I think I kind of disagree with the idea that Aegon/the Greens had to usurp Rhaenyra because she would have had to/wanted to kill all her siblings and wouldnât have offered them the chance for peace, or that peace wasnât even a possibility. (Although, I get where theyâre coming from)
1) Kinslaying is a huge taboo in Westeros and is considered to be cursed. Rhaenyra is already on shaky ground being a female heir/queen, kinslaying all her siblings without offering peace isnât going to gain her any support.
2) Rhaenyra is surprised to hear sheâs been usurped, meaning she didnât really think of her siblings as being a threat that she needed to neutralise. Even if you attribute this to being naive, it still means Rhaenyra just wasnât thinking of her brothers being a threat that need to be neutralised.
3) The Greens are the ones who try to kill Rhaenyra first without even offering the chance for her to abdicate. Otto tells Ser Westerling and his guards to âbe quick and cleanâ in killing Rhaenyra before she even knows Viserys is dead and Aegon has been crowned. They only offer the chance for the Blacks to bend the knee because Rhaenys escapes and warns Rhaenyra.
4) Despite this, Rhaenyra still offers the Greens the chance to bend the knee to her after theyâve already usurped her (and potentially caused her to miscarry). She could have been justified at this point in not offering peace at all. But she does, and she even stops Daemon killing Otto. Rhaenyra seems to be constantly playing defence against the Greens who attack first. (If the show goes with the book, even after Rhaenyra takes Kingslanding she refuses to have Alicent and Haelena killed.)
5) Her brothers arenât a challenge to Rhaenyraâs claim if they genuinely donât want to be. All the lords in the world could form an army in their name, but if they donât want the throne, what can they do? Without the Greenâs dragons any army formed in opposition to Rhaenyra would be easily defeated by her dragons. The line âthe only thing that could tear down the house of the dragon was itself.â Is there for a reason.
6) If Rhaenyra genuinely wanted to kill all her siblings to 100% ensure her clean succession, why wouldnât she have done it earlier? It would have been far easier to kill her siblings when they were still young without dragons or skill with a sword or any armies behind them.
7) The only time Rhaenyra shows any signs of being willing to hurt her siblings pre war is when she says Aemond should be âsharply questionedâ to find out where he heard her children were bastards. But, I think sheâs just bluffing and puffing her chest out (no one panics or takes it seriously, Aemond looks at her like âare you serious?â and Alicent calmly says âover an insult?â) because she scared for her children who have been hurt and are being accused of starting the fight. In that same scene, however justified in her anger, Alicent tries to remove Lucerysâ eye herself and has to be physically stopped by Rhaenyra, who end up slashed herself. From Rhaenyraâs point of view, her children defended themselves against Aemond and theyâre trying to have them punished for it (and are accusing Rhaenyra of treason and trying to strip her children of their names and legitimacy as her heirs). To Rhaenyra, Alicent and Aemond, aka the Greens, are the ones who show themselves to be violent and unhinged towards her and her children.
8) Before the war starts (by Aemond killing Lucerys, whoâs acting as a peace envoy, aka Greens spilling first blood) Rhaenyra tries to mend the rift between the two side of the family by offering to marry Jace to Haelena, to give Aemond an egg from Syrax and apologises to Alicent. And she is rejected. This is showing her willingness to make peace before it gets worse and is showing kindness towards her half siblings. Aemond not having a dragon is advantageous to Rhaenyra if she wanted to start a war/kill Aemond, but she offers him an egg anyway.
9) Rhaenyra only says she âhas toâ kill Aegon after the war has already started, sheâs already been usurped, sheâs had an assignation attempt against her, and Lucerys and Rhaenys have been killed.
Just my opinion, no need to tell me to kill myself over a tv show. Xx
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