*SPOILER ALERT House of the Dragon S02E03*
So basically, Alicent Hightower starts a war over the simple fact that she got her Aegons mixed up. In her defense, it is somewhat justifiable because for whatever reason, the Targaryen family can’t stop naming every other male born into the bloodline “Aegon,” so it really does seem like this kind of meta situation where Alicent is like one of those people who wants to get into Game of Thrones lore, but occasionally struggles with the intricacies of stuff like all the fucking Aegons, however the problem is that Alicent is not an enthusiast on the outside, but is an actual character of said world, and her error of mixing up Aegons has triggered some severe consequences, like a god damn war.
I feel her. I am a fan of the property as much as that I have read the original Song of Ice and Fire books, watched all of the television, and occasionally pile onto George RR Martin bashing, nihilistically bemoaning how he will probably die before he completes another page of Winds of Winter. But I have not read any of the House of the Dragon books, nor take any time at all researching or diving into the GRRMverse, learning more about lore and characters. I too, barely know the differences between the 4-5 different Aegons that have existed within the GRRMverse that I have been exposed to.
My wife is someone who dives deeper than I do. My au pair too, who is the type who seeks out spoilers before the episodes even air, on top of learning as much about the HotD world outside of television.
That being said, we all found it tremendously hilarious the revelation of Alicent’s faux pas of mixing up her Aegons and subsequently starting a war, because she reacts in a manner the most apropos of today’s society, where instead of being all like omg my bad I made a mistake, she instantly digs her heels into the stone floor of the sept and immediately resigns to fucking dragon war instead.
All the same, the fact that she is a lot like most of us television viewers, and simply got her Aegons mixed up, I can’t help but feel for her a little bit. Perhaps her reaction was a little scorched earth, but still the mistake seemed genuine.
But I can’t help but wonder if that’s kind of racist, right? All rook same-ing all the Targaryens because they have a silly habit of naming every other boy Aegon? Not entirely out fault that they’re all named fucking Aegon but still, from their perspective, they’re probably salty about it.
