Fans divided over Rhaenys’ escape in House of the Dragon Episode 9

House of the Dragon episode 9 was quite spectacular, thanks to Princess Rhaenys Targaryen’s grand entry with her dragon Meleys. But all that glitters is not gold. What seemed like a powerful moment turned to nothing when Rhaenys took no action against the Greens. While she does not harm Alicent Hightower and her family, she kills and injures numerous smallfolk. The showrunners and writers have explained her reason for inaction is that it’s “not her war.”

Co-showrunner of season one, Ryan Condal, shares in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, “It was the most outrageous and explosive action of the season. In a way, it’s also the most merciful and most graceful act. It’s because she’s so intelligent and in the end chooses to do the right thing, which is not to destroy.” He continues, “It’s a truly forgiving moment and sort of a loving moment, in a weird way. She has all the ammunition, and the desire for revenge is so great. She’s suffered so much loss, and for her own sake and on behalf of so many others, the urge to destroy is so strong. And yet the choice not to destroy becomes even stronger.”

While most viewers loved the scene for its majestic show of Targaryen strength, many fans do not see the logic and reasoning behind the scene.

No matter how cool it looked that rhaenys dragon scene made no sense and was really dumb. She killed probably hundreds then leaves the ones she’d actually need to kill alive…

— Jeffrey blackfyre (@jeffblackfyre) October 17, 2022

The fact that this scene makes ZERO sense with the psyche of the character or the context of the novel.
There’s no justification
Rhaenys could’ve fixed everything with a simple Dracarys and stop a war she knew was coming and would affect her granddaughters pic.twitter.com/EkCOn87qXW

— Stefano (@AllysPimp_) October 17, 2022

‘rhaenys didn’t dracarys alicent bc it wasn’t her war’ sara hess, i need you to understand that rhaenys’ granddaughter is queen consort to be. she’s jace’s betrothed who is rhaenyra’s heir. if rhaenyra is targeted so is jace AND baela. i need you to understand it, sara hess.

— lina ? (@jacebaela) October 17, 2022

Sara Hess #HouseOfTheDragon writer says Rhaenys let Alicent and The Green Council live because “it's not her war” the rest of the casualties don’t matter because it’s Game Of Thrones. pic.twitter.com/KYR8MOYCBD

— House Of The Dragon Source (@HOTDsource) October 17, 2022

What do you think of Rhaenys decision to let the Greens live? Did she do the right thing, or could she have saved hundreds of thousands of lives by just saying “dracarys”? Let us know what your thoughts are on our discord server.

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