#cry hard

Hi Anon!

The short answer is very. VERY. V.E.R.Y. 👏🔥👏🔥👏🔥 A LOT A LOT.

To begin, she’s a Targaryen. 💁‍♀️ #haterscry

The Targaryens are described by George himself as having an otherworldly beauty - #haterscryharder 💁‍♀️- as most Valyrians had. The Valyrians were a race of people from Valyria known for having very fine features, silver-gold hair, and purple or blue eyes... to sum up extremely attractive. There are a lot of examples of how amazingly beautiful they are supposed to be but something right off my head would be how sought after prostitutes from Lys were - because in Lys a lot of people had the Valyrian look - so while beauty is subjective, the vast majority of people in Planetus do seem to consider them exceptionally beautiful.

Through marrying between themselves, and with other Valyrian houses such as the Velaryons, and Celtigars, the Targaryens managed to keep their Valyrian features well preserved.

The beauty of a Targaryen wasn’t as another person could be beautiful and we have countless examples of this throughout the text. Here I will offer three examples: Jaime vs. Rhaegar; Viserys II Targaryen; and Helaena Targaryen.

Jaime vs. Rhaegar - A lot of times we are told how beautiful Jaime was from multiple characters, yet Cersei herself says that compared to Rhaegar, even her Jaime looked common. 

“Next to Rhaegar, even her beautiful Jaime had seemed no more than a callow boy.” (A Feast for Crows - Cersei V)

Viserys II Targaryen -  While described by George to the artist Amok as having bushy eyebrows and a prominent nose, and said in Fire and Blood to be less beautiful than his brother Aegon III, Viserys was still such a striking boy that his father in law to be, Lysandro Rogare, wanted to put him to work at his own pleasure houses - friendly reminder here that he was from Lys, where the best pleasure houses in the world were said to be, so this was a man who understood beauty and what others would consider to be beautiful. 

VISERYS II. “Came to the throne quite late, when he was in his fifties. Clean-shaved, with long hair, a prominent nose, bushy eyebrows, a shrewd and calculating look about his mouth and eyes. Coins in his hand. He wears the simple crown of Aegon III Dragonbane.” (So Spake Martin: Targaryen Kings).

“Viserys Targaryen was so striking that it is said Lysandro Rogare contemplated putting him to work as a courtesan... until the boy identified himself.” (Fire and Blood, 666)

Helaena Targaryen - Helaena is described as being less beautiful than what was expected of a Targaryen. Still, later on, when we are told (another lie pulled from his backside) by Mushroom’s about the whole “brothel queens” tale, he says that Helaena was more expensive than her mother Alicent because she was younger and more beautiful. Note here the author could have simply said younger, but he adds more beautiful as well, so the difference between their good looks wasn’t just a matter of age, it was a matter of physical beauty. Note also that previously we had been told that Alicent was quite pretty, and still she does not compare to her daughter who was not that striking. By what you might ask? By Targaryen standards.

“Though plumper and less striking than most Targaryens, Helaena was a pleasant and happy girl...” (Fire and Blood, 385)

“Queen Alicent had soon proved to be as fertile as she was pretty.” (Fire and Blood, 365)

This all to say two things. First, from being a Targaryen alone, this would make Rhaenyra quite beautiful. Certainly much more than any non-Targaryen woman. Second, concerning your question of how she would compare to someone like Cersei, the answer is that she wouldn’t. She and Cersei aren’t playing in the same league, just as Jaime wasn’t playing in the same league as Rhaegar. Sorry “Light of the West” you were no Realm’s Delight 😌

Now moving on to, how beautiful would Rhaenyra be by Targaryen standards and how she would compare to other women of House Targaryen.

We have so many moments throughout the books where we are told how beautiful Rhaenyra was, and don’t forget this was written by people who didn’t like her, as most of history was Pro-Green, not Pro-Black. 

“At the centre of the merriment, cherished and adored by all, was their only surviving child, Princess Rhaenyra, the little girl the court singers dubbed “the Realm’s Delight”.” (Fire and Blood, 354)

“... Rhaenyra Targaryen was a precocious child, bright, and bold and beautiful as only one of dragon’s blood could be beautiful.” (Fire and Blood, 354) - on a side note it’s important to note here the expression “beautiful as only one of dragon’s blood could be beautiful.” that only proves what I said before that the beauty of a Targaryen was not like the beauty of other women (of Westeros at least Lannisters included).

