Alicent Deserves Better in House of the Dragon

Ahead of episode 9, airing tonight, I was meditating quite a bit on one character in particular and how her arc, or lack thereof, is so indicative of the problems in this show. House of the Dragon has consistently done wrong by the character of Alicent Hightower. They've done wrong by a lot characters, honestly, but hers is perhaps the most egregious.

She begins as a child bride pushed forward by her father in his ambition. We really get very little of her internal thoughts and feelings through this. Is she repulsed? Intrigued? Frightened? Excited? There are so many ways to make her narrative central, but we didn't get that. Just because she’s being used as a pawn by characters in the story doesn’t mean she should be treated as a pawn by the story itself, relegated to a flat, almost side character in her own story. We can see how the patriarchy treats her as a broodmare with no thoughts and desires of her own without the show itself practicing the same patriarchal injustices.

Then her feelings of betrayal around Rhaenyra are murky at best. She secretly wooed Rhaenyra's father, albeit at her own father’s behest, but is so angry at her that they become enemies when she lies about her virginity? There may have been something because of how her father was dismissed because of it, but that needed to get explored more. We had a huge opportunity to understand her inner psychology, her resentment and fear, so many things that we can, if we squint hard enough, kind of read into her behavior. But it starts to read a bit petty and jealous, too, a dangerous line to walk when you have two powerful women. Making this about jealousy over Criston does a disservice to both ladies, but especially to Alicent, and while I don’t think that was the intention behind why Alicent turned so sharply against Rhaenyra, if her true feelings were more deeply explored, people wouldn’t have as much space to say things like that.

I’m not saying the show is responsible for preventing every yahoo theory or fixing the toxicity within the fandom, but by doing a better job with character development and exploring motivation, some of that at least would be mitigated. That does not, however, mean we should be spoon fed the information. It’s what I (and every writing teacher or professor ever) always tell my students in their writing — show don’t tell. Show us her reactions. Give us layered conversations we can parse in order to glean her thoughts and feelings about each incident. Make her a focal point, a point of view we follow and dig into, rather than someone who moves as the plot deems necessary.

One of the places this is clearest is when she steps out in her green gown. The motivations, the lead up to this, should have been deeper explored, and they should have allowed us to understand the meaning of it without the very on the nose discussion about the color green. Allow us to get there, to understand the relevance, without explaining it in words. Even a comment from Viserys, or Daemon for that matter, on her gown, maybe a “What a lovely gown, and such an unusual color for a Targaryen wedding.” With a reply of, “That is because I am a Hightower.” Or something to that effect. But that’s a bit of a digression. The larger point is that they aren’t giving Alicent the room or the nuance she deserves, just using her like so many men do to further the plot.

And, again, let me be clear: treating a lead female character like a pawn doesn’t comment on how women are treated as pawns, it only furthers it. Commentary has to have the other side laid out, otherwise it’s just following the same systems. We have to see her as an active character with her own goals and desires. Even if she is forced to bend, forced to push them down, forced to play the pawn, it needs to be extremely clear that she is being forced into this and is not, in fact, the vacant plot device they too often treat her as.

A great example of this is Cersei. Cersei gets controlled by Robert, even physically abused. She gets dismissed by her father and treated as lesser. She is threatened and beset even while playing her role. But she quietly runs the world she’s in, expresses her desires with Jaime, takes out her enemies, even installs her bastard son on the throne despite his monstrous behavior. They’re obviously setting Alicent up to be like Cersei — the similarities are just too many to ignore. It’s good that she behaves differently because we don’t want the characters to repeat, but it’s unclear if Alicent truly does have ambition, where her heart is at with Rhaenyra, or what her motivations are.

Part of that is the fault of the time jumps. They use these as an excuse to turn characters in an about-face several times over and wave the magic wand of a time jump to say that fixes the issues of the writing. This isn’t just for Alicent, but Alicent is one of the most confusingly made in this area.

