Hot take: Alicent isn’t as bad as you think
I just want to start off by saying I haven’t read any of the books and have only watched through hotd 1 time so take that into consideration, but Alicent may not be as bad as you think imo. If we look at Alicent as an actual human with emotions and having moments of irrational behavior like everyone has, the things she does makes more sense. So let’s start from the beginning, as a 14/15 year old girl she was forced/manipulated into seducing the king by her own father and practically became this old man’s broodmare. That would have a huge effect on anyone, having kids to a man that is decaying and who you ultimately didn’t want to be with in the first place which makes it make sense why she got with Cole. Should she have done that? Probably not, but it makes sense
When Viserys died is the same moment when her voice died. Nobody in the council would take her serious anymore, including her own kids. She wasn’t seen at all, and that’s proven by when she ran off out of the castle walls, nobody even noticed she was gone. Her own kids didn’t care that she was gone. She at this point is very broken. Now about how she sold out her family. It was wrong and nobody can agree with that ofc, but you have to see why she did it. The last time she had seen Aegon he was on his deathbed, aemond is a full on psycho at this point (he’s still goated idc), and the only person that could possibly save this situation Otto, was imprisoned. Should she have went to dragonstone and sold them out? Ofc not lol it was stupid, but with everything considered you can see why that would be her final attempt to try to save her family. I don’t even agree with that, but it makes sense when you look at it this way. I see Alicent as a broken mother who’s trying to do the right thing but in the most irrational way
I understand if you don’t like her because of her changes from the book, but strictly in the show she’s the most human character