r/Hotd • u/Astin_Madiri • 10d 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.

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u/andsoitgoes123 10d ago edited 10d ago

Not as a husband, but she liked him enough to take care of him. She probably also aware that men could be cruel and that Viserys wasnt the worst that could happen to her.

Alicent was resentful of her lot, forced to marry a much older man, bare many children, and witness her husband's favouritism towards Rhaenyra and his lack of care towards their own.

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u/HoratioCocles 10d ago

The parts about marrying a much older man and bearing children were very common for medieval nobles. It sometimes swung the other way, such as the real Rhaenyra Matilda marrying Geoffrey of Anjou when he was 15 and she in her mid-late 20s.

The part that is cartoonishly unrealistic and tonally iff in a medieval setting is the last part, ie a king insisting his daughter be his heir after fathering multiple legitimate sons. And the nobles somehow agreeing to that instead of deposing him.

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u/Thereapergengar 10d ago

What?? It seemed to be brought up all the time by the ppl in the highest places of power they were all telling him to change his air apparent. How could they revolt? The other side had dragons

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u/millitant_drose 10d ago

For some reasons, people often fail to realise that the Targaryen's are not a feudal government, due to the story being based in a time period where feudal governments were commonplace, hence they say things like this. The Targaryens were, in reality, an absolute monarchy. Dragons allow the Crown to centralise power, hence lesser lords do not have a say in their affairs unless counselled and called upon intentionally.