House of the Dragon Season 2 already has its most controversial couple

House of the Dragon Season 2 is fast approaching, but one unexpected romantic duo has fans fuming already.

The premiere of House of the Dragon Season 2 is set to answer many questions. We’ve got the battle for the Iron Throne to worry about, as well as Rhaenyra Targaryen‘s likely quest to avenge her son’s brutal death.

But right now, fans are less concerned about the upcoming bloodshed than they are about the possible relationship between Alicent Hightower and her Kingsguard, Ser Criston Cole.

The Alicent-Cole relationship has led to division among fans after leaks seemed to reveal that the pair’s romance will become canon. This has attracted a fair amount of backlash for a couple of reasons. One: many believe it negates the show’s most popular ship, “Rhaenicent” (Rhaenyra and Alient), and two: it’s incredibly hypocritical for those two characters to get together.

Although actress Emily Carey has revealed that she was actually supposed to be in love with Criston Cole from the start, it’s not exactly carried over into the show. What’s more, Alicent was deeply betrayed when Cole revealed that he had slept with Rhaenyra, an anger that now seems incredibly misplaced if she’s indeed doing the same thing.

Whatever the reason behind it, it’s becoming obvious that most House of the Dragon viewers are anti-“Alicole”, and they’re not afraid of showing it.

“I think this is the least popular ship in the fandom because 98% of people hate Cole, more people ship Fabien and Olivia ironically,” one person on Reddit wrote. “Fan service is possible but they’re p**sing off a much bigger ship in the process, Rhaenicent.”

“I truly do not understand what the writers were thinking,” said another. “They keep saying they want to make all characters likable but are they really? What is supposed to happen between them doesn’t make sense for either… even the fan service thing is so weak???

“Like Alicole is one of the smallest ships and it just p**ses off another huge ship (Rhaenicent to who they were all catering to before if you look at the interviews) and it really destroys the character arcs from Season 1.

“I genuinely want to know who thought this was a good idea and why everybody agreed. I might say this is the worst decision they have made so far.”

“The show is just giving people more and more reasons to hate Alicent for no reason,” another comment pointed out.

Some are still holding out hope that the leaks aren’t true, with one user saying: “I’m not a ‘Rhaenicent’ shipper or whatever, but I’m still hopeful that all of these rumors about Alicent and Criston are untrue.”

With House of the Dragon Season 2 landing on Max on June 16, there’s not long to wait before finding out if this new ship is actually worth worrying about.

Until then, take a look at all the other new TV shows landing this month. You can also keep up to date with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and find out everything there is to know about Blood and Cheese.