Alicent is no longer the Green Queen as we knew her in George R.R.
Martins text, and House of the Dragon is better for it.
This article contains major spoilers forHouse of the Dragonseason 2 episode 8 The Queen Who Ever Was.
As surely as the seasons change and winter comes, the fortunes of our lives remain forever in flux.
But few, including Rhaenyra and Alicent, would dream theyd turn this fast.
The moment was shocking partially because no such event occurred in George R.R.
Martins book on which the show is based.
Have you never imagined yourself on the Iron Throne?
The answer then, as now, is obviouslyno.
Blood has been spilled.
Curiously, Larys Strong has been more of a parent to the wounded son.
She is in a prison.
And now her sons have barred even that.
This is a massive departure from George R.R.
Go then, Rhaenyra sneers in the finale, leave us behind as you say.
Wander in the wilderness.
Cooke, in turn, echoes the scared little girl Emily Carey played inHouse of the Dragons earliest episodes.
They pour forth now on Cookes face like a slowly rising riverbank that threatens to turn into a flood.
Conversely, Rhaenyra was forced long ago into vivid awareness of the worlds double standards and hypocrisy.
Still you defend him.
A price I have no choice but to pay.
However you may have a go at evade it, you know this.
This is a devastating sequence to watch unfold.
Alicent surrenders her oldest boy in the hope of saving her only daughter.
It also reflects a profound change in the character.
She, again, spent less time by his seeming deathbed than Larys or the maesters.
Shell trade the heir she supplanted Rhaenyra with for a girls life.
Rhaenyra is offered a way out by Alicent, but obviously will not take it.
My part is here, Rhaenyra insists, whether I will it or no.
It was decided for me long ago.
Alicent obviously sounds fanciful and still in denial during this major sequence.
But does not Rhaenyra herself sound like Alicent while talking to Rhaenys in the first season?
The weight of expectations from a world that refuses to accept her traps Rhaenyra now mayhaps more than Alicent.
If so, it will make the wars to come all the bitterer as the dragons dance.
