We catch a glimpse of the sweet friendship between Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra Targaryen, which turned sour in previous episodes after Alicent’s marriage to King Visersys in Episode 4. But that sweetness may turn bitter sooner than fans thought.
Prior to the series premiere on Prime Video, the trailers and promos had already made sure that Milly Alcock’s Rhaenyra Targaryen and Emily Carey’s Alicent Hightower will eventually be recast. The change in actors is owed to the time jumps that we already got a taste of in Episode 3, with three years passed between two episodes.
Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke are on standby to take on the roles of adult Rhaenyra and Alicent, respectively. Theories suggest that the change will not happen before Episode 6, since the ten-year time jump comes after the show’s midpoint, as stated previously.
But the time jump is only part of the reason behind the change in actors. The series has already shown the cracks in the friendship shared by the two childhood friends. With the recent betrayal faced by Rhaenyra when Alicent married her father, the wall between them grew thicker over the years.
Though Episode 4 marked a moment of nostalgia for the time they were close, Rhaenyra hiding the truth about the raunchy night with Prince Daemon and Ser Criston establishes that things will never be as they were.
This distance will only grow deeper, and as we’ve seen from the promos and trailers, the two friends are destined to stand against each other in Dance of the Dragons. And in wars with families, nothing crashes and burns more than the innocence of children.
The slowly but surely changing tides will have these characters commit treachery to each other more than their younger counterparts could ever imagine. Thus, it is pertinent that before the real civil war begins, they mature enough to play the games needed to win the throne.
Alcock and Carey’s interpretations of the characters still have some ways to go, and with the help of flashbacks and dreams, their versions of the two characters will be kept alive. But surely, by the end of September, the roles will be handed to Cooke and D’Arcy indefinitely.
House of the Dragon will return with new episodes every Monday on HBO Max.
About House Of The Dragon
House of the Dragon is the prequel series to HBO’s blockbuster Game of Thrones based on George R. R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood.
Set three hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon will show Westeros under the Targaryen family’s rule before the dragons went extinct. It will follow the Dance of the Dragons, the Targaryen civil war between siblings Aegon II and Rhaenyra, who fought for the throne after the death of their father, Viserys I.
Directed by Ryan Condall and Miguel Sapochnik, the show stars Paddy Considine as Viserys I Targaryen, Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen, Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen, Tom Glynn-Craney as Aegon II Targaryen, Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, Steve Toussaint as Corlys Velaryon, Eve Best as Rhaenys Velaryon, Sonoya Mizuno as Mysaria, Fabien Frankel as Criston Cole, and Graham McTavish.
Source: Screenrant
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