“... many lords and knights sought her favour...” (Fire and Blood, 365)

“He praised her beauty, declaring her to be the fairest maid in all the Seven Kingdoms.” (Fire and Blood, 367)

“Great lords and dashing knights fluttered around her like moths to around a flame, vying her favour.” (Fire and Blood, 369)

“Many a young lord and noble knight had sought after her favor then... though how many would still fight for her, now that she was a woman wed, her body aged and thickened by six childbirths, was a question none could answer.” (Fire and Blood, 404). - two notes here, one they speak of her body alone, and two responding to this a LOT, a lot of them did; in fact more were for her than for Aegon II.

“When Prince Daemon sent forth his call to arms, they rose up all along the rivers, knights and man-at-arms and humble peasants who yet remembered the Realm’s Delight, so beloved of her father, and the way she smiled and charmed them as she made her progress through the riverlands in her youth.” (Fire and Blood, 414) - my previous point.

At the same time we were also told that childbirth took a toll on her, and had thickened her body, that her beauty had faded though she was only twenty.

“Childbirth exacted a toll on the princess; the weight that Rhaenyra gained during her pregnancies never entirely left her, and by the time her youngest boy was born, she had grown stout and thick of waste, the beauty of her girlhood a fading memory, though she was but twenty years of age.” (Fire and Blood, pg. 377).

It would be important to recall, HOWEVER, that we have a VERY unreliable narrator, and one who does not like Rhaenyra. And her weight is mentioned to introduce the fact that according to Mushroom she was jealous of Alicent for being thinner - not more beautiful, T-H-I-N-N-E-R. Is that clear to everyone? Ok, moving on then. While I have no doubt she gained weight, even because George himself described her as a stout woman with a large bosom - even though this was many years ago and since he has changed the descriptions of some characters - e.g., Alysanne was meant to be very tall and then he changed it and made her short - gaining weight doesn’t mean losing one’s beauty as anyone with two working braincells will tell you. AND her weight gain is “the weight that Rhaenyra gained during her pregnancies never entirely left her”. Now I ask, does the way this is written strike you as being very significant? Does reading this make you think she went from being 55 kgs to being 100 kgs? Or maybe reading this would make you think it was more like going to 70-75 kgs? Friendly reminder this was Rhaenyra as queen, around 33 years of age, after 6 pregnancies.

How much would you guess she weights here? Now let’s compare her to her brother - side by side - who had a “more than healthy apetite” and was 10 years younger.

Last time I checked my eyes worked fine and I see someone who could lose 5 kgs maybe, against someone who is fat. I will let you guess which one is Rhaenyra. I will also ask you Anon if these two people look 10 years apart in age. All things for you to ponder, though I would argue no great time to ponder is needed.

IN ANY CASE HAVING MORE WEIGHT IN NO WORLD MEANS BEING LESS BEAUTIFUL! But this is George’s universe and again and again he equates beauty with thinness - blame him, not me. From what we can see though, Rhaenyra was not that heavy. Or at least from what I conclude with all the evidence I was able to gather.

Never forget history is not being told by the Blacks. Rhaenyra was not well liked by historians and the men who had the power, so don’t expect them to be favourable towards her. The best they can do is: spoiled beautiful princess turned evil tyrant resembling Maegor.

Now to end this already very long answer, comparing her to other Targaryen women, from all that we have seen and especially in her younger years, I would rank her very, very high up along with Rhaenys Targaryen (Aegon’s sister), Viserra Targaryen, Naerys Targaryen (her granddaughter btw), Shiera Seastar (her great-granddaughter btw), and Daenerys Targaryen (Mother of Dragons aka Dany - great-great-(...)-granddaughter of Rhaenyra; just a friendly reminder for the haters :3 #haterscry). I think they along with Rhaenyra are the Targaryens that people go out of their way to hammer you down with how beautiful they were. And, Rhaenyra in particular is even called “The Realm’s Delight”, a name that is not given to any other Targaryen woman, and can we agree, that this is a very hot name to call someone 🔥🔥🔥🔥 let’s ignore she was called this from the time she was 7 though.

So congratulations, your graces! You are the most beautiful of the most beautiful! And you win: weirdos obsessing over you and your sex lives :D and incels! Tons of incels :D 

Btw just to finalize shout out to my girl @xenonwitch who couldn’t believe I would actually answer this one in such a detailed way. Here you go, queen, this is how petty my as_ can be XD

All the best to you, Anon 🤗. And apologies to everyone for how shallow and empty of content this was, but hey, I do it because I can 😌 And again for those at the back: Weight does not equate to beauty.