love the line, "there is in you a door that must shut." it expresses, so cleanly, how alicent has survived these decades: through disembodiment, closing her "self" (her true inner desires) off from herself. ignoring the door so long you forgot there was ever anything behind it
alicent craves acknowledgment. so much of her resentment toward rhaenyra stemmed from the fact that she felt rhaenyra never recognized her sacrifices (which is why rhaenyra's apology in 1x08 moved alicent so much, and brought her back to herself.)
Olivia Cooke tells Pop Base if the relationship between Rhaenyra and Alicent in ‘House of the Dragon’ is salvageable:
“I think it’s really hard. There’s an element of her love for Rhaenyra that is preserved from when they were girls and their best friendship, but I think there’s too much water under the bridge. It is beyond saving. They could never go back to who they were, and they can never have a simple relationship again. It’s marred by betrayal and death and too much time having passed.”