divorce enthusiast

i also think the story had to rush through plot points that would have been better served by being spread across two episodes. as one major point: my show-only friend didn't at all understand the connection between the septon rebuffing rhaenyra and the faith's relationship to the hightowers overall, which is a real shame. if i had it my way, the two bottle episodes (such as they could have been) would have had more time to explore the political issue of rhaenyra needing validation from various political factions to be able to present herself as the legitimate ruler, and then making a study of which forms of legitimacy/which political factions she chooses to demonstrate that legitimacy and why. also! what does she do to specifically distinguish herself from aegon and the hightowers? i think the episode was trying to get at this, and maybe we'll see more of it as the show goes on, but it felt very truncated within only 60 minutes. similarly, i think two episodes would have given much more time to explore how these political interests conflict with her personal relationships. it's interesting that she simultaneously wants to tie her identity to viserys's as a ruler while trying to maintain a relationship with alicent, the survivor of viserys's "right" to marital rape.

i get that they just didn't have time to explore it, but it strikes me as strange that rhaenyra's self-concept in this way isn't a greater source of friction in her relationship with alicent. again, it seems like it would be such a rich source of gothic horror, from alicent's perspective, to watch your childhood friend seek to mold herself into the image of the patriarch whose house wholly consumed your entire identity. it would be an even deeper source of horror for rhaenyra to not realize that's what she's doing/the implications of that desire. i think this particular complaint will get people up in arms about how i'm not meeting the show where it is but idk! i think the choice to deviate from the books and make alicent and rhaenyra's relationship what it is was an incredibly smart one – i just wish they would see it through to its very uncomfortable toxic yuri logical conclusions.