How to “fix” House of the Dragon (the story so far)

The Princess and the Queen

One of the key units of drama in the first five episodes is the deterioration of the relationship between Rhaenrya Targaryen, the king’s daughter; and Alicent Hightower, the daughter of the king’s closest advisor. They begin the series as best friends, but were enemies last we left them.

A lot of this worked, but some of it didn’t. Let’s take a closer look.

What went wrong

I had a couple of issues with Alicent and Rhaenrya, starting with how erratically their relationship progressed. In the first episode they’re inseparable besties, which I thought was sweet and convincing. By the second episode, Alicent is already lying to Rhaenrya, although at least she has a good reason: her father Otto has ordered her to get closer to Rhaenyra’s father the king, no doubt in the hope that the recent widower will make Alicent his wife, which he soon does. In the next episode, which is set two years later, Alicent wants to continue her friendship with Rhaenrya but Rhaenyra is shutting her out. In the episode after that, they’re buddies again.

I’m sure things happened between these episodes, but as a viewer, it felt like I was being jerked back and forth with little rhyme or reason. And then came Episode 5, where Alicent essentially decides to sever ties with Rhaenyra after finding out that Rhaenyra lied to her about her sexual escapades on the night Daemon Targaryen returned to King’s Landing. Alicent signals her intentions publicly in a very dramatic scene, and I didn’t quite understand why; was one lie of omission really enough reason to don the green dress of war?

Granted, that wasn’t the only reason Alicent decided to break with Rhaenyra and start looking out for the interests of herself, her house, and her children. Not long before, Rhaenyra got Alicent’s father fired as Hand of the King, and before he leaves town Otto tells his daughter that should Rhaenyra inherit the Iron Throne, she will have to kill Alicent’s children and maybe even Alicent herself in order to secure her rule. That’s a pretty compelling reason for Alicent to step things up, but it felt like it came out of nowhere; we’d never seen Rhaenyra even contemplate something like this, nor seen Alicent get the idea that she would.

How to fix it

I wish we had more of an idea of what Alicent and Rhaenyra were like as friends before circumstance divided them. I think that would make their eventual split more powerful. My idea is this: in Episode 2, instead of keeping her meetings with the king a secret, I think Alicent should tell Rhaenyra about them. They’re best friends, after all, and they tell each other everything, whatever their fathers might want. Rhaenyra would understand that Alicent’s father was putting her up to this and sympathize with her friend, even as the idea made her uncomfortable.

As the episode went on, Rhaenyra would see that her father’s remarriage was inevitable, and figure that as long as her dad had to remarry, it might as well be to someone Rhaenyra could trust not to screw her out of her inheritance. So she gives her tacit blessing to the match. Thus is the friendship between Alicent and Rhaenyra preserved for a while longer; in fact, the secret understanding might even bind them closer.

Then comes Episode 3, which is set two years after the birth of Aegon II, Alicent’s first child with King Viserys. Instead, I would set this episode soon after Aegon’s birth. The friendship between the two girls is holding, but now that the king has a trueborn son, Rhaenyra is noticing that more and more people are treating her claim to the Iron Throne as if it was merely a stopgap measure; surely her younger half-brother is the real heir.

Meanwhile, pressure mounts on Alicent to prepare her son for rule. This is the point where Otto should first suggest to his daughter that Rhaenyra would have to kill her and her children should she take the throne. Alicent would try and shrug it off, but it’s a suggestion that’s hard to forget. These doubts wouldn’t destroy the friendship, but it would start to fray. Importantly, there would be a scene towards the end where Rhaenyra holds her baby half-brother in her arms and wonders, if only fleetingly…will people accept me as queen if he’s around? Is it possible I’ll have to…y’know? Alicent will see the look in Rhaenyra’s eyes and correctly guess at what she’s thinking, even if she can’t admit it to herself…yet.

I think that would be enough to set up what happens between these two in Episodes 4 and 5. And now let’s turn to my other problem with the series so far: