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Season 2 Quotes
Lord Cregan Stark: Duty is sacrifice. It eclipses all things, even blood. All men of honor must pay its price.
Lord Cregan Stark: The North must stand ready. Winter is coming.
Prince Jacaerys ‘Jace’ Velaryon: Coming? What is this then that falls from the skies and shivers my bones?
Lord Cregan Stark: This is only a late summer snow, my prince. In winter, it will cover all you see, and all memories of warmth will be forgotten.
Lord Cregan Stark: Do you think my ancestors built a seven hundred foot wall of ice to keep out snow and savages?
Prince Jacaerys ‘Jace’ Velaryon: What does it keep out?
Lord Cregan Stark: Death.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Fly with me. It is a command.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: Would that you were the king.
Queen Helaena Targaryen: I’m afraid.
King Aegon II Targaryen: Don’t be. They’d be fools to come with Vhagar protecting the city.
Queen Helaena Targaryen: Not the dragons. The rats.
Ser Otto Hightower: And how would you define “victory”?
Queen Alicent Hightower: Rhaenyra bending the knee, and Aegon sitting the Iron Throne, in peace. As Viserys wished.
Ser Otto Hightower: Well, if that’s how you describe it, then we are aligned.
Ser Otto Hightower: You must accept that the path to victory now is one of violence.
Queen Alicent Hightower: I know it. But that does not mean it must be wanton.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: I want Aemond Targaryen.
Queen Helaena Targaryen: They killed the boy.
King Aegon II Targaryen: I will not be seen as weak.
Ser Otto Hightower: You’re already seen as weak, Aegon.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I sent the queen’s vengeance for her son.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: What did you tell this “vengeance”?
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: [to Daemon] You have wounded me. Weakened my claim to the throne, my ability to raise an army, my standing among my own council.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: I cannot trust you, Daemon. I’ve never trusted you, wholly, much though I wished to, willed myself to. But now I have seen that your heart belongs only to you. And when I was a child, I took this as a challenge. But I am older now. I have challenges enough.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: I think you used my words as an excuse to take your own revenge, to indulge the darkness you keep sheathed within you like a blade.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: You think me some kind of monster.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: Oh, I don’t know what to think of you. I don’t know what you are, or who it is you serve.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Have you told anyone?
Ser Criston Cole: What do you take me for?
Queen Alicent Hightower: One who seeks absolution.
Ser Criston Cole: There is none for what I’ve done.
Ser Arryk Cargyll: We are sworn to serve forthrightly, not to traffic in deception.
Ser Criston Cole: Put down the pretender and you will end a war before it begins.
Ser Arryk Cargyll: You would send me to my death.
Ser Criston Cole: Or to triumph. And glory.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: [referring to Daemon] In truth, I am proud that he considers me such a foe. And that he seeks to murder me in my bed. He’s afraid of me.
Brothel Madam: As well he should be. The boy is grown into a man.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: I do regret that business with Luke. I lost my temper that day. I am sorry for it.
Brothel Madam: [to Aemond] I would remind you only that when princes lose their temper, it is often others who suffer. The smallfolk. Like me.
Ser Otto Hightower: The king is my grandson and my grandson is a fool! He’s worse than a fool!
King Aegon II Targaryen: I wish to spill blood, not ink!
Ser Otto Hightower: Do you never think of your father? His forbearance, his judiciousness, his dignity.
King Aegon II Targaryen: F*** dignity! I want revenge.
Ser Erryk Cargyll: We were born together.
Ser Arryk Cargyll: You parted us! But I still love you, brother.
Ser Otto Hightower: The young are peacocks, all shrieking and feathers. But we will yet prevail and bring forth peace, I still believe it. As long as you and I hold fast.
Queen Alicent Hightower: I have sinned.
Ser Otto Hightower: I do not wish to hear of it.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: Hotter blood has prevailed, I think. The young men have taken the bit in their teeth. They wish to punish, to avenge. Soon they will not even remember what it was that began the war in the first place.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: We teeter now at the point where none of it will matter. And the desire to kill and burn takes hold and reason is forgotten. There may be another way.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: There is no war so hateful to the gods as a war between kin. And no war so bloody as a war between dragons.
