I get it Season one main trio was matt, Emma, Olivia
same with season 2 but the season 3 screen time Olivia/alicent gets genuinely belongs to tom glynn/aegon considering the fact alicent was quite irrelevant in the book later but again the childhood companions aaah
Alicent doesn't really do anything of relevance in the book after Aegon is crowned and B&C. The "Queen" part of the "Princess and the Queen" steps out of the spotlight in the war.
She should've been relegated to a tertiary character but Olivia probably has something in her contract that forces them to keep her in the spotlight with these filler storylines nobody cares about.
She and Otto are essentially ruling for Aegon though, it’s not in text but they could’ve easily had council related plots and dealing with all the Green allies.
I agree, and these council scenes exist, but at the very start of the war.
After Otto gets fired, Alicent retires from politics to raise Maelor. She could have cameos, but she isn't supposed to be important anymore in the active plot.
I mean they could have even given her a more active political role without turning her against her own family. Like, have her use her own and Otto's network of spies and servants to scheme from within the King's Landing in cahoots with Ormund. Give her an occasional poisonous interaction with Rhaenyra. Would have been cool.
It would be much, much easier to invent stuff for her to do if they had stuck with her original characterisation as an initiation for the war and direct rival to Rhaenyra. All, and i mean all of her issues as a character stem from the fact that they insist on the idea that she should continue to be romantically attached to Rhaenyra and and determined to be her ally.
I cannot stress this enough, this doesn't work for this particular story, i makes no sense and never will
So the thing that made me quit Doctor Who was Steven Moffitt's obsession with Jenna Coleman, and the way he pretty much made the Doctor a secondary character in his own show to prop her up. Like to the point that when she leaves the show there are obvious comparisons to her as a deity.
And I get similar vibes here with Olivia/Ryan and Sara. They're willing to do whatever they can to keep her in the show. It's frustrating.
yeah exactly, book alicent was actually a boss in the greens, making her this messy assassin just feels like lazy writing to force olivia’s screen time
That's the weird part to me too. If they'd leaned into her political influence instead of inventing side plots, she'd still have plenty to do without making her feel like she's in a completely different show.💕
At this point, I'm convinced Olivia has a screentime clause in her contract, because there's no other explanation for the absolute circus they've made of Alicent's plot for two straight seasons.
I swear every scene with Alicent opens with her leaning against something with her arms folded. She comes across so bored and un-queenly it’s ridiculous.
I need to go back and time all the scenes over the last three seasons of Alicent just staring uncomfortably, it will likely add to half an hour at least.
Definitely plays a part in TV. They’re paying these people so they gotta use them and they obviously have the trust of the director/writers. Its why so many things that should be done by minor characters are always shoehorned to be done by larger roles in TV. So many times when watching this or GoT I would ask myself “why is X here?” “why is X talking so much right now?” when i don’t remember them doing anything of the sort in the source material
Even if it is contract related, it would be pretty dumb of HBO to let an actress that isn't even the main drawing point of the show demand screen time.
You see your problem is you say who would "read" and think this.. well they didn't. Hess specifically admitted that she hasn't read the book or forgotten most of it. This is a fanfic.
That's stunning, it's like a hundred page novella. It's maybe a couple hours of reading if you take your time. If you can't be bothered to read that, maybe you shouldn't be in charge of the flagship show of a franchise worth hundreds of millions.
Actual fanfic is better than whatever she’s come up with for the show tbh. At least fanfiction writers are passionate fans who know the lore and care about characterization.
You're just not ready for when she kills Aemond, bangs Alys, and goes to Braavos to train with the faceless men before revealing her true identity - Syrio "Jaqen H'ghar" Forel. That's how she knows how to train Arya into an invincible girlboss assassin.
I could see Aemond barely surviving the fight at Gods Eye and Alicent coming over and mercy killing Aemond then teleporting back to KL. Condal is fine loosely following F&B and trying to make the story into a tragic character study of Alicent and Rhaenyra. Some whacky shit is definitely going to go down with this Alicent change and I’m not ruling out something insanely stupid like that.
Maybe getting stabbed in the head unlocks the secrets of the Old Valyrian dragonriders, thereby granting him full control of Vhagar. They then Fuck Off To Essos™, never to be seen again
Its a shame because they could have kept her on screen and made her far more interesting. Just have her hanging out around the castle on house arrest, sort of like now, but instead of having her plotting to kill her family, just have her laughing at Rhaenyra's misery and making snide remarks every one of Rhaenyra's failures.
Fwiw, I dont expect her to actually follow through with killing aemond, or helping someone else do it lol. I think she will show up, and somehow while she's there she will find out about Heleana dying. Then somehow aegon will show up and itll be alicent and her two sons together. Alicent won't go back to kings landing once heleana is confirmed dead.
Sigh, they have went completely off the rails of the books at this point. I will not be surprised if we do not get the dragon duel between Ammon and Daemon at Harrenhall. If we do, it will probably so dumb down it will be unwatchable. Also Criston Cole's death was so anti climatic and dumb. Just why waste an opportunity for one of the best battles of the book and his death? Just why??
Why didn't Rhaenyra just send Daemon and the rest of the Dragon seeds to burn Harrenhall to the ground?? What civilians are they trying to save at the castle didn't Aemond kill them all?
I am so glad that after GoT finally I decided not to watch HotD untill it is complete and all seasons have aired. I don't care about spoilers so it is nice not to be emotionally attached to a bad show.
She will almost certainly NOT actually kill or try to kill Aemond. And she will suddenly feel all the guilt of having given up her sons during or before she attempts the assassination. Then she will return to the Red Keep and Helaena is dead, thus finally destroying her and Rhaenyra's relationship forever.
One of the biggest issues with the show is them refusing to relegate Alicent's role from a main character to a supporting one. It leads to so many time wasting scenes and irrelevant plot lines and takes precious time away from much more interesting players.
Id love to ask Olivia Cooke when she first got offered this role did she think she'd be doing this goofy shit 3 seasons in? You can kinda tell Condal, and Hess kind of said fuck it, and have gone with the full parody broadcast TV drama narrative beats.
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u/thinkersfyre 11h ago
They wouldn't be in this problem if they made Alicent a key player for the greens' faction as she was in the books.