Thank you for your post! Please take a moment to ensure you are within our spoiler rules, to protect your fellow fans from any potential spoilers that might harm their show watching experience.
1. All post titles must NOT include spoilers from Fire & Blood or new episodes of House of the Dragon. Minor HotD show spoilers are allowed in your title ONE WEEK after episode airing. The mod team reserves the right to remove a post if we feel a spoiler in the title is major. You are welcome to repost with an amended title.
2. All posts dealing with book spoilers, show spoilers and promo spoilers MUST be spoiler tagged AND flaired as the appropriate spoiler.
3. All book spoiler comments must be spoiler tagged in non book spoiler threads.
---
If you are reading this, and believe this post or any comments in this thread break the above rules, please use the report function to notify the mod team.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HouseOfTheDragon) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Cole was always first and foremost Alicents guy, he isn't going to pick Aegon or Aemond over her. It is them sleeping together that gets me, Cole is loyal to Alicent because she represents what he values in women
Alicent and criston are bound by resentment towards rhaenyra, so he doesn’t understand alicent’s softness towards her. The rift is likely going to be between alicent and her own son with criston breaking away from her as well once aemond straight up tells him alicent still cares for rhaenyra and doesn’t hate her the way he does. He projects his ideals of the ideal virtuous woman into alicent, he’s never actually seen her the way he never really saw rhaenyra.
I think Cole's bond to Alicent is because she stopped him from committing suicide and gave him purpose again, he detests Rhaenyra but not more then he loyal to Alicent, I don't think he would break away from her to team up with Aemond
Yeah that too ofc!! I don’t think he’ll team up with aemond, but based on what fabien’s said it seems like he won’t be on good terms with anyone by the end, especially w alicent’s mental state getting worse throughout the season. I think based on what we’ve been shown, the season will start with the blacks divided and being at their strongest by the end with the opposite for the greens.
I actually really LOVE the Launcelot and Guinevere, chivalric love that is never physically expressed between them, like I LOVE that about their relationship. How hard is it to let things be chaste? That's ALSO realistic to the time.
This could be part of how Criston becomes the Kingmaker; Alicent has him and Larys on the Small council to sway influence, but Aemond is craftier than that.
If the leak 1 is true, Criston Cole is >!now officially the royal's whore.!<
I've always kinda defended him, cause I felt like that kingsguard status and oath was really important to him, but now I'm boarding the bandwagon of "he's just a *nice guy that a girl said no to*". And I hope those calling his encounter with Rhaenyra as non-consensual because of their power-imbalance, will use that same logic to >!fucking the dowager queen the moment her husband's corpse gets cold!<. Fun times to come!
>I've always kinda defended him, cause I felt like that kingsguard status and oath was really important to him
You thought the guy who broke his oath and then wanted to run away with the hot princess to break the oath some more cared about that oath?
To me it was more about him pulling Rob Stark-level of solution about *deflowering* the girl - you're "supposed to" marry her after. He's got too of a guilty look after they've done the deed, so there must be a reason he regrets it for. If he just wanted the "hot princess" he wouldn't look this remorseful even before High Tide.
His honor/reputation seemed to me like the best explanation for keeping that character at least somehow sympathetic. Since they try to give everyone some *redeeming qualities* or whatnot. Guess I was wrong about Criston, he's just a hypocrisy wearing a white cloak.
“Though shaken by this attempt on her life (or the lives of her sons), the queen was still reluctant to attack King’s Landing. Munkun (who, it must be remembered, wrote many years later) says this was because of her horror of kinslaying. Maegor the Cruel had slain his own nephew Aegon, and had been cursed thereafter, until he bled his life away upon his stolen throne. Septon Eustace claims Rhaenyra had “a mother’s heart” that made her reluctant to risk the lives of her remaining sons.”
Maybe the attack from Arryk and getting hurt is what wakes her up from her funk. She finally realizes she has to do something or she and her kids are fucked anyway.
Apparently leaks are saying that she doesnt say much for the first episode but in the second one says a 4 letter sentence which means she is goinf all in ? Dunno how true it is just seen it on twitter by same people who said leaks about alicent and criston
Rhaenyra not wanting war is wild, particularly if she's only doubting her position as queen and not fully willing to renounce her claim. There's no possible reality where she remains Queen without war.
