#nettles

daemon is seemingly at his best and worst here- he’s able to get over his disgust of the smallfolk and bond with this girl, but perhaps a little too much. perhaps he’s falling back into old patterns. perhaps his hand lingers a touch too long on her shoulder, his signature smirk widens into a full smile when she’s around. and then of course, the rumors of bathing together.

and rhaenyra knows. she sees it. but before she’s fully consumed by her racism, classism, cruelty and paranoia and wants her gone, would she even for a second recognize herself in this girl? would she feel daemon’s fingers clasping a necklace, grazing the back of her neck? would she feel the humiliation of being abandoned in a brothel, his shirt big enough to dwarf her entire body? would she realize just how young she was? would she realize what it truly was that happened to her? that all this tragedy happened not when her throne was usurped, but when he managed to put her under a spell she was never meant to wake up from? would that be the final straw? would that be what does it? or would she fall back on the old crutch of her exceptionalism?