How Olivia Cooke's performance in 'House of the Dragon' made me think differently about Alicent Hightower (2024)

When I first read George R.R. Martin's Fire and Blood, I couldn't stand Alicent Hightower. On the page, Viserys Targaryen's (Paddy Considine) second wife mostly comes off like the stepmother from hell, who cares more about putting her terrible son Aegon the Elder (Tom Glynn-Carney) on the Iron Throne than respecting the role her stepdaughter Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) has as its rightful heir.

And while it's easier to have sympathy for a dragon-riding rebel trying to trailblaze through the sexism of her world than for a woman who seems to have bought into that world's toxic aims, Olivia Cooke's take on Queen Alicent Hightower has helped me see the character in an entirely new way. After taking over the role from Emily Carey — who gave a thoughtful portrayal of young Alicent as an anxious, loyal daughter trying to please her father — Cooke brings even more nuance to Alicent.

Cooke's first appearance in episode 6, which picks up 10 years after Rhaenyra's wedding to Laenor Velaryon, immediately demonstrates how Alicent's dutiful nature has eaten into her over the years. She's bitter and judgemental of her former bestie Rhaenyra, who was able to flaunt her responsibilities in ways that Alicent wasn't. While she kept having children with a royal husband that was literally disintegrating before her eyes, she watched Rhaenyra bed and have multiple babies with a young, handsome man who was not her husband — which no one in the Red Keep, save Alicent, seems to find outrageous.

Forced into motherhood by her role as a queen to a king with no surviving male sons, Alicent has no natural gift for it. Cooke's performance makes Alicent's disappointment in her children's peculiarities clear. She knows that her son Aegon is the lowest of the low, but still she pushes him forward to rule, because that's the role of first born males in her society. Perhaps her unseen youngest son Daeron is her pride and joy, but based on her reaction to Aemond and Helaena, I'm not holding my breath.

Cooke's performance reveals how Alicent's desperation for anyone to listen to her makes her susceptible to the poison both Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) and Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) willingly pour into her ears about the Targaryen princess. Alicent thinks she manipulated both men to her side — but, as in Larys' case, she was the one being used (i.e., Alicent's getting caught up in Larys' plot to murder his father and brother). Again, she finds herself beholden to a man's whims instead of her own.

No wonder Alicent loses her mind after Laena Velaryon's funeral when one of Rhaenyra's sons takes out Aemond's eye for blatantly saying what his mother has been saying all along about the Velaryon sons' legitimacy. After years of simmering resentment, Alicent's pot boils over, and in Cooke's hands, she becomes almost manic when her husband refuses to punish Rhaenyra's child in retribution. This is another galling example to Alicent of how Rhaenyra would always be first in Viserys' heart over his loyal and dutiful wife. Always so proper, Alicent finally has it, and grabs her husband's dagger and attacks her former friend in a frenzy. It's only when she draws Rhaenyra's blood that she snaps out of her rage, and becomes flooded with shame.

That shame might have led her someplace more forgiving, but unfortunately, it leads her to a place of religiosity and moral rectitude that makes her certain that fulfilling what she thought was her husband's final wish is worth the ensuing chaos. I'm not crazy about Alicent misunderstanding which 'Aegon' Viserys was referring to in his milk of the poppy-induced haze, but Cooke is marvelous as Alicent tries to grapple with fulfilling the king's wish while keeping her father's evil plot to slaughter Rhaenyra and her entire family at bay.

And to see amongst all this chaos that the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms has been prostituting herself before Larys Strong to get information that comes easily to her father is just one more example of how the twisted sexism of Westeros has been grinding her down all these years. It's something that Rhaenys Targaryen notices in their meeting when Alicent comes to beg for support. Never in all her years of stewing did Alicent think that she had the right to rule, working in service to all the decrepit men around her and carrying out their whims, no matter how much of her soul she had to sacrifice in the process. Rhaenys might have been the Queen that Never Was, but one suspects that if she had been faced with the situation Larys put Alicent in, he would have found himself facing Meleys' fiery breath quite quickly. Same with Rhaenyra, for that matter.

But for our non-dragon-riding lead, Cooke has made Alicent feel much more like a conflicted, flesh-and-blood woman than the plot device she occasionally felt like on the page. Even if I still don't like Alicent very much (I am still firmly on Team Black thanks to both Milly Alco*ck and D'Arcy's blazing performances as Rhaenyra), I sympathize with her more than I ever did before, and I understand her motivations — even if I don't agree with them. While I expect that D'Arcy, Alco*ck, and Carey will all get attention come Emmys time (D'Arcy in particular having turned in a spectacular performance in the finale), I hope voters don't forget Cooke's complex portrait of an often unlikable woman as well.

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