In House of the Dragon, Rhaenyra and Alicent started out as best friends but their friendship took a turn after Alicent is chosen to be queen by Rhaenyra’s father. Despite growing apart, the girls reconnected in the latest episode. Still, fans are already preparing to see their relationship go from bad to worst and setting up their teams ahead of the latter half of the series.
Milly Alcock is aware Rhaenyra and Alicent are expected to fight and she tells Nylon that although she and co-star Emily Carey knew that the friendship is going to crumble, they wanted to make sure people saw that the girls were true to each other. “I think it was all kind of written on the page, and Emily [Carey] and I understood very quickly what this relationship meant, and that we really needed to display their unconditional love for each other when we see them. Especially in the first couple of episodes — so that when the demise of that friendship inevitably happens, the audience cares,” Alcock said. “Because I think the irony that I’ve kind of found over the show coming out, is that House of the Dragon highlights yes, the patriarchy, yes, misogyny, but also the internalized misogyny that these two women are forced to face,” she continued. “They’re forced to be put at odds with one another by the choices by men.” Alcock then pointed out that it is usually the male audience who are so eager to see a catfight in House of the Dragon. ”But what I found quite hilarious is that the fan base is also putting the actors, the young Alicent and the young Rhaenyra at odds with each other, and choosing who’s better, also by decision of mostly men. So I think that it’s really just f-cking ironic,” she said. It’s unfortunate that these friends are set to be enemies. In the meantime, we’ll be seeing more of Alcock and Carey in the next episode of House of the Dragon.
