DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU ARE A FAN OF THE SHOW AND HAVEN’T WATCHED EPISODE 9 – I DON’T WANT TO SPOIL IT FOR YOU
Princess Rhaenys is the heroine of Episode 9, but did she make a mistake? After being locked in her room while the Queen’s advisors secretly plot to have Aegon sit on the throne, throwing away the wishes of King Vicerys to have his daughter, Rhaenyra, named Queen and sit on the Iron Throne, Princess Rhaenys ascends her dragon and scares the living daylights of everyone during the coronation. But should she have done more?
We all knew something was coming. You could feel it brewing the entire episode.
But here’s the irony.
In the episode of Game of Thrones in the final season called The Bells, when Daenerys Targaryen is on her dragon in that climactic moment when she decides whether or not to torch King’s Landing, we rooted for her to accept the surrender of the Lannisters. We wished for her not to go the way of the Mad King. We wanted to believe she was not all about power and vengefulness. We wanted her to be our “queen” and to see Cersei beg for mercy.
Then, on Sunday night, as Rhaenys was on her dragon, we remembered what was ahead (since the show is set 172 years before Game of Thrones). I actually found myself (along with many others on Twitter) wanting Princess Rhaenys to do the thing we wished Dani wouldn’t. We wanted her to torch the controllers, psychopaths, and connivers who were finagling Aegon to the throne and usurping Princess Rheanyra.
That’s the beauty of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. They toy with our emotions, who we like, and why we like them. It’s absolutely brilliant.
Now we’re all rooting for Rhaenyra and Daemon – and we all know Daemon is a psychopath, too.
What fun it is to watch this crazy show. I love it. It takes me away for an hour each week, as we watch the manipulations of power reflected in these characters.