In simply 9 episodes, the Sport of Thrones prequel Home of the Dragon has lined a ton of floor and spanned many years. Some characters have aged up a number of instances, half a dozen kids have been born, and inheritor to the throne Rhaenyra has gotten married, faux widowed, and remarried all in just a few hours of TV. To depict such massive swaths of time and rapidly lay the groundwork for the upcoming Targaryen succession wrestle, the showrunners have made strategic selections about when to concentrate on character and relationship growth.
Consequently, Alicent and Rhaenyra — maybe the central relationship of the present — have treasured few scenes collectively after the primary episode, making the explanations for his or her falling-out-turned-civil-war at instances maddeningly unclear: What was Alicent’s cope with Rhaenyra? Why was she so mad about her former good friend’s sexual exploits? Why didn’t Rhaenyra simply inform Alicent the reality about sleeping with Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel)? Are they in love? Home of the Dragon succeeds in bringing the rote historical past of George R. R. Martin’s Fireplace & Blood to life, nevertheless it falls quick in fleshing out the motivations of the 2 girls on the heart of the battle.
The significance of this relationship and the intimacy between the younger girls is hammered house within the first 10 minutes of the present. We see Rhaenyra dismount from her dragon and stroll to a carriage the place Alicent waits to accompany her. Later, they stroll casually by way of the Pink Hold arm-in-arm, and Rhaenyra fantasizes about flying collectively on dragonback whereas mendacity in Alicent’s lap underneath a weirwood tree. We come to obviously perceive this relationship as multiple of simply obligation between handmaiden and princess. However because the season progresses and the following struggle for the crown begins, issues get muddled.
In Fireplace & Blood, Alicent and Rhaenyra’s relationship sours on the premise of politics. They’re each vying for the Iron Throne and, due to this fact, develop into enemies — easy. There’s possible extra to the story, past the purview of the in-book narrators who can solely observe a lot. However at its core, the fissure is simple and about energy. In Home of the Dragon, showrunners Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal elaborate on that supply materials by imagining what the pair’s intimate relationship was like, inserting an array of non-public clashes into the story. The primary of those blows to the friendship is Alicent’s marriage to Rhaenyra’s father, King Viserys. Prompted by her personal father and Hand of the King, Otto Hightower, Alicent consoles the king as he grieves his spouse’s loss of life, profitable his favor. However she concurrently acts as Rhaenyra’s important confidante because the latter worries about challenges to her declare on the throne. (Looks like a battle of curiosity!) Rhaenyra is blindsided by the engagement and, understandably, damage.
Over the following few episodes, their relationship clearly modifications, heat and closeness changed by iciness and distance. However due to the time jumps, we don’t get to see how. What’s extra, after the primary three episodes aired, Greg Yaitanes, director of “The Rogue Prince” and “Second of His Title”, revealed that just a few key moments between Alicent and Rhaenyra had been minimize. The slashed scenes embody a blowout struggle between the 2 after Viserys broadcasts his intention to marry Alicent, and Rhaenyra serving to her former good friend dress for her marriage ceremony. This looks like fairly essential content material to ax: We don’t know the way Rhaenyra feels after her father’s declaration of marriage or what of these emotions she shared with Alicent. We don’t know what phrases they have been on throughout the marriage ceremony. We’re additionally blind to how Alicent responded to Rhaenyra’s confrontation and the way she felt about her personal engagement. The story can proceed with out these, actually. However these gaps diminish our perception into the pair’s dynamic because it evolves.
In episode 4, Rhaenyra and Alicent almost make amends, telling one another how they’ve missed each other, nevertheless it’s only a blip (considered one of many). The subsequent nail within the coffin for his or her relationship is Rhaenyra’s evening of sexual escapades, first in a brothel along with her uncle, and later sleeping with Ser Criston. When Alicent catches wind of the rumor, she’s livid… for causes the viewers is rarely absolutely given. And when she later learns Rhaenyra didn’t sleep with Daemon (Matt Smith), however with Ser Criston, Alicent appears devastated.
A part of her anger could be defined by her father Otto’s (Rhys Ifans) dismissal as Hand on account of bringing the rumors to the king. Nonetheless, her rage is directed at Rhaenyra, not her husband, and appears to be extra about her good friend’s actions themselves, fairly than their ramifications. By the fifth episode, viewers perceive that Alicent is pious, dutiful, and trapped in a wedding the place intercourse is an obligation, not a pleasure — which is juxtaposed starkly with Rhaenyra’s brothel antics. However with out extra context about Alicent’s values, and joint display screen time to develop the ladies’s relationship because it shifts and crumbles, the Inexperienced Queen’s degree of indignation doesn’t land: Is Alicent actually declaring struggle as a result of her good friend had intercourse?
