Editor's Note: This entry contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 3; read at your own caution.

About

Alicent Hightower Meme Face, also known as Poot Hightower or Alicent Hightower Side Eye, refers to an edited, low-resolution image of the character Alicent Hightower (played by actress Olivia Cooke) looking to the side with enlarged eyes. The image was taken from season three of the HBO TV series House of the Dragon, specifically the scene in which Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) learns that she's been tricked with a fake Daeron Targaryen by Queen Alicent, who makes the face while noting that she doesn't recognize him.

The meme of Alicent's face appeared online shortly after episode three aired in early July 2026, spreading on platforms like Reddit over the following days as people found it humorous and used it in edits and memes, often to mock the direction of the show and express their dislike for the development of Alicent Hightower's character in the TV series compared to the books. The nickname "Poot Hightower" was used as it garnered virality, referencing the Poot Lovato meme due to its resemblance.

Origin

The scene that the image uses in the meme comes from season three, episode three of House of the Dragon, titled "Rhaenyra Triumphant," which aired on July 5th, 2026.

In the scene, Rhaenyra Targaryen, who has just taken the capital and throne to become queen, goes to meet with whom she thinks is Daeron Targaryen, a captive and member of the rival house during their civil war. Alicent Hightower, Daeron's mother, is brought in to meet him, but gives a side-eye glance and look of concern, noting that she doesn't know the boy while telling Rhaenyra that he is a fake.

The scene first sparked discourse on the /r/freefolk ^[1] subreddit the following morning on July 6th, 2026, with an undoctored screenshot of Alicent in the scene being shared by Redditor deepestblueisblack under the title "This is Alicent's facial expression every scene for the last two seasons," garnering over 760 upvotes and 60 comments in three days.

Roughly 30 minutes later, Redditor Snaggmaw then posted the slightly warped version of Alicent in the scene to the /r/freefolk^[2] subreddit, which featured her having a larger forehead and receding hairline, bigger eyes and a smoothed, enlarged neck that removed her necklace.

The post was titled "What even is Alicent at this point?" and received over 3,800 upvotes and 210 comments in three days, with the post also including the text:

Legitimately. What point do they even try to convey with her anymore? Even if we were never getting book Alicent, this version of Alicent is just… empty. She is not a member of team green, though she's aided them ostensibly. Nor is she really supportive of Rhaenyra and team black, outside of being just overly pliant towards them. She is not protective of her children, even treating Helaena as if her existence is an offense to Rhaenyra, and the grandchildren are basically non-existant in her mind.

Like, occassionally you get the faint silhouette of a personality when she vaguely scolds a person, be it Aegon, Aemond, Rhaenyra, Otto, whoever. But like a fart in the wind it goes away as quickly as it arrived.

I don't think I've ever seen such a thorough vacuum of a character. There is legit nothing there. Like, why is she even obsessed with the power taken from her to begin with when she, like every other female character, abhors the notion of making decisions.

Spread

The meme of Alicent Hightower with the distorted face spread online over the following days as the image was reposted to other sites and platforms and used in additional memes.

On July 6th, 2026, the meme was posted to a "GOT HOTD Dunk" thread on 4chan's^[3] /tv/ (television) board with the caption, "seven head who are one edition," by an anonymous user.

Later that day, X / Twitter^[4] user Moognific used the picture in an image caption meme with the text, "When you thought it was coming out silent," though the post only garnered roughly 1,100 views and 15 likes in three days.

On July 7th, 2026, Twitter^[5] user q1ox3 used the meme in a post comparing Alicent in season one vs. season three of the show, receiving over 1.9 million views, 38,000 likes, 1,700 retweets and 240 replies in two days.

On July 8th, Redditor Routine_Shoe8641 posted the meme to the /r/HouseOfTheDragon^[6] subreddit with the title "This image is frying me 😭," noting that people on Twitter were using the image a lot and garnering over 7,800 upvotes and 180 comments in a day.

That same day, Redditor Randwheeloftime05 used the image in another meme edit on the /r/freefolk^[7] subreddit under the title "Not thanks to you," receiving roughly 730 upvotes and 60 comments in a day.

As the Alicent meme continued to spread online, it also received backlash from some users who found it mean or offensive to Olivia Cooke.

For example, on July 8th, 2026, Redditor Odd_Importance2915 made a post to the /r/HOTDGreens^[8] subreddit criticizing the meme, writing:

Can we stop editing Olivia's/Alicent's face in the reveal scene with Daeron. I find it very disrespectful to the actress
I've seen so many people use it as a "meme." Let's not forget shes had so much hate to the point she had to deactivate her instagram.

Also on July 8th, a since-deleted Redditor made another post to the /r/HOTDGreens^[9] subreddit complaining about the meme, stating:

Am I the only one that finds this disrespectful. Hating Alicent is one thing but editing Olivia's face is crazy. The actress even deactivated her Instagram because of hate.

Many Redditors in the comments of these posts notably pushed back against the complaints, with Redditor Safe_Code6637 commenting, "These are just memes. Chill. People making fun of Alicent's goofy facial expression has nothing to do with the actress or her appearance. This is normal with every show."

Various Examples

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External References