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Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower House of the Dragon S03E07 "The Dragon in Winter"
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I will forever mourn the plot we could have had if only hotd had given us a Daemon x Alicent scene in S3. You have Daemon in a moral dilemma, a man who has always solved problems with violence, impulse, and absolute certainty forced to make a sacrifice for the first time in his life, and then you have Alicent in a moral dilemma, a woman who has always navigated uncertainty and learned to weaponize patience, sacrifice, and manipulation, now forced to inflict violence for the first time. They're mirror opposites of each other. Just as sacrifice comes naturally to Alicent, it comes unnaturally to Daemon, and just as violence comes naturally to Daemon, it comes unnaturally to Alicent. They are both haunted, both trapped by prophecy in different ways, both convinced they're doing what must be done for their family and becoming increasingly unrecognizable to the people who love them, and both are in love with the same woman. They've spent three seasons orbiting one another as symbols. One conversation, that's all I wanted this season. Just one scene where two of the show's most psychologically fascinating characters realize they have become far more alike than either of them would ever care to admit. We only have one episode left and I'm afraid we're going to be robbed.
Love when Rhaenyra and her girlfriends wear matching but inverted colours:
Rhaenyra: black dress, white braid | Mysaria: white dress, black braid Rhaenyra: red coat, white hair worn down | Alicent: white shift, red hair worn down
(gifs are mine)
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New look of Rhaenyra Targaryen in the season 3 finale of House of the Dragon (x)
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One interesting detail I noticed about the scene in which Aegon decides he's done running and wants to make a final stand is that, just before that, when Tyland and Larys are arguing, Larys tells Tyland he should turn himself in and give the king a chance to flee, to which Tyland replies, "him or you?" echoing Helaena asking Alicent, when Alicent is trying to get Helaena to leave Jaehaera behind, who she is really trying to save, Helaena, or herself? And if there's one device this show loves (often too much) it's parallels.
The show has presented three men as being major influences on Alicent through her adult life, Otto, Viserys, and Larys. If Season 1 Alicent was the embodiment of Otto's ethos of placing duty above all else, and season 2 Alicent clung to Viserys' wishes as a lifeline, then season 3 Alicent has been moving like Larys, who is motivated primarily by self interest and survival. Larys, who discarded Alicent, switching his attentions to Aegon when Alicent was no longer useful to him. One of the first things that Larys ever told young Alicent is that children are "a weakness, a folly, a futility," and that "love stays the hand," and prevents you from doing what you ought to do. Love, according to Larys, is a downfall. "Best to make your way through life unencumbered, if you ask me," he says. We now see an Alicent untethered from duty, but for whom love has become an existential threat. Is there anything that you love enough that you would die for it? For Larys, the answer to this question has always been no. Even if he developed a fondness for Aegon over the course of their travels, survival is his primary ethos. Larys sacrificed his entire family, killing Harwin and his father, rather than allow them to drag him along into potential ruin. Alicent likewise gives up Aegon's life for a chance at survival for herself and Helaena. Since that first act, Alicent's arc has been an exercise in unencumbering herself, cutting those ties of love that led to her downfall one by one, or attempting to (and so far, she has been largely unsuccessful, though not for lack of trying).
Larys and Alicent are both focused on survival, and each of them have (or had) in their care, a person they perceive as vulnerable and open to manipulation-- Aegon and Helaena respectively, who also happen to be sister and brother, husband and wife to each other. Through various tactics--cajoling, threatening, and berating--Larys and Alicent exploit the perceived weaknesses of Aegon and Helaena for their own purposes, while claiming to act in their interests.
For Larys and Alicent, Aegon and Helaena are both a burden and a boon. In a very practical sense Aegon is crucial to Larys' survival (and without Sunfyre, being realistic, Aegon's greatest value to him is as a bargaining chip that Larys can trade for a pardon from the blacks or a reward from the greens). For Alicent, Helaena is all that is left of Alicent's conception of herself as a good person, her moral anchor. When Helaena asks Alicent whether she's saving Helaena, or herself, Alicent replies "what difference does it make?" Because to Alicent, saving Helaena and saving herself are one and the same. No matter that it goes against Helaena's own desire to stay with her own little daughter, whom she refuses to abandon, Alicent seeks to redeem herself by "saving" Helaena. Similarly, Larys might redeem himself by "saving" Aegon, even though Aegon has again and again resisted going overseas, preferring to stay near his beloved dragon, whom he senses is alive though he has been convinced otherwise.
For Aegon and Helaena though, who have both been treated like pawns or objects for the majority of their young lives, personal choice is more important than survival. Even so, when both Aegon and Helaena ultimately see the manipulation of their caregivers for what it is, they nevertheless forgive Larys and Alicent respectively (Helaena accepting the spoonful of soup, Aegon refusing to command Larys to stay) and release them from their caregiving obligation. Aegon and Helaena recognize the survival instinct even as they themselves reject that course of action, and reject the notion that love is a weakness or a folly or a futility.
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and a part of me keeps holding on just in case it hasn't gone I guess I still care do you still care? happy birthday @ashleysjohnson!
