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EXACTLY NO ONE UNDERSTANDS 😭
Like if she was mad about the sex then she would have told people and gotten Rhaenyra and Criston in trouble. But we see that she has no problem with Criston after he admits to her that he had sex with Rhaenyra. In fact, she stops him from killing himself and becomes allies with him. She didn’t care about the sex, she just wanted honesty.
And this was when Alicent was starting to get paranoid because she was realizing that she was on her own, and her father was trying to put all these crazy ideas in her head that she couldn’t trust Rhaenyra.
Rhaenyra not telling Alicent about Criston when Alicent gave her the chance proved that Rhaenyra wasn’t 100% trustworthy, and was willing to lie to everyone. If she broke that rule, how many more would she break?
And sure, murdering children is a big leap away from having sex, but it’s her and her children’s lives on the line. I mean, would you gamble with your children’s lives just to support someone who ignored you and blamed you when you were forced to marry an old man as a child, who you now know has lied to you, on the chance that she might be forgiving you for something that was never your fault? Probably not.
Also I understand why Rhaenyra was upset with Alicent. She herself was a child and was obviously not in the right mindset to judge who the true victim was. This is not an anti-Rhaenyra post, I’m not criticizing her reaction to Viserys and Alicent’s marriage. I’m just trying to say that from Alicent’s point of view, it probably seemed like no one was genuine and that they wouldn’t hesitate to leave her in the dust in times where she would be vulnerable. (Which to an extent, is true.)
the way people think alicents decision to choose her own family was just because rhaenyra slept with criston, when it’s actually because she realized rhaenyra no longer trusts her enough to share the truth with her… and if rhaenyra doesn’t trust her how can she put the safety of herself and her children into rhaenyras hands and leave their fates to her mercy… she has to choose herself and her children or else no one will