Blame Game of Thrones for my trust issues, because we all got major creepy Littlefinger vibes from the scene in House of the Dragon when Otto Hightower told his teenage daughter Alicent to put on her mother's dress and comfort King Viserys, right? Are we going to have to worry about Alicent getting pregnant on House of the Dragon with her BFF's dad's kid? The answeris complicated, and obviously, a spoiler for House of the Dragon if you haven't read the book it's based on by George R. R. Martin is coming.
The short answer is: yes, Alicent does become Viserys' baby mama eventually—but probably not yet, unless the House of the Dragon writers are cooking up some needlessly scandalous changes. Even though her dad clearly has some ambitious plans that involve his daughter getting with his boss (g r o s s), according to Fire & Blood and other Westeros history books that does not happen for some time.
In the source material, Alicent and Viserys' eldest is born about five years after the death of Queen Aemma that we saw in the House of the Dragon premiere, and a year after they get married. Alicent does become the next Queen. So I think it's safe to presume that nothing overtly predatory went down. But you were right to pick up on the vibe, and as of last night's episode, King Viserys does plan to marry Alicent, so the plan is already in motion. It actually echoes some storylines we've already seen on Game of Thrones. House Hightower is from The Reach, the same area of Westeros where House Tyrell lives. If Alicent Hightower reminds you of a younger Margaery Tyrell, who played the Game of Thrones by cozying up to as many potential kings as she could, that likely isn't an accident.
However, it is important to note that Emily Carey, the young actress who first plays Alicent Hightower in the HBO series, will be replaced by Olivia Cooke at some point in the season. A significant time jump is on the horizon. We could even jump forward a few years before that cast change, for all we know. For that reason, a pregnant Alicent could happen early on in the season. It would certainly drum up drama between Alicent and her friend and future stepdaughter Rhaenyra.
If you look at the Targaryen family tree, you'll see that there are a lot of pregnancies and births to come in House of the Dragon. To make matters worse, and this is a major spoiler if you weren't already picking up the vibes between two other characters in the House of the Dragon premiere, two of Alicent and Viserys' children marry each other and one of their children marries the child of Daemon and Rhaenyra (yes, Viserys' daughter and his brother). House of the Dragon was just renewed for season 2 and I cannot stress how comfortable we're all going to need to get with incest if we're going to continue watching this show. It's not like Game of Thrones where Cersei and Jaime's relationship was this huge open secret. It's the norm.
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This article originally appeared on Cosmopolitan.com. Minor edits have been made by the Cosmo.ph editors.
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