For Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), green is out and blue is in. House of the Dragon 's dowager queen made green her signature color all the way back in Season 1, a reference to the green fire House Hightower lights in Oldtown when it calls its banners to war. Since then, the color green became synonymous not just with Alicent, but with her son Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) and his supporters.
However, Alicent switches things up in the last two episodes of Season 2. On her episode 7 camping trip to the Kingswood , she wears a dark blue-green cloak over a lighter blue dress. The subtle color change from her usual wardrobe is just one hint at her shifting allegiance to Team Green, but the episode takes it even further.
When Alicent sheds her outer layers before swimming in a lake in a simple white dress, the meaning is clear. Powerless, undermined, and unable to stop the folly of war, Alicent is giving up the duty she's spent her whole life upholding. She tells her old friend and royal adversary Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) as much in the Season 2 finale , when she travels to Dragonstone to propose a bold new plan to end the war.
As soon as her son, Prince Regent Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), flies off to the Riverlands, Alicent says, she will surrender King's Landing to Rhaenyra, the named heir to the Iron Throne. In return, she asks that she be allowed to go free with her daughter, Queen Helaena (Phia Saban), so the two can live the kind of unburdened lives they never.