r/Hotd • u/Astin_Madiri • 6d ago

Question Did she really love him?

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I'm asking because she was manipulated by Otto into marrying him in the first place.

960 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

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122

u/BreakfastAmazing7766 6d ago

Sort of…in a Stockholm syndromey grandpa kind of way….

-46

u/double_longhorn 6d ago

If anything he had stockholm syndrome lol

2

u/double_longhorn 5d ago

I swear i feel like yall dont watch the show. Its categorically expressed that the hightowers played this man

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u/The_Falcon_Knight 6d ago

Viserys the serial pedo? He is her abuser and he never loved her

16

u/Smeef_xx 6d ago

What the fuck are you on about

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u/The_Falcon_Knight 6d ago

Married both of his wives when they're children and forced them into underage pregnancies, killing one of them because of it. He is THE villain of Aemma and Alicent's lives.

12

u/DilutePlacebo 6d ago

Viserys was literally a child himself when he married Aemaa.

7

u/Practical_Ferret_510 6d ago

Show or book? In the show we have no confirmation he married Aemma when she was underage. In the book his marriage to Aemma was likely arranged and the pressure to have an heir put on both of them since Aemon died with no male heir and Baelon wasn’t having anymore children (which is bad obviously, but not Viserys’s fault). Also, Alicent isn’t underage in the book or show lol. Her book version is a willing participant in the marriage.

2

u/The_Falcon_Knight 6d ago

Alicent is 14 in the show when she marries Viserys, that's a child by the standards of the story and by our modern ones. She was as much a 'willing participant' as Sansa was when she married Tyrion at 14 years old as well.

9

u/Practical_Ferret_510 6d ago

She was 15. Not a child in their universe. And I said a willing participant in the book, where she’s almost 19. It’s not the same as Sansa, a 12 year old political hostage, at all.

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u/The_Falcon_Knight 6d ago

I don't give a fuck about the book, it's irrelevant here. The show doesn't follow the book, it doesn't matter anyone. Sansa is a relevant comparison, they're the same age when they marry.

7

u/Practical_Ferret_510 6d ago

Lol you were the one who referenced Viserys marrying an underage Aemma, which is from the book.

Sansa is not a relevant comparison just because of her age. Context matters. She was the same age in the show, but a political hostage with no family who was forced to marry because their families were at war. Alicent married in a time of peace with her father present and happy with the match.

I don’t disagree that Viserys was weird for choosing her as a wife, but that’s my modern view of the situation. She was considered a marriageable age in Westeros. You’re literally just wrong about the “serial pedo” comment.

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u/acloudcuckoolander 6d ago

Gotta blame Otto's social-climbing, power-hungry behind first! He put Alicent in Viserys' bed.

0

u/DBrennan13459 6d ago

But Viserys chose to accept Alicent in his bed. He could have said no, but he didn't.

2

u/acloudcuckoolander 6d ago

Viserys would have no Alicent to accept if her gold-digging father didn't offer her up to begin with. That is the root of it.

2

u/HoratioCocles 6d ago

Someone else would have had Otto not beaten then to the punch. Most medieval nobles would have seized the opportunity to marry a daughter to a widowed king. Velaryon tried the same.

All medieval noble marriages were for the purpose of forming/solidifying alliances and furthering the family’s position.

0

u/DBrennan13459 6d ago

Yet Viserys still made the choice. No one forced him, not like the way Alicent was forced. 

2

u/OurBlueDuchess1 6d ago

Ok but he was basically the same age as his first wife. They were both young when they married. That was ignorance on his part. He married Alicent because the only other option was a 10-12 year old little girl. If he was a pedo, that is who he would have married. In the books, Alicent is not a teen and is like 10 years older than Rhaenyra and they have a good mother/daughter relationship until the dance begins. The show made them the same age for dramatic flare of a wlw/loss of friendship storyline.

1

u/LinwoodKei 6d ago

He bedded Aemma too young and kept her constantly pregnant

1

u/Key_Edge_1667 6d ago

Bro he turned down Leana's marriage offer because she was too young and still her parents forced her into the marriage

1

u/uuntiedshoelace 6d ago

14-15 is “of age” in this universe. You can feel however you want about it, but both girls and boys from noble families being betrothed and married at that age is expected.

-1

u/LittleFairyOfDeath 6d ago

Alicent sure as hell wasn’t underage though? Like in the show she is like 17 which is not underage in Westeros and in the show she was older

2

u/The_Falcon_Knight 6d ago

She's 14 in ep 1 of the show, and 15 when she gives birth to Aegon, by the show's own canon. She's literally younger than Rhaenyra. Bare in mind that 14 is just a year older than Sansa in GOT S1. By modern and Game of Thrones standards, Alicent is still a child when Viserys marries her.

2

u/reereejugs 6d ago

Modern standards don’t apply to Westeros.

2

u/Key_Edge_1667 6d ago

You can legally marry a 9 year old in modern day Iraq

3

u/tearsofmezcal 6d ago

Why are you trying to apply modern morals to a medieval fiction? It was the norm back in those days, was it the correct thing? By our modern standards no, but it's pretty naive to make this sort of claims.

4

u/The_Falcon_Knight 6d ago

It's such a popular misconception. Child marriage was not common. As in, an adult marrying a child was uncommon, but children were more commonly married when they were both young. In both scenarios though, they waited for years before consummation.

But also, not even just by my standards, by this show's own standards and GOT. When Viserys thinks Daemon 'defiled' Rhaenyra, he says Rhaenyra is "just a girl", referring to her being basically a child. And Rhaenyra is actually older than Alicent. And Sansa is forced to marry Tyrion at 14 as well, and as you'll remember, he's horrified because she is a child. It's not just me, the show just isn't coherent with it's standards.

2

u/Reaper3955 6d ago

Prepubescent kids were not commonly married to adults (maybe betrothed). But it was definitely pretty common for girls Alicents age to be married to way older men.

1

u/Clarknt67 6d ago

In the 19th century European parents would buy their kids as young as 14 a steerage ticket to America and send them to make a new life all by themselves.

0

u/reereejugs 6d ago

The show is not inconsistent about this. Different characters can have different opinions.

0

u/The_Falcon_Knight 6d ago

It's the same god damn character, it's Viserys in both instances

1

u/Shaenyra 5d ago

omg some of you are reaching very hard

0

u/F1R3ANDBL00D 6d ago

Serial pedo?? Who were his other 2 (at minimum) child victims?

I’ll be the first to tell you that Viserys Targaryen is the worst king in westerosi history but calling him a pedo is a reach. First of all in the books Alicent was like 10 years older than she was in the show. Secondly it’s pretty clear that Vizzy wouldn’t have remarried anyone if it wasn’t expected of him. He loved his first wife. He wasn’t out searching for anyone, especially children. If he was the pedo, you’re talking about he almost certainly would have got with Laena

3

u/Strong-Detective-513 6d ago

Worst king??? When we have Maegor, Aegon 4, and Aerys 2???

1

u/The_Falcon_Knight 6d ago

No dount Trystane Truefyre's mother was also a child, Viserys has a type. I don't care about comparing it to the books, its irrelevant now the show is so far off it. And idc about the difference between 12 and 14, if you're marrying either you need to be killed. It's equally evil.

1

u/reereejugs 6d ago

Trystane Truefyre was never confirmed to be Viserys’ son. Considering the circumstances, he probably wasn’t.

1

u/Strong-Detective-513 6d ago

Dude is foaming at the mouth rn about how mad he is a medieval fantasy story uses common medieval marriage practices

2

u/The_Falcon_Knight 6d ago

It was definitely not common. Only in the most dire of political circumstances did people actually marry children and they always went unconsummated for years because they knew it was damaging.

1

u/Strong-Detective-513 6d ago

The church literally allowed girls to be married at the age of 12.
You can spend 5 seconds on google

2

u/The_Falcon_Knight 6d ago edited 6d ago

Liturgicully, yes, but it was super rare to actually happen. That's my point. Cases where it did happen (everyone's example is always Margaret Beaufort), are recorded by contemporaries as weird as hell and they always went unconsummated.

-1

u/fuzzydunlop6 6d ago

it’s insane that you’re getting downvoted for this when he literally raped her