miyo

Now, I've only seen some discourse over this between Tumblr and Threads, and if you also bounce platforms, you'd know how vastly different the echo chambers are. And if you've been following me for a while, you'd know I hyperfocus on the succession of blame, where the first piece fell, and that first piece will be different for everyone depending on at what point in the story you refer to.

If we start with the young Targaryens at this phase in life - post Laena, post Aemond's eye, post Luke's death - I can comfortably say Rhaena is responsible for Jace's death.

There are some very simple but compelling points for this, all of which hold pretty equal importance.

She was tasked with something arguably more important than anything else: protecting Rhaenyra's bloodline. I get, as a child, this would not seem as important as it is.

Sheepstealer was wild, so there was absolutely no reason for Rhaena to assume flying to Dragonstone would go well.

Sheepstealer showed no proof that he would completely obey her.

Obviously, time is of the essence, BUT if Rhaena had spent more time taming Sheepstealer, this could have gone entirely differently. But again, no proof this would have worked.

Now... Had Jace not realized Rhaena was the rider, he could have eliminated her, then done. No one would have known. But in every scenario, Rhaena would have abandoned Rhaenyra's children.

So she inadvertently led to Jace's death and now Rhaenyra's other kids have no elder Targaryen watching them in the Vale.

Look, I have no issues putting the blame on kids especially when, if you ask them why they did something, they will have an answer. And in this case, I would not say Jace signed his death certificate because, had Rhaena not been there, he would have died some other way.