You, Cannoli are probably going to disagree with what I am about to say

But blending the streams of many texts, and see if there is something from the combination … (Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra Targaryen
1) Tell, from the Books. Alicent is a chaste companion of Jaehaerys I Targaryen, much like Rhaenyra is the cupbearer of her father. This happens in 101 AC when Alicent is 13.
2) Tell, from actor interviews, Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra are not just best friends but there is something more intimate between them. A form “of love” perhaps platonic, perhaps romantic, yet not physically consummated.

So 1 and 2 would be happening together if we cross the streams of these tells.

3) Shown, Rhaenyra’s mother dies / is murdered depending on one’s perception of the ambiguity. Yet it does not really matter for the force of the kings word is the force of law and power. Daemon loses his birthright and Rhaenyra becomes the heir.
4) Shown, Rhaenyra does not take her mother’s death well and does distance as a form of cope. Likewise Viserys does not cope well. Alicent remains warm and open and is also pushed into this relationship by her father. All of this is natural and expected in a feudal society, soft power games and manipulations are the norm and can be seen as virtuous in the eyes of some.

5) Conjecture of me, Rhaenyra does not take this well, she senses how incestous this is where her best friend, someone she loved and saw close (like family) is now comforting her father and her father is not comforting her and vice versa. Alicent and Viserys get married in 106 AC aka 5 years after these two became friends and there was a form of comfort Rhaenyra was okay with when Alicent read to her great-grandfather, which is different than her father.

6) Conjecture, does this explain Rhaenyra and Daemon? Yes it is fucked up on dozens of levels, yes it is Targaryen tradition of old. But another layer (not the only layer) is if Rhaenyra on an unconscious / barely aware of level, like an instinct feels court is inherently manipulative, and she lost her only individual love and support system (she feels estranged from her best friend and father, her mother is dead, and we have not seen her bond with any staff or other lords and ladies), than Rhaenyra choosing to transgress, choosing a toxic relationship with Daemon and Cole of the Kingsguard is a natural as in a common response. It is an unconscious desire to have more agency, to choose the nature of her fate, even if it’s fucked up on a dozen of levels. Yes it is going to get everyone burned though.

What she should be doing is finding the demand for duty or the demand from love from the only one who can meet it out which is her father. But of course Viserys is a self destructive fool who does not understands demands at all, and to be king means there are infinite demands of duty and love put on you and as the role of sovereign one must figure out how to navigate that.

7) Conjecture Alicent who loves Rhaenyra (does not matter if it’s platonic or romantic) does not understand how the two of them are estranged and she is making similar mistakes as Viserys (yet doing it better), like it or not her father manipulated her into becoming queen, and once she is the queen mother of a son one has to play the perverse game of what makes the monarchy go round. Alicent wants to have it both ways, not realizing that the world will never allow it. One can not choose both love and duty if they demand opposite things, yet these desires are natural, and in fact if we did not desire we would never have agency in the first place.

Speculation, thus we are going to see in future episodes, more and more tragic misunderstandings between two women who love each other, their hearts are going to become hard and they are going to learn to hate the people who they once cared for.

9) Speculation, we are already seeing both queens turning to their respective Strong boys as confident. So much mirroring between Alicent and Rhaenyra.

=====

I feel all of this to be true, but feel free to disagree with this, especially since this is fiction. For example I omitted the mushroom story that Daemon had sex with and perhaps raped Alicent prior to her marriage with Viserys. One should not trust what Mushroom says in Fire and Blood, especially since he is as now omitted from the show.

Likewise Mushroom is also a literary device of the Maesters used to attack anyone they do not like in Fire and Blood presenting such characters like Daemon in the most negative live. Yes Daemon is an asshole, but there is ambiguity there, but Mushroom turns him into an over the top Disney villain as a form of propaganda. Thus I feel we can safely be skeptical of such a stories, yet we should also remember Fire and Blood is also a propaganda document of the Maesters and others. Show and Tell Afterall!