One of the worst areas for this is when we see her with the children. She doesn't seem to be "preparing Aegon to rule" as her father told her, just being loudly disappointed in him in a very surface level depiction of a mother with an out of control son. Not to overly compare, but the analogy is so present…It was so much more powerful when that same thing was done by Cersei because we had seen that her ambition had only one weakness, and that was her children. It over and over forces her to choose between the things she values most, her family and power. We don't see that much in Alicent.

Obviously House of the Dragon has set us up to be Team Black. Rhaenyra has been our POV character from jump. Daemon started off as a morally gray to downright gross character with a complex masculinity to now this adoring, supportive husband and badass warrior. We are supposed to love him, and we’re supposed to love his relationship with Rhaenyra. We get a truly romantic wedding, a sensual sex scene, a loving relationship where they hold hands, produce and raise lovely children, give support and care. It’s idyllic for Westeros.

So the Greens are the villains. And that’s fine. Aegon is obviously a Joffrey type, from being a jerk to his brother and the rest of his family to raping servant girls…These are not the people we’re rooting for. So, how does Alicent fit with this?

She is sympathetic to the servant girl her son rapes, but still silences her and is complicit in Aegon’s behavior. She chastises him, but makes no real moves to stop it from happening in future. She balks at Larys's methods, though takes full advantage of the ramifications. She seems to be a somewhat reluctant villain, which is a stance and could make for a compelling character model, but again, that needs to be explored more. We should see her wracked by guilt, a good person forced by circumstances to make unthinkable choices.

But it's when Viserys asks them to just get along that things should change for Alicent. She softens toward Rhaenyra; she's always wanted to be on Rhaenyra's side. That’s a great setup for a turning point where she makes a huge character shift. When she’s at her most vulnerable, her most loving toward her best friend in years, toward the woman she always believed would make a great queen and do far better than the son she’s so disappointed in, Alicent deserves a moment to shine, to be the catalyst that changes the fate of the world when she decides to fight.

The way to shift that was not a ridiculous misunderstanding that once more robs Alicent of agency, but rather something active. Something like the King dies and Alicent's father puts her in the impossible position of backing Rhaenyra, her childhood best friend and the person she knows was Viserys's choice, the one she knows will be the better ruler, or her own son. And she will of course choose her son, cementing the Green/Black division. As they say, there's no zealot like a convert, and in order to show how on the green side she is, I could see her becoming the most vitriolic and ruthless of all.

Or, what I would most prefer, would be her overhearing Viserys saying things like Rhaenyra being his “only child.” Him calling out to Aemma as his love. Him discounting Alicent and their children, everything she gave up and suffered and did for this man, only to be swept under the rug as inconsequential. If we had watched episode after episode of her swallowing her disgust, her fear, her rage, her every thought and desire in order to please her King and her father, the explosion would be a long time coming, and it would be extremely satisfying as a villain origin.

But once again, she was robbed of that arc, and going into episode 9, we seem to be set up for her thinking she's protecting Viserys's last wishes, which makes no sense given that she was eagerly going to deny Viserys's wish to recognize Lucerys for the gain of her own house and family. Albeit with a bit of uneasiness on that score. Still, there was opportunity for agency for Alicent that they just keep stripping away. It's possible to have a woman who is forced by circumstances but also makes her own choices as a character, and it's unfortunate we're missing that with Alicent. Instead of having a story of two, powerful women vying for their own agency, their own place in the world, we get Rhaenyra who everyone is rooting for, and Alicent. Once more denied an arc. Once more denied agency in her own life. Just a girl no one likes who is going to make trouble for our heroine.

While I am thoroughly enjoying House of the Dragon, it is deeply flawed. Alicent is a prime example of how it’s stripped away any moral ambiguity and poorly served many if not most of it’s characters. Alicent had so much potential but was robbed of it at every turn, and it’s unfortunate to see so much waste. Perhaps worst of all, it’s atrocious to see this show billed as one where women fight the patriarchy while those exact systems are what is forcing Alicent’s character to be such a weak one. She deserves better, and so do we.