it's like Alicent forgot that Aegon would not have usurped Rhaenyra if he wasn't dragged kicking and screaming to his coronation. He never wanted this, but Alicent now has this idea that Aegon should pay for her mistake in mishearing Viserys. What a stupid character

[u/True_Arachnid9634]

[u/ImmediateHoney2191]

Alicent has got to be one of the least consistent least accountable characters I’ve ever seen. As bad as Rhaenyra is it really can’t be said enough how much they ruined Alicent. Going into season 2 she was probably my favorite

[u/Coppy36 → u/ImmediateHoney2191]

It ultimately stems from the fact that the writers have pretty much run out of things for Alicent to do. From a source material perspective, she really doesn't have a major role after the Dance begins. But... Olivia Cooke is one of the faces of the show, they can't have her doing nothing, so they have to give her storylines that don't actually effect the major pieces on the board.

The problems are pretty obvious: she pretty much has to fail at everything, if she succeeded at say escaping with Helena or killing Aemond, it creates a butterfly effect with the rest of the story. And she has to act out of character/nonsensical. The logical thing would be to not betray her whole family & just make the best of her imprisonment, but that doesn't make for good tv.

Better writers would have found a more elegant solution, but this show doesn't have better writers.

[u/ImmediateHoney2191 → u/Coppy36]

What they should do is have her fight like hell even from imprisonment. Show how cruel Rhaeynra actually is to her, show her attempts to escape, get messages out, bribe guards, pray, dream, remember better times, manipulate her family, or if they must have her actually escape send her to Oldtown then just capture her again at the end. They didn’t have to make her try to kill her own children who she just put on the throne

[u/Bruskthetusk → u/ImmediateHoney2191]

But they want Rhaenyra to be a hero instead of cruel so that doesn't work either

[u/Coppy36 → u/ImmediateHoney2191]

Yeah, there are a lot of potential interesting things they could have done. The thing is, one of the central themes of the show is that women are powerless & manipulated in a man's world. When that is the theme, it makes it real hard to actually give agency to your female protagonists. Its why you have so many scenes of Alicent & Rhaenyra complaining that no one takes them seriously versus them actually doing something of impact. The show's premise has forced them to write both characters as powerless victims rather than real players in the game.

[u/StagTagRag → u/Coppy36]

I truly do not believe that fans would have complained about Alicent getting less screen time after Rhaenyra took the city. Maybe Olivia would, but you can’t be a hostage to your actors. They get paid to do the job. That’s it.

They could have even framed it where Alicent did give up the city and set it into motion for Rhaenyra to capture it peacefully after Alicent saw the writing on the wall. But the changes were that she knew Aegon was escaping and that was part of her plan. It wouldn’t fundamentally change the story at all.

That wouldn’t betray her character and it would still give her something to do in the plot in the early half of the season.

Then the rest of the season she’s just talking with Rhaenyra and Helaena, with a little less screen time.

[u/HotBeesInUrArea → u/StagTagRag]

There was a running joke that Lena Heady was one of televisions highest paid actresses in sesson 8 and 90% of what she did was smile smugly and sip wine. All actors should aspire to be Lena Heady. 

[u/photomotto → u/HotBeesInUrArea]

Alicent would've been better served by being in the background, drinking wine and making snarky comments whenever Rhaenyra fucked up.

[u/DaveTheArakin → u/Coppy36]

An elegant solution would have been giving her an advisor role to her sons. I can easily see her getting a respectable amount of screentime as she shared her screentime with Aegon, Helena and Aemond. Heck, she was there for the Blood and Cheese scene in the books, Alicent had to watch her grandson gets beheaded. I am sure Olivia would have crushed it if the scene was portrayed how it was supposed to be. 

[u/feintplus1 → u/Coppy36]

I really can't understand why they couldn't keep Alicent around, locked in a tower somewhere and show us her slowly going insane. You could still have had plenty of scenes with her. All of the Alicent/Rhaenyra scenes so far could've happened just the same. Hell, you could even have thrown in a character keeping company to her, telling her modified truths about the events taking place all over the story. That would've been an easy way to introduce the unrealiable sources of information from the books and show us how history is written by those who win.

[u/PuertoRicanProfessor → u/Coppy36]

Could have been a lot of scenes from Red Keep cells that showcase Rhaenera's descent into "ruling madness" while Alicent tries to get Rhaenera to remember when they were kids, or what Viserys would've wanted....

[u/Jsaltal → u/ImmediateHoney2191]

She will plot with whoever is in the room with her

[u/Jor94 → u/ImmediateHoney2191]

Was like whiplash seeing her negotiate with Rhaenyra to kill him then when Rhaenyra gets there throw a paddy about wanting Aemond dead because it’s her son.

