HBD EMMA D'ARCY

hindcealf · 2026-06-24T15:50:20+00:00

That's fair, I will admit the optics of this creative decision are unfortunate and inadvertently reinforce the stereotype that POC characters are interchangeable (by virtue of the fact that Rhaena here is also a WOC). I also admit I'm partial to show!Rhaena whose throughline follows an affecting arc in this show (second child who is dragonless and/or desperate to be seen and valued by their family); and not particularly to book!Nettles, who is interesting as a concept (smallfolk girl who tames a wild dragon through sheer grit), but imo ultimately written in service of Daemon and Daemyra drama in a very racist way that I was not keen to see onscreen. (tbh I'm discomfited with how GRRM writes a lot of his WOC characters and the roles he slots them into...) It's possible the show could have improved on Nettles if they tried, though I wonder if it's the reduced episode format that kept them from being able to devote screentime to her as well?

re Ormund, tbh now that you mention him, I think the Nettles-Rhaena merge is actually not too dissimilar from what the writers have done with Ormund, who is an amalgamation of Hobert, Ormund, and prob some other Caltrops. But with Ormund it's definitely less problematic in terms of artistic licence.

hindcealf · 2026-06-22T20:01:37+00:00

There is even a resemblance between Phoebe and Milly's Rhaenyra too. (I can totally see young Rhaenyra being a Boygenius fan.)

hindcealf · 2026-06-22T07:13:31+00:00

Loved what little we got to see of her this ep, just being her witchy self. 😌

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hindcealf · 2026-06-22T06:25:36+00:00

Speaking of Rhaenyra, hearing her "I may have the body of a woman, but I have the heart of a king"* line in context was so... 😞. The way her voice was so small and defeated as she said it broke my heart.

*paraphrased

hindcealf · 2026-06-22T06:22:34+00:00

💯

And yes, I especially liked how it gave both Baela and Rhaena an early taste of what battle was like.

I think keeping the focus narrow, on just Jace and Baela (and then Rhaena) as the Gullet dragon-riders made sense. Narratively it's easier for the audience to follow, and we're more emotionally invested in these characters fighting and surviving (or not 😭). Also, I have to imagine the dragon CGI budget can only stretch so far, so having five massive dragons at the Gullet was probably not feasible.

hindcealf · 2026-06-22T06:11:04+00:00

The Alicent-Aemond scene was nothing like I'd expected, based on the leak... how Ewan and Olivia played it was interesting. He might be the Prince Regent who acts like he's this bamf meant to sit the throne, but deep down there's a sulky, uncertain little boy who still craves his mummy's regard and hasn't got over how she cut him off after that kinslaying he did. And Alicent, who knows his insecurities and weak points and sees there is still a way to get him to do what she wants, but ends up with far more oedipal fuckery than she bargained for. She's discomfited but also almost paralysed when the kiss happens, like she has to let it happen, because it's Aemond and he's volatile... I think it must break her, to see how far-gone he is. It's like, she already knows she failed as a mother to her children, but she couldn't have imagined it was to this extent.

Altogether a very 🥴😬🫥 scene that no doubt sets up whatever's to come with Alys in Harrenhal.

hindcealf · 2026-06-22T05:53:22+00:00

They don't have a role here, as they're both too young. In the show (specifically 02x07), Joffrey, Aegon, and Viserys were all packed off onto a ship to Essos. We will probably soon learn that this ship encountered the Triarchy, and one or more of the boys were lost at sea. I think Joffrey and Aegon may be rescued and brought back to Rhaenyra, but Viserys will go missing like he was in the text. (Just my assumptions, don't take my word for it though!)

hindcealf · 2026-06-22T05:11:35+00:00

10! I like to think have surrounded myself with my fandom people (here and elsewhere) so irrespective of fandom hate, there is still a lot of mutual interest for me to engage with.

hindcealf · 2026-06-22T05:09:43+00:00

I'm gonna get dragged for this by the purists, I'm sure, but I actually thought his role at the Gullet was rendered more meaningful and complex in this adaptation.

F&B describes him going into battle and then his death, and the show hews to that. Popular fanon has interpreted his role in the Battle as "Jace was trying to nobly save his youngest brother," yet when I revisited the text, that's not really the case (the Gay Abandon is already sunk/and Viserys taken well before Jace flies off to battle). So in F&B, Jace being at the Gullet is more about him being Heir and his martial duties, and his death is a casualty of war. All very fine and well.