Ser Criston Cole: We cannot all hide in our castles waiting for war to come to us.
Queen Alicent Hightower: As now it surely will.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: I hope you do not confuse mercy with pliancy.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I’m claiming Harrenhal.
Ser Simon Strong: Apparently so.
Ser Simon Strong: Houses Bracken and Blackwood have long detested one another.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Why?
Ser Simon Strong: Oh, well, the answer to that is lost in time. Sin begets sin begets sin.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: If dragons begin fighting dragons, we invite our own destruction. Fear of it is in itself a weapon.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Sadness is a condition of motherhood.
Queen Helaena Targaryen: There’s naught to be gained from it.
Queen Alicent Hightower: The Stranger comes for us all, queen and commoner.
Queen Helaena Targaryen: [to Alicent] I forgive you.
Lord Larys Strong: Tales take on a life of their own, like weeds. Unless they are tended.
King Aegon II Targaryen: Well, tend to them then.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [to Daemon in his vision] Always coming and going, aren’t you? And I have to clean up afterwards.
Alys Rivers: [to Daemon in his vision] You will die in this place.
Mysaria ‘The White Worm’: You may be surprised to learn it, but most folk pay no mind to a woman who has not dressed as a queen, or allured herself for the eyes of men.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: [to Alicent] We watched the tourney together, you and I, the day my brother was born. We knew, even then, that men trained up for battle are eager to fight, to seek blood and glory.
Queen Alicent Hightower: [to Rhaenyra] I have been, at times, unkind, but never untrue.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: There’s been a mistake.
Queen Alicent Hightower: There’s been no mistake.
Queen Alicent Hightower: It’s too late, Rhaenyra.
Queen Alicent Hightower: [to Aegon] Do you think simply wearing the crown imbues you with wisdom? Those men at your council table, earned their seats. It was my hope that once enthroned, you would honor the burden of your new duties, be silent, and strive to learn from the more studied minds around you. In the hope that you might be half the king your father was. Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] We’re off to battle again, old girl. Mysaria ‘The White Worm’: [to Rhaenyra] To the discontented, rumors are feed. Your Grace. What you cannot do, let others do for you. There is more than one way to fight a war Alys Rivers: And once again, in the name of power, it’s the weak and the women who must endure. Alys Rivers: Viserys never wanted it himself, if you recall. It came to him, and he did his best. It’s not a prize to be won, but a burden to bear. Lady Rhaena Targaryen: Not all of us, I suppose, are called to great deeds. Some of us must serve in smaller ways, even if they are not what we would choose for ourselves. Ser Gwayne Hightower: You get on with it, don’t you? When there isn’t any choice. Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: For twenty years, the lords of this realm levied insults at my sons behind my back. Well then. Let us raise an army of b****rds. Ser Oscar Tully: [to Daemon] If His Grace wishes to show contrition for his acts and to prove himself deserving of our banners he must now rectify his grievous error. Denounce your crimes, and dispense justice. Dragonstone Elder: [in High Valyrian, to Rhaenyra] The dragons are scared, they are last magic of Old Valyria in this sad world. They are not playthings for the games of men. Ser Criston Cole: You saw what I saw. The dragons dance, and men are like dust under their feet. And all our fine thoughts, all our endeavors are as nothing. We march now toward our annihilation. To die will be a kind of relief. Don’t you think? Lord Corlys Velaryon: You cannot lead if you do not inspire Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: History will paint you a villain. A cold queen, grasping for power, and then defeated.
Young Rhaenyra Targaryen: [in High Valyrian, as he beheads her] You created me, Daemon. Yet you are now set on destroying me. All because your brother loved me more than he did you. This is what you always wanted, is it not?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: [to Oscar, referring to Grover Tully] Well, my time is short and I have need of an army. Perhaps you might place a feather pillow over his head and speed along your inheritance?
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: I know who he is, Corlys. Alyn’s past is no fault of his. He saved his lord’s life. He should be raised up and honored, not hidden beneath the tides.
Lord Gunthor Darklyn: Is there no honor left in this world, Cole? Sacking your queen’s own castles and putting her people to the sword? “Kingmaker”. You are not fit for the white cloak.
