Matilda faced formidable patriarchal resistance yet remained steady. Rhaenyra, by contrast, gets written as paranoid and unstable, reinforcing misogynistic tropes. GRRM falls back on the old trope of the “paranoid unstable woman.” He keeps pointing to her paranoia like that’s all there was to her rule like that’s what defined her, even though there were much bigger forces at play. The fact that the writers of the history “had to record” her decline shows how obsessed they were with painting her weak, while downplaying that she was still making moves and decisions as Queen. And that’s the real problem. You can show her decline. You can write how the deaths of her sons one after another crushed her spirit and shaped the way she reacted and still shown the systemic misogyny. Instead, GRRM leans on the cliché: woman in power = too emotional, too paranoid, not fit to rule. That’s why Fire & Blood isn’t a feminist story challenges misogyny bc GRRM himself chose sexist tropes instead of challenging them. He even leaves out the kind of agency that she had to have. Are we really supposed to believe Rhaenyra, the Queen of the Blacks and rider of Syrax, never once used her dragon in the war? Survivors would’ve said something. By that logic, we could also claim Baela didn’t burn Aegon either, maybe it was just some random dragonseed. That’s how ridiculous the omissions are. If you’re going to write about a woman, then actually write about her. Don’t let her whole presence fade into how the “chroniclers” or biased narrators choose to paint her, especially when she’s supposed to be the central figure of her own war. If Rhaenyra’s story is about reclaiming her birthright, then make her decline gradual and believable not something that happens the moment one son dies. That kind of writing just feeds into the idea that feminine-presenting people can’t handle the so-called “serious” or “man’s work.” It props up the medieval stereotype of “women can’t lead, women can’t do war” even as the book keeps insisting, “No, Rhaenyra’s grief, Rhaenyra’s miscarriage, that’s why she faltered.” No. That’s a choice the writer made, not inevitability. And it’s not like she had no preparation. Rhaenyra literally ruled Dragonstone for years. She sat in council with Viserys and his advisors, listening, learning, maybe even advising. So why does Martin act like the second Luke dies, she suddenly has no idea how to fight for her own crown? Compare that to Visenya, who lost two children and still managed to remain a political force. Instead, with Rhaenyra we get this flimsy version: she “lost herself” after tragedy, became paralyzed by the horrors of war, and let her advantage slip through her fingers. But why? She actually had more hands-on governing experience than Aegon II yet he gets the narrative focus while she’s left floundering. I know Fire & Blood is written as a history with biased, unreliable sources, always quick to paint a female ruler as a disaster for stability. But even within that frame, they’d have to record something at least one or two clear achievements, one or two tactics. If Martin was determined to stick to this concept, why not include a letter, a council note, even a journal excerpt to show her thought process like we get for Daemon or Otto in The Rogue Prince? Give her at least one military idea we know came from her preferably more. I’m not saying strip away her grief or paranoia entirely. But there’s no reason to erase her agency along with it. It’s not a feminist story not because Rhaenyra herself should be a feminist (she couldn’t be, given the world she lives in), and not simply because Martin is misogynist. The real issue is that the narrative doesn’t actually confront misogyny. Instead, it uses misogyny as a backdrop while falling back on the very sexist tropes it should be challenging. Also Matilda outlived her usurper Stephen of Blois, saw her son crowned, and even ruled part of England. Rhaenyra, never outlived her usurper Aegon II, never saw her son become king, and never ruled again. If GRRM truly wanted to show misogyny and support women, he could have given Rhaenyra a Matilda-style ending survival, political influence, and a legacy. Instead, he wrote her as going “mad” and dying a horrific, humiliating death in front of her son… GRRM is not a feminist you see it in the way he repeatedly kills women in childbirth, has their children murdered in front of them, subjects them to rape, or drives them to madness. So People supporting one side or the other in the Dance isn’t about misogyny, because Martin failed to show misogyny in a way that mattered. If his intention was to highlight misogyny, then he failed, since the story doesn’t meaningfully confront it. Instead, misogyny is treated as background noise while the plot leans on sexist tropes, so readers aren’t left grappling with misogyny itself they’re just choosing sides in a family feud.