Sadly, there’s still no confirmed release date for House of the Dragon season 3. After the explosive season 2 cliffhanger, theories have been running wild speculating what might happen next, from Sunfyre not actually being dead to Ulf (Tom Bennett) causing Jacaerys’ (Harry Collett) death and Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) reign in King’s Landing becoming crueler by the second.
Thanks to new Prime Video show The Girlfriend, I was able to ask Olivia Cooke (who plays Alicent Hightower in the HBO Max show) what we can expect. It’s not thought that production has actually started yet, but Cooke still has one surefire, exciting way she can sum up season 3 already.
“It’s huge,” she tells me. “Huge, huge, huge, huge, huge, huge.”
In fact, she says “huge” so many times that my mind almost explodes wondering just how big new episodes are going to be. While big-picture action in the Game of Thrones prequel will likely be off the scale, there’s actually a major question mark around Alicent herself.
As the story continues in House of the Dragon season 3, Alicent will likely disappear further into the background as Rhaenyra’s reign stays in the foreground. But Cooke’s comments remind me that I don’t only want Alicent to have more screen time, but I want an entirely new (but highly speculated plot) to develop for her.
“Huge” House of the Dragon season 3 needs to make Alicent and Rhaenyra a couple
I live my streaming life by a general rule of thumb: there’s no TV show or movie that can’t be improved by a lesbian relationship. In the case of House of the Dragon, a potential romantic connection between Alicent and Rhaenyra has been rumored since season 2, with emphasis on their secret meetings starting to come to the fore.
If all goes well and season 3 continues to stay faithful to the existing book series, we know these clandestine meetings won’t stay secret for long. After Rhaenyra is set to capture King’s Landing, the pair will both be under the roof of the Red Keep, and that allows for a lot more romantic, sexual freedom.
Personally speaking, a House of the Dragon it couple segue would be a no brainer. It’s like if Romeo and Juliet had dragons, with a similar threat of death looming over the pair like a black cloud. There’s always a healthy dose of romantic drama alongside the violence, and Alienyra (still working on a ship name) is what everybody wants to see, let’s face it.
Even two years ago, fans were reading the subtext this way. “Their early relationship definitely reads way too intense and deep for it to be just platonic (whether the characters themselves would acknowledge it as such is another question),” one fan suggests on Reddit. “The actresses and the showrunners also very clearly discussed their relationship in those terms in interviews.”
Another hypothesizes for season 3: “Or they make them full on lovers like Brokeback Mountain but the sapphic version. The likeable, spunky one in the relationship dies tragically and the brooding, uptight counterpart lives on to mourn them which is somehow supposedly the truest of true love?”
I vote HBO should just go for it – if nothing else, their viewership could increase instrumentally (the myth that LGBTQIA+ people will watch anything with LGBTQIA+ characters in is true). In fact, I’m desperately hoping this is what Cooke means by a “huge” new season, even if their relationship goes the way of Doctor Foster (hate each other, have sex, continue to hate each other).
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