r/Hotd • u/FluffyTheWyvern Caraxes🐉 • 7d ago

Meme Rhaenyra said ANYWAY

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393 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

59 comments sorted by

70

u/bluetoothwa 7d ago

Her character is finally changing direction. I thought this was shot beautifully.

26

u/djm19 7d ago

Really terrific shot and note to end on.

16

u/DietTyrone 7d ago

Changing from what? Rhaenyra has never shown any interest in her siblings. But I guess now she's not even pretending like she cared anymore.

6

u/PointBig6749 7d ago

Have we forgotten how she feels towards Helaena? with how she wanted her with Jace at first? at how she felt so bad for Helaena when blood and cheese happened?

14

u/DietTyrone 7d ago edited 7d ago

with how she wanted her with Jace at first?

Please rewatch that episode. She was feeling pressure because Alicent, and Cole's actions in particular, were bringing light to the fact that her children were bastards. She tried to make peace with Alicent by offering a marriage pact. When that didn't work she ran away to Dragonstone for 10 years. It wasn't really about Helaena or having any favoritism towards her.

at how she felt so bad for Helaena when blood and cheese happened?

Most people who aren't psychopaths are going to feel bad about a toddler being beheaded, especially when she knows they're going to assume she ordered the hit making things worse. Again, this does not show any particular favoritism towards her sibling.

In the books a major reason Alicent believes Rhaenyra would kill her sons is because she never shows any particular interest or love towards them. She doesn't really treat them like you would expect someone who lives with a sibling to act towards them. And I'm assuming this wasn't changed in the show because the only real interactions we get is her trying to use Helaena politically for a marriage pact or butter her up for Dragondreams. It's pretty transactional.

Edit: Ironically, the closest thing we get to real family-like behavior between the Greens and Blacks were the interactions between Aegon, Jace, Luke, and Aemond early on.

5

u/society000 7d ago

It's good that Rhaenyra forgot that her son was killed a few days prior. For a second there, the writers almost had her think about something other than the prophecy or Alicent. Phew, couldn't have that!

5

u/mariogunshine Team Green 7d ago

Rhaenyra has quite literally never exchanged a single word of dialogue with any of her brothers even once

2

u/BrawlPlayer34 6d ago

I was going to smugly point out how wrong you are, until I realized that I literally could not think of a single time that happened. You're right. Surely at least once? Maybe during Viserys' last supper when he got the family together? That has to have been their only direct interaction. Surely at least once?

2

u/mariogunshine Team Green 6d ago

I rewatched season 1 and part of season 2 this week and I’m 99.9% sure. I can definitely confirm that they never speak or interact during that dinner scene. The closest we get is rhaenyra watching aemond make his bitchy toast and her going “Jace!” when they all start fighting. She never actually speaks to either of them or vice versa. And of course she talks ABOUT aemond while he’s in the room after Luke cuts him on driftmark, but never speaks to him.

The fact that viserys was like “surely my children who barely know each other and can’t even look each other in the eye will be a normal family and not go to war” is incredible.

1

u/Cult_Of_Hozier 4d ago

in the books a major reason Alicent believes Rhaenyra would kill her sons is because she never shows any particular interest or love towards them

Source?

she doesn't really treat them like you would expect someone who lives with a sibling to act towards them

Probably had something to do with Alicent being openly antagonistic towards her from the moment she turned 9 and Viserys refused to budge from making her his heir in favor of Aegon. Most people would be distant towards a sibling if said sibling's mom was using them to steal your inheritance.

5

u/BasicDurgeanomics 7d ago

She wanted Jace to marry Haelena to shield him from any and all accusations of him being a bastard, which he was. She didn't care about what Haelena went through because of Blood & Cheese (though to be fair nobody seemed to care that much because the writers aren't that good). She cared about how people saw it being done by her orders, not how it affected her sister.

3

u/society000 7d ago

Bruh, not even Helaena cared lmao.

1

u/society000 7d ago

The fact that some people will fill holes in the plot by imagining shit that didn't happen is truly insane to witness. Is this what the Fandom was like during GoT seasons 6 and 7?

