Alicent and Rhaenyra's Friendship

House of the Dragon has kept audiences captivated for weeks, and though it deviates from the books fans seem to be enjoying the story. However one of the major changes made from the books was deliberate and opened up the story to more flaws than necessary. In the show they made the choice to age Alicent down so that she was the same age as Rhaenyra. They also attempted to establish that these two girls were best friends, as Alicent’s dad was hand to the king the transition seemed natural. But then the writers seemed to forget that they had established these two young women as having a close relationship. In fact they didn’t seem to put any thought into how female friendships work at all.

Now there are very few examples of good female friendships in the media, as most media is written by men. We often watch something and roll our eyes knowing that no woman would ever actually interact with their friend group in the manner portrayed. Female friendships are often shown as petty, caddy and manipulative. Very few examples exist that are mutually supportive, helpful and loving (you know like all the female relationships I know). Some good examples to look at are Buffy and Willow from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Christina and Meredith from Grey’s Anatomy, CC and Jess from New Girl, and Angela and Temperance from Bones. And quite frankly, there aren't many more than that. But in all of these friendships both women are fiercely loyal, supportive and have no problem keeping each other in check and having hard conversations. The writers of House of the Dragon incorporated exactly none of this into Alicent and Rhaenyra’s relationship. The reality is if they were as close as the writers told us they were then Alicent would have told Rhaenyra about the pressure her father was putting on her. She would have told her friend that she was being pimped out to the king and Rhaenyra would have held her and supported her through it. In turn the girls would have worked together, Alicent would have supported Rhaenyra’s claim and she would have ended up hand to the queen. But because men started off this season and needed to create tension and conflict out of nowhere, that obviously didn’t happen.

Obviously they couldn’t make the girls all loving and happy towards each other, it would get in the way of the story. But that means that aging Alicent down and making them friends was entirely unnecessary and useless. The writer in me wants to believe that in making the decision that they made they were intending to create more tension and emotion but it was done so haphazardly with absolutely no forethought and development it simply added to the problems of the show. This relationship and the way they chose to handle it is part of the outside of world sexism of the show. Men don’t know how to write women friendships and thus both women are reduced to powerless, petty pawns.

They gave us a glimmer of hope that they were gonna bring this relationship back and maybe flesh it out a bit in the scene after the family dinner where Alicent asks Rhaenyra to come back…and then they didn’t. Not only did that kind of come out of nowhere but in the next episode Alicent helps orchestrate the usurping of Rhaenyra’s crown, doesn’t really feel like she missed her old friend that much.

Season 2 is going to cause them to interact again but given that Alicent’s son killed Rhaenyra’s their friendship is pretty solidly in the ground.