Rhaena Targaryen

It's just easy.

I'm a visual person, so if I read it, we just talked about how the names, there's so many unique names and similar names in House of the Dragon that I think it would be impossible to read in a book and know who's Rhaenys, who's Rhaenyra, who's Rhaena without seeing a face to connect them to.

Yeah, and I also think, I mean, this doesn't work for Game of Thrones now, but I kind of think there's something to watching a TV series or a film and then going to the book, because the other way around, it doesn't work, does it? Because the book adds detail.

And fills out the world that you've already seen.

Uh, let's talk about Daemon and Nettles.

Uh, this is crazy different from the show because not only is Nettles not, like, on the run and Rhaena, but Nettles is part of the, the hunting party looking for Vhagar along with Daemon.

Mm-hmm.

They're kind of roaming the countryside together.

It's hard to deny.

Uh, Daemon's that kind of guy.

Now, it's weird because in the show, Nettles is Rhaena, and th- that would be strange for them to be sleeping together, but hey, he's a Targaryen.

I don't know.

.... to have Sheepstealer come back and help out in some way, I think they're gonna do it.

If they don't, wha- what was even the point of all that making Nettles, Rhaena, and then her not being with her dragon anymore? And now you're gonna have to tell me, what, she's gonna run away and get back on her dragon and...

I, I don't i- I, I-

Yeah

I think they thought that the dragon fight was gonna be a satisfying enough end for people.

Um, but really it's just like, why did we do this?, is a little bit more the feeling that I was left with at least.

Um, because, you know, in the finale we got a little bit of talk of betrothal for Rhaena that obviously didn't pan out because there was a big battle instead.

And that is kind of where Rhaena's story heads in the book.

Okay.

I have remaining set pieces, uh, Daemon-Rhaena/Sheepstealer conclusion, and what I mean by that is I don't feel like we've really got the story of, like, Daemon and Rhaena having a renaissance, a Rhaennaissance, where, like, you know, like the way that they kind of, like, connect as a father and daughter, they've set it up, but in the books, if, you know, if you say that Nettles is Rhaena, they connect on a father-daughter way like they'd never done before.

Yeah.

This is like Daemon making up for lost time with her.

Yeah.

But, you know, again, I'm a little bit [laughs] I still, I still like my pet Sheepstealer is actually Sunfyre theory.

Um, I, I guess, I, I guess I'm happy with the Nettles to Rhaena stuff, but I feel like that there needs to be more, but the show's telling me there's not more.

What do you, what do you think?

Uh, yeah, also too, I feel like fidelity is kind of something that was important to her considering, you know, Viserys never, you know, her father never, you know, cheated.

And also too she like R- R, uh, you know, uh, what was it, R- Rhaena? Yeah, the, you know, her aunt.

You know, she probably doesn't like the fact that he cheated on, you know, her aunt, even though she had a contiguous relationship with.

But she was also like, "Look, you know, you're a woman, it's gonna be more difficult for you." I feel like that's probably where it comes from is like how dare you cheat on this woman that you claim to love and have like leg- you know.

Um, now the stuff he did with-

Yeah

... now the stuff she did with Daemon's kids, uh, Rhaena and Baela.

Yeah.

But then there were also some unforced errors, some own goals, particularly on the other side of the war on Team Black.

I was really trying to let them do what they were gonna do with Rhaena versus Nettles.

I was l- you know, lamenting getting rid of Nettles, one of the more interesting characters in Fire & Blood.

Uh, I was, you know, always lamented losing her as part of the p- a potential part of the show.

Willing to give them the benefit of the doubt when it came to Rhaena.

And obviously we still have a season of television ahead of us, but man, did they really do nothing with that.

[laughs] Uh, really, really not much in terms of contributing its own emotional energy or, or plot points.

We better join the bigger army." That's not the case here, so you have to have a different setup, a different motivation.