House of The Dragon: Otto's Plot Against Rhaenyra Sucked From The Very Beginning
No matter how devious Otto Hightower thought he was, his plan did not end up being as ingenious as he wanted it to be.
The first season of House of Dragons ended a few months ago, but fans are still actively discussing the palace intrigues of the Targaryen family. This time fans decided to focus on Otto's plan against Rhaenyra and why it was doomed from the start.
Otto was desperate to strengthen his position and that of his daughter Alicent at court, knowing that the king wasn't young, he had no male heir, which could end in complete chaos that could destroy his family.
First, he had to get rid of Daemon, whom he feared the most (and not without reason), knowing that if Daemon inherited the throne, his days at court would be numbered. And what's the surest way to gain influence and power? That's right, send your beautiful young daughter to bed with the old widower king. Works like a Swiss watch every time. But not this particular time.
The one thing Otto failed to take into account in his well-thought-out plan was Viserys' love and devotion to the deceased Aemma. These feelings were so strong that the king didn't listen to his advisors and the voice of reason, and his only desire was that he and Aemma's child should inherit the throne.
So when Otto's plan seemed to work as it should, and Alicent gave birth to a male heir, Aegon, he was unsettled by the king's decision to leave Rhaenyra as heiress.
Moreover, Otto has failed to consider that by bringing Alicent to Viserys, he'll start a feud between her and Rhaenyra. It greatly reduced the likelihood that Viserys and Aemma's heir will pass the throne to a son of a woman who crawled into her father's bed almost immediately after the mother's death.
A series of setbacks to Otto's plan allowed Viserys to finally see the mercenary nature of the Hand of the King's actions, which were meant to serve the good of the state, not himself. Plan failed, Otto fired, game over. Otto's main mistake was that he underestimated almost all of the participants in his plan, seeing them as pawns in his game rather than people with feelings who could do unpredictable things.
Although Otto left the court and lost influence, this didn't mean that he would sit idly by. Still obsessed with putting his grandson Aegon on the throne, he will stop at nothing to unseat Rhaenyra and the Blacks, operating from the shadows. The sad news is that we won't be able to see the confrontation between the Greens and the Blacks until the late 2024.