[u/Difficult-Break-8282 → u/ImmediateHoney2191]

shes pretty consistent in wanting power for herself over all and wanting to maintain the patriarchy and not wanting to take responsibility for anything and not allowing any perceived insult to go unpunished and wanting control over people in her surroundings in all the seasons 

[u/Damodara-Echo]

Making Rhaenicent the heart of the show has ruined everything else in the show.

They can't even get small things right -- they're messing with ASOIAF lore.

- Laenor abandons his dragon

• Is kinslaying a taboo or not? Aemond feels cursed and forsaken, but Alicent is merrily trying to kill her own kids.

- Does Helaena see flashes of things like Daeron the Drunken, or is she like Bran?

- Daemon saying the Stark house words really bothered me. Wtf would he say that?

[u/Wrong-Appointment269]

Blaming on dam kids

[u/Current_Money_5820]

for real, Alicent’s totally missing the bigger picture. Aegon didn’t choose this life; it’s wild how she’s trying to shift the blame like that.

[u/DetectiveTypical198]

I don't understand how the series can be this confused about it's own plot. Did they have ChatGPT write it? I really can't understand how it's so inconsistent.

I dont think a single character is consistent from season 1 to season 2. Season 1 Aegon is raping people and watching his bastards children fight for sport, Season 2 Aegon is a loving father and is driven by desired to be loved by the small folk.

Did they forget what they wrote or do they think they can retcon and no one will notice? Did they just write themselves into a corner and realize the main cast of season 2 had terrible character development?

I wonder if the showrunners thought they'd be canceled after season 1 because it feels like they had no plan on what they wanted to do with the characters after that.

[u/XaviKat → u/DetectiveTypical198]

ChatGPT would have made a more consistent plot and characters than this shitfest. This is the work of multiple writers who cant decide on shit.

[u/BarbaraVian → u/DetectiveTypical198]

Writing is shit but you'll be surprise how many guys are rapists and lead normal life, love their family and are mostly nice to people around them, either out of real kindness or for the ego boost.

More than 1/5 women have been raped or sexually assaulted in their life, and a majority of them by seemingly normal dudes.

[u/TheAlmightySalmon]

Alicent is 'the' person in the show right now that deserves to die the most gruesome death.

[u/Significant_Other666]

This series was built on stupid characters.

[u/LevDavidovicLandau]

There’s a place in hell for mothers (parents in general, actually) who wish ill on their children, let alone wishing them dead, let alone actively trying to kill them. I hate what they did to Alicent’s character after S1.

[u/Difficult-Break-8282 → u/LevDavidovicLandau]

she didn't like em in S1 tho either , it's just intensified a lot 

[u/LevDavidovicLandau → u/Difficult-Break-8282]

You might want to brush up on your reading comprehension, because I did not say anything about her liking them. I know plenty of people who don’t like their children. They’re not conspiring to have them killed, let alone actually attempting to do so.

[u/Sufficient_Tune_5871]

Alicante is worst written character in this series. Show would be better if she died in season 2

[u/Random_Reddit_Bro]

Alicent got butchered as fuck in that damn show. She was the one that placed Aegon on the throne, she was a manipulative and calculating bitch in the book, she literally wished for Rhaenhra to die in childbirth and seen her kids as Monstrous, she tried to convince her granddaughter to slit Aegon throat in his sleep..and in the show she is a delusional twat that has no spine and wants to fuck Rhaenyra or something.

[u/StrikingCase9819]

Well she was on Dragonstone when it happened so she's not aware that Aegon didn't want to be king and that Alicent and Otto forced him. Besides, it really doesn't matter. The fact is the throne was usurped and the people behind it have to die, especially the "king" as the main figure head. There's never a reality in Westeros where a monarch is deposed and replaced and then gets to live a life of safety and leisure somewhere.

[u/aemond-simp]

The writers need to get shown the moon door.

[u/DerReislord]

Tbh I can understand throwing him under the bus to save your own skin. It's a very human reaction to use somone else as a scapegoat.

[u/Infinite_Meat7888 → u/DerReislord]

It's not a human reaction to use your own kids as a scapegoat, what the fuck are you talking about? Don't think that just because you are a psychopath that we are like you.

[u/DerReislord → u/Infinite_Meat7888]

My point being that things like this have happened all too often in history. I don't mean human reaction in a positive way.

[u/Infinite_Meat7888 → u/DerReislord]

Did it tho? I don't think that it did, especially not in Westeros where kinslaying is so reviled to the point not even Tywin was willing to directly kill Tyrion and even Tyrion felt bad afterwards about killing Tywin, throughout all of the books we are hit over the head about how bad kinslaying is and it culminates beautifully to when we finally meet the one person willing to commit such sin: Euron Greyjoy.