anon speaks of this post.

Criston wouldn't be able to even if he wanted to, bc show!Aemond would not allow such a thing even if he weren't "poisoned" by Alys and that would likely put Criston off or motivate him to look to Daeron as his next "leader" to ticket to self-affirmation. It's too tempting a way to "safely" be vulnerable. At least that is how I'm seeing it for now. We'll see when the clips of season 3 that will inevitably circulate online pop up of it.

Me, I would have preferred if show!Alys had "poisoned" Daemon thinking he'd hurt her and as it progressively doesn't really work or as far as it becomes obvious he's not going to decimate her house/the riverlands for funsies or incompetent planning (as was canon, the Blackwoods thing was distorted and rewritten), they develop some sort of understanding. Then when Aemond appears, the stakes and matter changes, perhaps Alys had expected more or less the same from Aemond (or tries to convince him magically and nonmagically) until that grossly gets proven wrong.

Not lifted, yes? If not, thank goodness.

The Strongs lost their lord and heir in Lyonel and Harwin before the war AND during the war [SPOILERS!!!] they will be totally destroyed Aemond. I wouldn't say that whatever effects that are told to have ruined all the other houses who took over skipped over the Strongs. Not at all. Perhaps HotD's making it so that the bulk of Harrenhal's bloody history can be chalked up to magic is leaving the impression that the castle exploits its inhabitants' "inner torment" (and that's the curse), but that's really unlikely when all or most of the inhabitants historically were killed bc of political intrigue or abusing their power over those in their lands. (I talk about it here) Like the other houses, the Strongs die and very violently bc of political intrigue and alliances. Plus, I don't think the Towers were ever "inauthentic".

I mention the book bec, again, the Strongs even in the show do still experience and will likely still experience total annihilation or violence without ghosts being the architects of such.

As for Larys, I personally speculate that he's with the greens for advantage until he's not and, yes, he didn't care all that much for family loyalty or obligation. Book and show.

I think that's is in the shadows so neither side can anticipate what's he's going to do next and thus be wary of him, which in turn makes it easier for him to perform secret tactics in contingecy of when either side fails/falls. So this:

is likely coming from his ruthless pursuit of power, playing the "game", and conceding to his own loss when finally cornered. Yes,

There's, to me, a sort of fatigue here. He, canonically asks to leave behind his clubfoot when he's slotted to be executed, showing that he very likely pursued power in spite of what expectations for a disabled second son there was. But after it caught up with him, he took death as a new way out or a real chance to "rest" after all the scheming but as you say, on his own terms. A sort of parallel to how people just wanted the Dance to be over at the end.

Criston desperately wanted payback and was contrastingly attached to his status as an enemy against Rhaenyra or having some sort of BIG ENEMY bc he's defined himself his whole life by those things that are inaccessible to Larys: conventional knighthood masculinity and the physicality required to obtain such status. Alicent also desperately wished to validate herself through the conventions of womanhood that directly contradict the ruthlessness she wants to take advantage of:

For me, the Harrenhal sequence didn't appeal and wasn't all that fun both because of:

Therefore, I dislike how the entire Harrenhal plot in HotD is predicated on the supposed necessity of guiding Daemon to fight for/and believe in Rhaenyra AND her believing he would fight or plan well for her after their several years of growing a family together…

Even with the argument that bk!Rhaenyra might have felt something about B&C degrading her reputation or credibility in its viciousness. BECAUSE Daemon got many riverlords to follow him against the Brackens during and after the Battle of the Burning Mill not long after B&C -- those lords would have known what he did. As I said in one of the linked posts, these lords would not have cared that much over Jaehaerys as to stop supporting Rhaenyra altogether, esp after it was Aemond/a green who killed her son to provoke a response (not moral, but certainly falls within the parameters of how their general ethics work) OR as to forgo their sworn oaths to her.