Later, and with extra pushing from her power-hungry father, putting her son on the Iron Throne turns into Alicent’s driving drive. However when taken at face worth, her anger appears to be extra of a response to Rhaenyra’s exploration of her sexuality, in the end amounting to slut-shamey pearl clutching. In comparison with the princess’ response when Alicent marries her dad — arguably an even bigger, extra pointed slight than having intercourse earlier than marriage — the diploma of Alicent’s misery feels disproportionate to the criticism, courtroom politics or no.
In a number of interviews, Milly Alcock and Emily Carey, who painting Rhaenyra and Alicent within the first 5 episodes of the season, have confirmed that they performed their characters as having a romantic connection, not only a shut, platonic one. In a dialog with The New York Occasions, Carey stated, “As a queer individual myself, I learn an undertone within the script that I knew could possibly be performed.”
Alicent and Rhaenyra in love? That will clarify so much, significantly Alicent’s rage. The issue is that this was a selection the actors made and a idea fueled by followers, not an underpinning the writers and creators deliberately inserted. As Carey clarified within the interview: “I don’t suppose Ryan Condal sat there writing a Sapphic drama.” Perhaps he ought to have! The performers and viewers are inventing the context the present ought to have included to make sense of and strengthen the premise of Home of the Dragon’s core battle. With out this backstory, Alicent’s motives really feel inadequate, and her anger rings hole.
By injecting Martin’s document of Targaryen ancestry with a deeper humanity — relationships, disputes, untold secrets and techniques — the showrunners have created fascinating characters out of one-dimensional historic figures. Nonetheless, the canonical succession wrestle and these new interpersonal dynamics don’t at all times mesh. And time and time once more, it’s Alicent who bears the brunt of such imperfect modifications. Within the context of a bigger struggle over who will rule Westeros, Alicent slicing off a childhood good friend as a result of she slept with somebody appears petty and vindictive, and the narrative doesn’t make house to discover this additional.
When the characters age up in episode 6, viewers are as soon as extra left to fill within the gaps themselves to know how Alicent and Rhaenyra’s relationship has modified. And it appears clear from the writing of Alicent’s early scenes that the wound of their division has calcified not less than partially as a result of she nonetheless has an issue with Rhaenyra’s intercourse life. Talking to the co-president of the “I hate Rhaenyra as a result of she fucks” membership, Ser Criston, Alicent feedback, “I’ve to consider that in the long run, honor and decency will prevail,” referring to her former good friend’s extramarital affairs and ensuing kids with Harwin Robust.
An episode later, Alicent’s anger involves a head when she slashes Rhaenyra with the notorious Catspaw Dagger after a brawl between their sons leads to considered one of them shedding an eye fixed. “What have I achieved however what was anticipated of me?” Alicent yells. “Without end upholding the dominion, the household, the regulation, when you flout all to do as you please. The place is obligation? The place is sacrifice? It’s trampled underneath your fairly foot once more.” With these strains, the writers lastly supply viewers a glimpse into Alicent’s emotions: envy, nostalgia, bitterness. But it surely comes too late.
After yet one more time bounce in episode 8, Alicent and Rhaenyra are as soon as once more on the precipice of reconciling (it’s sufficient to present you whiplash), however the transient truce undercuts Alicent all of the extra. She comes off as fickle, her convictions liable to vary on a whim. It reinforces the unsubstantial nature of her anger and the extra growth that wanted to occur to make Alicent’s motives much less flimsy.
It’s episode 9, “The Inexperienced Council,” the place Home of the Dragon actually takes the time to make clear Alicent’s wounded nature. As a mom, a spouse, a queen, and, sure, even a (one-time) good friend, Alicent has been by way of the ringer and are available out the opposite facet remoted and jaded. Though Rhaenyra isn’t within the episode in any respect, the absence of their relationship is felt extra profoundly than at nearly any level within the sequence earlier than.
Rhaenyra and Alicent’s relationship is essentially the most compelling a part of Home of the Dragon —and essentially the most annoying. Because the matriarchs of their respective branches of the Targaryen household, they’ve set the tone of the main battle to return. The sequence depends on these two girls, nevertheless it additionally neglects them. The showrunners plowed by way of the primary season at warp velocity to arrange a struggle that, as of episode 9, is simply getting underway, whereas deepening a brand new backstory within the course of. However in doing so, they sidelined the center of the present, constructing the central battle of the season on shaky floor.