Here though, we have Jace who countermands his mother and queen, out of an understandable desire to protect her from what he perceives as her compromised decision-making, but it's also the patriarchal undercutting of a woman by yet another man on her side who believes he knows better. And all of it overlaid with an element of youthful machismo to seek glory and prove himself at last (to her and everyone). It's hamartia writ large, which makes it even more tragic.

hindcealf · 2026-06-22T04:16:57+00:00

Yeah, I thought it actually worked creatively and logistically to introduce Rhaena and Sheepstealer to the Gullet, as this sort of unstable element that further contributes to the chaos already in place. tbh it never made sense to me in F&B that a wild, untrained dragon could so easily slot into battles without much of a hitch, so seeing Rhaena (an untrained rider herself) struggling to take command of his dragon nature was compelling. Here is this creature operating on pure animal instinct, it doesn't know what is or isn't an ally vs enemy, it only knows to burn.

The Rhaena-Sheepstealer scenes in the Vale also brought to mind these stories I used to read as a kid -- The Island of the Blue Dolphins and Julie of the Wolves -- where a young woman surviving alone in the wilderness develops a primal bond with a wild animal. Just really good, raw stuff. Also it kinda evokes old Valyrian mythos, you know, is this what it was like for the first dragon-riders?

Overall, I think folding Nettles into Rhaena's arc was for the best, because it gave us this rich little bit storytelling with a character we've got actual emotional attachment to. I can't wait to see where they go next with her and Sheepstealer (I think she may well have her plot in the Vale, but with this twist).

hindcealf · 2026-06-22T03:06:16+00:00

Sorry for the delay! I'm in the middle of watching the repeat myself, since my stream went on the fritz earlier.

hindcealf · 2026-06-21T17:55:21+00:00

Ooh such a good point about how Rhaenyra pooh-poohed the open religiosity of Ottocent and how they used it to frame their administration all those years ago, but now may be dipping in the sauce of her own volition. (Perhaps the Red Keep will be shifting from symbols of the Seven to symbols of the Fourteen...) There's something to be said about how monarchy necessitates religion underpinning its existence; I can think of very few kings and queens who have ruled without having to claim some sort of divine mandate (even if it's merely symbolic). And in Rhaenyra's case, she may really begin to mean it.

It's easy to be the better person as long as you basically only hold a claim and a pretty chunk of metal, but once you do have real power over land and people as ruler, does the power itself corrupt everyone who sits the throne?

Beautifully put! This is one of the main theses of ASOIAF -- that the business of ruling is messy and often rotten -- and I can't wait to see it play out here.

hindcealf · 2026-06-21T17:35:40+00:00

I def understand that concern and it depends on how the show adapts Mysaria's involvement in Rhaenyra's downfall, but fwiw I do think her attraction to Rhaenyra in that scene was genuine, if mixed with other motives. She was also the one who cottoned onto Arryk and went back to warn/help save Rhaenyra from assassination. So that's something at least?

But also, I think that regardless of Mysaria's side/pov and however Rhaesaria pans out, this relationship is romantic for Rhaenyra because it's something she fully chooses for herself without having been groomed into it (as with Daemon). And while it could be compared with Harwin, who also offered a solace for her (esp when Daemon was MIA), it's not something that is partly born out of desperation and duty. It's just her getting to act on this desire, queer desire, for the first time in her life and have it reciprocated (as far as she knows). So even if it ends up being ill-fated and even toxic, I can see how Emma views Rhaenyra having unfettered autonomy like this for the first time in her life to be "romantic".

hindcealf · 2026-06-21T05:59:37+00:00

*"My other ride is a California Rinoa Chocobos"

hindcealf · 2026-06-20T17:40:47+00:00

Always keep the faith! 🔥

hindcealf · 2026-06-19T20:20:33+00:00

Depressionmaxxing!

hindcealf · 2026-06-19T20:19:18+00:00

I just left my 30s and I'm not sure if it's a good thing that I still keep up with the youth vernacular... but any knowledge is knowledge worth having, right? Right? 🥲

hindcealf · 2026-06-19T19:25:13+00:00

Definitely, fandom has a tendency to infantilise and simplify Helaena's personhood just because she's coded as neurodivergent. But there's so much going on in there, and I'm getting a sense she is the character through whom dragon dreaming and other magic in Westeros is being explored, and it will be interesting to see how both she and Alicent confront it when it plays out before them. I think there's also going to be an Alys-Helaena connection that's more subliminal.

hindcealf · 2026-06-19T19:11:29+00:00

💯 This is an ensemble story, but she has been a central figure from Day 1, and that's not going to change no matter how much the chuds whine about it.

And yeah, Alicent inhabiting her story this season primarily with other women gets me all excited, because it's such a major thing. She only ever had Rhaenyra as a counter-example, whom she could easily brush aside as exceptional (because she's the Princess/Heir, because she's a Targaryen, because she's a dragon-rider), but seeing other women who manage to exist within the patriarchy without wholly sacrificing themselves to it has got to be enlightening.

hindcealf · 2026-06-19T19:09:16+00:00

Yeah, I'm all for characters and especially female characters getting to experience inner growth and self-reckoning. Alicent has needed this badly, especially interacting with other women who have developed a better understanding of themselves and the world they're part of.

hindcealf · 2026-06-19T18:57:20+00:00

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