There was no uproar about Daemon and the Blackwoods in canon…ever. Nor was any Tully a part of the war until much later. Bc the Blackwoods were destroying Rhaenyra's enemies, the Brackens…alone. (Yes there were villages ruined and sacked, I'm saying it wasn't treated as a war crime bc it was relegated against a green supporter and this was a conflict bk!Daemon had already enlisted various riverlords to fight against the Brackens, so there wouldn't be any sort of council called against him when he's performing exactly what he was supposed to do as Rhaenyra's consort and sorta-vassal):

"A Son for a Son"

"The Red Dragon and the Gold"

I think you forgot to add the link to said post? I will answer what you gave here, though.

I don't know about a person or living, self-conscious entity necessarily cursed Harrenhal and all its people, but I could believe that the misery and rage from the Hoare's slave exploitation of the Riverlanders (I mean prisoners of battles and smallfolk) left an "impression" powerful enough to become an epicenter or magnet (bc we know magic and gods exist) for tragedy...OR anyone who has Harrenhal was always a house that was in the eye of every other house for the potential the lands and castle could bring. IDK.

The "curse" predates the Strongs; the first house who ruled/was granted Harrenhal was the House Qoherys (Gargon the Guest was killed during a rebellion), then it was the Harroways, then it was the Towers house. Then Maegor Towers & Rhaena (Alysanne's sister)'s died, and Jaehaerys gave Harrenhal to the Strongs.

2 out of the 3 houses mentioned before the Strongs ended with terrible violence, so yes there was a cultural sense in Westeros that any house that takes up Harrenhal as their new seat their line will die very shortly, not even last 4 generations. The castle itself is and has never been fully restored to its short-lived prior completion before Aegon/Balerion burned it and its Hoare inhabitants alive.

Oh, and what "boys"? Because Rhaenyra's sons?--if that post was sneering, then I'd dismiss that since the boys were not in any way a part of the Strong house or lineage ever since they were given the surname Velaryon and claimed/never revealed in the first place. That's them holding onto an ideological identity rather than a legal one so they can feel satisfied with hating or delegitimizing Rhaenyra's claim or theirs. People can be very weird when it comes to those born out of wedlock both when they are reading these books and when they're just out and about.

nobodysuspectsthebutterfly has a post showing GRRM originally had Rhaenyra marry Lyonel Strong (and how no matter what and by whatever husband, the greens were going to try to usurp her), evidenced by the RPG guide (2012) for ASoIaF.

F&B was published in 2015; The Rogue Prince was published along with other stories in an anthology in 2014; and PatQ was published back in 2013. I would say that he created Daemon for Rhaenyra to give Viserys more of a reason to want Rhaenyra as his heir, since Viserys, now that D exists, canonically also wished to make sure the realm would not go towards someone he didn't fully trust. Also it gives the story so much more breath when you have a character like Daemon. And, of course, Rhaenyra and Daemon are pretty compatible in terms of character and political necessities; they provide the other with what they need/want the most even as they aop were "rivals" for the throne even thought they also kinda weren't. This was always Rhaenyra's story, anyway, for all the other interesting characters that surround her and interacted, tried to remove or support her (Corlys, Rhaenys, Alicent, Aemond, etc.). Her childhood, rise, and fall impacted by the misogyny and what she did or tried to do to keep her kids alive AND vie for the throne she was given and had oaths of protection for.

"couldn't decide on who was best who was the best option for Rhaenyra" -- idk, perhaps it was more hi wanting to enrich the story and give more personality and "family" to this part of Targ history, as he has done more for Jaehaerys, Rhaena, Alysanne, Maegor-Aenys before them. This doesn't stop or negate how Daemon was likely made with Rhaenyra's support base in mind. It is compelling to hear of a man/partner do whatever he can for his lover/wife, whether or not he has a character the complexity or cooperativeness of a coconut or as complex as Daemon is bc you don't get that often in traditional fantasy, male centered fantasy. Or it's publicly reviled with a million excuses before whatever version and manifestation in a particular work is actually critiqued. Because sometimes, there is something to be said abt just fictional dudes who are just more trouble than they are worth being posed as a model man. The lines between such things can get crossed.

