Whose Fault Was Dance of the Dragons? Fans Blame Alicent

HBO's House of the Dragon is taking Game of Thrones fans back to the events that are known in Westeros as Dance of the Dragons — a tragic war between the factions of House Targaryen over the Iron Throne succession. Not only has it ended badly for both factions but also almost destroyed dragons as a kind — all of this because of the inheritance dispute.

Who was to blame? In the fight between the Blacks (allies of Rhaenyra Targaryen, the official heir of King Viserys) and the Greens (supporters of Queen Alicent, Viserys' wife who believed the Iron Throne should have gone to her son Aegon), both sides were struggling to protect their own dignity and ambitions. However, many fans believe that Queen Alicent could have easily prevented the war from happening.

In episode 6 of House of the Dragon, Rhaenyra approaches Alicent with a generous offer of a marriage between her son and Alicent's daughter, practically suggesting allying their houses and making sure there is no dispute for the throne. Besides, she even offers Aemond a dragon egg.

As fans insist that "Alicent's kids were never in danger", contrary to what Otto Hightower claimed, Alicent slammed the proposal — something that was quite hypocritical of her to do, according to some people. After all, wasn't she also used as a means of allying House Hightower with the Targaryens in a plot by her father?

According to the majority of the fans, Alicent does nothing short of passing down her generational trauma that her father, Otto Hightower, instilled in her ten years earlier when he insisted that Rhaenyra would kill her children just because they exist and therefore pose a threat to her succession line.

Just how badly that ends for the entire Westeros, we will see further in House of the Dragon. The show is streaming on HBO Max, with new episodes arriving every Sunday.