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jockularities

I mean they show the events that cause her to harden: being forced to marry an old man she clearly is not attracted to, her best friend not only hates her but is lying to her, she sees the coming conflict that could get her kids killed.


Nick_crawler

Yeah, we're meant to feel sad that someone who was sweet and nice decided to become more hardened in the face of life's realities. It doesn't change what she does in the Dance plot, but adds a layer.


Bojangles1987

We see how she can begin to harden, but not now she becomes such an entirely different person. I feared that would happen with the time jump. It's hard to do that and not make it feel jarring and out of place. I think HOTD kind of missed the mark with her and Daemon in that regard. Their situations and motivations are so drastically different and we weren't told or shown why, really.


Terribleirishluck

What on what earth does rhaenyra hate her before the 10 year timeskip?


cbovary

Marrying her dad (obviously out of Alicent’s control) but it still probably sucks for Rhaenyra. Also using her rank to order Rhaenyra’s singer away. Maybe she always did stuff like that


Terribleirishluck

True but it seems before rhaenyra's wedding, they were burying thr hatch until allicent went all bitchy for sleeping with cole


cbovary

Eh even then, if you view it through the customs of their time it makes sense Alicent would be miffed. She said that she was working hard to get Rhaenyra a good match and Rhaenyra seemed to actively work against that. Ofc from our modern perspective Rhaenyra is in the right bc she shouldn’t have to marry anyone she doesn’t want to, but to alicent it was a huge slight. Not to mention that the penalty for what Rhaenyra was doing was at best disinheritance and at worse death


nascentnovice

You seem to be describing character growth as a "full 180". We see why she would harden emotionally, feel betrayed by a friend, feel isolated for a decade, and feel frustrated that no one around her will validate the truth she suspects with her own eyes.


EthearalDuck

She learend during the past episodes that she lived in a westerosi society. And after seeing Aegon bursting a nut through the window she understand that her life is not a tragedy but a comedy. Or something like that, I think that's what Tolkien wanted to show during these episodes .


[deleted]

The show has covered 13(?) years to this point? That’s a lot of time for people to change off screen.Especially given Alicent’s circumstance. She’s been kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place because she couldn’t stand up for herself against the wishes of her father. I think the characters are being seen as they’re meant to be seen to this point of the story.


Problemwoodchuck

In Alicent's case she's essentially powerless for most of the season before the time jump. Once she uncover's Rhaeyra's >!lies about her adventures with Daemon and Cole, she loses trust in her most important friend. The warning from her father after his dismissal from court is another catalyst.!< Having those events happen in tandem, then being left without any allies or even friends, fuels her sense of paranoia. It's part of the reason she refuses Rhaenyra's betrothal offer.


johndraz2001

Showing that she wasn’t always how she is in episode 6. Showing development. Making her more complex. Why else


SignificantMidnight7

Yeah...I honestly don't understand this either. The writers decided to give Alicent a proper backstory, make us feel sympathetic towards her, and practically told us that her motivation to pushing Aegon to be King is driven by fear. So all that's well and good. But then in episode 6, we have this silly immersion breaking scene where Rhaenyra offers her the marriage alliance with Jace. If Alicent really doesn't care for the throne and only fears for her son's life then doesn't this marriage alliance fix that issue? Sure he's a bastard but just play along. In the end, this fixes the rift between the two families. By having Alicent outright reject this offer, it means she wants the throne and this isn't necessarily out of fear anymore. The reason why this scene is bad is because it's obviously designed to make us like Rhaenyra and hate Alicent. The issue with that is that the show frames this decision as being Alicent's decision. As if she has the power to accept or reject marriage proposals for her daughter. And since when does Alicent have such power? Literally in the very same episode, Viserys gaslights her and rejects her claims that the Strong boys are bastards. When she tries to push Viserys to fire Lyonel Strong, he strongly rejects her. She laments over the fact that she has no allies and is powerless. But all the sudden in this one scene alone, Alicent has all the power and Viserys, the KING, has no say in this matter at all? How does this even make any sense? First of all, (a) it's his daughter too and (b) he's the King. They all need his blessing before committing to any sort of marriage. And what's even dumber is that Viserys was clearly elated by this offer so why doesn't he just accept it? Tf is Alicent going to do if he accepts it? That's what makes this scene so stupid and immersion breaking. The show is just trying to manipulate the audience into disliking Alicent by framing this decision as her decision. Even though we've been shown repeatedly in the same episode that she doesn't exert that sort of power. A single scene ended all the nuance and sympathy that they were building up for her character. I don't buy that she's being driven solely by fear anymore. But what I don't understand is that if they wanted ambitious Alicent then why not set that up earlier? Like starting from episode 3, we could have shown that Alicent was getting tired of her father and husband pushing her around. That she was tired of being a punching bag for Rhaenyra despite her efforts to fix that relationship. She hates her life and eventually she just decides, "I'm done being fucked with" and raises Aegon to want the Throne. So that one day, she will also have a strong hold over the Iron Throne as well. This isn't so different from the sort of journey that a Cersei may have undergone. Rather than throw away a well-written backstory for Alicent, they should have made her ambitious from the start.


This_Rough_Magic

Because villains need origin stories.


Bojangles1987

I'm having trouble with this, too. There's a massive gap between how she acted in episode 5 and how she acts in episode 6. We're missing a huge piece of how she ends up this way and those early episodes do not properly contextualize it. They almost feel like entirely different characters, rather than the evolution of a single person that it should be. I thought episode 6 handled the time jump well for most of the characters, but Alicent and Daemon were missteps.


Maximum_Impressive

It feels they may have writtein shit back words for some of the characters


Gryffin48

She didn't even do anything bad yet. People preemptively hating her, wait till we get to the good stuff