Many characters in the show are getting destroyed for the sake of Show! Rhaenyra
Just about every single main character was ruined.
Alicent was an antagonist on par with Cersei and Tywin Lannister. Delusional yet smart, ambitious and capable, cruel and cold yet certain vulnerability in the way she loved her children and tragic in how her own choices led to her children's ruin.
Alicent was ambitious/power hungry but it didn't mean she didn't love her children and wish them all the happiness in the world.
Daemon Targaryen was THE most complex character grrm's ever written. Dashing and dangerous, selfish yet loving, ambitious yet loyal, cruel yet honest, flawed yet capable. He was a villain to all he perceived as an enemy yet loyal to those he cherished. He was spoiled because he was loved so much and he was desperate because he was afraid of losing the ones he loved and who loved him back. He was a hero because he would stop at nothing for those he viewed as family. He went from a spoiled prince to ambitious consort to loving husband and father and a broken man who just wanted everything to stop. To end.
Daemon was ambitious/cold but that didn't mean he wasn't happy and content to be a husband and father, spend his days with his family just watching them grow and enjoy the best of what the world had to offer. What he believed they deserved.
These two were two of the most vicious, cunning, loyal yet flawed individuals of he Dance. Both had plenty in the books to be "grey" except her fundamental goal was wrong (Maybe you can't begrudge Alicent for wanting to "protect" her sons but it does not erase the fact that she actively chose to gamble everything and lost.) while his was rooted in defense. (And Daemon Targaryen was terribly good at destroying what he perceived as a threat.)
And the show saw all of that and was like, "They were just sad, pathetic, useless and spineless puppy dogs in love with Badass Girlboss Rhaenyra."
Their entire existence was just to chase after scraps of love from the most unlikable character I've ever had the misfortune of seeing on screen. All in the name of "Strong Female Characters" bullshit.
What a waste.
