#‘it’s such basic girlboss symbolism’ or maybe you are not engaging with the plot bc you refuse to entertain the idea

[atopvisenyashill]

“the white hart scene was showing us rhaenyra is divinely chosen to sit on the iron throne for a shitty girlboss moment”

idk how people come to this conclusion beyond the fact that a lot of people wanted the show to flesh out and empathize with the characters the way f&b doesn’t, but are mad the show decided to flesh out rhaenyra even though she’s one of the main characters, bc they’re too dedicated to her as The Born Evil Queen bc that’s how she’s been treated by fandom since the princess and the queen came out.

it’s not just “she sees the white hart and it means she’s divinely chosen” that’s such a basic, surface level reading. for her part, the point is not just that she sees the white hart, but that she recognizes it’s personhood, it’s beauty, and it’s uniqueness, and spares it’s life in empathy. the point is that she slaughters the boar in self defense and brings it home to her people but is scorned for the messy way she did it. it’s not just that she’s “divinely chosen” it is that she can recognize the fear and humanity (so to speak) in another being and can empathize with it enough to let it live even though killing it may make her look really good in front of the lords. she does the moral thing because she is capable of empathy despite what the lords may say, a clear hint to the last episode where she attempts to do the right thing by avoiding war despite pushback from the black council.

on the other hand, she kills the boar - she is just as capable as any man of great violence when she feels threatened, and equally capable of a vindictive sort of violence that all the men of her house (and many of the other houses) are capable of. she brings them an animal she killed by her own hand and they are disgusted; the greens will strike first at every opportunity never realizing that she is capable of much greater violence bc a woman being capable of being violent is not something that would ever occur to them. they gladly named her princess of dragonstone to stop daemon from being heir but they are disgusted by her independent mind despite it being the exact reason they named her heir.

but just as important is viserys’ killing of the red hart. the white hart ran from his woods while the red hart is held down by his advisors for him to kill without viserys doing any of the work; still, he has to try twice to kill it, and only with the hand rotting from contact with the throne is he capable of taking its life. like robb’s messy execution of lord karstark being the definitive sign that he’s utterly lost control of the war, viserys having to be coached step by step and handed this “win” on a silver platter only to bungle it anyway is a definitive sign that he’s lost control of his court and of the politics in westeros. and as robb’s dark, shadowy parallel, viserys too will not live to see the bloody climax of a war he helped kick off.

#rhaenyra targaryen #viserys targaryen #viserys the peaceful #‘it’s such basic girlboss symbolism’ or maybe you are not engaging with the plot bc you refuse to entertain the idea #that rhaenyra is a complex character capable of both great kindness and great violence. #me shit talking people in the tags #getting on my soap box #house of the dragon #like can we use our brains. ‘you don’t want the hightowers fleshed out bc you hate them’ yeah and we can say the same for people mad that #rhaenyra has been ‘softened.’ both sides are responsible for escalating the conflict. this is NOT just on rhaenyra #the same way the wo5k is not *just* on cersei’s affair or cat taking tyrion or jaime attacking ned. it is all these actions at once!!!!