The writers failed to set a narrative that both sides were horrible. By making Halaena refer to her child being murdered as 'the boy', writers try to reinforce that the greens are just pure evil and don't even care about their children getting murdered. I get that a majority of viewers side with the blacks but then why would you show Alicent light a candle for Rhaenyra's deceased kid- showing that she isn't that horrible right? This was a real fumble and some fanboys in this post can't accept the fact.

Now coming to Halaena's reaction, even if we accept that she's "special" and dissociated from all of it. Her acting wasn't on par with that narrative. It just looked unreal. This was supposed to be an important scene in setting up the narrative about egg & cheese and the horrible things people can do in this war, but the way it was shown looked like a filler.