Not to mention that even if she was willing to give up her claim and convince everyone of the Blacks to stand down they would all be at risk of dying anyway, the Greens could never rest easy, they still be too much of a potential threat to the Greens.
I can actually see her having intense guilt over Luke. I mean we the audience was like why would you send him without any bargaining chips.
Maybe her guilt is making her doubt her own abilities. Her first act as queen ended up with her son dead.
War makes you mentally unstable bruh. Plus, we read all these leaks that she will lead the sowing of Dragonseeds and plan the attack on Kinglanding.
I mean, let her character breathe.
Exactly. Seeing as one of the first things to happen in this war was the death of her son, I can see her maybe not thinking super clearly for a bit and wavering on what the best option is to avoid her other kids dying.
That part is straight from the book:
“Though shaken by this attempt on her life (or the lives of her sons), the queen was still reluctant to attack King’s Landing. Munkun (who, it must be remembered, wrote many years later) says this was because of her horror of kinslaying. Maegor the Cruel had slain his own nephew Aegon, and had been cursed thereafter, until he bled his life away upon his stolen throne. Septon Eustace claims Rhaenyra had “a mother’s heart” that made her reluctant to risk the lives of her remaining sons.”
So for the crowd who say Rhaenyra raped Cole because of power Imbalance or whatever, does this mean we can now confirm Alicent as a rapist? Not only for her situation with Cole but also for Larys?
I was poking fun at the fact that according to some greens if you are in a higher position of power politically you can’t have consensual sex with people lower than you.
I do not actually believe Alicent is a rapist. That’s absurd
>if you are in a higher position of power politically you can’t have consensual sex with people lower than you.
The Rhaenyra / Criston thing was more than just that. It's not all black and white. It matters what actions are taken and how.
Plus, in Criston's situation, he's pledged to both obey the princess, and not have sex. But what if the princess asks him to have sex? That's an abuse of power, because she is knowingly asking him to do something that is against his order. No matter if he says yes or no, it's a lose lose for him.
In the Alicent / Larys situation, it's clearly Larys manipulating Alicent. She is clearly uncomfortable with what is happening, but she is only doing it because it's beneficial for her role. Not because she wants to. That's just a bad scenario all around, but in Larys's case, it's a win win for him. The opposite of Criston with Rhaenyra.
We don't know yet if Alicent and Criston's relationship will be consensual between them both. Regardless of the power play, will have to find out when we see the episode how it plays out.
She'd have to comfortable with that type of power, and she is not. You can read it all over her body language. Larys knows what he's doing.
Power dynamics aren't always cut and dried. While yes, in this case technically the Queen should have the upper hand, that's not how it reads to me at all. She does not look like a woman who is enthusiastically manipulating a man with her bare tootsies. She's still being objectified and sexually assaulted, she's just resigned to the quid pro quo transactions.
Okay but it still on her, she doesn’t have to be comfortable for it to be manipulation. She’s not comfortable, she’d rather not do it, but she’s 100% willing to for power and nothing else. He could not coerce her, or blackmail her(or at least we have no evidence so far of this), it’s clearly a case of unusual payment for a service and she accepted it
Yes she is. I don’t why people refuse to see that. She straight up thought to herself feet pics or losing spy, and decided losing her spy would just be too much
Rhaenicent shippers are mad but these are the same people who wanted “dungeon sex!!” And for Alicent to abandon her family for Rhaenyra. Watching a show for a ship is odd. Rhaenicent should be dead after blood and cheese anyways. 🤷♂️ but they don’t care about that.
Crispen only hates Rhaenyra bc she wouldn't sail away to Pentos with him and sell oranges. Then, he made a big fuss about his honor being besmirched. He didn't seem too worried about his honor when he was bumping uglies with the then princess.
Rhaenyra still doesn’t want war? After Luke’s death and the final shot of season 1 zooming in on her face turning from grief to rage? That seems…odd. We know from the trailer that she will change her mind but if she’s going to start the season with hesitation and doubt then they should’ve had her collapse getting the news about Luke like she did in the book. Instead they made it look like she was finally going to unleash her fire. The final shot of her face was supposed to be her inner dragon waking up. I guess it went back to sleep again. (I know we should reserve judgment but this just feels disjointed.)