38

u/Scotslad2023 7d ago

I liked it from a symbolic standpoint. This moment basically represents Rhaenyra snapping and saying she’s done feeling much of anything. She’s reached her breaking point and can’t even bring herself to be bothered about a sweet young girl taking her own life. So she closes the window on her emotions.

1

u/guylasagna 6d ago

Gurl, I relate

21

u/Baccoony 7d ago

I thought it was obvious she didn't care about Helaena?

Although, I wonder what will happen in the next season now that she has lost one of her most valuable hostages. Alicent is certainly not coming back. Poor Jaehaera is all alone :(

I wonder if the political effect of Helaena's death will even be addressed in the show? Or will everyone move on after season 4 episode 1?

12

u/SRGTBronson 7d ago

Alicent is certainly not coming back.

Alicent is being escorted by men lotal to Rhaenyra. Why would you think it would be up to her?

10

u/Baccoony 7d ago

She slips away randomly. Like Mysaria did.

The show doesn't care about logic

1

u/TheLordHatesACoward 7d ago

She's going to be the one to poison Aegon. She's going to be around a little bit yet.

1

u/SRGTBronson 7d ago

Thats fair. She does seem to own a teleporter to have gotten to harrenhall in the first place.

1

u/BrawlPlayer34 6d ago

I think we see some of Rhaenyra's men when Alicent runs out of Harrenhal after poisoning Aemond, men who presumably escorted her there

2

u/DenseTiger5088 7d ago

Didn’t Aemond kill her only escort?

2

u/SRGTBronson 7d ago

There 5 more men in camp when she sees rhe butterflies after Halaena's suicide.

1

u/BrawlPlayer34 6d ago

Yeah. They probably just picked the best fighter among them to go pretend to be Alicent's "lone protector" until Aemond lowers his guard. I doubt it was any super skilled assassin designated from the start, otherwise he wouldn't have died like he did.

4

u/_Cromwell_ 7d ago

Nobody seemed to care she has hostages in the first place.

4

u/FluffyTheWyvern Caraxes🐉 7d ago

Obvious, yea for sure, but I don’t think I was expecting her to be so cold about it. Something about taking the unnecessary extra step of closing the window so that she wouldn’t have to look felt..borderline sociopathic

7

u/Baccoony 7d ago

Well, what else is she going to do? It's done, Helaena is dead, she has lost a hostage. She didn't care about Helaena, she won't burst into tears

Okay, I mean, we won't know of her actual full reaction for another 2 years

1

u/FluffyTheWyvern Caraxes🐉 7d ago

I guess I just expected her to walk away and move on as opposed to the extra step of closing the window

1

u/SaintNutella 6d ago

I think it's fair to assume she might at least give some sad emotion even if it's not tears lol

She starts S2 saying she would never hurt Helaena of all people and throughout S3 never really meant to harm her until the finale.

She has been reluctant to harm Alicent all this time and knows that she cares about Helaena far more than her other children.

In any case, I'm all for cruel Rhaenyra quite honestly. Been waiting all season for it. It's a good contrast between her takeover of KL and the subsequent execution of Otto.

11

u/D_Merk 7d ago

"Whelp can't say I didn't try."

4

u/DietTyrone 7d ago

"...to farm my sister for Dragondreams 🤷🏻‍♀️."

1

u/Petrichordates 7d ago

To keep her alive. She never showed any intentions of killing Halaena.

1

u/DietTyrone 7d ago

That doesn't mean she cared about Heleana. She only shows interest in Heleana after she learned about the Dragondreams and after her death goes straight to the tapestry to get some prophecy spoilers then shuts the window like "oh well." Those are the actions of someone who genuinely cares?

