House of the Dragon Episode 9

The Queen Who Never Was had the perfect moment to obliterate the chess board and end the Hightowers. But she took the higher road.

Alicent explains she came to Rhaenys to ask for her support. She might have believed Alicent would do her best in guiding her son on the right path. We see her busting out, and being the one that's going to take the news to Dragonstone of the coup and of Rhaenyra's throne being stolen. She informs Rhaenys of King Viserys' passing, and Rhaenys quickly ascertains that Alicent is usurping the throne from Princess Rhaenyra. And it's a complex choice and one that people might dispute or have a problem with, but that's the choice Rhaenys makes in that moment. Seeing Alicent at the coronation ceremony, standing in front of her son, Rhaenys might have decided to have faith in Alicent. Facing down the Hightower clan -- including Queen Alicent, her father Otto and her son Aegon -- Rhaenys has the opportunity to end the Hightowers' reign for good. "And yet you toil still in service to men. All she has to do is say "Dracarys," the High Valyrian (language of the old Valyrian Freehold) word for "Dragonfire" and order Meleys to breath fire. The latest episode -- [episode 9](/culture/entertainment/house-of-the-dragon-episode-9-recap-the-hand-the-queen-and-her-feet/) -- saw Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, aka The Queen Who Never Was, take her turn in the spotlight. She and Meleys then burst through the floorboards, sending the ceremony into chaos. After escaping her room with the help of defected knight Erryk Cargyll, Rhaenys finds herself swept up in Prince Aegon's coronation ceremony.

'House of the Dragon' Episode 6 | Did You Love the New Rhaenyra and Alicent? Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke made their first appearances as Rhaenyra and Alicent ...

[read a full recap here](https://tvline.com/2022/10/16/house-of-the-dragon-recap-season-1-episode-9-the-green-council/)). making it easy for a cloaked wannabe-commoner like herself to slip out a side door unnoticed by the gathered throng. If you need to get something done, ask a mother.

A spoiler-free deep dive into "The Green Council," featuring a civil war allegiance preview, a royal symbols explainer, a succession clarification, ...

Stannis wears a crown of “red gold with points fashioned in the shape of flames,” a clear homage to Melisandre and her Lord of Light (Melisandre also wears a red-gold choker). As Alicent says in this episode, “my son will take the crown of his namesake, the Conqueror, and carry Blackfyre, his sword. For example, when Joffrey ascends the throne in A Game of Thrones, he wears a golden crown encrusted with red rubies and black diamonds, symbolizing both House Lannister (whose colors are red and gold) and House Baratheon (black and yellow). The North is nearly as large as the rest of Westeros combined, so it takes a great deal of time for the Starks to assemble their banners and march south. This is still apparent in the period leading up to and during A Song of Ice and Fire and Game of Thrones. Whoever earns the support of the North will have to wait a while to see it come to fruition. They like to think of themselves as independent (before Aegon’s Conquest they even controlled the Riverlands) and have a habit of declaring themselves as such whenever there’s unrest in the realm. The Tyrells are one of the most powerful houses in the realm, because the Reach is the most fertile region in Westeros and provides much of the food for the continent. The Royces are sworn to House Arryn, the lords of the Vale, and the Arryns may follow their bannermen in positioning themselves against the blacks. She has no husband and rules the Vale in her own name, one of the but of course that would probably just push the Brackens to the greens in response. Outside of the Targaryens, the most important family in the Crownlands (the region located around where Aegon the Conqueror landed in Westeros) is clearly the Velaryons.