Rhaenys’s movements during the funeral/wake (because I’m a NERD):
Firmly on the Velaryon side of the family, with her granddaughters. Notably, her husband is closer to the “Crown” than she is, and she is physically turned away from it, her trajectory headed away from Corlys and towards her granddaughters as she clings to them. Corlys’s head is bowed. Rhaenys’s head is up, looking straight at Laena’s coffin or to Vaemond. She’s engaging with the consequences of her actions rather than the religious and “going through the motions” aspect of it all.
The only time she and Corlys are in sync throughout this procedure (wake/funeral) is when Daemon laughs. Heck, it’s one of the only times they are in the same shot as they don’t interact whatsoever at the wake. It’s heart-breaking to see how out of sync they are throughout this episode, but there are flashes of unification - most notably during the fight in the Hall of Nine. All is not lost. Not until Laenor’s body is found.
She’s wearing a veil. Only for the funeral, and never again. There a few Velaryon nobles with veils but Rhaenys is still different, still individual and alone, even with this. Rhaenys’s is in a different style; it’s shorter, and with a hat and it’s a different shade of blue. Either way, the veil is significant. As a proud woman, a woman who had to stand on a stage in front of the whole court, whilst she lost her chance at the crown, she will not be controlled here. If she wants to cry, she can, and no one will be able to see unless looking at her. It invites no conversation, or interaction. And a veil literally signifies sorrow.
Her hair is also up and in a style we’d never seen before and never seen again. Normally, it is half-up, half down, very much with a height to it and also heavily adorned with gold accessories and bands. This is all up, it’s flatter at the top so that her hat can be fixed to it, and it’s pretty much lacking in braiding. She’s not herself. She doesn’t look like herself.
At the wake, she’s a solitary figure. At no point in the wake does she engage with her husband (though soon after she leaves Luke, he comes to be with Luke - we don’t know the ins and outs of that though, there may be overlap but may not be).
At no point, of her own volition, does she engage with any adult. We see Corlys do this: he is talking with the King on the establishing shot, he speaks to Vaemond quite a bit, with Ser Qarl, and with Lucerys. He oversees Laenor being fetched, and stands within crowds. When the King leaves, he is standing in the procession, bowing his head as is customary. Rhaenys gets involved with none of this. All she does, after engaging with Luke in the wide establishing shot above, is cross the floor to get a drink and then go to her granddaughters. There she remains.
The only engagements she has with adults, on screen, that we see, are with an unknown man at the wake, and with Rhaenyra. All happen whilst she’s on the way to get a drink from the table. All chances of prolonged entreatment to conversation are avoided. She’s not inviting it, she’s taken by surprise when it’s offered and her expression is strained throughout.
“I’m very sorry, my princess.” And all she does is give her thanks, acts polite, and then keep walking. The unknown Lord wants to keep her there, engage in conversation. He’s stopped her in the first place, putting a hand on her arm. I get the impression that as much as his empathy might be real, if he were to stop her, there would be a political reason. A formal one. And she’s just so tired. She’s so done that she keeps going. Smiles the smallest of smiles, plays the act, and then when she’s got passed him, it all drops. She doesn’t want to be there, to be doing this. She doesn’t want to have to put on the mask or play the hostess. She’s just done.
Then she gets to Rhaenyra. Gets brought up short. And they just have nothing to say to one another. Nothing that she wants to get into. Why on Earth would she? All her thoughts are on Laena and Baela and Rhaena and Rhaenyra can give her nothing on that subject. And to be fair, Rhaenyra doesn’t try and engage her. It’s all formality and false pleasantries and as Rhaenys turns away, takes a sip and takes a deep breath, she just forges ahead. But even then, her body language is turned inwards. She’s shrinking away from any possible engagement and she’s just trying to fortify herself until she can do anything else. She doesn’t want to be going through all of this. It’s taking everything in her.
The wine is obviously drunk quickly: it’s not a distraction or a barrier to conversation as it might be (you know, when someone looks really into their drink to avoid eye contact). No, it’s gone by the time she reaches Baela and Rhaena. Given how the scene was choreographed like a piece of theatre, it’s not unreasonable to conclude that she’s just in it for the numbing properties. She just needs a drink.
Rhaenys stops in front of her granddaughters. It’s not explained how well she and the girls know one another. Whilst it’s pretty obvious that the boys have never met Baela and Rhaena, there’s nothing direct to contradict the idea that Rhaenys had been with the girls for visitation over the years. They take comfort in her and she is not awkward at all around them, which suggests some level of familiarity. As does Daemon’s lack of involvement- since Rhaenys had been holding them during the funeral ceremony, it would not necessarily be unreasonable of him to assume she would take care of them here and he would have seen that from where he is during the wake as well. All of this suggests an established relationship between Rhaenys and the girls.
There’s a lovely beat, where she clenches her jaw, fights back her own emotions before sinking down to her knees in front of them. It’s worth noting during this sequence that Viserys says how much the girls look like their mother. And how that is a comfort and an anguish. We know from a later scene how helpless Rhaenys felt about her daughter’s death. And about how Laena wanted the girls to be on Driftmark, that she wanted to come home. I expect she never wished to see them on Driftmark like this, however. And now, Rhaenys must push her grief aside. Falling to her knees in front of them is also pretty powerful imagery.
