Ever since I first heard the rumors, I was worried that they would really fake Laenor's death - ngl, that was cringe af 😭 I get that they wanted to avoid the Bury Your Gays trope and maybe whitewash the Blacks (they still killed an innocent!), but the execution was so awful and poorly written. That whole thing? Did such a disservice to Laenor as a character. He really just ditched his family like this shortly after his parents lost their daughter and clearly gives not shit about Rhaenyra's kids. Also: what about Seasmoke??? He left his poor dragon behind? Wouldn't Seasmoke's behavior indicate that he's alive? And since Laenor is alive, how will Addam claim Seasmoke? Unless Laenor dies randomly in Essos at some point... Or they bring back Laenor for the war and cut out Addam? That would suck, I was looking most forward to Daeron and Addam for the dance (from characters that are still to be introduced).

Sorry for the rant! The twist was just so stupid, I can't take it seriously, lol.

thank you for your asks, both of you!!

“bury your gays” is an extremely problematic trope, full stop. in westeros, gays are buried quite often, and it sucks. that’s the world written, where it’s not okay to stray from heteronormativity. so was it nice, as a modern audience, that we didn’t watch laenor be murdered one episode after his sister’s immolation? yeah. but from a writing standpoint, it was clumsy AF and contradictory to laenor’s character.

he spent all of 1x7 lamenting how he wasn’t there for his sister, wasn’t there for his wife and her kids, and now he’s running away, leaving behind his nieces and his parents and making them believe their last child is dead right after they lost their other? being there for the people you love was set up as a theme of laenor’s story, and you expect me to believe he would’ve left them just like that? especially his nieces, the last remnants of his beloved sister, who are the spitting image of their mother when she clutched his hand at the tourney when they were preteens. especially his parents; rhaenys’ scream of anguish was haunting. we haven’t been shown anything to suggest that he didn’t love his mother, and she him; corlys, with his denial of laenor’s sexuality, is suggestive of another story, a strained relationship. but rhaenys, who didn’t want her son involved in the game of thrones, who accepted him for who he was and defended him to her husband?

if they wanted to make it work, we’d need to spend more time with this decision from laenor’s perspective, but that might’ve not been as good of a look for the blacks bc it might hammer in that it wasn’t exactly an option for him to stay. was it “nice” of rhaenyra to accept laenor for who he was and not literally have him murdered so she could carry on as she pleased? it was the bare freaking minimum, and a man was still murdered to carry out the ruse. RIP serving man, you deserved better. also lest we forget daemon “i murdered rhea royce to be rid of our marriage” targaryen. i am truly baffled at their decision-making, because they’re really just digging their own graves deeper if, by chance, laenor returns or is found out. i sure wish we’d explore these complications and consequences, but that doesn’t seem to be where we’re headed. nevertheless, dae/myra and fandom can ignore them all they’d like, but that doesn’t mean they’re just going to go away. RIP to the bastards five, they were kids who didn’t deserve these situations.