Rhaenyra Being So Concerned About Aegon, But Helaena Was Ultimately Her Downfall. The Smallfolk Loved

rhaenyra being so concerned about aegon, but helaena was ultimately her downfall. the smallfolk loved her. they mourned her. they rebelled for her. she was so deeply beloved by all who knew her, highborn and low, she was the one who indirectly caused her half-sister’s death with her own. she is remembered as queen, not rhaenyra. she is remembered fondly, not rhaenyra.

So like a critical component of understanding team green and Alicent’s motivation for pushing their claim is completely lost on this fandom because of the fact that it’s so irrelevant nowadays that we wouldn’t even consider it.

But like…for most of human history marriages, especially aristocratic marriages, were binding social contracts that were meant to provide benefits and incentives to both parties. The woman would perform her wifely duties of bearing heirs (sons), child rearing, emotional (and physical - sometimes against her will unfortunately) support, and generally running the household in domestic affairs. And in exchange for these labors and quite frankly difficult and at times harmful tasks the woman was provided with safety from the outside world, all her needs being taken care of, and her children being the heirs. And a woman’s son being the heir means consistent protection into her old age when her often much older husband eventually died.

There was a purpose to marriage outside of love and ambition. But because we are privileged enough to live in a more modern society where marriage is a personal contract for which the technicalities can be selected by both individuals to ensure security and happiness, we cannot really even consider that once upon a time in the not so distant past there was a clear purpose. The man got sons/heirs and the woman got sons/protectors to care for her in her old age.

So when Alicent pushes for her son she has a plethora of reasons: believing in tradition, protecting the lives of her children who have competing claims, consolidation of suffering, etc. But she has one very clear and very reasonable reason that nobody acknowledges. She delivered on her part of the bargain and contract and she wants to collect what she is owed. She produced the sons, she gave the emotional and physical support (against her genuine will), she reared the children, she ran the household domestically and the entire kingdom. She did “everything expected of her forever upholding the kingdom, the family, and the law”. And now it’s time for her to collect her dues now that her much, much older husband is dead. To have her son be king and to be taken care of into her old age.

That is the contract she agreed to. That is the contract almost every woman in history agreed to. I give you a son and I get comfort and security when you (the husband) die and my son becomes the heir.

So I can go on and on about the personal, psychological reasoning that Alicent has that are all perfectly valid. But I don’t have to because at the end of the day she did her part of this marital obligation and contract and she deserves to receive her rewards.

A lovely commission by Yendts

Instead of trying so hard to make fans think of Daenerys when they see Rhaenyra, they should have tried to insert a bit of Daenerys into every Targaryen character.

Right now it's obvious the show is trying to make Rhaenyra a Dany 2.0 and doing everything they can to link this one character to Daenerys. The amount of scenes she gets with her dragon, the idea that Syrax's eggs are somehow Daenerys' dragons and it's thanks to Rhaenyra that dragons live on... likely all due to the writers seeing "dragonriding ruling queen" for both characters and then really overly forcing the connection at all costs even if it doesn't always quite fit.

What I would have preferred is to see all of Daenerys' ancestors within her and her in them. Show all of their connections to their dragons and their joy in flying. Show all of them as quick to anger and slow to forgive. Show all of them believing in the power and superiority of their dragon blood and the inherent right of their family to rule. Show all of them willing to use fire and blood to avenge what they see as injustices and being ruthless in their pursuit of that justice. Show me how each of these characters are as Targaryen as the next and how absolutely tragic it is that within this so similar family they only saw their own differences and their own ambitions, leading to them destroying themselves and the dragons that they loved so much and that gave them so much power.

All of this means not leaning so hard on showing Rhaenyra as just like Daenerys, but showing Dany's traits in the others. Show Helaena finding freedom, power, and independence on dragonback and savoring her strong bond with Dreamfyre, which comes more easily to her as an autistic woman surrounded by people playing the unspoken game of thrones around her. Show Aegon on Sunfyre after the coronation as he wears the conqueror's crown and reminds the people of his ancestral Targaryen power and right to rule. Show their children and their hatchlings. Let Baela have her own opinions apart from her betrothed and his mother and let her be bold in expressing them. Let Rhaena learn the importance of politicking and soft power in ruling and gaining allies and the balance between hard and soft power, and let the moment she hatches Morning at the end of the war be a melancholic moment, as she finally has a dragon but now is alone in this fact as one of the last living Targaryens.

We should be able to see traces of Daenerys in all of these Targaryens, and choosing just one to try to emulate Daenerys over all the others is a misstep and minimizes the impact of this story as a dynastic civil war of a family destroying itself.

So you're telling me the woman who crowned her only daughter with her own crown, who kissed her cheeks, knelt before her, and called her "my Queen" in front of all the smallfolk of Kings Landing, would go groveling back to the woman who traumatized her precious daughter and granddaughter and murdered her grandson, to beg for mercy and to promise to force Helaena to offer up her crown and position as queen? Because no other woman in this show is allowed to want to be queen, or be viewed as worthy of the position besides Rhaenyra. No "Queen Alicent, beloved of the smallfolk", no "Helaena had been loved, Rhaenyra was hated" no no no. Helaena being loved by the smallfolk and Aegon listening to her council for the war effort was biAsEd MaEsteR pRoPAgAnDa. According to HotD, Rhaenyra was the only woman who ever wanted to be queen/had a right to be queen/was worthy of being queen/was good at being queen.

i think hes still a virgin actually