And it appears Harwin was also created for Rhaenyra since there is no mention of him before PatQ/2013. But he (Harwin) happens to have much less characterization & personality done for him AND Rhaenyra quite clearly wanted to live as freely with a partner as possible and that wasn't really going to happen with Harwin for as long as Laenor lived at least.

Even if she was angry at Daemon for a myriad of possible reasons for the 111-112 incidents and perhaps they finally got through a successful reconciliation through their shared love for Laena (even before her death), there's room for a lot of complex & layered feelings on Rhaenyra's part towards Daemon. And I mention all of this bc apparently, GRRM also toyed with the idea of exploring Rhaenyra and Harwin's relationship more, saying that:

(he is saying that their relationship's arc alone could fill/become a novella and he thought about doing it) which does goes to show you that Harwin WAS very important in some way to Rhaenyra--guaranteed to be someone she felt and experienced was a positive one for a time in her life at the very least.

I don't really go for Harwin bc I don't know anything abt him apart from his position, family, and devotion to Rhaenyra...so he has very little appeal for me in terms of shipping. That, and again, Rhaenyra seems to be the type who wants the "best" sort of conditions to be herself and have relationships in the open. I explain/rant HERE.

Still I agree; more males made only for a woman, plz and thank you. It's what we deserve (if a man is there and/or the attraction is there).

Anon talks about this post.

I remember some of stillfrombrooklyn's points about Saera and Jaehaerys and something vaguely abt Harwin. I remeber agreeing with some, disagreeing with others, as one does in fandom or a lot of discussion. I don't remember much, though and I haven't gone back to review.

IDK if it's GRRM's oversight, but the Strong sisters are barely mentioned after their becoming Rhaenyra's "handmaidens" in her/their pre-marriage youths. And idk what about Harwin you want my opinion of. Do you mean whether Rhaenyra loved him, he loved her, whether the love was one sided or mutual? Are you asking if he only approached her and stayed loyal to her for his family's sake, or that kept being his main motivation? Whether the sisters were loyal to her, why or why not, and the quality/motivation of that loyalty?

Rhaenyra is 14-15 when she does what she does w/Daemon (whatever it was) and he is exiled in 112; in 113, she's arranged to be married to Laenor; in 114 alone, she moves to Driftmark with Harwin's sisters (2 out of her total handmaids), Mushroom, and Harwin, marries Laenor, Criston leaves her and kills Joffrey, and Jace is born in that year's last days. I take "waning" days literally to mean just the last one to two weeks in the year and it takes 8-9 months for a healthy fetus to be born and become an official infant. So Rhaenyra is 17-18 when she births Jace.

So are you talking about the fact that Harwin likely impregnates her (as I believe her kids weren't Laenor's, others think differently...it doesn't matter personally or in terms of assigning any sort of "blame" towards her, but it does matter narratively) when she's barely 18 and he'd most likely be older at least by 4 or more years and in his 20s (since he was made a captain in the City Watch in 105, men/boys are usually knighted 15-18 in Westeros, and he had to have built his reputation as "strongest man" from proofs of such experience and we have no proof of him having been very young when he built that reputation)?

It'll be more helpful if you asked specific questions about Harwin and his sisters, anon.

I mentioned how Alys likely lost at least one child for her to be a wetnurse at all since a woman usually lactates during/after pregnancy AND medieval wetnurses have that same condition to become wetnurses. HERE is the post.

Though the Strongs are a well-off noble family in possession of Harrenhal, they are not Lord Paramount of the Riverlands. That title goes to the Tullys, whose fortress, while less imposing than Harrenahl, nevertheless had allowed them to accrue a lot of wealth and influence for its strategic location and effective moat system. The Strongs do not have that much of an illustrious history, therefore, they aren't as big a house.

Alys is a bastard. That's the central premise they seem to get it from. From Alicent's behavior and the overall controversy over Rhaenyra's sons (esp since some green stans haven't read the other books), some green stans would assume that every/almost every bastard gets horribly mistreated. Particularly if they aren't a bastard of a very high lord (Aegon IV's illegitimate kids seem to have had great treatment and Jon Snow had a more privileged life [economically & emotionally, since most of the family liked him] better than most other houses' bastards, even some minor legitimate lord's sons).

