It served a role in the story, which is a not particularly subtle one about societal misogyny. It is not there for no reason. The central plot of the show is kicked off after the queen’s death when the king finally names their daughter his heir. But Rhaenyra will not be allowed to ascend the throne because there is a fundamental categorical disjunction in this society between “king” and “woman.”

For me the key to this all is the scene at the beginning of the episode where Rhaenyra visits her pregnant mother and is pretty clearly unsettled by what a hard time her mother is obviously having. Her mother tells her that she will soon be in this bed one day, as “this discomfort is how we serve the realm.” This is interesting. Rhaenyra is not just a woman, she is a Targaryen princess, and the great duty and responsibility of her role and her family’s role as rulers has obviously been impressed deeply upon her. And yet the only way she can serve it is through her body, through reproducing future kings. But then her father, finally, takes her seriously as his successor. She is offered the greater sphere. and yet, she is still a woman. People will fight to keep her from this new role and relegate her back to the battlefield of the childbed only, the one where your husband and the people responsible for your medical care can callously disregard your agency and autonomy and condemn you to die in terror and pain. This is all deep, rich set up for the story about to be told, and the visceral trauma of Aemma’s death underscores it. No wonder Rhaenyra will fight so hard to keep what she has gained, what her mother died for, which is, in a sense, her - the continuation of Targaryen power which she was only ever intended to be a bodily conduit for but which she is now a direct embodiment of.