House of the Dragon director Geeta Vasant Patel addresses how the season 2 finale, “The Queen Who Ever Was,” ends for Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke). The finale sees Alicent unexpectedly coming to Dragonstone to speak with Rhaenyra, desperately seeking a way to peacefully end the war before it escalates further. Earlier in season 2, Rhaenyra went to King’s Landing to speak with Alicent, partly to see if a peaceful resolution was possible.

In an interview with The Wrap, Patel discusses the intentional juxtaposition in the respective season 2 endings for Rhaenyra and Alicent and how this is visually communicated in the episode. This includes the final shots of the two characters that show Rhaenyra through the diamond-shaped bookcase shelves and Alicent looking at the sunrise over the sea. Patel also explains the narrative shift she and showrunner Ryan Condal intended to demonstrate through these shots. Check out Patel’s comments below:

The end of the montage, I spent months thinking about the visuals of how to end this episode and end this season. That came to me just in terms of how they both were feeling in the end. One of them was trapped — and as Ryan says is now carrying the burden — and that would be Rhaenyra. The other one has lifted the burden off of her own shoulders and is now free having given it to Rhaenyra. Visually my thought was: Rhaenyra is caught in a web and Alicent is free.

Rhaenyra & Alicent’s Season 2 Arcs Prove The Difference Between Power & Freedom

Power Can Be A Prison

Rhaenyra is instead bound to lead the Blacks into a war that will only become more destructive in House of the Dragon season 3 and that is unlikely to end well for Rhaenyra, those she loves, or Westeros itself.

Even though Rhaenyra ends House of the Dragon season 2 in a far more powerful position than Alicent does, Alicent ends with more freedom. Rhaenyra is one of the Blacks’ seven dragonriders fighting for her claim to the Iron Throne and now has the armies of the Riverlands and the North behind her. Meanwhile, Alicent has little influence over the actions of her son, Aemond Targaryen, and how the Greens rule and proceed with the war effort. Rhaenyra and Alicent’s power has shifted from earlier in season 2 when Rhaenyra desperately appealed to Alicent for peace, only to be rebuffed.

Team Black’s Dragons

Dragon
Rider

Syrax
Rhaenyra

Vermax
Jacaerys

Moondancer
Baela

Caraxes
Daemon

Seasmoke
Addam

Vermithor
Hugh

Silverwing
Ulf

Alicent made mistakes and later tried to atone for them by coming to a peaceful resolution, but it is too late now. She is now powerless in many ways, but the burden of shaping the fate of Westeros and the many lives across its Seven Kingdoms is no longer in her hands. Rhaenyra, on the other hand, is trapped in moving forward with her quest to take the Iron Throne as she and the growing forces who have pledged themselves to her plunge headfirst into war.

Now, Rhaenyra is more powerful than Alicent ever was, even compared to when Alicent ruled the Seven Kingdoms, when Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) was too ill to do so. Nevertheless, Alicent’s powerlessness and the realization that she cannot change anything gives her a surprising sense of newfound freedom. Rhaenyra is instead bound to lead the Blacks into a war that will only become more destructive in House of the Dragon season 3 and that is unlikely to end well for Rhaenyra, those she loves, or Westeros itself.