On the whole, the stigma against bastards comes from the 1) belief that they are innately untrustworthy because they come from lust, "lack of restraint", and human "error", not a sanctified and legal marriage and 2) even though they are not from a legal marriage, they are still offspring who could theoretically compete for the resources of the house and therefore rebel against the heir OR even just reduce the money and other resources reserved for the legitimate children. The first comes from the Faith doctrine and I think it socially serves to reinforce the anxiety/convert it into righteous disdain and suspicion of bastards. Therefore, outside of Dorne, you would find that bastards aren't as respected or treated as humanely as legitimately born people. Especially if they live amongst any aristocratic group.

However, as I noted about Jon above, said treatment can go from a very loving setting to a more or less accepting but somewhat distant to extremely abusive and/or neglectful. It depends on the lord/ladies' powers, their political situation and needs, and/or their character(s) as well as the house's interpersonal relationships with one another. And as we don't have much information about Alys' life before Aemond besides her being a wetnurse, we cannot say for certain what her relationship with the Strongs was like.

Perhaps growing up as a child she was never beaten or directly insulted but also was never deliberately allowed to sit too close to the family at very important functions? Perhaps when she grew older, as those who fathered/birthed her died or moved away to other houses for marriage, she was put further out of the circle but kept around because they still felt a bit of guilt or wanted to make sure she never revealed who the parent was. Or perhaps because she had given birth, lost the baby, and felt the need to stay on because this place/people have always been safe? And they decided to just have her own as a wetnurse to further tie her closer to the family. Or they felt this was expedient AS WELL AS liked her. Hell, it's also possible, a little, that she isn't a Strong bastard and was someone's mistress who then lost a child (I think she was the illegitimate daughter of one of their own though).

Alys Rivers plus that scene in S1E9 lets us know that Aemond will possibly be made into a sexually abused young man at the psychological mercy of his own older female lover/WAR PRIZE. And in canon, he starts burning down the Riverlands after Rhaenyra takes King's Landing. So his doing that would probably come after his fear, rage, and grief over him not being able to do anything for his own mother and sister and feeling the biggest failure despite having the biggest and oldest, and fiercest dragon (who he may or may not be in love with and truly desire but can't have, we'll see what the writers decide). All of this will culminate into something like Bogus-Daenerys of GoT, where he goes on a rampage against the wrong people out of feeling totally helpless and useless. (Original Canon Quote)

Poor Aemond.

As for the Strongs, I am less certain. The writers could go with could be that one of the Strongs -- maybe just Simon Strong -- trying to assassinate him and Aemond decides to kill all of them jic -- not that this actually absolves him from murdering children, but that's the HotD way. We saw Lucerys. We might hear then, people saying "like how Lucerys took out his eye, Aemond was just protecting himself". As if the could-be Strong weren't also trying to protect themselves and/or practice their loyalty to rhaenyra's cause by getting rid of this person preemptively, who also holds them all hostage and may have fear from him hating them because of the parentage rumors of the V boys and how Aemond was hurt by one. The writers could adopt the canon of Aemond's motivation to kill the Strongs (being what I said about how he thought the Strongs were both his hated nephews' relatives AND balming Larys for Rhaenyra's win) and make it that he was either under some magical/medicinal influence from his own misadventure or Alys Rivers' manipulation OR again he was so emotionally rent that he decided to take it out on these people.

Well, it seems that the writer forgets that Alys is Aemond's war prize, and if he decided he wanted her to bleed and cry before killing her, no one would lift a finger because it would be his "right" and his "might" would be backed up by his dragon/lingering army. 

Aemond was the one who chose and picked out Alys of all the younger persons there. From the start, he pursued Alys. He had the power to kill and rape her whenever, however he chose.

