House Of The Dragon Star Breaks Down Why Alicent’s Reaction To Otto’s Death Hits So Hard
‘House of the Dragon’ has never been shy about putting its characters through emotional wreckage, and Season 3 is proving especially merciless for the Hightower family. The second episode of the season aired Sunday, June 28, on HBO, with Rhaenyra Targaryen finally reclaiming the Iron Throne with help from her old friend Alicent. What should have been a fragile step toward peace instead spiraled into one of the show’s most devastating scenes yet.
The plan to leave the throne empty fell apart the moment Otto Hightower unexpectedly reappeared, having been absent since the Season 2 finale. Pushed by Daemon, Rhaenyra beheaded Otto through tears, only for Alicent to walk into the throne room moments later with her daughter Helaena and see her father’s body.
That gut punch is exactly what fueled a viral post from the fan account Thrones Updates, which shared Olivia Cooke’s own breakdown of how Alicent processes the horror. “She just beheaded my dad. In front of everyone. She doesn’t know where Otto has been, so for all she knows, he’s been held prisoner by [Rhaenyra]. This feels like a very public display of this assertion of power. I think Alicent is just like, ‘Okay, well, f— you.'” The quote, paired with stills of Otto’s execution and Alicent’s stricken expression, has racked up hundreds of thousands of views as fans process the fallout.
Cooke expanded on Alicent’s emotional whiplash in an interview with PEOPLE alongside co-star Emma D’Arcy, explaining that ‘there’s a lot that Alicent doesn’t understand’ in that moment, since ‘she doesn’t know what’s happened.’ Before Otto’s body turned up, Cooke noted that Alicent wasn’t ‘really thinking that politically’ and was simply focused on honoring her bargain with Rhaenyra, grabbing Helaena, and getting out before things fell apart further.
D’Arcy, for their part, framed the execution as a turning point for Rhaenyra as a ruler, telling PEOPLE that there’s an important point the show makes about leaders being insulated from violence, and that in this moment Rhaenyra is not insulated and is instead subject to its full horror. D’Arcy added that the goal of the climactic stretch was to strip Rhaenyra of her childhood by the time she finally takes the throne.
In a separate round of interviews ahead of the premiere, Cooke told reporters that Alicent feels white hot anger, unsure whether Otto had been held prisoner by Rhaenyra and uncertain whether her own side of the bargain had even been honored, a detail that adds even more context to why the throne room scene landed as such a betrayal.
Otto’s death follows another brutal loss earlier in the season with Jace’s death in Episode 1, cementing this run of ‘House of the Dragon’ as one of the franchise’s most ruthless stretches yet. With Alicent’s alliance with Rhaenyra now in tatters and her own fate uncertain inside King’s Landing, the Hightower-Targaryen rivalry feels more volatile than ever heading into the next episode.
Did Alicent’s furious reaction to Otto’s execution hit you as hard as it hit her, or do you think she’s about to make an even more dangerous move against Rhaenyra?
