House Of The Dragon: Alicent Hightower’s Worst Choices

Highlights

• Alicent and Rhaenyra’s friendship hit rock bottom due to politics and Alicent’s questionable decisions.
• Acting on her father’s commands, Alicent married King Viserys, sparking tension with Rhaenyra.
• Alicent’s paranoia and manipulation were passed down to her children, leading to a cycle of hatred and betrayal.

Otto Hightower’s daughter, Lady Alicent, accompanied him to court during his tenure as Hand in House of the Dragon. She became close friends with King Viserys’ daughter, Rhaenyra Targaryen. She brought order to the chaos that affected the Princess during the time the King hoped Queen Aemma Arryn would give birth to a boy.

As seen in House of the Dragon, Alicent and Rhaenyra were inseparable, but politics tore them apart. Though the distress in their friendship was interspersed with brief moments of peacemaking, they would never see eye to eye again. The friendship took a nosedive, thanks to Alicent’s terrible decision-making or lack thereof.

6 Seducing The King In His Grief

Alicent Acted On Otto’s Commands

Otto took advantage of Aemma Arryn’s death and dictated terms to Alicent – that she was to visit Viserys privately in his chambers and offer him comfort. Not entirely sure what she was doing, Alicent followed her father’s commands, and the king ended up taking her as his wife. Her first job was to provide Viserys with heirs to continue the royal line and add to the strength of House Targaryen. Her second job was to act as a distraction and supplant Rhaenyra through her blood, i.e., Otto’s grandchild.

The Princess took her own sweet time with marriage, while Alicent did things at her father’s behest. She felt increasingly alienated, and at the same time resented Rhaenyra for the greater degree of freedom she had:

“I find I have few friends lately. I like to believe I’m still the Lady Alicent, but all anybody sees when they look at me now is a queen.”

5 Breaking Faith With Rhaenyra

Alicent Betrayed Her Best Friend

With Aemma gone, Rhaenyra felt increasingly alone in the capital. The men behind the doors (far less intelligent and capable) got a seat right next to the king due to male privilege, while Rhaenyra had to struggle to be seen. Her biggest fear, and correctly so, was that these men knew she would be replaced, in time, as the king was expected to remarry and produce more heirs.

Otto was the biggest conspirator who had his daughter working behind the scenes, starting House of the Dragon season 1, episode 1 “The Heirs of the Dragon.” Yet, Alicent took the moral high ground when Rhaenyra had lost her mother less than a few months ago. The more Alicent dismissed Rhaenyra, the more cracks it created in their friendship. Alicent took a jab at Rhaenyra while she was worming her way into House Targaryen:

“You cannot worry at the matters of lords and kings, Rhaenyra. What if your father were to remarry?”

Alicent suggested Rhaenyra find comfort in prayer, but secretly distracted Viserys and kept at it. She went from being Otto’s pawn to Viserys’ second wife. She jumped into the fire knowing she would not get the same love and affection as Aemma.

4 Poisoning Her Children’s Minds

Alicent’s Children Inherited Her And Otto’s So-Called “Enemies”

Alicent had three children, viz, Aegon, Helaena and Aemond. Her daughter marched to the beat of her own drum, Aemond pretty much inherited his mother’s paranoia from a young age. The eldest, Aegon, didn’t care much about court politics but liked to pick on Rhaenyra’s children.

Otto contributed to Alicent’s paranoia and she, in turn, passed it down to her children. The day he was dismissed from court, Otto warned his daughter about war for the throne. He left for Oldtown and Alicent was never the same again. She surrounded herself with her loyalists, Larys Strong and Ser Criston Cole, and corrupted her innocent children’s minds:

“You
are the
challenge
,
Aegon
,
simply
by
living
and
breathing
!
You
are the
King’s firstborn son
. And what
they know
, what
everyone
in the
realm knows
in
their
their blood and in their bones, is that one day, you will be our king.”

Alicent gossiped in the presence of her children about the parentage of Rhaenyra’s sons. This bred more hatred and resulted in the loss of Aegon and Aemond’s childhood innocence.

3 Holding Rhaenyra To A Higher Moral Standard

Committed Wrongs Herself But Expected Rhaenyra To Be Infallible

Alicent always maintained that her actions were morally superior, but nothing could be further from the truth. For years, Larys and Alicent had established a setting that no one was supposedly aware of. Larys killed his kin for her and though she didn’t order it, she didn’t hold him accountable either. Alicent and Larys dined privately; his duty was to report happenings at the castle. She’d return the favor by allowing him to gratify himself while looking at her feet.

Alicent’s party cried foul over the parentage of Rhaenyra’s children, while she did what she could to concentrate power in her hands. Her audacity would come through in House of the Dragon season 1, episode 7 “Driftmark”:

“What have I done, but what was expected of me? Forever upholding the kingdom, the family, the law… Where is duty? Where is sacrifice? It’s trampled under your pretty foot again.”

The truth is that Alicent chose the life of subservience because Otto wanted to be close to the yoke of power. Rhaenyra had nothing to do with how trapped Alicent felt in her marriage.

2 Acting On A Delirious King’s Words

The King’s Last Words Fit Her Agenda

Alicent’s Aegon did not want to challenge Rhaenyra’s succession, but Aemond, Criston Cole, Otto, Jasper Wylde, and Tyland Lannister did. Alicent herself had a change of heart after she heard the dying king say:

It is you. You are the one. You must do this. You must do this.

Alicent had acted as a roadblock to Rhaenyra’s son, Lucerys’ succession, by finding a common cause with Vaemond Velaryon. She’d continued to teach her sons that Rhaenyra would put them to swords upon her accession. She wanted the Iron Throne for her son all along. In her final moments with Viserys, she chose to believe that her drunken wastrel of a son, Prince Aegon, would be the one to unite the realm. Viserys spoke of the Prince That Was Promised prophecy/ Aegon’s Song of Ice and Fire before saying that she [Rhaenyra] “must do this.” Alicent understood none of these words and yet chose to believe the delirious king was asking her to supplant his heir and place the unworthy Aegon on the Iron Throne. She sent Criston Cole and Aemond into the city and stole Rhaenyra’s throne from her. Her actions ignited the war of succession.

1 Allowing Herself To Be Used As A Pawn

Was Her Father’s Pawn All Along

Alicent visited Princess Rhaenys when she was held captive by the Greens in the Red Keep. Her sole aim was to coerce Rhaenys into declaring for the Greens, but Rhaenys tried to knock some sense into her:

“…and yet you toil still in service to men. Your father, your husband. You desire not to be free but to make a window in the wall of your prison.”

Alicent had nothing further to say because Rhaenys had shown her mirror. She had dedicated her life to Otto’s schemes and her lack of agency is one of the reasons why she resented Rhaenyra. The Princess made her own decisions and the Queen lived in the shadows in House of the Dragon.