r/TheBlacksandTheGreens

for an AU where he still dies but was married and had already fathered a legitimate child before kicking the bucket

It’s been a common shared opinion within the fandom that Alicent’s writing is not well executed nor convincing.

I’m not trying to be a doomer on purpose with season 3 coming out, but as a former Alicent fan I’ve been wondering what is the overall narrative point she is supposed to serve.

She is the second main character, she needs to have a clear arc and not remain in this constant limbo of reacting to things with a puppy sad face.

Since the second teaser came out, I’ve been thinking about it and some shots and lines made me think of an outline for her.

This post contains fire and blood spoilers and potential leaks that are not always verified, but read at your own risk.

Alicent comes back from her Dragonstone trip and mets Aemond on the throne. He asks her where were you and she lies.

She learns startled that Aegon has fled.

She realizes she has no leverage (Aegon’s head) anymore therefore she says to Aemond he has to flee. He refuses or maybe agrees idk that part is hard to pin point because Aemond will leave for Harrenhal either way. It’s hard to see him agreeing to flee based on how determined in this war he seems to be.

She talks to Heleana but Heleana doesn’t understand cause her whole personality is centered around autism and it is the only thing Heleana is portrayed as.

She tells her some cryptic thing about Alicent’s betrayal. Heleana might not be a fan of her betrayal, if ever she gets word of it in a dream, in any shape or form.

Fearing Rhaenyra since from Rhaenyra’s POV Alicent betrayed her, Alicent tries to leave with Heleana and Jaehaera (what they are gonna do with Jaehaera is confusing) but fails and gets captured by the Gold cloaks who remain loyal to Daemon. We see a Gold cloak holding/standing next to Alicent in the last teaser.

When Rhaenyra takes KL, Alicent is brought up to the throne room with Heleana and that’s the scene where Alicent looks up : Rhaenyra ascends the throne after beheading Iron Rod who was the only one holding the city for the greens.

Side note Otto might also be imprisoned by the Gold cloaks (I don’t like it cause that would mean during season 2 Otto was in KL captured and Larys had no word of it - but I also think the Beesbury theory won’t be happening because we don’t have much episodes to develop that side plot). Otto is killed like in the book and Alicent is sad but resigned.

Alicent then is confined to her chambers as Rhaenyra feels betrayed Alicent deceived her.

Then in episode 3 as a rumored leak might suggest, Rhaenyra is fighting with Mysaria on the topic of Alicent and/or the smallfolk. After a convo with Alicent, she grants her the role of advisor which pisses everyone on team black. This will fuel the growing mistrust Rhaenyra’s council has towards their Queen, as well as Daemon’s and Mysaria’s.

Alicent agrees to it because her world resolves around Rhaenyra now, and she tells her the recoil line when they talk about the difficulties of Rhaenyra’s reign. A leaked photo was released last year accidentally by one of the directors, where we see Alicent and Rhaenyra talking in the Rep Keep. Alicent wears the same outfit than in this scene when she says that line.

We also got individual shots of Rhaenyra and Alicent in the same room in the recent BTS. This could signal another scene of Alicent advising the Queen in her or Rhaenyra’s chambers.

Then at one point Rhaenyra hears about the failed fake Daeron plot. She gets angry, Alicent gets word of it, and while Alicent is conflicted, Rhaenyra uses her to go parlay with her son and Ormund’s army.

Alicent agrees cause she has no choice and the show is committed to Alicent doing anything to stop this war, including going against her own cousin and own son.

That’s why we see her leave with the winter cloak : she is escorted at night by Rhaenyra’s men to go to Tumbleton (everyone in their mother will be at Tumbleton) or perhaps another city in the Reach (Bitterbridge ?).

She leaves Heleana in KL who either is pregnant or has more and more visions that slowly destroys her.

Alicent arrives at Tumbleton or where she was sent to and sees the horrors team green and team black did. That’s why we see her shocked outside, with her winter coat (the buildings behind her do look similar to the set they built for Tumbleton).

I could see the writers fully committed of making her a full blown traitor to her children/family and that’s the reason why she becomes depressed/alone at the end of the war. She has betrayed her children for nothing, Heleana died maybe when she was away, dying alone.

She has no idea where Aegon is and it will be a surprise to her that the son she willingly sacrificed is alive having regaining forces.

It’s in total opposition of fire and blood, what we know of the story, and there’s still a lot that remains confusing.

But at this point Alicent is such a different character and the writers are so committed to Rhaenicent being the only thing that matters in this show that I assume her remaining arc her will be about someone who was a turn cloak for nothing (Rhaenyra’s reign won’t be peaceful as she thought), and that will be her tragedy.

That’s my tin foiled hat theory about Alicent, I would personally not be a fan at all, but I could very well see this trajectory being planned for her.

What do you guys think ?

Yes, it’s written by multiple sources, and yes they are biased but the argument that that would mean that everything is questionable or everything is propaganda against some other source.

It’s not an actual history book. GRRM didn’t write it with the intention that the reader would get out of it being all “nothing in here was true.” Or well, maybe he did. I don’t know the man, but I highly doubt that he wrote an entire book of in universe history with lore with the intention that a lot of it was just false or straight up propaganda.

One example is the classic “green propaganda.” Which yes, some sources were biased toward the greens, but that doesn’t mean they straight up lied about everything to make the greens look better. That is made more clear by the fact that they are critical of Aegon II.

The book is also quite clear on what is true, what isn’t, and what is muddled (more or less, make your own opinion).

Examples:

Muddled:

The whole Criston and Rhaenyra situation. The book never fully answers it, and sources differentiate while still keeping a similar thread (Rhaenyra seemed to have a crush on Cole, Daemon was kicked out for whatever happened)

Sunfyre going to Dragonstone for Aegon or for his birthplace. We don’t actually know Sunfyre’s thinking process, we simply have to choose between the more sentimental thought (returning to Aegon to help him) or the more logically (as in, no sentimental view on it) that he was simply returning to Dragonstone as his birthplace.

False:

Criston throwing Beesbury out the window and having him land bullseye on spikes. Well for one cause that is a bit over the top, but also cause that source came from Mushroom, who wasn’t even there. Same with pretty much everything that went down during that time since he wasn’t present.

So yes, the book is an in universe history book written by biased sources, but the book is also quite clear on what should be believed, taken with a grain of salt, if you want it to be true, or just straight up false

For all the complaints people have about the writing, I think one thing HOTD consistently nails is the acting. The cast has elevated so many scenes beyond what was on the page.

Who are your favorite and least favorite casting choices so far?

Personally, my favorites are Ewan Mitchell as Aemond — S1 Aemond was genuinely one of the highlights of the show for me. He actually pulled me into HOTD after I kept seeing edits of him on social media. Can’t wait to see what he does in season 3.

I also love Steve Toussaint as Corlys, and TGC as Aegon has been incredible.

Least favorite for me is probably Sonoya Mizuno as Mysaria. And while Olivia Cooke is an amazing actress, sometimes it’s hard for me to buy her as the mother of Aegon, Aemond, and Helaena lol.

Rhaena the queen of east and west died in 73 AC. Rhaenys the queen who never was born in 74 AC. They would've met each other I guess.

Also note. I wonder how rhaena lived her 12 years of her last life in harrendal. If her ghost still in harrendal what do you think she think of daemon and aemond visions?

Also another rhaenys is rhaena the black bride niece as Jocelyn is rhaena half sister and while also grandniece 💀 as aemon is her nephew . The family

Genuinely curious here!!!