Alys is different from a modern older person in an age-gap relationship in that we don’t give weapons and too much privilege to soldiers --especially the young ones like the 20-year old Aemond, who isn't even a child by our standards -- in the same way as medieval/ancient societies did. You could be 60 years old, and of 16 year old lord wanted you as a war prize, you were a war prize to do what he wanted. The 16 year old would be seen as perverse for wanting that 60 year old, but he would not have been mocked or rebuked for taking a prize it of itself. Why? Because he was a male noble warrior who won.

Even though Alys was older, what was she actually going to do against a full on army/dragon? Against a person who was trained by one of the most skilled warriors and became one himself, no matter how young where she had no combat skills that we know of? What power did she have except social maniplation maybe, which isn’t a bad thing at all here since I believe it would protect her (and did) from the crazy nutbag that is Aemond. Again, he killed an entire house’s male line--adults and children--who surrendered!

Why? Because he thought that Larys Strong betrayed the Greens and enabled Rhaenyra to take KL?! Larys has been a loyal Green since the very beginning, and Aemond basically destroyed this supporter’s base of economic support, thus also destroying it for the Greens themselves!!!!! 

Also because he remembered that Harwin Strong was the father of the boys he hated, one of which he killed for no good reason at all and actually to the detriment of the Greens! So because of this one guy doing a thing that was not even amoral at all, his entire family should die?!!!

EDIT: (LINK) I think it would be interesting to see Alys Rivers and Aemond use each other, him more emotionally (along with the status that a war prize gives a warrior), her him more materially. Except it's not exactly gold-digger...because he had her life in his hands at a time of war and I think that she wanted to protect Harrenhal's living inhabitants as well.

Except that the text/canon as of 2023 of this month and day (since this is a The Winds of Winter thing) clearly states in no ambiguities that Falia's father allowed her stepmother and sisters to treat her as less-than. 

While Alys became a wet nurse, Falia was proven to have been treated as if she were lower than her sisters. Falia is on the spectrum of "needs to get out" vs Alys’ “IDK, maybe? doesn’t have to leave until we get more info”. Alys' situation needs more evidence and stronger suggestions of Strong abuse meriting hatred than what F&B gives us.

And if she was abused and welcomed the deaths of all/some of her distant kin at Aemond's hands, that would be pretty horrific for her still. Seeing as there were children and probably male infants there that Aemond killed. F&B says the entire male line. If there were no kids or babies killed, it's still a massacre of innocent, surrendering adults performed in front of your very eyes. If that happened in front of me, I'd be terrified for my own life and those that I actually liked and cared for, plus men rape captured women and children....so, the girls and women aren't guaranteed safety.

I would not like her much (understatement) but I would still say that she was a victim of Aemond. War prizes are no joke people. It reminds me of how people would try to justify Robert hurting and raping Cersei for her either annoying him or just because she herself is an abusive, evil person. No one deserves rape and being made into a sex object.

While wet nurses again had thankless jobs, I already stated why I need more HERE.

Anon is talking about this POST.

The green stans/Aemond stans would have to pull up strong (no pun intended) evidence or suggesstion for Alys hating the Strongs. Even if she loved them, Aemond is going around cutting heads with an army behind him. Can you blame a person untrained in fighting to freeze or hide or run off even if they loved/valued the killed?

Real medieval wet nurses seem have been having one of the worst and most demeaning jobs for women, and the ones where they are more surveyed/sideyed than if they weren’t because of a belief that the lower-classed wetnurse would possibly pass on her low-classed traits to the baby through her "dangerous" milk. 

I don't know if GRRM ever ruled this “dangerous” milk was a real concern for Westerosi nobles, but I do think that Alys Rivers was both an accepted part of the Strong household and someone on the margins -- not taken seriously or emotionally involved. 

Because she is related to them, unlike your average wet nurses, she might be seen has being more trustworthy. Or because she is a bastard of a person they didn't want to ruin the rep of, they didn’t treat her well at all.

