"alicent Holds Love For Our Enemy" | Hotd S2 Final Trailer.

I waited 2 years for this?!

WILD that Ryan Condal keeps changing so much from the source material for no reason that the actors literally have to beg him to include certain things and not cut others

Alicent Hightower: Artwork by Ertaç Altinöz in TWOIAF, The Princess & The Queen by GRRM, Artwork by Douglas Wheatley in Fire and Blood, The Princess & The Queen by GRRM, Olivia Cooke portraying Alicent Hightower in Season 1 of House of the Dragon, The Princess & The Queen by GRRM, Leo Ashton portraying young Aemond Targaryen in Season 1 of House of the Dragon, Phia Saban portraying Helaena Targaryen in Season 2 of House of the Dragon, The Princess & The Queen by GRRM, Olivia Cooke portraying Alicent Hightower in Season 1 of House of the Dragon.

The city is yours, Princess. But you will not hold it long. The rats play when the cat is gone, but my son Aemond will return with fire and blood. - Alicent Hightower (Fire & Blood)

Rhaenyra rejected her stepmother’s proposal with scorn. “Your sons might have had places of honor at my court if they had kept faith,” Her Grace declared, “but they sought to rob me of my birthright, and the blood of my sweet sons is on their hands.“Bastard blood, shed at war,” Alicent replied. “My son’s sons were innocent boys, cruelly murdered. How many more must die to slake your thirst for vengeance?” - Alicent Hightower (Fire & Blood)

Queen Alicent, beloved of the smallfolk, placed her own crown upon the head of her daughter, Helaena, Aegon’s wife and sister. After kissing her cheeks, the mother knelt before the daughter, bowed her head, and said, “My Queen.” (Fire & Blood)

Alas, the king was not of a forgiving mind. Urged on by his mother, the Queen Dowager Alicent, Aegon II was determined to exact vengeance upon those who had betrayed and deposed him. (Fire & Blood)

Bestie can I be so for real I am so upset about the way Aemond is written. Season 1 Aemond is basically book Daeron but angsty, but Season 2 Aemond is like book Daemon (disloyal, wants power). Not that book Aemond was someone to applaud for loving his family, that dude was a psycho but he was such a LOYAL psycho. Smh.

Bestie you are absolutely right. Season 1 Aemond and season 2 Aemond are so disconnected and there's no through line or explanation for why. Seemingly they just decided to go with a different characterization suddenly, maybe because they realized Aemond was fairly sympathetic in the first season.

His true characterization is loyalty to his family and willingness to do anything for them, and Aegon and Aemond are loyal to each other. Go to Storm's End and betroth yourself to secure an ally for the Greens? Aemond will do it for Aegon. Kill your nephew and probably guarantee war? Aegon will throw a feast to celebrate and support Aemond's actions. Need to take out one of the Black's dragons? Aegon and Aemond will attack together. Aegon is injured and unable to rule? Aemond will rule as regent and refuse to take the throne from him. Aegon and all his surviving children are missing, his mother and sister imprisoned, and Rhaenyra and Daemon have taken king's landing with help from houses in the Riverlands? Aemond will burn everything to get vengeance for his family and draw Daemon out to battle against him. Aemond takes down Daemon but dies in the process? Aegon orders a massive statue to commemorate his brother and honor his loyalty and legacy.

But because the Greens are supposed to be caricature disorganized incompetent and selfish villains, they hate each other and put each other down even in the midst of war. Aemond has to be an outright evil and self-interested, power hungry anime baddie who hates his lazy, hedonistic, sadistic brother Aegon apparently 🙄 and Helaena is just there in the background as a non character at this point and everything that defined her character in the book is removed.

It really is out of character and makes no sense for Aemond to take out his own brother and his dragon when they're at war with a faction of the family that has several dragons and that faction poses a much more significant threat to Aemond than Aegon does... It's really just lazy writing. Instead of actually exploring the character motivations of the two, like how Lucerys' murder led to Blood and Cheese and how the brothers feel about that, it's turned into "Aemond wants to kill Aegon over petty childish bullying and because he wants the throne." Like be for real 🙄

i cannot emphasize it enough to you guys that they're giving book!daemon hating his brother and wanting to steal his throne (that's why he begins grooming rhaenyra and sets her against her siblings and poisons her relationship w them forever) is going to show!aemond right now. book!aemond was never characterized as wanting his brother's throne or hating aegon. that was all daemon in the book 😬

This has got to be one of the most devastatingly good looking side profiles I’ve ever seen on a man

*deep sigh* Ewan Mitchell…the man that you are

Have you seen GRRM’s recent blog post?

Yes it was so good. I’m glad he doubled down on the damage the changes to blood and cheese did to the narrative, the cruelty of the killers, helaena offering up her own life, the “Sophie’s choice” moment - which according to condal was all maester propaganda right? Well the author has doubled down on the real accurate story which is the book version. He’s correct about cutting Maelor, who isn’t important in himself but his impact on the story was important. Alicent taking the initiative to get her grandchildren to safety when Rhaenyra is about to take the city, ser Rickard Thorne’s sacrifice trying to protect this innocent child (I like the actor who plays him so it’s shame he won’t get his moment), Daeron, the good brother and son, who loses it after hearing about what happened to his nephew and finally helaena, her suicide was directly because of Maelor’s death and now condal is planning on having her commit suicide “for no reason” in season 3, they’ve already taken away the fact that she was loved by the people and major riots break out, the dragons are killed and Rhaenyra is chased from kingslanding directly in response to the people’s princess/queen committing suicide after the horrific deaths of her children which were caused by the blacks.

I’m assuming Alicent won’t be orchestrating the plan to get her family to safety (and do not try telling me she was trying to save jaehaera in that final scene because she just told the enemy she wanted to take aegon’s only heir which was stupid and dangerous), daeron will just be burning down villages for no reason and will just be another Aemond, helaena will probably jump “because of the prophecies” or some bs. See how these changes have made at LEAST three characters less sympathetic? How helaena’s death will be less tragic and not the fault of what was done to her by the blacks in this war? And the fact that he says things are going to get worse story wise in seasons three and four and the fact that he likely broke an nda to write that blog is very telling.

yeah? and? he’s babygirl

"In Ryan's outline for season 3, Helaena still kills herself... for no particular reason" FUCKING HELL, George is really letting it rip lmaooooooo 💀

I'm so glad that he's addressing the "helaena conundrum" here because it perfectly aligns with my previous hotd-critical post. The fandom has rightfully torn into Alicent for days now, but conveniently overlooks the fact that Helaena's story is beyond redemption atp - she's nothing more than a meaningless pawn in the story. These writers have completely butchered one of the most tragic figures from the Dance era and reduced her to a pathetic meme in the TV show.

Helaena's death was the tipping point for Rhaenyra's downfall (and ultimately, the conclusion of this civil war). But that infuriating scene in episode 8 completely undermines its importance - her death is now rendered utterly meaningless in the show!

Pookie is stunning as usual

Ewan Mitchell as Aemond Targaryen House of the Dragon 2.01 - “A Son for a Son.”