Find your tribe in a Sea of Creativity
And the thing is, it us not that Viserys didn't love his children from Alicent either. Viserys did love his children very much. Just simply not as much as Rhaenyra. Rhaenyra came after and before many miscarriages and stillbirths. She was his only child, the only child his father and grandparents met. She was his only child for nearly 15 years. She became motherless at a very young age, therefore he focused on her more. So many things why Viserys favoured Rhaenyra.
But in the end the green stans will say, Viserys didn't love Aegon (even tho he did), hence he deserves the throne better than Rhaenyra who was loved.
I'm tired of reading posts that say that Aegon and Aemond became terrible people because they had "rough childhoods." What kind of nonsense is this?
Yes, Viserys did not love his sons very much, but he was not a monster. He did not insult or beat his sons. These boys are part of the ruling dynasty, they lived in luxury and comfort, had a good education, they got everything they wanted (except for the title of heir), they were forgiven almost everything, they had a mother next to them who loved them. How many boys in Westeros have this?
Aegon has nothing to complain about at all. The boy was a spoiled hedonist who got everything he wanted. His wife was his sister, the Targaryen princess and dragon rider, whom he knew well and he did not have to leave his home (Daemon, who at the age of sixteen was forced to leave the home in which he grew up and live with a strange woman, was not so lucky). And even if Aegon was not satisfied with Helaena as a wife, then since he was born a man, the prince could afford promiscuity with any woman he wanted. And it doesn't seem like anyone at court would be bothered by this. Re-read the book. All of Aegon's problems began from the moment he usurped his sister's throne.
The only thing Aemond could complain about was the loss of his eye. After all, even if Viserys had made Aegon his heir, Aemond would still not be very high in the line of succession, since Aegon had two sons by the age of twenty, and in the future there could be even more. As for losing an eye, yes, it's bad. But still, many things happen in life. I mean, in real life, injuries happen during children's games or fights.
At the same time, Rhaenyra lost her mother when she was a child, and after some time she was replaced by an embittered and full of hatred and envy woman, because of which she had to leave the house in which she grew up, and after her own father forbade her to leave Dragonstone, to protect the “beloved” daughter and wife from new conflicts.
I've written before about what I think of Viserys as a father and my opinion hasn't changed. Viserys's love brought Rhaenyra more harm than good. Viserys was a terrible father to all of his children, but at least his children from his second marriage had a mother. No matter how much I hated Alicent, she was there for her children and loved them in her own way. Rhaenyra has been alone since she was a child.
Rhaenyra was also forced to marry against her will to a man who would never love her as a woman. And when she allowed herself a relationship with someone else, she was certainly condemned and humiliated.
Every time I see posts about the "difficult childhood" of Alicent's children, I want to laugh. Rhaenyra grew up without a mother, her stepmother was an evil witch, and her father was a useless idiot. But of course, according to the greens, Rhaenyra was born evil in the flesh and her suffering does not matter and she deserves it.