Rhaenys reaction to Jace isn’t because she hates him, as some people have said. It isn’t because she doesn’t want him anywhere near Baela and Rhaena. Jace is dealing with the death of Ser Harwin and Rhaenys is just unaware of that. To her, she’s just surprised that the cousins are holding hands as they don’t know one another that well. And it’s Jace that leaves, now that his obligation to his mother has been fulfilled and his cousins won’t be left on their own if he goes. Rhaenys looks at the hands and then Jace is already turning away by the time Rhaenys looks up at his face. If Rhaenys doesn’t follow that up, it’s because she doesn’t know about Jace’s private grief and doesn’t think to believe it anything but the emotions of the day. Jace cannot and is not her priority or her responsibility, even if he would be accepting of any comfort she would offer, which I doubt due to Rhaenyra’s warnings earlier in the scene.
Rhaenys kneels down and hugs her granddaughters. More than that, they hug her. Baela puts her arms around her, Rhaena is burying her head into her grandmother. Both girls crying.
She will stay, on her knees, comforting her granddaughters, whilst all the manoeuvres go on around her. Her entire focus is on those girls and on their loss. She pulls them towards her, reassures them. And puts on a brave face. The only dialogue she says throughout this whole sequence, other than “thank you” to that unknown lord, are reassurances to her granddaughters. They are in pain, she is in pain, and there are no words she can offer other than that. She just holds them, and holds it all, and endures. And she stays there for the rest of the scene.
When Corlys basically barges through the crowd to get to Ser Qarl, snarls for him to get Laenor, and Vaemond intercedes, that quiets down the whole event. Vaemond asks Corlys to calm down, not make a scene. On a wide shot, everyone is looking at the interaction. Rhaenyra, Alicent, Otto, Cole and Larys. You know who isn’t? Rhaenys. Her husband is throwing his weight around about their grieving son at their daughter’s wake in front of everyone including the King and Queen… and she doesn’t even look round. Everyone reacts to it, but her.
Rhaenyra asks her boys to go to bed, despite it still being fairly early, within earshot of Rhaenys, and she does nothing. She doesn’t look around. She doesn’t even register it. She’s just interacting with those girls. The King leaves. Rhaenys does nothing. Otto drags Aegon up the stairs close to where she and Baela and Rhaena are. We see nothing. Her son stumbles up the stairs, drunk and we are shown no reaction. You can’t even tell she’s in the scene still because of the shots and the darkness.
Rhaenys up until now, as a player in the game, has been endlessly watching, observing and calculating. And yet here, in arguably one of the busiest scenes in terms of dynamics and interplays (with Daemon and Otto, Viserys and Daemon, Alicent and Larys and Cole, Rhaenyra and Daemon, Corlys and Laenor)… her back faces everybody. She notices none of it. She observes nothing of it. She is removed from all of it.
That’s the shift. That’s the separation. That is what marks her out from all the others at that wake. Corlys is still trying to maintain what is proper, and what is correct, still feeding that pressure on their son and projecting the image he feels is important. And Rhaenys just isn’t. Even being physically demonstrative with the girls by hugging them is something she wouldn’t do if she felt she were “on” and watched and being the persona that her rank and duties demand of her.
And that’s what really shows the hurt. She is removing herself as far as possible from the centre of things. She cares about no airs or graces when the King leaves. She will perform no duties and ingratiate herself with the other mourners; her people and bannermen. She will not try and court favour with her Targaryen family. All she will do, is be on her knees, and whisper soft things to the only remaining parts of her daughter she can still hold near. And by having her back to these people, it also means she can become invisible, insignificant, and unnoticed. No one will go near her.
And that’s just what she wants.
Reblogging with some additional meta: using footage from a Behind-The-Scenes segment, as things play out in that scene, unused/not shown in the end cut.
Further cementing Rhaenys’s lack of engagement with the pomp and circumstance, as well as her priorities towards her granddaughters over everyone and everything, we have the moment where Rhaenys leaves the wake entirely.
She leaves as soon as the King leaves. From what I can understand, from the placement of everyone, she leaves as soon as Viserys has gone. By this time, Jace and Luke have been sent to bed, Rhaenyra and Daemon have gone for their “walk”. But, principally, any notion of her as the hostess is done. The King’s gone = she can go. Leaving Corlys to the rest of it, including Laenor. She isn’t present for Laenor being brought up, drunk.
She guides both girls up the stairs and away from people, bringing up the rear, with a brief glance to her husband, who is watching her all the time, but makes no effort to go to her. And I don’t think she returns to the wake. I don’t think she speaks to anyone. I think she does what Daemon should have been present for: settles the girls in their rooms, makes sure they are alright, and tucks them into bed. Forget what goes on elsewhere. They are her focus, and will continue to be.
And then she is alone until her conversation with her husband in the Hall of Nine.
