- Larys Strong: [to Queen Alicent] What are children but a weakness, a folly, a futility? Through them, you imagine you cheat the great darkness of its victory. You will persist forever, in some form or another. As if they will keep you from the dust. But for them, you surrender what you should not. You may know what is the right thing to be done, but love stays the hand. Love is a downfall. Best to make your way through life unencumbered, if you ask me.
- Queen Alicent Hightower: [to Prince Aemond] You will have a dragon one day.
- Princess Helaena Targaryen: He'll have to close an eye.
- Queen Alicent Hightower: I have raised this matter before and you forbade me to speak of it, so I held my tongue. To have one child like that is a mistake. To have three is an insult. To the throne, to you, to House Velaryon and the match you battled so hard to make for her. Not to mention decency itself.
- Queen Alicent Hightower: You are nearly a man grown. How is it that you can be so shortsighted? If Rhaenyra comes into power, your very life could be forfeit. Aemond's as well. She could move to cut off any challenge to her succession.
- Prince Aegon Targaryen: Then I won't challenge...
- Queen Alicent Hightower: You are the challenge! You are the challenge, Aegon, simply by living and breathing! You are the King's firstborn son. And what they know, what everyone in the realm knows in their blood and in their bones, is that one day, you will be our King.
- Larys Strong: You've heard the stories of Harrenhal, Your Grace. It was built in hubris by Harren the Black as a monument to his own greatness. Blood mixed into the mortar. It is said to be a cursed place. That it passes judgment on all who pass beneath its gates.
- Queen Alicent Hightower: You... you passed judgment.
- Larys Strong: The Queen makes a wish. What servant of the realm would not strive to fulfill it?