It could have been better if

Ok, it’s been done, but what specific changes would have helped season 2 ?

I’ll go first:

Larys’s plotting should involve more than quietly slinking away with the Strong family funds and Aegon. I don’t need him to be Littlefinger, but the guy killed his own dad and brother … so where is that energy in regards to Alicent? They had their little weird foot fetish/ info quid pro quo and then she ditched him to get hot and heavy with Cole after her husband died.

So here is what I think should have happened. Larys should be fanning the flames of Alicent’s doubt, not the first secret meeting with Rhaenyra ( that shouldn’t have happened and was too much of lazy convenience on the part of the writers. They wanted to give the audience the payout of Alicent realizing her mistake and Rhaenyra feeling reaffirmed).

Larys should be the quiet puppet master. He realizes that the tide is shifting after Aegon is injured. He realizes that team green is not only imploding but that team black is growing more powerful. However to Alicent and audience he appears to council her and still care for her. He leads her to believe that Aegon will never recover, often acting as a go between for the maesters reports. He convinces her that Aemond will kill hundreds if not thousands of innocents only to be killed by Rhaenyra’s new dragon riders. His predictions prove true when Aemond burns an undefended city in anger. Larys eventually convinces Alicent to write to Rhaenyra in a thinly veiled coded message that Aemond will be flying to Harrenhal and that she will have Halaena open the gate and surrender the city upon the promise that she and Halaena and Jahaera may leave. That her youngest son may be spared as he had not yet joined the conflict.

Unbeknownst to Alicent , Larys planned it all. He escapes with Aegon. Rhaenyra is furious and blames Alicent and holds her captive, etc.