Why It's Harder to Love Alicent than Rhaenyra in "House of the Dragon"

Spoiler for everything up to S1E7. No book spoilers though.

After episode 6, my patience for this show was running quite low with Queen Alicent and Sir Christon getting on my nerves too much to enjoy the intrigues unfolding on my screen. And although the new episode makes up for a lot, my initial point still stands: Alicent was done dirty.

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While I cannot speak for the book, I feel like the show tries really hard to make its audience understand both sides of this feud.

Rhaenyra proves to be understood quite easily, especially from a modern point of view: She wants to attend the throne as the firstborn, despite her gender, and she doesn't want to be forced to have pleasureless sex with men and instead enjoy herself. She tries to build a comfortable life for herself, her husband, and her children. She tries to be happy.

There is little to hate, I would argue.

Alicent on the other hand gives me plenty to roll my eyes at. She wants Rhaenery to stop fucking around, to honor her duty as a wife and, more importantly, as a woman. She despises her former childhood friend for her promiscuous lifestyle and the audacity to bear bastard children.

~One thing is not like the other~

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Episode 4 is the root of all evil for these two and made a great point in contrasting the lives of the young girls when Rhaenyra learns the pleasure of sex in a brothel with Daemon while Alicent is called into Visery's chambers to satisfy the needs of this old and ill man, regardless of her own wants and feelings.

Rhaenyra describes Alicent's life as her biggest nightmare in the very same episode:

"How romantic it must be to get imprisoned in a castle and made to squeeze out heirs"

Alicent stays silent, a sad look on her face.

"Sorry"

Rhaenyra takes Alicent's hand in her own.

It is a powerful moment that makes clear that although Rhaenyra has sympathy for the situation her friend is in, she has no intention of ever letting that happen to herself.

This carries so much weight through the end of that episode when Alicent confronts Rhaenyra about her "lost virtue". Instead of being understanding or, gods forbid, encouraging, Alicent is outraged. 

How dare Rhaenyra have something she was denied.

It opens a can of worms for Alicent. Because if Rhaenyra can choose who to be intimate with, then why can't she? What did she suffer for if Rhaenyra gets away unpunished? 

The things she endured lose meaning in the light of her undisciplined misbehavior.

And so Alicent has to hold onto this twisted idea of virtue and duty, to not break down right here and there. 

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But who was it that put her in this position in the first place? 

Otto Hightower sold his own daughter to the crown in order to gain more power. The same man also insured Alicent that her children are in danger because of their claim to the throne. Who sow doubt and hatred between these two girls who were once best friends. 

In the end, Alicent was all for Rhaenyra's claim to the throne before Otto brought this up. Furthermore, notice how guilty Alicent feels after attacking Rhaenyra in episode 7 and how this guilt vanishes after her father praised her for it. 

Listening to Otto has only brought her misery yet she continues to do so.

Alicent perfectly represents a woman fed the ideas of the patriarchy until she believes them herself.

When Rhaenyra offers peace in the form of a marriage proposal between her son and Alicent's daughter, she declines. 

When Rhaenyra gives birth, Alicent needs to see the child and make sure if it's yet another bastard. 

When her son gets attacked, she loses all composure.

"What have I done but what was expected of me? Forever upholding the kingdom, the family, the law. While you flout all to do as you please. 

Where is duty? Where is sacrifice? It's trampled under your pretty foot again."

Instead of teaming up with Rhaenyra and helping her ascend the iron throne, Alicent has nothing but disgust for Rhaenyra's choices. 

Instead of trying to make Westeros a better place for women like her, Alicent holds hate for those who think themselves above the patriarchal system. The very same system that once crushed her. 

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On paper, this is great. 

A woman, broken and reshaped by the Patriarchy against a woman who shamelessly challenges the system and everything it stands for. 

However, the show makes it harder to root for Alicent than it needs to be. I stand by the statement that the 10-year time skip was too much. I am missing the scenes in which Rhaenyra tries to explain herself to Alicent, tries to reconcile their bond, and tries to win her over for her cause. The cause to better the lives of women in the court. 

While I understand why it's too late for Alicent to reconcile Rhaenyra's actions with her worldview, the show misses framing Alicent as this victim of manipulation by the men around her and the system she grew up in.

That is not to say I want to strip her from her agency. Someone who has fallen victim to manipulation is very well still a fleshed-out character and is capable of making choices. It would just make her position and choices a little bit more understandable and it wouldn't need me to write this article to come to terms with Alicent and her actions that sometimes annoy me to no end in HotD.