You’re right, we have no strong indication of her family treating her one way or the other. Still, I lean towards them treating her so-so for the very fact that she’s allowed to stay generation after generation. Well and a part of the central family but not horribly. Again, she would have had a better deal in comparison to going out of Harrenhal alone (but if she did, I would not think less of her in the attempt to find a better, happier, or more autonomous life than she had with the Strongs).

The existence, or allowance, of a war prize is misogynist...but not because anti-true-romance/love-in-AlysxAemond but because a misogynist society thinks and makes women so expendable and open to sexual abuse.

EDIT: (link) I think Alys sent Aemond to his death to protect herself or at least didn't stop him because there was no world where she wasn't in constant danger beside him, even if he took her to KL. The people around the greens or a part of them (especially Alicent, this conservative woman who, like her show counterpart, thinks about appearances), would try to remove or use her.

I don't think she was as attached to him as he was to her, even if there was some sort of reluctant affection from her (not quite full-fledged Stockholm syndrome, since I think she always maintained her eye on the prize: self-preservation).

................................................................................

A)

Alys could send Aemond to his death because he made her his war prize and immediately began having sex with her after destroying her means of living (look at point “B”, there’s more).

Alys is referred to many times as Aemond’s “bedmate”. Her purpose is sexual.

So here is this guy who has literally made a pile of heads out of the children and adults you have seen or interacted with, even causally, for years. It's still traumatic to see them die violently in front of your very eyes, or know how they died. Even if you didn't love them, you knew them. Plus, if we believe that Aemond even killed kids, that would induce a lot of fear and panic in those left behind, even if they didn't like kids. Women and girls get raped by occupying soldiers often in all sorts and periods of war, too. But otherwise, it's usually a heartbreaking thing to know/witness: the violent murders of children. No one good or sane approves or ignores to see the most vulnerable people get killed or abused.

She also seems to show some compassion for that messenger that Aemond was going to beat up. So I imagine she would have been horrified by the live-extermination before. I see little reason why Alys would not be affected similarly as that is the usual response to such, and if you argue otherwise you need very good evidence in the text/context.

Again, Aemond murders these male Strongs -- man and child-- openly. For everyone left to witness...

Do you actually think that Alys would have seen this and thought, "hmmm this guy will take good care of me (specifically in the moment and right after when he chooses her out of others to keep) and respect me or care of my feelings beyond his own"? You’d have to present a good reason and evidence to suggest how she’d know of his coming, which admittedly reveals how little we know of Alys and her true abilities or even if she was a witch or if she was just Aemond’s “type”.

Here is another, earlier example of what war prizes actually were, as opposed to a legitimate paramour or mistress:

And Ian Plate writes this in his article:

There is no consent here, at all. None. And little guarantee of safety.

B)

Never said or claimed that she DEFINITELY sent Aemond to his death for her family. Never even said she cared or loved them.

I said she materially depended on the Strongs for her own living. 

She may not have loved them per se but it’s possible that she would still feel like she lost some sort of "home" as well as her means for living and economic support -- as she lived with them all her life, had memories, and grew up with them in her formative years. To have that gone in such violence RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER FACE will still discombobulate your sense of security as I already said, so that's another motivation against Aemond.

Though breastfeeding was not always a respected job and she would not have been as respected as the bastard closer in relation, she did relatively better as their wetnurse than if she married outside and became a “serf”’s wife. Which is probably why she even stayed for so long, as we see by her age (not old, but she never chose to marry and have kids elsewhere and she was estimated to be in her late 30s to mid 40s...which is old to not have a family to these medieval persons).

Aemond, destroying her means to live, thus made her much more vulnerable, giving her a less stable life. War prizes depend on their captor and their captor alone. (I go into Alys’ vulnerability if she had gone with him to King’s Landing or if Alicent knew about her below). That is enough for a person to hate him even without the war prize event. 

But add the war prize to it, with her history of losing children (wet-nurses were women who weaned their child too early or lost their infants very early...hence their ability to breastfeed), forcing her to get pregnant again and scrounging up her past miscarriages or stillbirths...Alys sees Aemond murders this Strong kids (even if she weren't close to them), and remembers her own loss....trauma reborn.