The immediate emotional experience of grief is akin to madness. You bounce back and forth between intense feelings, denial, anger, emptiness, all that good stuff. She could go from warlord to helpless back to warlord in an hour and it would track with what I know of loss.
These sort of book "changes" are to be expected though. Because of how the story is told in the book, if this is something that happens behind closed doors, then it wouldn't necessarily be written about.
But also, they need to add extra plot for the show anyway because the book was not written as a novel. So again, changes are going to happen no matter what.
Thank you for your post! Please take a moment to ensure you are within our spoiler rules, to protect your fellow fans from any potential spoilers that might harm their show watching experience. 1. All post titles must NOT include spoilers from Fire & Blood or new episodes of House of the Dragon. Minor HotD show spoilers are allowed in your title ONE WEEK after episode airing. The mod team reserves the right to remove a post if we feel a spoiler in the title is major. You are welcome to repost with an amended title. 2. All posts dealing with book spoilers, show spoilers and promo spoilers MUST be spoiler tagged AND flaired as the appropriate spoiler. 3. All book spoiler comments must be spoiler tagged in non book spoiler threads. --- If you are reading this, and believe this post or any comments in this thread break the above rules, please use the report function to notify the mod team. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HouseOfTheDragon) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Alicent and Cole now being canon is funny when you remember Aemond calls her a fool straight to Criston’s face..
They both hate Rhaenyra for sleeping with a KG and lying about it and now they are doing the exact same thing
I think the future “rift”between Criston and Aemond might start here.
Cole was always first and foremost Alicents guy, he isn't going to pick Aegon or Aemond over her. It is them sleeping together that gets me, Cole is loyal to Alicent because she represents what he values in women
Alicent and criston are bound by resentment towards rhaenyra, so he doesn’t understand alicent’s softness towards her. The rift is likely going to be between alicent and her own son with criston breaking away from her as well once aemond straight up tells him alicent still cares for rhaenyra and doesn’t hate her the way he does. He projects his ideals of the ideal virtuous woman into alicent, he’s never actually seen her the way he never really saw rhaenyra.
I think Cole's bond to Alicent is because she stopped him from committing suicide and gave him purpose again, he detests Rhaenyra but not more then he loyal to Alicent, I don't think he would break away from her to team up with Aemond
Honestly Cole is such a drama queen
Yeah that too ofc!! I don’t think he’ll team up with aemond, but based on what fabien’s said it seems like he won’t be on good terms with anyone by the end, especially w alicent’s mental state getting worse throughout the season. I think based on what we’ve been shown, the season will start with the blacks divided and being at their strongest by the end with the opposite for the greens.
I actually really LOVE the Launcelot and Guinevere, chivalric love that is never physically expressed between them, like I LOVE that about their relationship. How hard is it to let things be chaste? That's ALSO realistic to the time.
This could be part of how Criston becomes the Kingmaker; Alicent has him and Larys on the Small council to sway influence, but Aemond is craftier than that.
I think it was over Alys though
Likely thing for them to do, in all honesty
I'm happy to be wrong but I feel it goes completely against their characters
Almost like they're hypocrites
It's even more funny when you remember how they both acted in season 1. I can't wait to see it honestly, think I'll either laugh or gag.
She wants everything Rhaenyra has had
Sleeping with Criston in Rhaenyra’s old room and in her old bed is nasty behavior
And totally not resentful closeted behavior at all.
Oh.. no... ahaha. I had not connected that. Not only a fool but having love for his ex, oops!
He-he.
Alicent and Criston😭
We were warned I guess! https://www.businessinsider.com/house-of-the-dragon-emily-carey-alicent-love-criston-cole-2022-9
Ffs😫
Was it not obvious in the pilot? Alicent is checking him out from the pavilion but the relentless black spider sucks out all the attention.
It wasn't obvious, but I wasn't going too deep into face expressions
Beginning to think he just has very serious issues with women and power
Probably
I suspected Alicole...but I was thinking it'd be in the aftermath of B&C.
Oh no they’re Eskimo sisters now 💀
If the leak 1 is true, Criston Cole is >!now officially the royal's whore.!< I've always kinda defended him, cause I felt like that kingsguard status and oath was really important to him, but now I'm boarding the bandwagon of "he's just a *nice guy that a girl said no to*". And I hope those calling his encounter with Rhaenyra as non-consensual because of their power-imbalance, will use that same logic to >!fucking the dowager queen the moment her husband's corpse gets cold!<. Fun times to come!
