'House of the Dragon' Spoilers: How Lady Alicent Hightower Dies in the Books
Since House of the Dragon starts about 170 years before the events of Game of Thrones, one thing fans can be certain of without spoilers is that pretty much all these characters have died canonically. If you're interested in reading ahead on the full story you can check out George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood. Otherwise, read on for spoilers for the book and probably for House of the Dragon as well.
House of the Dragon centers on the conflict between Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and Lady Alicent Hightower, as most viewers have probably surmised by the end of Episode 2. In the book, Alicent is nine years older than Rhaenyra but it looks like their ages have been altered slightly in the TV show. Either way, the two are depicted as childhood friends divided by the course of politics and family drama as they grow up.
Alicent is the daughter of Ser Otto Hightower – an ambitious man who does not stand to inherit his family's lordship so he seeks to build powerful connections in King's Landing. The TV show hasn't touched on this yet but Otto is not just Hand of the King to Viserys I Targaryen – he was also the Hand of the previous king, Jaehaerys I. Otto raised Alicent at court with him and frequently encouraged her to build bonds with the royal family, even reading to the ailing King Jaehaerys on his death bed.
The TV show makes it pretty clear that Otto manipulated Viserys into marrying his daughter, which wasn't quite as overt in the book due to its unreliable narrator conventions. Their marriage begins to form a rift between Rhaenyra and Alicent, and Viserys finds himself woefully ill-equipped to mediate their conflicts. He is also in denial about the severity of the problem, ignoring the fact that war will most likely break out after his death.
In spite of the king naming Rhaenyra his heir, after his death Alicent declares her own eldest son Aegon the king. This kicks off the war that will consume most of the series – "the dance of the dragons." The war is short but brutal, with at least one truly horrifying scene involving Alicent coming in future seasons. She spends most of the war in King's Landing regardless of which side held the city.
The ending of the war and its aftermath left King's Landing in chaos, and eventually, the dowager queen was imprisoned in a chamber within Maegor's Holdfast – the innermost portion of the Red Keep. She was held there for a year, having contact only with her septa, serving girls and guards. Accounts say that she began talking to herself and developed some obsessive preoccupations, such as a hatred for the color green. Finally, Alicent died of "the winter fever" – a plague that swept the city two years after the war was over.
Alicent is a complicated character whose true motivations were not very clear in the historical context of Fire & Blood. In just two episodes, Emily Carey's performance as Alicent has elicited some strong emotional responses from fans already. She will undoubtedly remain a fan favorite throughout the run of House of the Dragon. The series airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.