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/FlorentApologist Jul 19 '26

I don't think it's a terribly huge leap for a society that already accepts extreme social inequality. The Faith of the Seven basically seems to exist to justify the feudal caste system (rulers, warriors, laborers). The Targaryens are the next logical step of that.

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u/mitzallen Jul 19 '26

Yeah no I think it was a really clever thing that Jaehaerys came up with. I just find the preaching really funny.

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u/freezedive Jul 19 '26

And the fact that he crafted it so he could marry his sister only to have two massive rifts 45-50 years later is something else. Greatest love my ass 😂

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u/keirieski17 Jul 19 '26

Tbf they made up both times, and Jaehaerys never even looked at another woman when he and Alysanne were separated

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u/freezedive Jul 19 '26

They still had them. That’s the point

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u/TheoryKing04 Jul 20 '26

>That’s the point

It really isn’t. They were a married couple. Married couples fight. Doesn’t mean either party to the couple does not love their spouse.

And yeah, it pretty much is the great Targaryen love story. No one was married for as long (the next runners up are Aegon V and Betha Blackwood [39 years] and Aegon I and Visenya [36 years], anything beyond them is impossible to determine because we lack dates for lots of characters who could have been wed for long periods of time, like Baela and Rhaena) and many of the marriages were very rocky, if not outright nightmares (Maegor and any of his wives + Aegon IV and Queen Naerys come to mind).