Queen Rhaenyra is a woman that is interesting to examine in the context of Queen Daenerys. The character of Rhaenyra is a foil to the Stormborn Dragon Queen in both her origins as well as how the show is treating her. Queen Daenerys is the Chosen One who fulfills Aegon's prophecy and unites the Seven Kingdoms against the others before successfully defeating them. You know, regardless of the fact that Arya is the one who managed to slay the Night King (who doesn't exist in the bookverse the same way anyway). Daenerys was also a friend to slaves and the oppressed people of the Seven Kingdoms as well as Essos. Rhaenyra, in simple terms, is not.
It's actually a pretty good contrast to see how quickly Rhaenyra becomes disenchanted with ruling. While she wants to actually help the populace of King's Landing, she doesn't have any solutions and is unwilling to take drastic measure to help anyone. In one of the genuinely affecting scenes, a woman talking of a sept being raided before one of the girls being carried off to a horrific fate. Rhaenyra's reaction is not Daenyers, who would do something stupid but bold. Instead, she's simply bored and annoyed before saying she'll pray for her. It reminds me of certain politicians in the real world after a tragedy, but I won't go into that.
The continued circling of plotlines without any actual progress on them is a problem, though. For example, Rhaena shows up at Lady Aeryn's home to remind us she exists and is living in exile. This does nothing to further their plots or provide any real character development for her. This is because the writers are unwilling to invent much in the way of actual character development plots and when they do, like Daemon learning to be a better husband, they don't necessarily match with what the characters are doing on screen. For example, Alys Rivers is now trying to educate Aemond Targaryen about dragon eggs. Where did she get these? Why? What is her motivation?
The best part of the episode is undoubtedly putting to bed the story of Ser Criston Cole and that is sadly a mercy killing. I've been looking forward to his death for some seasons now and have to say that I am underwhelmed. I wish they would have used the iconic line from the book: “I’ll have no songs about how brave you died, Kingmaker.” The sentiment is still there but the scene lacks a lot of the emotional resonance it might have otherwise had. I do give credit for him holding Lady Alicent's favor as he died even if I don't understand why he cherishes that right as he complains previously about being a tool of high born. It also ignores he led his own men to their doom just like one of the people he claims manipulates others.
I think what's going wrong with the show can be summarized by the fact they have characters make progress in their stories and development but oftentimes in ways that contradict the book characters. Then they attempt to shove the characters back into the role that they were originally meant for. Ser Hugh in the show is an honorable, righteous, and brave man that the show is now having his wife berate for going off to become a dragonrider. She blames him for her brother's death and assault versus, you know, the Hightowers that he's now going to be waging war against. Its nonsensical but Hugh has to become disillusioned with the Blacks.
In conclusion, this is an episode that should be incredibly important but suffers for the fact that the characters really aren't possessed of much natural development. They need to establish the characters and their motivations before moving them to the next set piece. Unfortunately, I don't think the showrunners really have a good handle on many of these individuals. Also, why is a show called "Faceless Men" lacking in Faceless Men?
6/10
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