There’s a lot to hate and fear Aemond for.

C)

Official, "true" paramours and other mistresses historically are not usually war prizes. War prizes are those who were captured and taken as reward for an individual’ military prowess and conquest, as I’ve already stated.

While paramours, mistresses, and war prizes all occupy this strange space of “lover of a lord/warrior under his sociopolitical authority and dependent on him”, because war prizes literally have no choice in the face of harm or violence after being captured, they are not like other mistresses or paramours. They are not “free”. Their lives don’t really matter as much to anyone but their captors, who can decide when they live and when they die. Mistresses and paramours like Samantha Tarly, Ellaria Sand, Barbra Bracken, Bellegere Otherys, etc. have a lot more freedom since they weren’t taken as prizes during/after the captor’s victory and usually have some backing from families and even husbands. Some money independent from their lovers to fall back on, even if they received some moneys from said lover. They are protected by customs and/or self-allocated resources and connections.

Thus, they would very likely and often not be treated as well as the average paramour/mistress, who weren't bonded to the lord in a war/violence/reward context. 

Of course, having a child would make Alys and other war prizes’ prospects a bit more politically “better”, since lords are still expected to take care of their bastards or look out for their well being in some capacity. However, realistically, this puts both Alys and her kid in more danger, with that kid now traced back to Aemond. 

What would the others (Otto, Aegon, Alicent) have thought and done about this child to maintain their images and royal image even if it’s a man/Aemond and not Helaena having a bastard? By how they neglect Aegon’s bastards, I’d imagine they’d try to get rid of Alys’ child. Maybe not violently, but...it's just not in Alys' interests to be perceived as a nuisance or even as a "thing" that creates a flaw in the greens' image or nettle Aemond's mother. Viserys II forced Aegon IV's mistress, Megette, to leave even after birthing Aegon's first set of kids, 3 daughters. Megette was eventually beaten to death by her husband. Daeron is one of those who supposedly looks at Jon Roxton in “horror” when he rapes the Lady of Tumbleton and kills her husband. Which happens presumably before Aemond takes Alys. Which means that this image of Hightower religious and moral purity is tainted by Aemond’s action. What if the Hightowers had won, Aemond came back with Alys to court? Especially with the rumors of Alys being a witch and Alicent/the Hightowers being so religious or seeming so....

You see the issue here, for Alys? It’s actually best if Aemond dies and she gets to run off, even if she didn't know what the other greens were like.

And that's the issue in her perspective as a war prize: the future is a lot more unpredictable and likelier to be dangerous than it was before. And we still don't know how Alys's probable visions work...does she just get them out of the blue, or can she focus and see events yet to happen? Both? Can she ever really trust those visions?

Actually, I doubt that Alys and her son would have lived with his identity as Aemond’s bastard in the open. Even though she already told Regis how he was Aemond's son before she defended herself and Harrenhal against some of the crown's men, later she and her son disappeared from history altogether. And her telling him that seems more to give her time and put the attackers off balance than any expectation of him getting the throne.

I assume:

As for the curse of Harrenhal disallowing the women in it to give birth successfully, there are wives of Strong men who were able to birth kids despite Alys’ past inability. Plus, if we think this child is hers and Aemond’s, she birthed Aemond’s child successfully. I have doubts over this curse over female or male fertility. 

We see Alys’ son survive and live long enough for her to use against attackers. If she and Aemond actually got married and this child was theirs, this child would be trueborn and have “Targaryen” as his surname, not a bastard to have “Rivers” or "Waters" as his surname.

And if they weren’t married, then the son would customarily be considered a Targaryen bastard, not a Strong one because his father is the trueborn nobleperson with a house surname while his mother is not a trueborn noble. Aemond was a crownlander and a royal person, so if this was his bastard son, the son's last name would be "Waters".

Also, since the Strong male line and the Strong house went 0 before this son was even born, again, he’d be a Targ bastard, not a Strong one because the Strongs are extinct.

This is the last we hear of Alys and her son by Aemond: