“I had a dream, a kind of premonition about the end of the Targaryen Dynasty and what we know”, says Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) at the beginning of the final trailer for The Greens, just under 30 days until the long-awaited premiere of the second season of House of the Dragon.
The trailer itself doesn’t bring many new features or lines different from what MAX agreed to share with us in advance. The trailers have been more or less the same images or lines from the season, outlining the argument of the Greens acting “for the good of the Realm” while the Blacks fight for what is right, or, in Hightower propaganda, for Revenge.
But opening with Alicent still believing that she is being correct and not vindictive is exactly the point that the series, and George R. R. Martin, wants to highlight: whether you believe her or not. Not me, of course. But dreams have been complex in House of the Dragon and having Alicent talk about premonitions is one of the character’s essential points in the series. In a nutshell: is she stupid, deluded or fake?
Otto Hightower’s hypocrisy and nerve
The series maintained one of the book’s essential questions: had the Hightowers been killing Targaryens for years? Alicent from the book was Jaeherys’s “favorite reader”, some even suspected something more between the two and was alone with him when she passed away. Years later, she was chosen by Viserys I as his second wife and he also died suspiciously suddenly. And Alicent was the one who administered her medication. And Alicent is obedient and supportive of her father, Otto Hightower (Rhys Iphans), another who sells himself as “honest and well-intentioned”, but we know he is far from that.
“We will prevail and bring Peace, but you must accept that the path to Victory is now one of violence”, Otto apparently tells Alicent, which is contradictory as it is precisely what he advises his grandson to avoid. Do you realize how fake Otto is?
He keeps claiming that it is for the “good of the realm” that Daemon should stay away from the Throne and Westeros, even though he is pure blood and is in the line of succession. To ensure this, he convinced Viserys to ignore Rhaenyra’s gender and advised that she be the successor, “for the good of the realm” Immediately after his daughter Alicent gave birth to Aegon, the same Otto began to insist that “for the good of the realm”, his grandson would be the successor and that no one would accept a queen. How could it not be if everyone swore loyalty to the Crown, as HE did and recommended?
My hatred for Otto is not small and I have the great satisfaction of knowing that he’ll get his dues. However, first, many innocent people will pay “for the good of the realm”.
Confused dreams involving Targaryens
Knowing that Alicent will seek “moral confirmation” of what she wants to believe was the right initiative on her side, even though she knows that her father had already organized a coup, was natural. Alicent, in the series, is a frustrated, manipulated, resentful, abused, and envious woman. Rhaenyra to her is everything she didn’t have or couldn’t be: loved by her parents, free to choose a husband, openly having love affairs with other men and yet Queen and adored.
“Just a few weeks ago, my Lord husband was alive and the kingdom was at peace. You knew the Realm would never accept a Queen”, we heard from Alicent. “Where is the duty?” she asked desperately when she attacked her stepdaughter/former friend in Season 1. In Alicent’s experience, she has done everything she was told and yet she is ignored, ridiculed, and unhappy. Obviously, she wanted to see Rhaenyra punished and tried countless times to expose, well, let’s face it, the truth. The Princess’s “virtue” was compromised years ago, she had no less than three children with her lover and still walked around as if the rules didn’t apply to her. You can understand Alicent, right?
But the fact that Alicent misunderstood what Viserys said to her before he died – “it has to be Aegon” – even though she crawled to the Throne just hours ago to reaffirm Rhaenyra’s position, isn’t exactly “a script error”. Viserys himself sowed the seeds of discord.
In episode 3 of season 1, which is to celebrate Aegon’s 2nd birthday, Rhaenyra and her father were in an endless tantrum. At that moment, in a somewhat delirious moment, Viserys revealed to his young wife that he was in doubt about his choice of Rhaenyra, without going into the details that he was trying to understand Aegon the Conqueror’s prophecy, which alluded to the war between the living and dead and the need for a Targaryen to be on the throne. Alicent has never demonstrated sagacity, throwing confusing words at her is asking for a bad interpretation. And bingo!
In that same episode, we see Alicent giving important advice to Viserys, including going against what Otto said, which was to let Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) and Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) die in the Stepstone War. (I hate Otto!) There was a relationship there and one of trust and confidence between husband and wife, Alicent was not an object to Viserys. And THERE was the misunderstanding planted.
That’s right, at that moment, Alicent was still trying to fit into the Targaryen family, being respectful towards her friend/stepdaughter and affectionate towards her husband. Ten years later, when she was convinced that her father was right and that both Viserys and Rhaenyra lied to her, Alicent was (literally) a different person. More aggressive, poisonous (even under the Puritan appearance), and cunning.
In Alicent’s understanding, however, she is right, after all, she made all the sacrifices demanded of her, she just wants “justice”. As she spent a decade demanding the King to somehow confront Rhaenyra about her bastard children, hearing from him in his last moments that “it needed to be Aegon”, is, for her, a response from Viserys to her, confirming that he was always right.
Otto did nothing to dispel his daughter’s idiocy, after all, she was into the “ugly game” and it fits like a glove to have this information that would make what was already going to happen something legitimate. How much the series will explore paternal gaslighting is uncertain, but Alicent will feel the consequences of what she did. Of course, victimizing yourself. She may have been abrupt and suspicious by simply crowning her son quickly without even telling Rhaenyra that she lost her father and the crown. And even though he knows that it will be Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) who will kick off the war by killing Lucaerys, in Alicent’s view (and Otto, of course, who takes advantage of the ride in yet another misrepresentation of his daughter), the “problem” of Rhaenyra is wanting to be queen “for revenge”. Hello? Like this?
As a Black party member, I’m of course eager to know more about Alicent’s dream… did she become a clairvoyant? Did she see Daenerys and think of Rhaenyra? Or did you just “dream” the obvious?
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