One thing that I will say after having experience with reading, writing and watching stories, no one falls under full shades of black and white. Moreover, Death Note made me question the concept of morality and made me realise for subjective it can be. Hence, I usually look at most characters I see as grey. Humans who did what they had to do in the situation they were in. We might disagree with that but I believe that this perspective is what makes a character multi-faceted to me and not just one-dimensional “villains”. However, many will disagree with this. I believe so as House of the Dragon star Emily Carey has deleted Twitter over the fan criticism she got for attempting to humanise her character from the HBO series.
House of the Dragon star Emily Carey had to delete Twitter after she was flooded with criticism for trying to humanise her “villainous” character, Alicent Hightower in House of the Dragon. All of this began last month when Carey attended Comic-Con in San Diego to promote the Game of Thrones prequel with other cast members from the show. Carey portrays the younger Alicent Hightower, who is in a succession conflict with her former childhood friend Rhaenyra Targaryen. In the prequel, Milly Alcock plays Targaryen’s younger self.
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At Comic-Con Carey talked about her experience playing and developing a character like Alicent Hightower. She said that since her character is also pretty young, she was able to create a backstory for her and also journaled to do the same. She added that she has never had the opportunity to “create a whole human being like this before” and hence really enjoyed being able to go in-depth with her character in House of the Dragon. Carey also spoke about Alicent Hightower being a “multifaceted” character and having a deeper understanding of her. She said that while people are expecting her to be a villain, introducing her as younger will probably help change that.
While this was harmless enough and honestly, a very good practice for an actor, it appears that those remarks enraged Rhaenyra’s hardcore fans, who filled Carey’s Twitter feed with critical remarks. Carey was accused of not having a proper grasp of the source material, which was the spin-off novel Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin. The star deleted her account as a result of the outrage from fans. Carey said that as she is only 19, she loves social media and is on every form of it. And for the most part, she moves on from any hate that comes her way. However, Carey added that she deleted Twitter as all the remarks and inputs were getting too loud and overwhelming for her.
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In a deleted tweet, Emily Carey responded to the backlash saying that she stood by what she said at Comic-Con and that Alicent Hightower is not a villain but simply a product of patriarchy. She then urged her viewers to be patient and watch; saying they might sympathise with her.