Ser Criston Cole: This is a better death than a traitor deserves.
Lord Gunthor Darklyn: You should thank me for it. Yours will come in kind.
King Aegon II Targaryen: Daemon, of all people, has taken Harrenhal. I give you a job, and now you just sit there. It’s your f***ing castle!
Lord Larys Strong: Well, that castle is more crippled than I am, Your Grace. It’s like to drive Daemon to madness as he attempts to make use of it. It is beyond his faculties. It is also penniless, as I happily control all of its gold.
King Aegon II Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] I can have to make a war?
Lord Larys Strong: I believe it is a sin to deny your appetites. They are what make us fully alive as mortal men.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Rhaenyra’s supporters will believe what they wish. And so will Aegon’s. The war will be fought, many will die, and the victor will eventually ascend the throne. The significance of Viserys’s intentions died with him.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: You are a strange kind of woman.
Alys Rivers: I’m no woman at all. I’m a barn owl. Cursed to live in human form.
King Aegon II Targaryen: [referring to Viserys’s books] I removed them, I didn’t burn them.
King Aegon II Targaryen: What would you have me do, Mother?
Queen Alicent Hightower: Do simply what is needed of you, nothing.
Ser Criston Cole: Are you afraid, Ser?
Ser Gwayne Hightower: Worse. I’m rational.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: I inherited eighty years of peace from my father. Before I was to end it, I needed to know that there was no other path. And now I do. Only one choice remains to me, either I win my claim or die.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: You must send me, Your Grace. Meleys is your largest dragon. and no stranger to battle. I will meet Cole.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: [to Jace, referring to The Song of Ice and Fire] To unite the realm, I had to send the dragons to war. The horrors I have just loosed cannot be for a crown alone. That is why I must believe what Viserys told me when he named me his heir. What Jaehaerys had told him. And what I will now tell you.
Boy: I thought the dragons was gods.
Hugh: It’s just meat.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Our terms are simple, Lord Bracken. Renounce the false king Aegon as a usurper and bend the knee to me, or your house burns.
Lord Amos Bracken: I would sooner be the Lord of Bones and Cinders than bend my knee before some heathen Blackwood c*** and his hired dragon.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I did not think they would be so eager to die.
Ser Willem Blackwood: They made their choice. You should’ve indulged them.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I need them alive. I came here to raise swords, not corpses.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: They would rather burn than succumb. Exactly the kind of men I need.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: They speak around me, not to me. They would make me queen, but they wish to keep me here, confined.
Mysaria ‘The White Worm’: They betray their own smallness.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: Will whispers tear down stone, or break shields?
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: [referring to Rhaenys] She was fierce, in love and in anger. She did not always care for me, but for what she gave me in the end, I’m grateful.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: All men may be led, Ser Simon. Even Rivermen. ‘Tis a matter of showing them whom it behooves them to follow.
Queen Alicent Hightower: A king cannot rule in his sleep.
Ser Criston Cole: Aemond is the next in line. It is the order of things.
Queen Alicent Hightower: You know what he is, what he has somehow become. Has your loyalty faded? Or does it flourish only at night and flee the sunrise like a moth?
Ser Criston Cole: We have given the war to the dragons. A dragon rider should lead us.
Queen Alicent Hightower: And what of justice, of temperance? Or is strength now to be our only god?
Ser Criston Cole: Have I not spared you? What we must do now is terrible. Will you preside over it? Is this who you are, Alicent?
Queen Alicent Hightower: I did not ask to be spared. And I did not give you leave to speak my name.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: There are others who would sit idle and wait for their claims to be brought to them. That is not my way.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: War is a terrible thing.
Alys Rivers: This is not war. These are crimes against the innocent, that any upright man would repudiate.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Surely you haven’t mistaken me for an upright man.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: The realm will suffer if Aemond One-Eye rules. You should pray you never meet him. He will cut you down soon as wish you good-day.
Alys Rivers: I’d heard the same thing about you.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: When I take King’s Landing, Rhaenyra is welcome to join me there and take her place by my side. King and queen, ruling together.
Alys Rivers: And if you lose?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Then I’ll be dead, and none of this will be my problem.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: Shall I fight for my birthright? Or shall I wait here until we are all destroyed? I need dragons.