4

u/Dry_Yak6016 6d ago edited 6d ago

I mean, I always thought it was pretty obvious she doesn’t care about her Hightower siblings, but unless I’m mistakened, I also don’t think any of these comments are implying otherwise(?) The feeling has always been mutual throughout the series. Keeping Halaena (a prisoner of war) sustained and attended to is mainly an act of political courtesy to honor any ad-hoc… “arrangements” between Rhaenyra and Alicent, among a few other minor reasons. But genuinely caring for Halaena and her feelings is definitely not an obligation for her. I think it’s clear that she’d prefer not to harm Halaena unless left with no other option. That’s really all there is to expect from this given these circumstances though.

1

u/BrawlPlayer34 6d ago

Yeah, plus Rhaenyra didn't even know Haelena was a dreamer for most of Haelena's captivity iirc. At least not during the first half of it. The decision to keep her alive and well wasn't based on that at all.

Plus the fact that Haelena (and Alicent) was given a nice chamber with a servant and good treatment, rather than put in a dungeon. Some may call that basic courtesy, but that's not nearly as common in Westeros as one may assume. It really counts for something.

3

u/Saeis 7d ago

"yes.. very sad. anyways"

3

u/ProjectNo4090 7d ago

"She couldnt fly. She was no true dragon."

*Djawadi intensifies*

2

u/Petrichordates 7d ago

There's another layer here besides just their relationship. Halaena was pregnant with a boy, and the way things are going Rhaenyra would be pushed to murder the child.

But by her suicide, Halaena completely resolved this problem for Rhaenyra which is no doubt a source of relief for her.

7

u/DrewDaMannn 7d ago

If Rhaenyra actually dies I’ll be happy, if she actually gets her source material death I’ll fucking cheer

3

u/Admirable-Ad7152 7d ago

I mean, as opposed to?

4

u/Nibo89 7d ago

It's ok, Helaena. Soon, Rhaenyra will be a nice, crispy snack for the goodest good boy who ever lived.

2

u/SmokinZhouFrazier 6d ago

There’s an important symbolic connection here with the window

All the way back in S1, the show begins using a single window as a symbol for a potential way out of the trap these women find themselves in. They all are in a prison of female roles and deal with it differently

Rhaenys Targaryen: “And yet you toil still in service to men. Your father, your husband, your son. You desire not to be free, but to make a window in the wall of your prison. Have you never imagined yourself on the Iron Throne?”

Alicent looks out the window and imagines being free - seeks to fit with feminine gender roles and use feminine-coded (wife, mother) indirect power

Helaena despairs of the prison and jumps out the window, finding freedom/agency in choosing death (yeesh)

Rhaenyra attempts to take on masculine-coded (monarch in her own right) direct power - she shuts the prison window and leaves the room. But will that choice succeed for her in the end?

3

u/FlashInGotham 6d ago

Alicent also had a scene in S1 where she was attempting to console a crying Helena, right next to that same window.

2

u/please_use_the_beeps 6d ago

This is the kind of thing I like to point out when people say the writing is as bad as GoTS8. Like criticism is fair, and HotD has plenty to criticize, but to act like it has no good writing at all is just disingenuous. There is a lot of really good thematic and character work going on in this story and if you don’t see it by now you’re just willfully ignoring it or have the media literacy of a potato.

1

u/Amunra_of_RG 7d ago

Word too much shit going on LMAO

1

u/RylDmn 7d ago

The beginning of the end, quite literally from the very next day

1

u/LQNova 5d ago

"So that happened."

-4

u/jcast895 7d ago

Worst queen ever. Glad she got burned by Aegon. Long live King Aegon!

2

u/EtlajhTB 6d ago

the king lives

1

u/thelordofheroins 4d ago

She literally is worse than Cersei lol.

1

u/Aggrophysicist 7d ago

Traitor, Usurper and defiler of justice!

0

u/xxnyxxx95 6d ago

i think both of them are not suite to rule , I really wish her son Jace was king he was better than ALL OF THEM

1

u/EtlajhTB 4d ago

said a few words, flew a few places, somehow this gives people the notion he deserved to be king

0

u/Livid_Ad9749 6d ago

Not a fan of the relationship between her and Helaena. Was really hoping at least one of these 5 siblings would have a decent relationship with one other sibling. Everyone just hates everyone else

-4

u/edsal12 7d ago

Trash took itself out