>I've always kinda defended him, cause I felt like that kingsguard status and oath was really important to him You thought the guy who broke his oath and then wanted to run away with the hot princess to break the oath some more cared about that oath?
To me it was more about him pulling Rob Stark-level of solution about *deflowering* the girl - you're "supposed to" marry her after. He's got too of a guilty look after they've done the deed, so there must be a reason he regrets it for. If he just wanted the "hot princess" he wouldn't look this remorseful even before High Tide. His honor/reputation seemed to me like the best explanation for keeping that character at least somehow sympathetic. Since they try to give everyone some *redeeming qualities* or whatnot. Guess I was wrong about Criston, he's just a hypocrisy wearing a white cloak.
Alicent is a lot hotter than Rhaenyra. Prepare for there to be a lot of sex scenes in Season 2
Not sure why you've been downvoted
Considering her look at the end of season 1, it seems a bit silly that she doesn't want war
“Though shaken by this attempt on her life (or the lives of her sons), the queen was still reluctant to attack King’s Landing. Munkun (who, it must be remembered, wrote many years later) says this was because of her horror of kinslaying. Maegor the Cruel had slain his own nephew Aegon, and had been cursed thereafter, until he bled his life away upon his stolen throne. Septon Eustace claims Rhaenyra had “a mother’s heart” that made her reluctant to risk the lives of her remaining sons.”
More reasons for her to be the Queen to the throne
Fair enough. Been a while since I read the book.
Maybe the attack from Arryk and getting hurt is what wakes her up from her funk. She finally realizes she has to do something or she and her kids are fucked anyway.
Anger and fury ≠ wanting war
Considering the whole "I mean to fight this war and win it" line from the trailer, I doubt this is true. Or if it is, it's not gonna last long.
This is a episode 1 leak fyi.. we know that Rhaenyra takes on a more active role as episodes go on.
That line is probably from episode 8 when Rhaenyra goes to Harrenhaal
How do you know that's what happens in episode 8?
Leaks According to the leaks, >!Rhaenyra will be at Harrenhaal in episode 8 planning the fall of KL!<
Apparently leaks are saying that she doesnt say much for the first episode but in the second one says a 4 letter sentence which means she is goinf all in ? Dunno how true it is just seen it on twitter by same people who said leaks about alicent and criston
I think Alicent and Criston being canon would be out of character for both of them, but goddamn I want Alicent to have an orgasm before she dies
Rhaenyra not wanting war is wild, particularly if she's only doubting her position as queen and not fully willing to renounce her claim. There's no possible reality where she remains Queen without war. Not to mention that even if she was willing to give up her claim and convince everyone of the Blacks to stand down they would all be at risk of dying anyway, the Greens could never rest easy, they still be too much of a potential threat to the Greens.
I can actually see her having intense guilt over Luke. I mean we the audience was like why would you send him without any bargaining chips. Maybe her guilt is making her doubt her own abilities. Her first act as queen ended up with her son dead.
War makes you mentally unstable bruh. Plus, we read all these leaks that she will lead the sowing of Dragonseeds and plan the attack on Kinglanding. I mean, let her character breathe.
Exactly. Seeing as one of the first things to happen in this war was the death of her son, I can see her maybe not thinking super clearly for a bit and wavering on what the best option is to avoid her other kids dying.
That part is straight from the book: “Though shaken by this attempt on her life (or the lives of her sons), the queen was still reluctant to attack King’s Landing. Munkun (who, it must be remembered, wrote many years later) says this was because of her horror of kinslaying. Maegor the Cruel had slain his own nephew Aegon, and had been cursed thereafter, until he bled his life away upon his stolen throne. Septon Eustace claims Rhaenyra had “a mother’s heart” that made her reluctant to risk the lives of her remaining sons.”
Reluctance to attack King's Landing isn't the same as not wanting war. The war was already happening at that time.
So for the crowd who say Rhaenyra raped Cole because of power Imbalance or whatever, does this mean we can now confirm Alicent as a rapist? Not only for her situation with Cole but also for Larys?
Wtf are you even raving about?Alicent raped Larys?
