The Letter Scene Analysis—"One King Is As Good As Another"
Can I just say that (battle scenes included) THE LETTER SCENE was the most masterful scene of the entire episode:
There was so much unsaid conversation happening just from the letter being delivered to Ormund’s hands, written in what was supposed to be the hand of “King Aemond Targaryen, First of His Name,” but which Ormund recognized to be Alicent’s, sealed with the Green Targtower seal, the wax dripping ever so slightly, obviously molten by Alicent’s trembling hands, indicating the total mess of state the Greens are in, their uncertain future and their questionable choices, AND YET Ormund is ready to follow through with the supposed “King’s order” stating that “one King is as good as another,” having already realized that everyone in essence is fighting this war for their own ambitions and goals, and who gets to wear the crown becomes merely an excuse to pursue personal ideals.
(1) This tiny scene further builds on Season 2’s theme of the collapse of royal authority. Aemond is supposedly King, yet his will is being communicated through Alicent’s handwriting. Technically an order from the crown, the letter visually reveals the corrupted machinery of government as Princes can now easily proclaim themselves Kings, whose authority is nevertheless still dependent on intermediaries desperately trying to keep the realm together. Meant to convey strength, the letter does the complete opposite, as everything about it betrays the Greens’ weakened position: King Aegon is gone, a new King has risen, and he, too, is led.
(2) Alicent, once again, impersonates the authority she spent decades defending. Enough was enough with the “redemption arc” of Season 2, when Alicent was being sidelined by Aegon and the Green Council, and sought to reclaim her purpose elsewhere. Alicent, once again, is trying to preserve the only institution she has ever known: duty. In such an attempt, she is called to reconcile her duty to her family (her children + the Hightowers), with that to the dynasty and the Kingdom. There is something tragic in the image of Alicent writing in Aemond’s name. She is simultaneously exercising power and demonstrating that she does not truly possess it. She can issue commands, move armies, and influence events, but only through the borrowed voice of a son who increasingly refuses to be controlled. The letter itself becomes a symbol of Alicent’s entire political life, of what she was able to accomplish through the birth of her sons and by ruling during Viserys’ illness: she can exert immense influence, but she can never really wear the crown.
(3) Ormund almost certainly and immediately recognizes what the letter represents, but he decides that who wears the crown does not matter, as “one King is as good as another.” Ormund does not care whether the order is legitimate and whether the chain of authority has been compromised. Unlike idealistic Gwayne, who fights and acts with knightly honor as seen in the same episode, Ormund recognizes that the Dance of the Dragons is no longer about legal claims or playing by the rules. Under the ruse of legitimacy, anyone who joins the conflict is fighting for their own survival, ambition, vengeance; a theme further emphasized by the Dragonseeds’ POV in the same episode, as well as Larys and Aegon’s capture scene. “One King is as good as another” because the crown becomes the banner under which personal desires can march.
(4) What I love so much about the letter is that it becomes a microcosm of the Dance itself: a King’s authority is expressed through someone else’s hand, an impersonator of authority is desperately trying to hold together a collapsing political order, a vessel lord recognizes the fiction and participates anyway, and a war supposedly fought over legitimacy has long since ceased to be about legitimacy.
And the most ironic part? No one is actually deceived. Alicent knows she is only borrowing authority and that she could never resolve the conflict herself; Ormund knows the pretense under which he is called to aid the Greens; and the audience knows that neither exposing nor maintaining the pretense will make any difference to the deeper desires of those entangled in this conflict.
The letter is less than a military order and more of a quiet acknowledgement that the world Alicent spent her entire life weaving, worshipping, upholding, and trying to preserve is already gone. With its green Targtower seal, it is reminiscent of order and royal power, but the authority it represents is melting away just as visibly as the wax itself.
