The 'House of the Dragons' Character That Apparently Had Us All Fooled

Warning: the following article contains spoilers for 'House of the Dragon ' episode 2

'House of the Dragon' episode 2, titled 'The Rogue Prince', appeared to have dealt yet another blow to Rhaenyra's confidence in people who she deemed a part of her own narrow circle. When her father King Viserys announces his intention to marry her best friend, Lady Alicent Hightower, Rhaenyra looks absolutely devastated: Viserys does it shortly after a heartfelt conversation with her. And Alicent also spent a lot of time trying to persuade Rhaenyra to let it go and make peace with her father.

Does it mean that Alicent has in fact been pretending to be Rhaenyra's best friend all this time? Some people now believe that the answer is yes — especially when they saw the way Alicent looked at Rhaenyra when Viserys announced his intentions.

But others argue that the look was less of an "I outsmarted you this time", and more of "I'm doing something my own father forced me to do". This is where another group of fans steps in – those who suspect Otto Hightower of being a sneaky plotter that he highly likely actually is.

Otto has been sending Alicent to "comfort" King Viserys after the death of Queen Aemma, his wife, several times since episode 1. The marriage between his daughter and Viserys would make sure that the King is going to have a male heir birthed by a Hightower – something that essentially makes Otto's house closer to power.

But some fans are confident that Alicent is enjoying her part in the game – even though others argue that they are simply surrendering to a "sexist" urge to hate yet another female character.

"The show is making it so obvious that Alicent isn't comfortable doing this that I'm convinced people don't care and just want someone to be mad at lol." – @derrick_hayes28

We'll get to find out Rhaenyra's reaction to the upcoming marriage between Alicent and Viserys when a new episode of 'House of the Dragon' arrives next Sunday.