Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 1.
Season 2 ofHouse of the Dragonstarts with a bang in the premiere, “A Son for a Son.” As always, a lot of blood is spilled and a lot of plotting and scheming is done, but one of such plots is particularly interesting. When Prince Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) is debating strategy with Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), he mentions that his mother, Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), “speaks with two tongues.” In saying so, the prince shows thathe has a perfect reading on his mother, who is growing angrier and more contradictorywithevery new developmentin the Dance of Dragons.
House of the Dragon
The reign of House Targaryen begins with this prequel to the popular HBO seriesGame of Thrones.Based on George R.R. Martin’sFire & Blood,House of the Dragonis set nearly 200 years beforeGame of Thrones, telling the story of the Targaryen civil war with King Viserys.
Alicent’s Relationship With Ser Criston Cole Is Contradictory
One of the most surprising reveals of “A Son for a Son” is that Alicent Hightower and Ser Criston Coleshare a sexual relationship. They have sex twice in the episode, and, in the first scene, Alicent herself tells Cole that they can’t keep doing it, and the knight agrees, but they are seen together again at the end of the episode. The relationship itself should already be problematic enough, considering that it involves the Dowager Queen and theLord Commander of the King’s Guard, but what makes it even more staggering is thatAlicent is doing the exact same thing that she condemned young Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) for years earlier, and that started their whole feud.
The bookFire & Bloodnever clarifieswhat exactly happened between Rhaenyra and Cole, butHouse of the Dragontakes this liberty. Then the Crown Princess, she playfully gets him to sleep with her, which he is reluctant to do at first, but eventually gives up. Knights of the King’s Guard are supposed to be chaste, and Cole breaks his oath for the first time then. Later, when he understands that Rhaenyra wasn’t actually in love with him and wouldn’t give up her position as heir to the Iron Throne to run away with him,he grows bittertowards her and leaves her service. Cole instead becomes young Alicent’s (Emily Carey) sworn sword, and,when Alicent learns about the whole affair, the rift between her and Rhaenyra grows bigger.
This isn’t the only reason behind the feud between Alicent and Rhaenyra, of course, but it does aggravate things. Alicent understands that, as princess, Rhaenyra can get away with anything, and that Rhaenyra herself doesn’t care about rumors or accusations. Alicent is not in this position, she was pushed to marry Rhaenyra’s father, King Viserys (Paddy Considine), to secure her family’s place at court. Now,by having arelationship with Cole,Alicent proves to herself that she is the one with power over Rhaenyra now, because she is doing the exact same thing she condemned Rhaenyra for, and without consequences.
Alicent’s Role Was Always To Use “Duty and Sacrifice” in Favor of House Hightower’s Interests
The words “duty” and “sacrifice” have long been favorites in Alicent’s lexicon. She uses them to confront Rhaenyra in Season 1, Episode 7, “Driftmark,” after a young Aemond (Leo Ashton) loses his eye in a fight with one of Rhaenyra’s sons, Lucerys Velaryon (Harvey Sadler). Now, “A Son for a Son” consolidates the idea that"duty and sacrifice" are things Alicent only considers when consolidating her own position at court — and over Rhaenyra. Her duty and her sacrifice were always to help her father, Hand of the King Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), to maneuver King Viserys in their favor. Now, this involves her own children.
In the Season 2 premiere, Alicent has a conversation with Otto about how they can continue to maneuver her children in the context of the upcoming conflict with Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) faction. They see Alicent’s eldest son, Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), as a puppet king, and Aemond as an angry loose canon. But the conversation itself isn’t necessarily about how the two boys can serve Hightower interests, but rather aboutAlicent feeling undermined by Otto and fearing to lose her influence over them. Otto agrees, but only because, strategically, it makes sense, since Alicent is closer to them. He still believes his own influence is bigger, which is why he talks to Aemond later about plans being made without the Hand of the King being aware.
It’s curious that Alicent tells Otto that Aemond is angry, because that’s exactly how Aemond describes her to Ser Criston Cole, too.Most of Alicent’s actionssince the beginningof the series have been taken out of anger. Anger at Rhaenyra, at her “duty” of having to sacrifice herself for her house’s ambitions… Her feeling makes sense and, to some degree, is even justified. Her actions, on the other hand, aren’t, because anger is what led to the whole conflict in the first place.
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Alicent Still Doesn’t Consider the Matter of Aemond’s Eye Finished
The Dance of Dragons effectively begins whenAemond kills Lucerys(Elliot Grihault) in a dragon fight above Shipbreaker Bay.The feud between the two of them is a continuation of the one between their mothers, Alicent and Rhaenyra, respectively, but taken to more violent extremes. Back in “Driftmark,” youngAemond claims Vhagaras his dragon and returns to the castle to bully and threaten his nephews, only to end up having his left eye slashed by young Lucerys in a brawl.
In her conversation with Ser Otto in “A Son for a Son,” Alicent makes it clear she still hasn’t gotten over it and still believes Lucerys never paid for Aemond’s eye. “Rhaenyra’s son took his eye and was never punished for it,” she says. “What he did, however vicious…” she begins to say, butis interrupted by Otto, who defines it as “the caprice of youth.” Alicent may not have finished her sentence, but her train of thought is clear:she doesn’t think that Aemond killing Lucerys settles the matter, and doesn’t see how problematic her son’s behavior is even on a strategic level.
Alicent’s anger is the focal point ofthe early stagesof the Dance of Dragons. The skirmish between Aemond and Lucerys gave her the personal justification she needed to openly oppose Rhaenyra and put Aegon on the Iron Throne. Later, Aemond killing Lucerys makes Rhaenyra cross the line between her duty of fighting asViserys’ rightful heirand fighting for personal reasons. But Alicent will never admit her side has caused trouble, because,to her, Rhaenyra is still doing whatever she wants and getting away with it, even if Rhaenyra has already lost a son and a throne. So Alicent indeed “speaks with two tongues”: one to denounce Rhaenyra, and the other to secretly do the things she publicly condemns.
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