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House of the Dragon "You must prevail." "And who pays the price?"

In the book, where the maester and men's accounts he's drawing on depict Mysaria as a sexual rival rather than a lover to Rhaenyra, nonetheless at key moments Rhaenyra will not form a decision or her own opinion without consulting Mysaria. She comes to rely on Mysaria above all others and is swayed by her on matters of life and death. Rhaenyra even trusts Mysaria's word over the word of her husband in the book.

That never made sense. But if Mysaria is *her* lover, not her rival for Dae/mon's desire, it all clicks together.

Imo in s3 we will get poly in the form of a V relationship where Rhaenyra is with Mysaria and Dae/mon both (and they are not with each other: he was sex work for Mysaria, I don't see her being interested going there again) *however* Mysaria is the primary relationship - the one she trusts most and heeds.

Reasons for this:

1) Mysaria's advising and judgment has proven sound. She has never wounded or harmed Rhaenyra or her cause. She has never doubted her as a good queen. She has never been disloyal.

2) She was there saying "You have me" and sharing of herself with Rhaenyra when Rhaenyea needed that most and Rhaenyra is very greedy and cherishing of that kind of thing

3) She validates and loves parts of Rhaenyra that Dae/mon never has - her desire for authority and command, her complex gender feelings, her toppy side where she longs to be an active, cherishing Lover (as she tried to be with Alicent in their youth) rather than a receiving Beloved in terms or emotional and sexual energy ("he wanted to possess me but he never let me possess him"). Even if he's now come around on some of that, I can't see him able to vibe with and nourish it like Mysaria does.

4) Rhaenyra is bisexual but seems strongly homoromantic and there is a big, enduring place in her heart for a "lady wife" role since her first love, Alicent [I wrote a meta on that here]

5) In 2x08, though Dae/mon had returned to her, it was only Mysaria who she chose to share her doubts and moral concerns with and whose word and judgment she could be consoled by

If they're afraid of more backlash to depicting queer love obviously, we will get that strong emotional bond but the romance and sex implied with only symbolism (like the single dragon Mysaria called "lonely" over their conversation early in the season becoming two dragons happily flying together over their conversation in the finale). I hope we get more. But people do seem to love throwing a fit and raging against canon sapphic love. The creatives won't totally erase this though - haters would have to get everyone fired, including GRRM himself, to completely remove the fact that, in book and tv, Rhaenyra comes to heed and trust Mysaria above all others.

Part two of this