JelloLegos

Something I noticed thanks to the BTS videos that were circulating this week is that the crossguard is much stubbier on the sword Rhaenyra picks up than on Blackfyre and Dark Sister.

vs.

On rewatch, their sword is clearly more reminiscent of a Merovingian (or Frankish) sword, than any of the other ones we've seen.

(An example from the BM, Sutton Hoo)

Merovingian/Migration Period/Carolingian/Viking swords all carry this distinctively shorter crossguard, evolved from Roman spatha. They usually have an equally stubby pommel, which grows to be more standardised in the period of Frankish export with 3-5 lobes, transitioning from Merovingian/Migration period to Carolingian/Viking swords. The lobes are obviously not applicable to the show sword since it has decorative dragon wings, but you might be able to see the resemblence of a weighter and wider pommel when compared to other swords we've seen in the show.

(HotD heirloom, a 'Viking sword' from the BM)

Since we also got confirmation that it is Valyrian steel, if we can assume the sword evolution in HotD parallels Western Europe, then we know that this sword predates Dark Sister and Blackfyre and pre-dates the Valyrian conquest.

(an illumination of a wielder of a Frankish 3-lobed pommel sword in the Stuttgart Psalter vs. Visenya's longer crossguard sword in the show manuscript)

Why does it matter?

I wish I had a more articulate way to put this but it feels like another example of Rhaenyra's tension between her inheritance derived from Valyrian heritage and her struggle to make manifest that inheritance, employing Valyrian aesthetic over a practical combat weapon. We see both practical swords (if memory serves, one of those is Harwin's?) with wider crossguards and this heirlooms on the table, but she reaches for this one specifically.

Importantly, we actually see why those stubby crossguards fell out of favour in the fight between Jacerys and Aegon in the training yard. In the scene the wider crossguard allows Jacerys to catch and thrust Aegon's sword to the side. Although the inward taper on Rhaenyra's sword might have served a similar function (allowing someone to 'catch' a blade), the stubby (and, like in real life, decorative) crossguard would have likely resulted in the wielder losing an arm. Therefore we know that Rhaenyra's heirloom would be at a disadvantage in real combat.

Thus, we are presented with two themes of her sword: it is ancient and deeply Valyrian, and it is almost certainly useless (think someone brandishing a flintlock).

I find the sword design a totally enchanting detail and one that really enriches her arc for the season. Through the sword choice, along with her gravitation to Visenya, her adoption of an increasingly Valyrian dress code, and the messianic themes in the scene with the dragon seeds, we see Rhaenyra struggling with assembling a patchwork of diplomatic and martial authority over a shoddy semi-divine Valyrian blueprint in an ultimately futile fight toward the Iron Throne.

I love Rhaenyra as a character deeply for it, and love the show for making those choices, what a beautiful and subtle way to flesh out some of the tension between all of those competing factors.

I think the obvious caveat is that this analysis assumes 1) HotD sword evolution is the same as Western European sword evolution and 2) that this design is intentional. The former obviously cannot be 100% true, there were no Roman spathas lying around in Valyria just as there were no dragons in Aachen. I don't know that we can assume the latter is true either, I'm not entirely sure it was intentional and I'm not sure if they had a set mediaevalist or similar to consult on the swords, I think there were enough mistakes in the manuscript to make me think not... but I could be wrong!

Admittedly, I think this can veer into 'the curtains were just blue' territory, and I debated whether or not I wanted to post that twitter thread at all. But what I will say is that I think analysis of art (be it props, colouring, lighting, etc.) can be a venerative exercise as much as an intellectual one. I want to, in my own life as much as possible, push back against passive consumption of media, so if it's overanalysis then it's overanalysis! Honestly, hearing different interpretations on the same media is the best part of fandom, so maybe it was intentional maybe it wasn't, but how fun is it to try and understand it anyway.