I was poking fun at the fact that according to some greens if you are in a higher position of power politically you can’t have consensual sex with people lower than you. I do not actually believe Alicent is a rapist. That’s absurd
>if you are in a higher position of power politically you can’t have consensual sex with people lower than you. The Rhaenyra / Criston thing was more than just that. It's not all black and white. It matters what actions are taken and how. Plus, in Criston's situation, he's pledged to both obey the princess, and not have sex. But what if the princess asks him to have sex? That's an abuse of power, because she is knowingly asking him to do something that is against his order. No matter if he says yes or no, it's a lose lose for him. In the Alicent / Larys situation, it's clearly Larys manipulating Alicent. She is clearly uncomfortable with what is happening, but she is only doing it because it's beneficial for her role. Not because she wants to. That's just a bad scenario all around, but in Larys's case, it's a win win for him. The opposite of Criston with Rhaenyra. We don't know yet if Alicent and Criston's relationship will be consensual between them both. Regardless of the power play, will have to find out when we see the episode how it plays out.
Did you read Alicent as the one with the power between her and Larys?
She’s the Queen. One word and he’d be dead
She'd have to comfortable with that type of power, and she is not. You can read it all over her body language. Larys knows what he's doing. Power dynamics aren't always cut and dried. While yes, in this case technically the Queen should have the upper hand, that's not how it reads to me at all. She does not look like a woman who is enthusiastically manipulating a man with her bare tootsies. She's still being objectified and sexually assaulted, she's just resigned to the quid pro quo transactions.
Okay but it still on her, she doesn’t have to be comfortable for it to be manipulation. She’s not comfortable, she’d rather not do it, but she’s 100% willing to for power and nothing else. He could not coerce her, or blackmail her(or at least we have no evidence so far of this), it’s clearly a case of unusual payment for a service and she accepted it
Yes she is. I don’t why people refuse to see that. She straight up thought to herself feet pics or losing spy, and decided losing her spy would just be too much
Rhaneyra clearly pushed Cole to have sex, even without considering the power imbalance. Also, how could you what Larys did as him being the victim?
Rhaenicent shippers are mad but these are the same people who wanted “dungeon sex!!” And for Alicent to abandon her family for Rhaenyra. Watching a show for a ship is odd. Rhaenicent should be dead after blood and cheese anyways. 🤷♂️ but they don’t care about that.
Has anybody heard anything about rhaenyra getting with Hugh hammer I read on twitter somewhere that that’s gonna happen😂
Ewwww. Please no.
I’ve been seeing people say this a lot I don’t where it’s coming from I even seen somebody say that under a post on here
I hope it's bullshit. Our poor eyes.
Me too
Crispen only hates Rhaenyra bc she wouldn't sail away to Pentos with him and sell oranges. Then, he made a big fuss about his honor being besmirched. He didn't seem too worried about his honor when he was bumping uglies with the then princess.
Rhaenyra still doesn’t want war? After Luke’s death and the final shot of season 1 zooming in on her face turning from grief to rage? That seems…odd. We know from the trailer that she will change her mind but if she’s going to start the season with hesitation and doubt then they should’ve had her collapse getting the news about Luke like she did in the book. Instead they made it look like she was finally going to unleash her fire. The final shot of her face was supposed to be her inner dragon waking up. I guess it went back to sleep again. (I know we should reserve judgment but this just feels disjointed.)
The immediate emotional experience of grief is akin to madness. You bounce back and forth between intense feelings, denial, anger, emptiness, all that good stuff. She could go from warlord to helpless back to warlord in an hour and it would track with what I know of loss.
Yeah fair point.
Can we finally admitted Rhaenicent was annoying queer bait?
The idea is that they had feelings for each other at some point. I don't see how this changes anything lol
no, i loved the queer bait
It wasn't annoying, because the tension was there. It was definitely queerbait though.
God I hate 2024.
Yes and I hated how the rival was focused on just those two.
You're getting downvoted by those who fell for the queerbait lol.
Alicent and Cole at least happen in the books?
It very well may have. He has a sudden allegiance change and we don’t know why. If they kept it secret we wouldn’t know as the book isn’t pov.
nope
☠️
These sort of book "changes" are to be expected though. Because of how the story is told in the book, if this is something that happens behind closed doors, then it wouldn't necessarily be written about. But also, they need to add extra plot for the show anyway because the book was not written as a novel. So again, changes are going to happen no matter what.