Prince Jacaerys ‘Jace’ Velaryon: We have no dearth of dragons.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: I am the prince regent, not a dog to be called to heel.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: My uncle is a challenge I welcome, if he dares face me.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: [to Alicent] I release you of your seat, such as it was. I’m sure you’ll be much pleased to return to more domestic pursuits.
Queen Alicent Hightower: [to Aemon] Have the indignities of your childhood not yet sufficiently been avenged?
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: It has never been attempted before. To claim a dragon, you must also be prepared to die.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Drivel! All of it! The ghosts, the curses, the blasted weirwood bed! I’m done with it!
Alys Rivers: Ah, yes. It is your way, is it not? When something does not please you, you run.
Alys Rivers: [to Daemon] There are older things in this world than you, or I, or living memory. You are not the player, but a piece on the board. As am I, for that matter.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: She never even wanted it. The crown. She spared it no thought.
Alys Rivers: Well, that’s perhaps why your brother gave the crown to her. Perhaps those who strive for it are the least suited to wear it.
Alys Rivers: Daemon Targaryen asking for help?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Counsel.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I need help, Alys.
Alys Rivers: Do nothing now. In three days time, the winds will shift.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: [after she slaps Celtigar] It is my fault, I think, that you have forgotten to fear me.
Lord Larys Strong: The enemy without may be fought with swords. The enemy within is more insidious.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: I’ve little patience for the self-important, Lord Larys, and even less for flatterers and lickspittles.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: Every king needs a Hand. I’ll make it your responsibility.
Lord Larys Strong: My prince, it is an honor I’d never considered for myself.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: No, not to serve as Hand, you toad. To fetch him. Send word to Otto Hightower.
Ser Gwayne Hightower: [referring to Daeron] He’s kind.
Queen Alicent Hightower: That’s good. Kindness is a quality I’ve found lacking in his brothers.
Ser Gwayne Hightower: It seems the Red Keep, for all its privileges, may, in fact, be a less than salubrious environment for the forming of young men.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Was it the court or was it their mother?
Ser Gwayne Hightower: I’m sure you did your best.
Lord Larys Strong: [to Aegon] The drink takes the pain away, but it dulls your mind. Oh, take heart, Your Grace, you’ve already written yourself into legend. You survived dragonfire. But I’m afraid you will never be whole.
Lord Larys Strong: [to Aegon] People will pity you either behind your back, or in your presence. And they will stare at you, at you, or turn away. And they will underestimate you. And this will be your advantage.
Lord Larys Strong: Your brother rules in your place now, which means that your life is in danger. But I think you know that.
King Aegon II Targaryen: Help me.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: [in his vision to Viserys] I’m sorry. You needed me. I’m here now. I’m here now.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: I do not think I can win this war.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: [referring to Daemon] He was everything I wanted to be. Carefree. And dangerous. A man. And I was what he wanted. Cherished by my father, and made my father’s heir. We were halves of a whole. He’s never been at peace. He wished to possess me, but not to be possessed, and to see me take hold, finally, of what he always believed to be his. I fear what he may now do. I fear he may have turned against me.
Mysaria ‘The White Worm’: This world is cold and cruel, and there are few in it who are steadfast. You, I think, are steadfast. You have seen me as worthy, as an equal, even. Because of that, I will serve you. I believe you are meant to be queen.
Queen Alicent Hightower: All my life, I have endeavored to serve both my house and the realm. And somehow none of it matters. We are cast aside. Or hated.
Lord Larys Strong: [referring to the rumor of Seasmoke having a rider] Where did you hear it?
Lord Jasper ‘Ironrod’ Wylde: My squire. He heard it from a stablehand, who heard it from his father, a fisherman, whose shipmate claims he saw it.
Lord Larys Strong: Oh. You are, of course, welcome to bring this news to the prince regent, but perhaps this is one of those whispers best left to the wind.
Ser Oscar Tully: You were quick enough to dismiss me before.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: You were of no significance to me then. Now…
Ser Oscar Tully: [to Daemon] You’ll forgive me, Your Grace. I am green in this sort of matter, as you so kindly point out, but it does seem to me that you’ve made rather a mess here, countenancing barbarities in the queen’s name.
