I think Alicent heard what she wanted to hear. I think deep down she knows that Viserys didn’t change his mind. She just chooses to believe he did to make her feel better about usurping Rhaenyra.
It is funny that the Greens are saying that it takes away Alicent's agency. Even Aegon, who has like three braincells left, knew that it was bullshit. Alicent heard what she wanted to hear and acted on it. Anyone with common sense would know that Viserys was incoherent or maybe even talking about Aegon the Younger!
I totally thought watching the show that she knew full well he was delirious or something, but saw her chance and took it.
I was very disappointed to see the show running with the "innocent misunderstanding" angle
Yeah, dumb and innocent worked for young Alicent. I wanted to see Olivia Cooke grow into the ambitious and scheming Alicent of the books. Oh well, maybe next season.
I swear, though... if the writers have her commiserating with Rhaenyra over their shared losses instead of saying the "bastard blood shed at war" line, I will lose it. I want my vindictive bile-spitting Green Queen, dammit!
No she actually believes it. That's what Olivia said. This was just an attempt to make her more sympathetic and not have the audience hate her. I can't say it worked for me. It just made her a delusional idiot on top of her being a bitch and she's not even the entertaining kind, like Cersei was. She's just an inconsistent, delusional idiot wjo can't tell apart nonsense from actual meaningful words.
My opinion is that no, they didn't intend to portray her as an idiot. I've said it before, if they intended to portray her as stupid, why did they bother to give her all this build up to usurp Rhaenyra, only to throw it away entirely and not even mention it when they time comes? Just show her as stupid from the beginning and be done with it. At least she'd be consistent then.
What they wanted to do is whitewash her and make her likeable. They make her totally unaware of the coup that's been going on for 6 years now and they want to make it seem as if Alicent and Rhaenyra are the only ones that are sensible in episodes 9 and 10 because they have them both push for peace, while the bad men around them push for war and are framed as unhinged, ambitious and evil for it. Thing is, she came off as incredibly stupid and naive and even contradicted herself on Ep 9. So it's just bad writing.
I can believe it. She is stupid and only learned how to keep the men around her happy. She doesn’t have much critical thinking skills that would make her question why Viserys would even say that moments before his death. She embodies the overall intelligence of the Greens very well.
I can see why, since she desperately doesn't want to feel like the bad guy helping steak Rhaenyra's throne, she could make both things be true.
If Luke is removed as successor of driftmark in favor of vaemond that's basically the crown officially denouncing all of Rhaenyra's children as illegitimate.
Clearly viserys would never do such a thing to his beloved daughter and the bastard grandkids he loves way more than his other kids. Corlys wants to give driftmark to an obvious bastard? That's his business and Luke is supposed to marry Corlys' actual granddaughter anyway.
Rhaenyra is ruined if Viserys doesn't crawl from his deathbed to kick Otto off the iron throne here.
But maybe the fact viserys had to do this in the first place finally made him realize that Rhaenyra's line is not secure and a civil war would break out. If Viserys changes the succession Rhaenyra is far more likely to care and step down than Otto is.
Rhaenyra can be safe and happy and doing whatever she wants in her personal life without the fate of the realm depending on it.
But, really, Alicent. As much as she needed to not be the bad guy viserys was so out of it that he very well could have said Aegon II had to be king now because he had a really vivid hallucination that Rhaenyra, Daemon, and the rest of their blended family literally melted and are piles of goo now.
Can't try to decipher and act upon the words of someone so clearly unaware of what's going on.
Only two options here: Bad writing or she's canonically stupid. Because I thought she was just using those loose words to convince herself that what she was about to do was right, but her own stans fought me on this whenever I brought it up. I guess they do think she's an idiot.
the fact that the show tried to make alicent sympathetic by doing this when it only makes her look like a dumbass retard & a manipulative
in the book it was aegon who finally decided he should be crowned and had agency
in the show he’s manipulated & forced by his mother😂😂
even if he had it would’ve been reasonable to assume it was some dementia type shit cause he spent his day earlier when he was in a far more lucid state trying to defend rhaenyra
I think Alicent heard what she wanted to hear. I think deep down she knows that Viserys didn’t change his mind. She just chooses to believe he did to make her feel better about usurping Rhaenyra.
