Hello again! Continuing my last post, today we’re going to focus more on the characters of  ‘Fire and Blood’. Now, there are way too many characters in this book and even if we only focus on those involved in ‘House of the Dragon’ there would be at least twenty characters to analyze and this would become a Game of Thrones blog. To avoid that, I’ll be talking about whom I consider the most important characters; Rhaenyra and Alicent.

Rahenyra is a very interesting character to me. Her father, Viserys, constantly and very openly wishes to have a son so they can inherit the throne; Rhaenyra is never truly considered. That is until her mother and Viserys’ wife, Aemma, dies in childbirth when he sacrifices her in the hopes of saving the baby and having a son; the baby ends up dying shortly after. After this tragedy, Viserys decides to name Rhaenyra heir against tradition as she is a woman. Even though her duty increases tenfold, she never sacrifices her freedom which becomes very clear when she has children who very obviously are not her husband’s.

Alicent is a sort of parallel version of Rhaenyra. She is the only daughter of Otto Hightower, the hand of the King (Being the hand of the king is like being an advisor). The Hightowers are an incredibly religious family, they control the epicenter of the Faith of the Seven (Like Christianity but Game of Thrones version) in Westeros; Oldtown. Because she is his only daughter, Alicent always had an incredible responsibility to her father, just like Rhaenyra had to Viserys. But instead of wanting his daughter to be content in her life like the king, Otto seeks to use Alicent to fulfill his own ambition; He arranges her marriage to Viserys, he pushes her to train Aegon to be king, he decides the marriage between Aegon and Helaena (Alicent’s children) and he attempts to dismiss Rhaenyra’s own son as heir.

In the show, Alicent and Rhaenyra are childhood friends with a very close bond. Rhaenyra relies on Alicent for support when her mother dies and Alicent relies on Rhaenyra to escape her overbearing father. In the book, they are further apart in age and never really have a close relationship but I think this change for the show really helps the audience empathize with both sides of the conflict and maximizes the impact of their future rivalry.

Their falling out in the show occurs after Rhaenyra is seen with her uncle (I know, gross.) engaging in ‘improper activities’ and Otto has to tell King Viserys. Alicent confronts Rhaenyra who vehemently denies it (Even though it did happen) and Alicent confesses that Otto knows of it. Rhaenyra convinces her father that the accusations are made up by Otto to dismiss her as heir in favor of his grandson, Viserys believes her and exiles Otto from the capital. Alicent never forgives Rhaenyra for it and becomes fearful she might try to banish her children once they become a threat to her reign.

Their past relationship and consequent falling out is the primary reason why a war of succession is fought; Alicent resents the freedom Rhaenyra had and stops trusting she would not harm her children once queen, and at the same time Rhaenyra recognizes the danger of Otto’s control and Alicents own ambition against herself and her children. More than just hatred and disagreements, it’s the consequence of the love that Rhaenyra and Alicent once had for each other.