OLIVIA COOKE & EMMA D'ARCY
House of the Dragon Season 2 Promo
"I had one of those days where you feel very made up. Because I was just in my tracksuit, speaking to Olivia Cooke and Paddy Cosidine and it was really wicked."
alicent who made the first move, making her way to rhaenyra— to reach out (“queen alicent has not forgotten the love you once had for each other”) and we see rhaenyra's move is to take different path or avoid her in a way this is her refusal to see alicent as what others around her been telling
(“i do not believe alicent capable of cold murder”) its like rhaenyra is saying after all these years i still know you like the back of my hand the same hand that cleansed the blood off your fingers so she goes after her "true enemies" but then alicent follows her, stand before her. you can say this is her protecting the king, protecting her child but i see it more of alicent offering herself to rhaenyra, to repent
(“whether you come as a lover / i'll return on dragonback / or an executioner. i am ready to receive you”). because alicent sees herself guilty, responsible and equally as others who usurped the throne from rhaenyra at the same time it weight more because alicent betrayed her (“you will make a fine queen”)
so take me, punish me— it may not be the same blood you seek but mine flows in the very same vein of the kinslayer. swirling with grief, anger and the looming death and war above their heads yet still rhaenyra do the same move: avoid her and alicent does the same but she comes back to the same place to meet her, waiting for the judgment but walking away because alicent might have thought or realize rhaenyra would not give it.
(“but remember one thing rhaenyra if you perish in this war it would be because of the love you hold for her / alicent holds love for our enemy that makes her a fool”) and rhaenyra does not realize that its a punishment itself to live, to see how her betrayal and the usurpers sin plunge them to war— she follows her because they are so intertwined by many things: childhood friends, marriage, family, crown and their love for each other that no matter what they do, what actions they take and be it by the very own hands or others—
the consequences will be devastating and they will be felt by alicent and rhaenyra because they are the very center of all of this (“it doesn't matter how much i still love you alicent i think i'm going to be angry at you forever / we gave each other this agony no one else knows what it means to carry it”)