The Queen Who Never Was

Firstly Daemon my poor maniacal asshole. It's honestly fun to see him suffer. This is where his desire, his anger, his arrogance has led him he has no authority, no good solution and is plagued by dreams which are forcing him to evaluate everything he has done in his life. Getting his ass handed to him by a kid and having to take it because it was the only way he can fix his fuck up was amazing. It's high time he realized that forcing people to call him king won't actually make him one.

Rhaenyra's whole arc in the show till ep 5 didn't really impress me, it irritated me quite a bit honestly. You decided to start the war you ordered a hit on your son's killer and after all that suddenly deciding that war is bad and more people will be killed is stupid and just pushes the women being docile and ambition less narrative further. But after ep 6 and 7 and after harping about that damned dream for the whole season it's quite clear that she is delving deeper and deeper into divinity and "god's call" which in all honesty gives her the power because she is the one who knows the prophecy and she in her mind is the only one who can save the realm. We finally have a glimpse of her God's complex her self importance. She is willing to let her son's claim to get murky in order to claim power now which isn't entirely wrong because no dragons means death but it's the first time we see her being truly selfish and the early stages of her descent into madness.

Alicent honestly has not made much of an impact this season. It was nice to see her finally getting out of delusion land and accepting that yeah she fucked up and her "unkind" sons have all the power now. She fought so hard because she wanted her sons to live but now one is half burnt courtesy of the other and said other throws her out of the council to pursue domestic avenues. Idiot woman.

As a book reader also it makes sense that the show runners are desperately trying to give Olivia and Matt (in the harrenhaal plot) something to do because the book offers nothing for them but it's been a hit and miss so far.

Still bummed we didn't get to see more of Jace in Winterfell, would have been much better than standing around and serving looks. It's also funny that the dragonseeds idea was his but the moment he realized that his succession was in jeopardy he tries to backtrack. He isn't wrong to worry because giving a bastard who looks more targaryen than his the second biggest dragon opens him up to more challenge but the only way he can sit on the throne is if Rhaenyra wins the war and the dragonseeds are necessary for that. In that whole argument Jace was thinking about the future or his succession and Rhaenyra about the present (very Vizzy T of her) and consequently her succession.