I need to hear all your alicent/criston thoughts after this episode!!! My religious repressed courtly love babes!

(anon i have been singing the "i want more of alicent and criston having scenes together" song since literally episode two it's why i shoved criston into my alicent fic for no reason)

I've said this already but it really is a perversion of Lancelot and Guinevere, a twisted version of the fairy tale trope of the fair maiden and her knight in shining armor. And that's amazing because a lot of GRRM's stuff is about deconstructing things like fairy tale and fantasy tropes, the entire Dance is a deconstruction of the "deposed heir must rally to regain their throne that was stolen by a relative" fantasy/fairy tale plot.

One thing I genuinely really love about Alicent and Criston's dynamic is that it is heavily religion based. It's where they found common cause. Alicent in the scenes we got with her after her marriage to Viserys and before the first time jump is exactly the kind of person who would find solace in religion, a lonely person who is isolated from all her friends, unsure who to trust, in a marriage she did not seek out, no familial support, exactly the kind of person who would look to higher powers to make her feel better, and Criston clearly is already deeply religious based on describing his liaison with Rhaenyra as a sin, even though in the moment the big issue was the violation of the law that had occurred, not the violation of religious norms. It's something that binds them together, and it's something that heavily tinges their interactions.

Criston says in this episode that "every woman is an image of the Mother" and what is Alicent? She's a mother, that's primarily what her role has been throughout her entire marriage (when Viserys wasn't exercising his marital rape license for us to see on screen no I'm never gonna be not angry about that scene) and what a lot of her interactions have been, and not only that, to him she is The Mother, she was the holy figure that appeared out of the fog in the godswood as he was about to kill himself because he'd soiled his cloak and his good name and saved him, in his head she literally redeemed him. And Alicent sees a friend, she sees someone she can bond with, now that her dad is gone and Rhaenyra isn't to be trusted and whatever rapport she has with Larys clearly hasn't been built yet. The scene in her rooms has a cute moment where she pats the bench to have him sit next to her and be more at ease, which I love because it's precious, but also because it shows that she just wants a friend and companion, and Criston is clearly willing to be that for her, and eventually becomes that for her.

They are, simply put, exactly what the other needs, and that's why they cling to each other the way that they do.

But I also appreciate that Criston isn't blindly loyal, that there are things that he won't do, that when Alicent told him to take out Lucerys's eye he said no. I like that it's something he could do without completely breaking whatever's going on with them apart, I like the depth that it adds beyond just the Queen and her gleefully subservient man. He's willing to defend and protect her, yes, like when he goes to enter the fight between her and Rhaenyra and has to be stopped by Daemon (there are parallels there, there's something more to talk about there but now isn't the time), but in this episode, when she goes to shield Aegon and gets him out of the way by telling him to look to Helaena, he doesn't try to dive in front of her, he lets her put herself on the front lines. There is no relationship in this show that is not fraught with power dynamic differentials, and this is the closest we will get to people seeing each other on something that might resemble an equal footing.

It's about trust, it's about bonding, it's about friendship, it's about religious fervor shared, it's about camaraderie, it's about a twist on fairy tale tropes and the nuclear family, it's about Criston feeling "everything" for Her Grace, the Queen, it's about Alicent knowing that and letting it remain present but unspoken nonetheless.

One last thing before I stop subjecting you to my ramblings, anon, and I haven't thought on it much because honestly this was the first episode since, like, episode six to give us any concrete Alicent and Criston scenes, but I think anything they could do with these two would have been so much less impactful if there'd been any kind of physical intimacy. It really works that they're both so determined to be honorable and good and pious that they wouldn't go there, or even think about talking about anything that would bring them there, and it really drives home their twisted version of courtly love (love is for love's sake so no fucking, Alicent is the exalted lady therefore Criston cannot sully her with something as sinful as fucking, love being an enobling factor so we can't endanger that with fucking, the unfulfilled desire that is literally the basis of courtly love so in order not to have the whole thing fall apart, no fucking).

I'm really looking forward to how they explore that more, especially once the Dance starts and all the traumatic things happen (Blood and Cheese are gonna happen early on in season 2 and Alicent was there for that, I'm ready to see the aftermath!!)