Read pages from a deleted House of the Dragon scene between Alicent and Rhaenyra

The second episode of House of the Dragon ends with a shocking revelation: Alicent Hightower, the young daughter of Hand of the King Otto Hightower, will marry King Viserys I Targaryen, a middle-aged man. This is the result that Otto Hightower was hoping for, since it means he has a chance of getting his bloodline on the Iron Throne. But it comes as a shock to the king's daughter Rhaenyra, who is best friends with Alicent and who is herself in line for the throne.

On the show, we don't see what happens right afterward, instead picking up with Alicent and Rhaenyra some time later in the next episode, but the cast and crew did film a scene where the two friends argue in the Red Keep godswood immediately after the news is broken; it just didn't make the final cut. Pictures of the scene have been floating around the internet for a while.

Now, we have a bit more insight courtesy of @darksvster, who says they've "got my hands on the scripts for episodes 2-10 and was able to grab quotes/scenes to share." And indeed, they shared a couple of pages of dialogue between Alicent and Rhaenyra. Read it below!

In this scene, Rhaenyra is understandably angry about Alicent marrying her dad, particularly since she didn't know anything about it beforehand. Not only is the situation inherently uncomfortable, but there's been a breach of trust. Rhaenyra yells that Alicent should have "refused" her father's command to comfort the king after the loss of his wife, but Alicent snaps back in momentary anger that "not all of us have an easy way doing only what we wish, only when we wish it," which foreshadows the later bitter rivalry that develops between these two.

Maybe this didn't play well when it was actually part of the episode, which is why they cut it, but on paper, this sounds like a scene I would have liked to see. (HBO, I'm begging you, release the deleted scenes on home video or YouTube or something.)

We're finally getting new episodes of House of the Dragon this summer when the second season premieres. In the meantime, this wasn't the only scene cut from season 1:

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