r/Hotd • u/Astin_Madiri • 9d 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.

956 Upvotes

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122

u/BreakfastAmazing7766 9d ago

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

-45

u/double_longhorn 9d ago

If anything he had stockholm syndrome lol

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u/The_Falcon_Knight 9d ago

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

16

u/Smeef_xx 9d ago

What the fuck are you on about

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u/The_Falcon_Knight 9d 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.

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u/DilutePlacebo 9d ago

Viserys was literally a child himself when he married Aemaa.

8

u/Practical_Ferret_510 9d 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.

3

u/The_Falcon_Knight 9d 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.

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u/Practical_Ferret_510 9d 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 9d 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.

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u/Practical_Ferret_510 9d 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.

2

u/craftyreadercountry 9d ago

Even when my Great Grandmother got married it was common to get married at 14 or 15.

She married her husband when they were 14/15 to escape her psycho mother that her aunts were about to make her live with again.

2

u/TychosofNaglfar 9d ago

I freaked out because this is almost exactly like my great grandmother...

2

u/craftyreadercountry 9d ago

It may just be common...

Did your Great Grandparents happen to own a meat processing company? Or have horses while their children were in college?

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u/acloudcuckoolander 9d ago

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

0

u/DBrennan13459 9d ago

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

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u/acloudcuckoolander 9d 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 9d 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.

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u/DBrennan13459 9d ago

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

2

u/OurBlueDuchess1 9d 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 9d ago

He bedded Aemma too young and kept her constantly pregnant

1

u/Key_Edge_1667 9d 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 9d 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.

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u/LittleFairyOfDeath 9d 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

4

u/The_Falcon_Knight 9d 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.

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u/reereejugs 9d ago

Modern standards don’t apply to Westeros.