House Of The Dragon Director Reveals An Explosive Deleted Scene

Four episodes into HBO's "House of the Dragon," it has become clear that the conflict between Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey) and Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) will soon reach a point of no return. The ongoing feud between these two former best friends stems from the fact that both women have vested interest in the royal succession. Although Rhaenyra is currently the heir apparent to the Iron Throne, Alicent is Queen to King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine), and much of the realm believes that her male children (by tradition) ought to be the ones to inherit the throne — not Rhaenyra.

Throughout the last two episodes, the two friends have grown increasingly cold and distant from one another, and although they shared a brief reunion at the start of Episode 4, they soon found themselves in a shouting match about Rhaenyra's awkward intimate encounter with her uncle, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith). Although it's become clear that the feud between Alicent and Rhaenyra will play a major role in the story moving forward, it's important to note that the majority of their falling out has happened off-screen during the series' various time skips. 

Indeed, "House of the Dragon" director Greg Yaitanes revealed that he did actually film one major confrontation between the two characters, though this particular scene never even made it into the final cut.

This past Saturday, "House of the Dragon" director Greg Yaitanes posted pictures of two deleted scenes on his Instagram story, each of which focused heavily on the declining relationship between Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra Targaryen (via People Magazine). The first deleted scene is perhaps the most important, as it shows an emotional argument between the two girls shortly after Alicent's betrothal to Rhaenyra's father, King Viserys. "Two scenes that unfortunately didn't make it into the final cut," Yaitanes wrote in a caption to this photo. "The aftermath fight between @millyalcock and @theemilycarey — both were quite powerful."

As it stands, the aftermath of Alicent's engagement plays out entirely off-screen, as the time-skip between Episode 2 and Episode 3 shows Alicent already several years into her marriage to Viserys. Considering how important this event is in the grand scheme of Alicent and Rhaenrya's feud, it seems odd that such an explosive confrontation between the two characters would simply not make it into the series.

In contrast, the other deleted scene Yaitanes posted on his story showed a compassionate Rhaenyra helping Alicent to prepare for her wedding to Viserys: a somber and moving parallel to the Episode 1 scene which showed Alicent helping Rhaenyra get dressed. Although the first scene is undeniably the more dramatic of the two, both of these deleted scenes help to set up the inevitable and tragic conflict between the two former best friends – which is why it's so confusing that these scenes were removed from the final cut.