#he cleared his mind and they're even now so 🤷‍♀️ we move

[landinhos]

it was def a very stupid choice considering how close george was but it worked and at the end of the day its just a sprint and they got the result the team needed soooo

[boleynns]

lemme just add on to my insane meta...

...about how the show is framing daemon x rhaenyra, both their romance/dynamic overall and in regards to the 10-year gap and their long-term relationships with other people (original: here)

now that we've seen Episode 6, I claim vindication! we weren't even shown daemon and rhaenyra kiss their partners...like, Rhaenyra barely even spoke to Harwin 😬 it is pretty clear that, as far as the narrative of this show is concerned, those relationships were basically irrelevant to the story they are telling for these characters. (as I book reader, yes it is sad that we didn't get more of them, but I am not a purist, so 🤷‍♀️ I'm on the hype train)

And to return to my Long Meta Format of comparison, the show SO EASILY could have made their respective relationships immediately more intimate/impactful by doing relatively little work.

Rhaenyra and Harwin are obviously comfortable with each other, but they barely spoke or interacted! If the show wanted this to be a great loss for Rhaenyra, or even just wanted to imply more feelings beyond "This hot and caring man was here for me and condoms don't exist yet" it would have been extremely easy to just have Harwin sit down and kiss/hold with Rhaenyra in that scene where they're alone with the baby!

They definitely also could have had Harwin and Rhaenyra have a private farewell, again with any physical/romantic vibes at all. But instead it was more about Harwin saying goodbye to the kids, and Rhaenyra worrying about everyone, including her son, knowing that Harwin is the father. Because of the way they wrote it, it feels much more like Rhaenyra's upset is about losing a comfort than about losing someone she really loves.

On the other side of the Narrow Sea, there were even more opportunities for the show to frame Daemon and Laena's relationship in some kind of romantic light, but again they just don't. In the initial dinner party scene, instead of including a kind of disagreement-tension, even if they disagreed later, still could have had Daemon actually looking at Laena with fondness or had him reach for her hand instead of the other way around. Or just seem interested in her...

In the following scene when Laena confronts him about possibly accepting the offer to settle there, have him actually kiss Laena instead of just her baby bump. Or again, have him look at her with real passion/affection. Or just have him seem interested in her...

And the rooftop!!! This is the most dialogue we get pertaining to Daemon's current state-of-mind, and he is completely closed off to Laena. The way we figure out what his state of mind even is is through Laena's speaking it into existence and through his long broody silences in between. Like, he won't even admit to the idea of missing anything back home to her, even though they both know he just sits on the roof all the time wishing he were home!!! He isn't honest or open with her at all, and even when she says she knows she is not the wife he would have chosen his entire protest is just "Laena..." like. There are about thirty thousand different ways they could have injected some amount of romance into their interactions, but they chose to include ZERO of them 😅

all of Rhaenyra and Daemon's scenes with Harwin and Laena could have been romantic without barely any effore, but instead the show was like "...nah" in both the writing and the acting and the direction.

All to say, they have both have had these long-term relationships that are framed by the narrative as kind of just the result of the circumstances they happened to find themselves in, but ultimately not very moving (in Rhaenyra's case) or explicitly unfulfilling (in Daemon's case).

(a little more on their individual characters and random other thoughts under the cut)

not to mention, just like Episode 3 when Daemon and Rhaenyra weren't on screen together, the writing of their stories continue to parallel each other!

Daemon is lonely and kind of without fire or purpose, sitting on the roof at night drinking and brooding and staring at the stars, basically in self-exile (because in the show he hasn't actually been exiled here) to stop his uncontrollable emotional involvement that happens when he's in Westeros. And also Rhaenyra is having babies with someone else, and that makes him bitter.

Rhaenyra is lonely and stifled at court, gawked at and humiliated all the time and without much real support from anyone, basically in exile - but worse because she is literally in the building, and having to deal with the constant barbs of Alicent, Crispin, and Company. P.S. CRISPIN BETTER WATCH HIS BACK BECAUSE I WILL KILL HIM IF I SEE HIM like when he called Rhaenyra a "spoiled cunt" I literally yelled at my TV i hate him so much and I really want a scene where he is somehow forced to watch Daemon and Rhaenyra get it on just to torture his stupid face even more.

Sorry, back to the point...they are both kind of just staring off into space, all despondent and listless, not fitting in with the life they have ended up in. They are trying to fit into boxes that they don't belong in. And they clearly haven't been able to recreate anything close to the support/emotional-honesty/general-"pushing each other to be better" bond that they had with each other

And then respective partners both die in a fire by the end of the episode. RIP.

On a completely separate bullet point to close things out, I think its interesting that they kind of implied that Daemon actually isn't the best dad so far. Certainly not bad, especially in this world, but they clearly highlighted that he has a favorite child -- and its the child with the dragon. And that the unfavorite child knows this!

And then that scene where his daughters are grieving and he kinda just walks off. Like. Daemon!!! That really is his Signature Move when thinks get too emotionally intense for him isn't it...

I will be super curious to see the whole blended family in the coming episodes and how those details are circled back to once Daemon isn't so 😕 about all of life. He is missing all his edges and drive and fire in this episode, and clearly has been like this for a long time. And what better to relight his fire and his "If you look at my family wrong, I will kill you" trait than being reunited with Rhaenyra, finally sleeping with her, and then almost seeing her get stabbed in the face while she's trying to protect their little pack of children 😂

Needless to say, I want to time travel to next Sunday and see them finally reunite and find their fire again, with each other!!! They are gonna talk a bunch! Probably in Valyrian!!! And caress each others faces! And kiss! And have sex on a beach after a funeral, on an island where their entire families are staying for said-funeral!!! And then Family Mode will activate with all the "Alicent Trying to Stab Rhaenyra (and/or her kid)" drama! AND THEN THEY WILL GET MARRIED, I THINK ALSO ON THE BEACH #theirspot, IN A DRAMATIC-ASS BLOOD SHARING CEREMONY i can't, it is going to be so good, even just typing this paragraph out is making me lose my marbles