i genuinely do not understand how people could watch rhaenyra tell ulf that the crown owns his labor and body entirely and that he is now only an extension of the throne, imprisoned in the red keep with no autonomy or will of his own, denying him access to his friends and freedom of movement, and come out of that scene thinking that ulf is a cringe loser who needs to know his place. you people are under spells.

ohh i get it now (doesn’t)

emma d'arcy performance also continues to floor me and tonight it was the forever haunting echoes of their statement in the episode 2 behind the scenes where they frame their performance of otto's execution as evoking the feeling for rhaenyra of returning home and regressing into a child in front of someone who knew you as a child (otto). and then they hammer this home not just with otto but with DAEMON not just ONCE, in episode 3 when rhaenyra sneaks into daemon's bed in the middle of the night like a child after a nightmare, but TWICE now in tonights episode when she is sitting at the seat of her own council table and he brings in the head and she just. dissolves into tears, shrinks into her chair, and loses all pretense of authority. sickening. sick to my stomach. its not just otto who knew her as a child. its not just otto's gaze that makes her cry and shrink. oh im going to be ill