Ser Oscar Tully: [referring to the Riverlords] They all hate you.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I don’t need their love. I need their swords.
Ser Simon Strong: Oh, dear.
King Viserys I Targaryen: [referring to the crown] I never wanted it. I was right not to. All that pain it caused. It crushes whoever wears it. You always wanted it, Daemon. Do you want it still?
Prince Jacaerys ‘Jace’ Velaryon: I know well what is at stake. House Targaryen is the blood of the dragon. If any may lay claim to it, what are we then?
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: The rightful rulers of the Seven Kingdoms.
Prince Jacaerys ‘Jace’ Velaryon: And what if one of your baseborn, silver-haired dragonriders decides he wants to rule the Seven Kingdoms? Did the Conqueror’s dream foretell that?
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: I mislike all of this.
Prince Jacaerys ‘Jace’ Velaryon: Then don’t pursue it.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: But I cannot gainsay that which the gods have laid before me.
Hugh: [to Kat] I never knew my father. That much is true. But I did know my mother. I hid it from you. And I’m sorry for that. She worked, in a pleasure house. She was granted more freedom than most because of who she was. And because rich men paid more to f*** a woman with silver hair. She used to tell me I was no different to her brother’s boys Viserys and Daemon. But I was ashamed of her. I tried to make my way with my own hands.
Hugh: [referring to becoming a dragonrider] I could not protect you. I could not keep our girl alive. And now, we would never want again. If I claimed a dragon, they’d make you a lady.
Kat: I do not care to be a lady, Hugh. And neither do I want to be a widow.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: I used to think I knew what it was to claim a dragon, but I understand now that what I thought I knew is ash in the wind. Perhaps it is blood. Or worth. Or perhaps it’s something else.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: Each of you has left behind a life to answer this call. A life to which you might never return. If you survive, you will be transformed. No man or woman can face a dragon and be otherwise. Some of you may welcome the prospect of change, even death, given the alternatives, privation, starvation, war. This is our purpose, to end those hardships. For you, for your kin, for all the realm. With these two dragons added to our number, the enemy will have no choice but to give way. And peace will be restored, suffering will be ended, and without bloodshed, gods willing.
King Aegon II Targaryen: You want to take me to Essos to live with the goatf***ers.
Lord Larys Strong: It’s best to live, I think. However you do it.
King Aegon II Targaryen: Is it?
King Aegon II Targaryen: My dragon is dead. I am burnt, and disgusting, and alone. And I’m a cripple.
Lord Larys Strong: You are not alone.
King Aegon II Targaryen: My c**k is destroyed, did they tell you that? Yeah. It burst into flames like a sausage on the spit.
Lord Larys Strong: They will hail the returning king, his father’s true heir. Aegon the Victorious, risen from the ashes. Aegon the Peacemaker. Aegon the Rebuilder.
King Aegon II Targaryen: Aegon, the Realm’s Delight.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: My ship is no longer the Sea Snake. She was a testament to my own glory. I’ve given her a new name. The Queen Who Never Was. What I do now, I do for her.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: [referring to Harrenhal] This place will have you barking at the moon.
Queen Helaena Targaryen: Why does everybody hate us?
Queen Alicent Hightower: They’re unhappy, and unhappy people look for someone to hate.
Queen Helaena Targaryen: I was happier before I was queen.
Queen Alicent Hightower: What would you think about leaving this place?
Queen Helaena Targaryen: Where would I go?
Prince Aemond Targaryen: I need you to fly with Dreamfyre to battle.
Queen Helaena Targaryen: I do not wish to fight.
Queen Alicent Hightower: [to Aemond] Was it peril that moved you to burn the town of Sharp Point? Peril or basest fury at your own humiliation? You wish to rule the Seven Kingdoms, but you rain ruin and death upon its smallfolk when you’ve been insulted because it makes you feel strong. And now you seek to corrupt your sister, of all our line, the gentlest and most deserving of your protection.
Ser Criston Cole: [referring to Alicent] She saved my life. Twice. Once from the headsman’s axe and once from myself. Since then, she has been the beacon I follow.
