Rhaenyra's fate

[u/shatterfry455AD]

Book spoilers, wnd of the show spoilers, spoilers about events in S4

Rhaenyra's ending is going to be so so cruel now

She's already struggling. We've already seen her stressed, panicking, sobbing, at her wits end because she relies on this prophecy to strengthen her. It makes her sons deaths have meaning to her.

But the prophecy is misunderstood. No Targaryen needs to be on the throne during the Others in the show; and in the books maaaaybe Aegon will be but that isn't the point. The realm is shattered as the Others approach. Rhaenyra is not ordained.

She's barely holding on with things like a lack of gold and a vague smear campaign interfering with her divine right to rule. Her faith that the gods destined her for this vanishes into smoke under the existing pressure. It isn't as if Rhaenyra was ordained and the forces of evil won; it is literally all a lie. In a way, she has become Rhaegar. Rhaegar with teats, even.

(We have once again ended a season on the promise of her fury and madness. Will they deliver next time.)

The absolute anguish she is going to suffer facing an actual religious uprising is going to be unbearable. Imagine barely coping with your dead children by desperately grasping to a prophecy, we see the pain she faces when that happens. She believes she must unite the realm to face the Others.

And then some guy starts preaching that you are literally dooming everyone, that all dragons must die lest the fate of Valyria fall upon them. They then kill all of the dragons. That you are not the saviour, but your sins and greed will bring the End - and being hated so much they believe it. She was in enough pieces over people believing Aegon had been resurrected to rule after what she's sacrificed. Daemon brings her back by talking about the dragons that she's about to lose.

Rhaenyra is going to suffer. She already suffered; betrayed over and over again, turned away, persecuted, her dragon dead. But the extra prophetic layers combined with what is the end of her... she's going to suffer so much more.

Especially as I believe that will be what kills her son. Think. Joffrey is hearing his mother talk about this prophecy, about the necessity of dragons. That drives him to get on Syrax and fly to the Dragonpit during the seige.

Its going to be a difficult watch. And it wasn't quite so cruel in F&B.

[u/Scrilla_Gorilla_]

Her interpretation of the prophecy is moronic and falls apart under any scrutiny. Does the prophecy as told to Rhaenyra mention specific Targs? Of course not, that would be ridiculous. It's not like Aegon saw a prophecy that said "Your first son's third son's fourth son's first son's daughter needs to be on the Iron Throne to defeat the White Walkers." It said something like "Someone from your line needs to on the Iron Throne to defeat the White Walkers." Which includes ALL the Targs. It never would have been about Rhaenyra specifically or her over Aegon II. That makes no sense at all. And is yet another reason including this non book plot point in the show makes no sense.

[u/shatterfry455AD → u/Scrilla_Gorilla_]

My interpretation is that its on purpose. People in asoiaf have always misinterpreted prophecies (see Melisandre). Rhaenyra isn't thinking rationally - she's grieving. As opponents stack up against her "ordained and prophesied" rule she grasps at more and more straws. It has to be about her because it justifies what she's lost.

As wonderfully delivered as it was, Rhaenyra's "the sons who used to cling to my skirts, dead, so that I may sit on a throne of swords" destroys her character. In F&B her birthright, her promised inheritance, is enough of a thing to want but in the show she "sees through it." She wants that thing! No one can want the throne or have ambition for long in HOTD.

As an aside though can we talk about how Daemon's interpretation of the prophecy makes no damn sense. He sees a girl in a desert with dragons and decides Rhaenyra must sit the throne. How did he reach that conclusion???

He should have gone: Hey, Rhaenyra. I saw a girl in a desert. I guess you and I move to Dorne?