With House of the Dragon season 3 soon back on our screens, fans of the Game of Thrones prequel have reopened the debate on one of the show’s biggest changes to George R.R. Martin’s source material.
On Reddit, one fan asked how people feel about the change to the relationship between Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower. In the book, Alicent is Rhaenyra’s older stepmother, but, in the show, the duo are the same age and childhood best friends.
While fans are generally positive on the change, they all mostly agree on one thing – the friendship should be over by now.
“It should’ve been buried after Alicent wore the green dress to Laenor’s and Rhaenyra’s wedding. It’s now goddamn annoying,” says one person.
“I think it was a good change. (I would’ve preferred Alicent have an older sister relationship tho). My problem with Alicent and Rhaenyra’s relationship is the u turn the writers took with them in S1E8, and they’ve only doubled down on it every episode since,” says someone else.
“They should not have made them friends and kept the same age gap. In fact, aging up Rhaenyra was the worst decision they’ve made. People say the stepmom trope is more boring but it’s also 10x more consistently written. If you ask me, they should’ve made more emphasis on Aegon II and Rhaenyra’s relationship rather than Alicent and Rhaenyra. Make you actually care about these two siblings and how they view each other before the war starts,” is another person’s thoughts.
“The problem isn’t that they changed their relationship, the problem is they didn’t commit to the tragedy of it,” says another person. “Alicent and Rhaenyra in the books get along just fine until Viserys refuses to name Aegon heir, too. They weren’t always at each others’ throats. Anyone who thinks the problem is Alicent and Rhaenyra being friends at first is missing the entire point.”
“Personally no, but it still would’ve worked really well if they actually became enemies later and settled into their book roles,” says someone else. “Nobody would’ve praised this if they knew they would just be friends the whole time.”
“It was a great addition but it really should’ve ended in s1, I think it really reinforced the point of Fire and Blood that the Targs really completely fucked themselves over due to pride during the Dance,” is another person’s thoughts.
“It remains the most dramatically interesting adaptational choice of the show, and it’s a shame that as things have progressed, they’ve been walking back the thing that *made* it dramatically interesting,” says another person. “These two are at their most compelling when they’re using their history together to try and get under each other’s skins. Using their old love for each other as the fuel for their current hatreds works really well, and is great to watch.
“The show’s reluctance to allow its primary characters to come off as unlikable is its greatest weakness, and it affects everything that once made the series compelling, this included.”
In the House of the Dragon season 2 ending, Alicent and Rhaenyra struck a deal, where Alicent would help Rhaenyra take King’s Landing – but she must accept the death of her son Aegon.
Since we already know House of the Dragon season 3 is set to open with the fearsome Battle of the Gullet, it seems unlikely this deal will hold…
House of the Dragon season 3 returns this June 21 in the US and June 22 in the UK. For more, check out our guide to all the upcoming Game of Thrones movies and shows, or our roundup of the most exciting new TV shows.
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