Ser Criston Cole: Do not think I have no shame in me, ser. Desire for women has brought me grief after grief.
Ser Gwayne Hightower: Then resist it.
Ser Criston Cole: Oh, would that it were so simple.
Ser Criston Cole: Perhaps all men are corrupt and true honor is a mist that melts in the morning.
Ser Gwayne Hightower: That is a bleak philosophy.
Ser Criston Cole: [referring to his sword] I have no philosophy. Or rather, my philosophy was this. To protect the righteous and dispense justice on the rest. But now…
Alys Rivers: [to Daemon] When you came here, you were a closed fist. You wished to bend the world to your will. But you’ve discovered, I think, that this world will not be governed.
Queen Helaena Targaryen: [to Daemon in his vision] It’s all a story, and you are but one part in it. You know your part. You know what you must do.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: Come with me to Harrenhal? We will lay waste to Daemon and his army. Let our enemy see that we will answer outrage with outrage.
Queen Helaena Targaryen: And if I refuse? Will you burn me as you did Aegon?
Prince Aemond Targaryen: That is a lie.
Queen Helaena Targaryen: I saw it. You burned him and you let him fall.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: What you say is treason.
Queen Helaena Targaryen: Aegon will be king again. He’s yet to see victory. He sits on a wooden throne. And you, you’ll be dead. You were swallowed up in the God’s Eye, and you were never seen again.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: I could have you killed.
Queen Helaena Targaryen: It wouldn’t change anything.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: I see you have done well here.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: They are sworn to me. And not a moment too soon.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: And to whom are you sworn?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: The realm’s only hope, is a leader who can unite it, and my brother chose you. You are the true queen, Rhaenyra. First of Her Name. Protector of the Realm. I am meant to serve you, and all of these with me, until death, or the end of our story.
Alyn of Hull: I am an honorable man, and I will serve you because I must. But if it is all the same, I will decline any offers of help. If I survive this war, I will continue as I began, alone.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: I must strike and in striking, I doom thousands to their deaths. I do not believe my father would’ve wished this.
Mysaria ‘The White Worm’: Be strong. You know you are just. You must not let the Realm fall to those who care for power more than peace. You must prevail.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: And who pays the price?
Queen Alicent Hightower: I was raised to believe there was an order to things, that there was security in following the paths laid out for us. I resented you, I think, for caring so little for any of it, for knowing what you wanted. I did not know what I wanted. I knew only what was expected of me.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: Why have you come here?
Queen Alicent Hightower: Because I lost my way. Or rather, it was taken from me.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: The incorruptible queen sullies herself with a lover.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Do not judge me for what you yourself have done.
Queen Alicent Hightower: I too have desires.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: Yes, but you alone made virtue your banner.
Queen Alicent Hightower: And I clung to it in defiance of you, I think, who so disdained it.
Queen Alicent Hightower: I do not wish to rule, I wish to live. To be free of all this endless plotting and striving. The crown will pursue war and victory at any cost. But as for me, I would take my daughter, and her child, and leave it all behind.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: It’s too late, Alicent. You said it yourself. Blood has been shed, cities burned, armies march, and you wish to wash your hands of what you yourself set in motion.
Queen Alicent Hightower: If you come then to King’s Landing, I will see to it that our guards throw down their arms, we will open the gates, we will shed no blood. You will enter as a conqueror. Already you have the stronger hand. Once you take the throne, this senseless war must end.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: Still you imagine you can have all you want without paying too high a price, a price I had no choice but to pay.
Queen Alicent Hightower: What I want is to set things right.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: If I am to take the throne, I must put an end to the opposition. I must take Aegon’s head. And I have to do it for all to see. You know this. However you may try to evade it, you know this. Choose. Will you shrink from what you set out to do? Or will you see it through, and make your sacrifice? A son for a son.
Queen Alicent Hightower: I have neither weapon nor armor. My life itself is forfeit. I cast myself on the mercy of a friend who once loved me.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Let them think what they must. I am at last myself, with no ambition greater than to walk where I please and to breathe the open air. To die unremarked and unnoticed, and be free.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Come with me.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: My part is here, whether I will or no. It was decided for me long ago.