Why is it so hard for Matt Smith/Daemon fans to admit that Emma D'arcy is undoubtedly the one carrying this show on their back, Matt is good along with Olivia and a lot of the other cast, but Emma and Rhaenyra are the heart of the show, people have this obsession with Daemon bc he simply goes and kills people, but how can y'all go around and love him so much for the shit he does but you go and say that Rhaenyra is "bland" or whatever y'all wanna say, Daemon is copy and paste in every episode, you always know what to expect from him, violence, a sarcastic comment, he's not as unpredictable as people want to say he is, he has one emotion and that's it, and this is not matt's fault it's just the character, but then y'all just hate on (female) characters that show more than one emotion, and putting the whole discourse of whether the show/characters are well written aside, looking simply at everything, not only does Rhaenyra give every bit of emotion and her story is the one that is actually interesting bc you're here to know how she will deal with the pressure of the responsibilities that she was not trained for and during an awful time, while also having to deal with a war that she never experienced, the loss of her kids etc etc, she has so much nuance, and Emma portrays all those nuances perfectly, meanwhile Daemon is just violence after violence, there's no actual plot that you can grasp at, all he wants is power and violence, where's everything else?? Matt did great with what the character gives, but to say that he "steals the show when he is on screen" or that "he is the star of the show" etc. is just plain bullshit not only is it not true but it's also ridiculous, I don't even know if people just say this shit bc of a weird obsession with daemon (and I'm not saying the normal fans I'm saying obsessive) or if it's pure misogyny (I literally saw someone say "remove the two women from the show and it's great" so) or if it's people's desire to see violence with little to no plot but it's ridiculous, and I can't help but also notice that the character that has the most emotions and complicated storyline with nuances and dilemmas is the one being called "weak" bc she shows those emotions, it's so gross and I do blame the writers for something I'm about to mention even though idk what my feelings are on that scene but clearly to the male audience it did more harm than good, go figure. The scene of Rhaenyra getting her period being used against her now, people saying "she can't even concentrate" as if she didn't do exactly that and responded perfectly to people everytime, it's so nasty, I'm not gonna get into the complicated opinion I have on the scene bc this is long enough and will get longer but unfortunately it made incel man pull out the usual argument of "woman can't be in power bc when they get their period they will start a war" bullshit, or that "woman are irrational and too emotional" it bothers me so much.
Rhaenyra is not and will never be weak for crying at the loss of her kids, or for having cramps or for not wanting to see MORE people suffer, people that did not have direct involvement, or even innocent people, Rhaenyra is not weak for wanting to continue her father's legacy of peace bc she might not know war but she understands like anyone would, the costs of war, everything we have seen that people wanna call weak, is what we should have in a leader and it's far from being a weakness. Rhaenyra not being able to behead someone on the first try is not weak, it's realistic and even male characters with experience have failed before, her crying bc she's seeing the very seat that started everything that eventually killed her kids, is not weak, she's so far from weak. And I'm ranting about this bc it makes me so mad that people still associate the idea of someone showing their emotions to someone being weak, and especially when in all of that we add the fact that she's a woman, so yes she is the more interesting character, the more nuanced the one that if you had a brain and actually wanted to follow a story for what it is, a story, and not just a plotless bloodshed, she's the one that you would be able to at least acknowledge as the great character that she is, but the GoT/asoiaf fandom is very used to one thing and one thing only in this franchise. So yeah Emma is the stand out, Rhaenyra is the stand out, Emma is carrying this show non stop and without them, it wouldn't be the same