Alicent Hightower/Rhaenyra Targaryen

Pairing
Pairing:	Alicent Hightower x Rhaenyra Targaryen
Alternative name(s):	rhaenicent/rhaecent (spelling pending)
Gender category:	Femslash
Fandom:	House of the Dragon
Canonical?:	No
Prevalence:
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Alicent/Rhaenyra is the femslash pairing of Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra Targaryen in the House of the Dragon fandom.

[princeofstories, Aug 21st, 2022]
cant believe hotd showrunners read fire & blood and were like what if we make the dance of the dragons a lesbian divorce drama.

Milly Alcock and Emily Carey, the actors of the young versions of the characters, saw it in the script and leaned into it in their acting.

"It's something we brought up with Clare Kilner, one of the directors we also work with for the younger version of the characters," Carey added. "It was something I was immediately conscious of when I read the script as a queer woman myself."

Carey said that her initial reaction to the script read-through was that Rhaenyra and Alicent are "in love a little bit," and so the actors played around with the idea of young girls having a special emotional closeness to their best friends.

"I think any woman could think back to the best friend that they had at 14 years old, and it's a relationship and a closeness unlike any other," Carey said. "You do toe the line between platonic and romantic."

interview with actors Milly Alcock and Emily Carey

Fandom

Alicent/Rhaenyra quickly become a popular femslash ship on Archive of Our Own, joining the all time top 100 femslash pairings list gathered by Centreoftheselights at 75th in 2023.

Shipping Fuel

• Fans felt that some of the scenes between young Alicent and Rhaenyra were flirtatious, such as Rhaenyra telling Alicent that her dragon, Syrax, was nearly big enough to saddle two people for riding. A later scene, where Rhaenyra is lying with her head in Alicent's lap, talking about how what she wants to do in the future is fly around the world on dragonback with Alicent is also often referenced by fans.
• A script reveal included an acting direction for Rhaenyra to flirt with Alicent when asking her to accompany Rhaenyra to see her mother.
• A line spoken by Otto Hightower near the end of season one is often referenced by Rhaenicent fans as him implying Alicent may carry affections for Rhaenyra that Otto considers unacceptable. When Alicent states, “My husband would have desired this mercy be shown to his daughter", Otto responds with “Your husband? Or you, his daughter’s childhood companion?”
• Related to the above, fans also point out that Otto happily uses the page Rhaenyra tore out of a book and gave to Alicent decades earlier as a means of trying to emotionally manipulate Rhaenyra, and some feel this also suggests he knows that Rhaenyra has equally strong feelings for Alicent. While most fans agree that the page as a device mechanism works because of the strong past relationship between the pair, fans of the romantic pairing specifically like to explore the romantic connotations, especially in light of keeping a torn out page for well over a decade.
• A trailer for season two of House of the Dragon includes a scene with Alicent's son Aemond saying, "Alicent holds love for the enemy. That makes her a fool." which fans of the pairing have also used to fuel discussions about their relationship

“Alicent holds love for our enemy.” honey the kids are starting to become aware of our gay love affair

prideprejudce Tumblr 

Fanworks

Fanart

• Good While It Lasted by dianaiiz
• Rhaenyra and Alicent Screencap Redraw by feriderl
• Rhaenyra and Alicent (HotD Episode 2) by feriderl

Resources

• Archive of Our Own tag: Alicent Hightower/Rhaenyra Targaryen
• Tumblr tag: rhaenicent, rhaecent
• Twitter tag: rhaenicent, rhaecent