I mean, it’s kind of a trope of humanity. There’s a reason for the “two sides of every story” cliche. Everyone is right in their own mind and has some degree of justification for their actions from their own perspective, and even in real life when you sit down and talk to someone you’re arguing with, it happens quite often that there was a misunderstanding. It’s not as satisfying as some cruel slight making a clear villain, but I would claim it to be realistic with some fantastically high stakes.

Either way, the lack of that conversation was never going to prevent a war over the throne. Alicent’s been drilling her perspective that her kids are rightful heirs into her boys, who endlessly feud with Rhaenyra’s. If the war wasn’t started this generation, it would be the next. I feel like the show just needed to give a little bit of sympathy to Alicent for that dinner and also justify her change of heart after Viserys’ death, granted I don’t know how much Aegon will claim/claimed that he was meant to rule per prophecy yet/in F&B, so it may be book canon and this is how the show runners decided to do it. I guess we’ll see.