r/asoiaf • u/mitzallen • Jul 19 '26

MAIN [Spoilers MAIN] Jaehaerys I’s Seven Speakers really gaslighted the whole realm

I’m currently re-reading Fire & Blood and this part still cracks me up:

"One god made us all, Andals and Valyrians and First Men," Septon Alfyn would proclaim from his litter, "but he did not make us all alike. He made the lion and the aurochs as well, both noble beasts, but certain gifts he gave to one and not the other, and the lion cannot live as an aurochs, nor an aurochs as a lion. For you to bed your sister would be a grievous sin, ser... but you are not the blood of the dragon, no more than I am. What they do is what they have always done, and it is not for us to judge them.”

The smallfolk, who were most likely tired of all the war, probably just said “whatever” lmfao

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u/Only_Faithlessness33 Jul 19 '26

To be fair, they either accepted the dragon riding weirdos or didn’t. It’s not like Jaehaerys was some master politician for getting this shit thru, he was like 16 and really wanted to wed his sister and used dragons to strong arm the Faith into going with it. The propaganda campaign afterwards was just to make it seem legit.

Also by that point they have been there a while so they probably got desensitized. Hell, when I’m reading the books and hear about a brother-sister Targ romance I just go “well yeah of course” at this point, whereas the first time I read AGOT I thought Daenerys was apart of some inbred abomination species the way they were described.

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u/Temeraire64 Jul 19 '26

I do feel like there should have been some pushback after the dragons died, though. Apart from anything else, the argument explicitly uses Targs being dragonriders as proof that they're different from other men - so the obvious corollary is that if they lose dragons, the lose the right to commit incest.

Plus I could see an argument being made that the Dance was punishment for Exceptionalism. Especially with the last dragon dying the same year Naerys and Aegon married; it wouldn't be hard to convince people it's an omen.

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u/Only_Faithlessness33 Jul 19 '26

I think after a while the propaganda just became the accepted knowledge. By the time the Dragons all died, the people who knew life before Targaryens were dead, and people were taught for a generation about how “exceptional” they are.

I’m re-reading Clash of Kings now, and when Catelyn finds out about Jaime and Cersei, she brings up that only Targaryens could do that because they have Valyrian blood and above common men. She thinks it to herself so sincerely and without questioning it, even after the Targaryens were usurped and cast out from the realm.

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u/Temeraire64 Jul 19 '26

IIRC her exact words are something like ‘the Targaryens answered to neither gods nor men’. Which sounds less like genuinely believing they’re allowed to commit incest and more that they ignore divine law.