Garcia and Antonsson are not involved with the production ofHouse of the Dragon.
No characters are directly experienced through a story happening in the present.
As a child, Rhaenyra is beautiful, charming, and pampered.
As a woman, shes proud, hot-tempered, and somewhat gone to seed after difficult childbirths.
Losses and betrayals make her increasingly paranoid and violent until her final days.
Clever and cunning, Alicents ambitions are readily apparent after she weds Viserys and bears him a son.
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But it also radically altered Rhaenyras attitude toward the succession.
Martins Rhaenyra, across various accounts, sees the Iron Throne as her right.
Even her affair with Ser Harwin Strong is recast as a matter of duty.
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Alicent (Emily Carey/Oliva Cooke) is not privy to the Song.
TV recast her as an ever-obedient daughter and husband and a pious observer of the Faith of the Seven.
Theres a fire and a darkness to Martins Rhaenyra that I miss on TV.
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Corlys Velaryon is a crafty and sage counselor.
And Team Black has the Starks.
In Alicents case, however, the changes made to date have cost the character badly.
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These same adjustments also deny her agency in most of what’s happened to date in the series.
The result is a flatter character on screen than even the distant historical sketch of the books.
Her sister Arya and Daenerys Targaryen constantly rebel against the confines placed on their sex.
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Cersei Lannister confuses sexism with deserved criticism and thinks little of other women.
Dorne rejects patriarchy altogether.
And then theres Catelyn Stark.
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She accepts the society she lives in with unblinkered vision.
Thats lost inHouse of the Dragon.
Could This Mean Trouble Going Forward?
Shes not the first character flattened by the adaptation process.
Worse was the fate of Jon Snow.
But theres also a visible path leaving Alicent as the pious pawn or self-righteous victim.
Should things continue down that path, she, and the Dance, will be the lesser for it.
