I am reading Fire and Blood and came across the part where she had her husband Daemon Targaryen behead Vaemond Velaryon and then feed his corpse to her dragon after he (correctly, might I add) said that her children are bastards. She also wanted Aemond questioned “sharply” for stating that her children were bastards. She murdered and advocated torture to keep up the lie, and does anyone truly think putting those obvious bastard children on the Iron Throne was not going to result in war sooner or later? I agree that she was initially in “the right” when the Dance started since her “birthright” had been stolen from her, but she was awful before it even began. I bring this up because I often see people saying she only became terrible due to trauma from the war. It’s just not true.

People also like to excuse her cruelty and stupidity during her brief reign as a queen because she lost her children during the war, and in my opinion, that is no excuse. She ordered daily executions, established “knights inquisitors” to hunt down innocent children, would not offer peace terms, imposed ridiculous taxes while throwing a lavish birthday party for her son, and then tried to have her allies murdered. If Mushroom is to be believed, she had her half-sister raped as punishment, and I don’t see why we wouldn’t believe Mushroom’s account because he was Rhaenyra’s biggest fan and there is no point in making up something that would make her seem so heinous. From start to finish, Rhaenyra was terrible and “Maegor with tits,” coined by the smallfolk who hated her, was deserved. It has nothing to do with gender but everything to do with her despicable actions.

I understand that we are supposed to root for the blacks during the Dance of the Dragons, but I truly felt that the leaders of the blacks were absolute scum, as much as the greens, by the end of it. I never understood the defense of Rhaenyra and Daemon especially. The latter was cruel, selfish, and near evil pretty much his entire life. People like to defend him hiring Blood and Cheese to murder a small child in front of their parent because he only did it in response to Aemond murdering Lucerys, but again, that’s no excuse. That’s an act of pure evil. Not to mention, for a fanbase being all about peace, it’s remarkable that the fact Daemon started a war for the Stepstones just because he was bored and wanted a kingdom of his own is largely ignored when discussing his multiple heinous actions.

Daemon gets some “redemption” in the end because he cared about Nettles (whether or not she was his lover, bastard daughter, or both), or whatever, and Corlys, also a grasping and power hungry snake, had a change of heart after losing practically everything, but other than being badass, I thought these two men, Daemon especially, were awful. Someone called Daemon an anti-hero, and I am trying to recall when anti-heroes murdered children, started wars for fun, seduced their teenaged nieces, publicly humiliated their wife and then tried to claim her lands after her “mysterious” death, screwed and probably raped virgin prostitutes, etc. Yeah, I enjoyed reading about the character and thought he died in a totally badass way, but let’s not kid ourselves about him.

As for the audience needing to be on Rhaenyra’s side because it was about “a woman’s right to inherit the Iron Throne and defeat sexism,” is that a joke? Dance of the Dragons was a war between two spoiled, grasping adults and their power hungry consultants/relatives. Even after the blacks were “victorious,” women still cannot inherit the Iron Throne. Rhaenyra never becomes “Rhaenyra I,” but her equally cruel half-brother will always be “Aegon II.” So if it really was about women’s rights, well, nothing was gained and therefore the war was pointless. There was no progress; Westeros becomes even more sexist and even more averse to women inheriting after the Dance. Also, let’s not pretend the power hungry Hightowers wouldn’t have tried to put a daughter on the throne if that’s all they had.

As for the blacks’ “victory,” it wasn’t much of one. After the Dance, the Targaryen dynasty is on a slow decline and an inevitable path to ruin. The dragons are almost gone. The Hightowers lost some power but still remain one of the richest houses in the kingdom. House Velaryon was hit harder than them and of course is now on a path of irrelevancy. Daemon’s son Aegon III is on the throne, but he is just traumatized and broken.

TLDR – Both blacks and greens TRULY sucked. Both were morally despicable, and I wasn’t rooting for any of them.