New Reasons to Hate Queen Alicent Hightower in House of the Dragon
Tension between the greens and the blacks is brewing.
Warning: the following article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon episode 6
It is getting really difficult for people to sympathize with Queen Alicent Hightower in House of the Dragon — especially in the wake of her behavior in episode 6, titled The Princess and the Queen.
It seems that ten years of the time jump have only made Alicent worse in her hidden envy towards Rhaenyra, and fans don't even need to look for additional reasons to dislike the queen — they are just there.
For instance, summoning Rhaenyra with her newborn child as soon as she gave birth, and then saying that she should be resting, as if it was not Alicent who forced her to come? No wonder fans blast Alicent as "hypocritical" and "sneaky" after that.
Then, after mocking both Rhaenyra and Laenor as she noted that the newborn child looks nothing like the husband, Alicent went out to discuss Rhaenyra with Ser Criston Cole. The two exchange unpleasant judgments, with Cole going as far as calling Rhaenyra "a spoiled c**t". However, instead of condemning such a statement, Alicent only said that she hoped "decency will prevail".
"not alicent pretending to have morals saying "decency will prevail" and 2 minutes later she's screaming violently at her son for not being hungry for power and forcing him to hate rhaenyra's sons just like she does," Twitter fan fortargaryen noted.
Indeed, just several minutes later Alicent lectures her son Aegon that he must be more hostile towards Rhaenyra and her children simply because, Alicent believes, Rhaenyra views her children as a menace. Despite Aegon being clearly more about girls and dragons than about eyeing the Iron Throne, Alicent insists he should be more hungry for power and tries to persuade him that he is the lawful king, and not Rhaenyra or her heirs.
Some fans believe that the show illustrates the generational trauma by that scene.
"This scene is so good, Alicent instilling her fears into Aegon the same way Otto did to her. Aegon was getting along just fine with Jace and Luke earlier, but that generational trauma runs deep and divides them," Twitter user nyrotike argued.
Alicent's words to Aegon are in fact pretty similar to the lines Otto Hightower told her when he was leaving the king's court after being fired by Viserys. Now that Alicent passes them over to her kids, it seems that this generational trauma is just about to ruin House Targaryen as it evolves into the Dance of the Dragons.
House of the Dragon is streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes premiering every Sunday.