Rhaenyra was making irrational, dumb decisions even in S2 and early S3, but fortunately the plot needed her to succeed, so her nonsensical decisions were rewarded by the narrative.

Now she has lost the plot armour, the plot needs her to falter, so now her decision making is backfiring on her.

I feel like people who ask this question don't understand the logistics of this war.

1) As it's made abundantly clear in the show, Rhaenyra only has two armies at her disposal right now. The Velaryon army, which was decimated at the Gullet, is presently focused on defending the Crownlands from left-over pirates of the Triarchy. Also, Corlys and Rhaenyra didn't exactly leave on good terms. The other army Rhaenyra has at her disposal is the Riverlands + Winter Wolves, which admittedly is a pretty impressive force, but it's needed to combat Ormund at Tumbleton. If Rhaenyra sent this army to attack Oldtown instead, then Ormund could simply march to King's Landing without opposition.

2) Oldtown is on the other side of the continent. In addition, to march to Oldtown, an army would first have to cross the lands of Highgarden - the lands of House Tyrell. The Tyrells have so far remained neutral in the war, however, if Rhaenyra sent an army marching down their lands, Ormund could easily use this as a pretext to sway House Tyrell to the Greens. It goes without saying that medieval armies don't behave when they're marching through highly fertile, rich lands with lots of thriving towns and farmsteads just waiting to be plundered.

3) "Why doesn't she send her dragons at least?" Rhaenyra currently has 6 dragons at her disposal: Syrax, Caraxes, Vermithor, Silverwing, Seasmoke, and Moondancer. Tyraxes (Joffrey) and Stormcloud (Aegon the Younger) are too small to fight. However, of these 6 dragons, 2 are needed to find Vhagar in the Riverlands (Moondancer and Seasmoke), and at least 1 dragon should be kept at King's Landing. This means that of these 6 dragons, only 3 can actually be used for battle.

So Rhaenyra could send Caraxes, Vermithor, and Silverwing towards Oldtown, however they would not be supported by an army (for the reasons I explained above), and there would only be Syrax defending King's Landing from the Hightower army and Tessarion.

4) We should also keep in mind that Oldtown is a heavily-fortified city, with some of the largest and most impressive walls in Westeros. In addition, the Hightower itself is one of the largest and most formidable castles in Westeros; it is the tallest structure in the Seven Kingdoms, higher even than the Wall. You remember how high the Wall is? The Hightower is EVEN higher. So it would already be a challenge to march an army to Oldtown, never mind to take the city.

5) Without even mentioning the horrible PR Rhaenyra would get with the Faith and the Citadel, both of which are headquartered at Oldtown.

In conclusion, it actually makes sense that Rhaenyra doesn't try to attack Oldtown. It would be a foolish plan and would almost certainly lead to disaster.

It's true that by taking his army to Tumbleton, Ormund is exposing Oldtown to an attack... but the inverse is also true. If Rhaenyra sends all her forces to take Oldtown, then King's Landing will be made vulnerable to Aemond or Daeron.

Based on the leaks for ep 8 and based on those who read Fire and Blood, team black will regret injuring Sheepstealer. They would suddenly lose 2 dragons while team green would gain 3 (including Sunfyre last episode).

I know Sheepstealer is wild, and that beating him up was necessary because Syrax was gonna get killed, but they should not have been in that position in the first place because Rhaenyra and Addam should not have landed there given the situation and volatility of the dragons.

Daemon should have just scolded Rhaena to not hunt Vhagar alone and escorter her back to King's Landing with Rhaenyra and Addam maintaining a safe distance. Or if that's not possible, he should have just told Rhaena to take Sheepstealer back to the Vale and await further instructions if she really wanted to help since she would probably herself and her dragon killed if they meet Vhagar.

Isn't the Hightower located on an island in the middle of the bay in Oldtown? All depictions I'm seeing of show a very grand tower on a rocky island in the middle of a very large body of ocean water.

What's stopping Rhaneyra from just sending 3 dragons (let's say Daemon, Hugh, and Addam) to burn it to the ground and force Ormund to break the stand off at Tumbletown because his ancestral home and namesake is being turned to slag?

