediate household. It has unique characteristics:

"The royal apartments were in Maegor's Holdfast, a massive square fortress that nestled in the heart of the Red Keep behind walls twelve feet thick and a dry moat lined with iron spikes, a castle-with-a-castle. Ser Boros Blount guarded the far end of the bridge, white steel armor ghostly in the moonlight" (p. 502, Edward XIII, A Game of Thrones).

Well-designed and well-guarded, not even a rat catcher in the castle knows of a hidden way in or out of Maegor's Holdfast:

"The hidden doors and secret tunnels that Maegor the Cruel had built were as familiar to the rat catcher as to the rats he hunted. Using a forgotten pssageway, Cheese led Blood into the heart of the castle, unseen by guard. Some say their quarry was the king himself, but Aegon was accompanied by Kingsguard wherever he went and even Cheese knew of no way in and out of Maegor's Holdfast save the drawbridge that spanned the dry moat and it's formidable spikes" (p. 424, The Dying of the Dragons - A Son for a Son, Fire and Blood).

This is the most secure location within the Red Keep itself, which is why the royal family lives there. It is a large space with many rooms, including the Queen's Ballroom. In season one of House of the Dragon, Viserys lives in the king's apartments with his wives and there are many bedrooms where members of the royal household and their household staff live. After Alicent marries Viserys, she moves from the Tower of the Hand where she lived with her father to the king's apartment in Maegor's Holdfast and lives there until Viserys' death.

Separate from Maegor's Holdfast is the Tower of the Hand, where the Hand of the King and his family live. The tower contains many rooms, including the bedchamber of the Hand of the King, rooms for his household, and the Small Hall. There are guards in the Tower of the Hand, but there were those who were familiar with its hidden doorways and secret tunnels:

"Any man of normal size would have had to crawl on hands and knees, but Tyrion was short enough to walk upright [...] He came to the third door and fumbled about for a long time before his fingers brushed a small iron hook set between two stones. When he pulled down on it, there was a soft rumble that sounded loud as an avalanche in the stillness, and a square dull orange light opened a foot to his left. The hearth! He almost laughed [...] When he found himself in what had been once his bedchamber, he stood for a long moment" (p. 1070, Tyrion XI, A Storm of Swords).

After Aegon is crowned, he, Helaena, and their young children move into the king's apartments in Maegor's Holdfast, so the Dowager Queen, Alicent moves out. But where does she move to? In Fire and Blood, Alicent moves back into the Tower of the Hand, where she lived as a child with her father. It's because of this move to the Tower of the Hand specifically that Blood and Cheese have the opportunity to access Aegon's sons. Every night, Helaena and her kids would leave Maegor's Holdfast to go to the Tower of the Hand and visit Alicent before bed, which allowed Blood and Cheese to plan their ambush. Despite Helaena having a guard and the presence of guards throughout the Tower of the Hand and the Red Keep itself, Alicent's new bedchamber and its secret passageways have Blood and Cheese a chance to sneak in and make their move:

"The Tower of the Hand was less secure. The two men crept up through the walls, bypassing the spearman posted at the tower doors. Ser Otto's rooms were of no interest to them. Instead they slipped into his daughter's chambers, one floor below [...] Once inside, Cheese bound and gagged the Dowager Queen whilst Blood strangled her beadmaid. Then they settled down to wait, for they knew that it was the custom of Queen Helaena to bring her children to see their grandmother every evening before bed [...] Blood barred the door and slew the Queen's guardsman, while Cheese appeared to snatch up Maelor" p. 424, The Dying of the Dragons - A Son for a Son, Fire and Blood).

House of the Dragon, however, decided to make some major changes to the event of Blood and Cheese. In HOTD season 2, Queen Alicent doesn't move out of Maegor's Holdfast, and and instead, despite having choice of several different bedrooms, decides to move into the specific room where Rhaenyra lived up until episode 6 of season one.

The show previously added a tunnel from Rhaenyra's old room to the outside of the Red Keep in season one. However, instead of using that connection to have Blood and Cheese surprise Alicent in her room as they did in the book, they instead use a tunnel to sneak into the Red Keep. They then proceed to walk through large portions of the Red Keep, including the throne room, eventually walking right into Maegor's Holdfast, all the while unchecked by any servants or guards. They walk right into the king's apartments where the unguarded Helaena is with her sleeping children. Once Blood begins killing Jaehaerys, Helaena carries Jaehaera through empty hallways to Alicent's room where she walks in on Alicent and Criston.

Why the changes from the book? A few possibilities:

1) The show made the change because they write the characters of Alicent and Criston as intrinsically linked to Rhaenyra, so they wanted to make a point of showing them have sex in her old room, in order to make them both hypocritical, something that could only likely happen if Alicent lived there. Placing this scene at the end of the Blood and Cheese sequence adds an extra shock element for viewers. Removing Alicent's presence during Blood and Cheese and giving her a sex scene during the event instead viewers to focus on her "hypocrisy" as well as point the blame and outrage towards her and away from the true culprit. Additionally, the show doesn't have to include a scene where the Greens act like the family they are.

2) The show made the change of hallways being empty of servants and guards, as well as personal guards being absent from members of the royal family, to show viewers that the Greens have somehow become incompetent almost overnight when it comes to household security, despite having lived in the Red Keep for the last several years and effectively ruling the kingdoms in Viserys' stead. This diverts blame away from the Blacks and toward the Greens, as they should have been protecting themselves. Specifically, the blame is in on Criston Cole for not having guards posted (there's no real explanation for why he did not have them posted).

3) The show made the change because they wanted to film a one shot of Helaena and her baby walking through Maegor's Holdfast to call back to Rhaenyra's walk through the same hallways with her newborn in season 1 episode 6 because everything comes back to Rhaenyra in this show and they wanted viewers to connect the two events for whatever reason.

Among other changes to Blood and Cheese, it seems to me that the show ultimately changed these aspects of the event in order to minimize the event itself and shift the blame.

“Rhaenyra was right, now they really see Alicent as she is. She’s such a hypocrite! Where is duty and sacrifice, huh?”

Here, let me show you:

Twenty consecutive years of this woman suffering, performing her duties, sacrificing herself and picking up the broken pieces of everyone around her was just not enough for you, huh?

But no, let’s collectively shit on her for sleeping with her guard after her job as a queen, mother and wife was completed and this action affected literally no one outside of her and Criston, because she scolded Rhaenyra, not for having sex out of wedlock, but because her lies broke her family apart and she failed to perform every single one of her duties, yet still somehow remained the most entitled and demanding person in HOTD.

I know it’s not hard to point out reactionaries hypocrisy when it comes to like safe spaces or hug boxes or whatever but genuinely how much of an echo chamber do you have to exist in for you to think this is a reasonable thing to say