Rhaenyra, Sad and Listening to One Song on Repeat in ‘House of the Dragon,’ Is a Mood

Rhaenyra has already had quite the journey on HBO’s House of the Dragon in a way that has many of us rooting for her given the situation she’s found herself in. Her anger makes sense. Her actions are warranted. And, when you look at it, the third episode of the season was all about her finding her own new path in the world, given the restrictions that her father and his council continues to place on her despite the fact that she is still technically her father’s heir. So, if she wants to be sad, she can be sad.

And, sometimes, when you’re sad, you just want to listen to the same song over and over again to feel something, and that is what seemingly happened on the most recent episode of House of the Dragon. In true sad girl fashion, we see Rhaenyra sitting by the tree with a book by herself and listening to a man playing music. In true step-mom fashion, Alicent comes to talk with her, and when she is being ignored, she sends the musician away, and Rhaenyra fights back, making him stay.

She’s just listening to the song over and over again, and truly, it is one of the most relatable moments in the world of Game of Thrones as a whole, but especially within House of the Dragon.

Is this the equivalent of riding around, listening to a song and just crying on your own? Probably, but the Westeros version is to just have a man playing a lute-like instrument beside you while you read a book and ignore your step-mom/former best friend.

Sometimes, you just need to sad listen to your songs

Right now, Rhaneyra has all the right in the world to be sad. She lost her mother and was heir to the throne—until her father married her best friend and then they had a son together. So, feeling alone and angry is warranted, and honestly, who among us hasn’t felt that way at some point or another in our lives? And thinking about it, she’s still a teenager in this episode, so she’s especially at that time in her life when she’d want to just listen to music and ignore everyone.

What we got throughout the third episode was a lot of Rhaenyra struggling with her place in her family. She was the only child that Viserys had before he married Alicent, and she’s his first born, but she’s not male, so she isn’t important enough to his council, and she’s now at an age where people want to marry her off to the highest bidder, something that even Viserys doesn’t necessarily want for her.

But when you break it down, all of Rhaenyra’s actions make sense. She’s just a kid who is being forced into this place that she doesn’t want to be in, and she doesn’t really know how to exist in the male-dominated King’s Landing. And sometimes, that just means you want to listen to music and ignore your step-mom/best friend in order to get your feelings out.

(featured image: HBO)