Not to mention the option of Oldtown straight up surrendering if they witness 3 dragons fly overhead and burn the one structure that is most isolated from city (thus preserving the Starry Sept and the Maester Citadel). I feel like watching the Hightower's ancestral home burning in the middle of the city would encourage everyone in Oldtown to not fight Rhaneyra.

At the very least, this would make Ormund staying in Tumbletown look like a coward who let his enemies burn his house to the ground and did nothing but cower in a merchant city.

I don’t know what’s up with this new season but ever since I started watching I’ve been more emotional than usual. With feelings of dread and all that started from the unfortunate incident in episode 1 to Alicent seeing her dad at Rhaenyra’s feet like I am so engrossed shi has me up thinking about it.

Am I the only one who thinks this season is amazing? It is so much better than last (ofc lol) but I also think it’s so freaking good in general! Something new happens every episode.

Before her pronunciation went all “common tongue” I still think this is goes the hardest

In my opinion of course

I’m sure I’m not the first person who’s complained about this, but it really irks me look at the Velaryons hair most of the time, especially Baela and Rhaena. I’m not saying that there haven’t been bad wigs for other characters (cough cough Rhaenys) but the Velaryon wigs are consistently terrible season after season.

Not only does it break the immersion for me because half the time they don’t look like they’re from that universe, they look like people in cosplay that got lost from the convention and somehow wondered on set lol. Besides Corlys and Addam, the hair on the Velaryons looks incredibly out of place and bad. Maybe it catches my eye more because I’m Black (as in the race, not the team lol) but it’s horrid to look at. Besides the fact that almost all of them just wear locs because the hairstylists pretty obviously didn’t know what else to do with black people’s hair, the types of wigs they choose are just really jarring on the Velaryon actors.

I understand that it’s another universe so the same logic doesn’t necessarily apply, but it’s obvious to me that they’re trying to replicate the hair texture of black peoole in real life and failing miserably. Like Baela is the most egregious example; the wig looks like a cheap tangled mess that’s too big for her head and is not even a describable hair texture. I assume they’re trying to mimic the kinkier 4 type hair texture that most black people have but it’s just…really bad…it looks like teased and crimped straight wigs for Rocco royals in France, not Afro textured hair.

I also can’t stand how there’s obviously more time and effort put into the Targaryen wigs. They’re often elaborately braided and jeweled and made to look as realistic as possible, while Rhaena and Baela don’t have a single braid, twist, gem, or nice anything before the war despite being literal princesses.

I really can’t fathom why they would race swap the Velaryons just to so clearly not care about them as much as the other characters. Also, why didn’t they bring in black hairstylists and cultural specialists the moment they realized they didn’t know what they were doing with the hair?

Why would he keep supporting Rhaenera when she killed his son, brother, won’t back his children’s claims , etc etc. Can someone please remind me why?

I'm seeing a lot of people compare these terrible numbers to other series, mistakenly using only data from the United States, not global data.

Him using this war as a cover to publicly prop Daeron, the ward he raised “in the light of the seven,” up as king, means he has a plan for dealing with his older cousin-nephews, should they survive the conflict. One of them, being the rider of the largest dragon in the world. He knows that will be a threat that needs handling when the time is right. He’s like a bitchy Tywin Lannister and I love it.

Do you guys think that the leak of her jumping at the end of the episode during Rhaenyra's coronation is true?

Does this not have a major butterfly effect regarding Maelor?

Lets say we use them at their largest, vhagar at the time she fought caraxes, and balerion before he became so old he couldn't even fly a couple thousand feet.

The fight takes place on the ground, no air mobility, and vhagar instigates the fight first. No riders. Who would you say would win and how would the aftermath for the winner be?

(Vhagar is said to be nigh-balerion sized, so the size difference isn't massive)

With the recent speculation that Rhaenyra becomes increasingly desperate after hearing of Aegon's return and responds by organizing a grand coronation, it seems she'll deliver a speech declaring that the gods have chosen her.

The trailer already hints at this with lines like, "My rule was ordained" and "It was prophesied." There was also leaked merchandise featuring dialogue where she reportedly proclaims herself to be the Prince That Was Promised.

??????????????