#is it clear i'm foaming at the mouth rn. do you rlly think she lost her agency or can you just not call her a bitch or c*nt anymore????

[kcrra]

just because alicent isn't complex in your understanding of her doesn't mean she isn't complex. all the claims i see of missing her one note, evil stepmother characterization from fire & blood are so fascinating to me, especially when the showrunners, actors, writers and directors have been so clear about the choices they've made for her in order to better expand her depth and worldview. despite that, we still have people claiming that the lack of portrayal of alicent as a clear cut villain is one that removes her "agency". do you really mean agency, or just your ability to simply hate her as a knee jerk reaction to your own bias and favorite characters in the narrative?

i really do find it so interesting when people claim they can only understand a female character's layers if she makes choices with clear intentions: purely villainous or purely good choices which then conveniently force her into one of the archetype boxes of madonna, mother, whore, bitch, etc, which are not particularly "complex" and in fact a very outdated form of storytelling most female characters suffer from. its the same shallow interpretation of a complex narrative that causes people to reduce a deeply tragic civil war between a family that results in the end of the dragons, mass death and war crimes on both sides into a narrative as simple and boring as "team green" or "team black" - rather than a commentary on the flaws of monarchy, patriarchy, etc.

just because a female character isn't making the clean cut narrative choices you want her to make to support your personal interpretations of "good" and "bad", does not mean she has had her agency or personality surrendered - but rather that you can only understand and process her as a caricature that fits into the judgements you already made about her.

#is it clear i'm foaming at the mouth rn. do you rlly think she lost her agency or can you just not call her a bitch or c*nt anymore???? #alicent hightower #house of the dragon #hotd #rhaenicent #to pretend like alicent's portrayal in the book is not a result of the flawed retelling of the victors of history is CLOWNISH. #i have so many thoughts and feelings abt this. but most of all i'm glad the HOTD writers are big brained #and don't hate women as much as some of y'all. lmfao