according to ryan, cutting out the nettles subplot was meant to eliminate any complications or infidelity in daemon and rhaenyra’s relationship - apparently because fans are rooting for this couple to succeed. but what are we actually seeing? daemon is practically tearing his ass apart, having some kind of redemtion arc, trying to save his daughter, apologizing for the first time when it is so hard for him, and doing everything for her - while rhaenyra, in turn, goes and sleeps with mysaria because she seeks validation, honeyed words, being deluled, from the very person she previously yelled at for entirely valid reasons and mysaria indeed wish to see rhaenyra turn on daemon. so… what exactly are fans supposed to be winning here?
we haven’t gotten a single kiss between married couple, who the narrative/showrunners/actors insists are deeply in love, "let's burn together" and all that. Instead, we get sex scenes with a mother and scissoring with mysaria, as if the show had a massive foundation for the last thing. and let’s not forget that daemon will eventually leave, and later die taking down aemond and vhagar. so we’ll be left with nothing but this mess before his death.
does that really sound like a win to anyone? 😭
tf is cuckondal is yapping about. he himself got cuckondal as nickname and decided to make daemon cuckold too. and honestly, it does a huge disservice to rhaenyra’s character - she is completely ruined at this point, i physically can't stand the stupidity. they wanted to make valid drama but in cost of the last basic logic and fucking sense of characters and plots, shit is barely on thread since jacaerys death and they decided to take it down again. i'm glad now that jacaerys died because this stuff is fucked up and it's just bad, they won't have to witness this and suffer bullshit writing. like bye, writers have some kind of disease when they say one thing and do another with such seriousness? 💀 (called hypocrisy ig)
I can't read lines like "daemon adores her" with any seriousness when this is what we're actually shown on screen. It doesn't feel like a win for anyone. rhaesaria is cheap, performative slop. the scene itself was deeply concerning, the music carried an unsettling tone while rhaenyra was visibly wrecked, and mysaria wasted no time in using that vulnerability to her advantage.
as for daemyra, it seems to exist solely for promotional purposes, with little to no substantive development on-screen. at this point, it feels like only matt smith still remember and cares about what that dynamic was originally meant to be. I also get the strong impression that emma has a significant amount of influence over rhaenyra's characterization, and not just regarding the show's ass handling of gender and femininity, but also when it comes to sexuality. both emma and mysaria's actress were the ones pushing for the kiss between mysaria and rhaenyra - a moment that took place right after mysaria had just told rhaenyra about being raped and impregnated by her own father, then stabbed and had her throat slit.
im not surprised shit looks one sided – matt smith is very invested with his speeches about daemyra despite us not seeing this, emma is more happy about any queerbaiting takes that now looks like pure lesbophobia, and I remember only few good moments with them discussing daemyra's relationship. like I can see who likes their own character, digs in canon, and who dgaf. showrunners just kick the poor corpse of their show and some actors are happy to help.
I miss emily carey and milly alcock - they didn't have much time, but they were involved in the work and their heroines, understood them, actually explored them, and knew for what purpose they shot certain scenes. :(