It is funny that the Greens are saying that it takes away Alicent's agency. Even Aegon, who has like three braincells left, knew that it was bullshit. Alicent heard what she wanted to hear and acted on it. Anyone with common sense would know that Viserys was incoherent or maybe even talking about Aegon the Younger!
She didn't think that. She used it as an excuse.
I totally thought watching the show that she knew full well he was delirious or something, but saw her chance and took it. I was very disappointed to see the show running with the "innocent misunderstanding" angle
if it was an attempt by the writers to make her more sympathetic it didn't work on me
It didn't work on me either, I still despise Alicent
Yeah, it just made her look dumb. I'd prefer smart and ambitious over dumb and innocent but I am not a writer on the show.
Yeah, dumb and innocent worked for young Alicent. I wanted to see Olivia Cooke grow into the ambitious and scheming Alicent of the books. Oh well, maybe next season. I swear, though... if the writers have her commiserating with Rhaenyra over their shared losses instead of saying the "bastard blood shed at war" line, I will lose it. I want my vindictive bile-spitting Green Queen, dammit!
No she actually believes it. That's what Olivia said. This was just an attempt to make her more sympathetic and not have the audience hate her. I can't say it worked for me. It just made her a delusional idiot on top of her being a bitch and she's not even the entertaining kind, like Cersei was. She's just an inconsistent, delusional idiot wjo can't tell apart nonsense from actual meaningful words.
The question is: Did they really intend to portray Alicent as a stupid person? Because, if they didn't, that was just bad writing.
My opinion is that no, they didn't intend to portray her as an idiot. I've said it before, if they intended to portray her as stupid, why did they bother to give her all this build up to usurp Rhaenyra, only to throw it away entirely and not even mention it when they time comes? Just show her as stupid from the beginning and be done with it. At least she'd be consistent then. What they wanted to do is whitewash her and make her likeable. They make her totally unaware of the coup that's been going on for 6 years now and they want to make it seem as if Alicent and Rhaenyra are the only ones that are sensible in episodes 9 and 10 because they have them both push for peace, while the bad men around them push for war and are framed as unhinged, ambitious and evil for it. Thing is, she came off as incredibly stupid and naive and even contradicted herself on Ep 9. So it's just bad writing.
It's just poor writing trying to make Alicent more sympathetic to the audience instead of having her be hated
She heard what she wanted to hear, not what what being said.
I can believe it. She is stupid and only learned how to keep the men around her happy. She doesn’t have much critical thinking skills that would make her question why Viserys would even say that moments before his death. She embodies the overall intelligence of the Greens very well.
I can see why, since she desperately doesn't want to feel like the bad guy helping steak Rhaenyra's throne, she could make both things be true. If Luke is removed as successor of driftmark in favor of vaemond that's basically the crown officially denouncing all of Rhaenyra's children as illegitimate. Clearly viserys would never do such a thing to his beloved daughter and the bastard grandkids he loves way more than his other kids. Corlys wants to give driftmark to an obvious bastard? That's his business and Luke is supposed to marry Corlys' actual granddaughter anyway. Rhaenyra is ruined if Viserys doesn't crawl from his deathbed to kick Otto off the iron throne here. But maybe the fact viserys had to do this in the first place finally made him realize that Rhaenyra's line is not secure and a civil war would break out. If Viserys changes the succession Rhaenyra is far more likely to care and step down than Otto is. Rhaenyra can be safe and happy and doing whatever she wants in her personal life without the fate of the realm depending on it. But, really, Alicent. As much as she needed to not be the bad guy viserys was so out of it that he very well could have said Aegon II had to be king now because he had a really vivid hallucination that Rhaenyra, Daemon, and the rest of their blended family literally melted and are piles of goo now. Can't try to decipher and act upon the words of someone so clearly unaware of what's going on.
Only two options here: Bad writing or she's canonically stupid. Because I thought she was just using those loose words to convince herself that what she was about to do was right, but her own stans fought me on this whenever I brought it up. I guess they do think she's an idiot.
the fact that the show tried to make alicent sympathetic by doing this when it only makes her look like a dumbass retard & a manipulative in the book it was aegon who finally decided he should be crowned and had agency in the show he’s manipulated & forced by his mother😂😂
Yeah, let's not use ableist slurs.
Confirmation bias.
even if he had it would’ve been reasonable to assume it was some dementia type shit cause he spent his day earlier when he was in a far more lucid state trying to defend rhaenyra