Jonathan Millar 
James Oconner 
Taking King’s Landing is one thing. Actually keeping it is another, and for Rhaenyra Targaryen, that second part is going to be much harder than the first. After everything that has happened in the Dance of the Dragons, Rhaenyra finally gets what she has spent years fighting for: the Red Keep is hers, the Greens have been pushed out, and she can finally sit on the Iron Throne she believes was always meant to be hers.
But the victory comes with a pretty obvious problem. Rhaenyra hasn’t ended the war by taking the capital. She has simply taken control of one of the biggest pieces on the board. Aegon II is still alive, Aemond and Vhagar are still out there, the realm is running short of food and money, and the people of King’s Landing aren’t exactly waiting outside the Red Keep to cheer their new queen. If anything, Rhaenyra’s real problems are only starting now.
Aegon Is Still Alive, and That’s a Problem
One of Rhaenyra’s biggest priorities after entering King’s Landing is finding Aegon II. If she can capture him, she has a much better chance of removing the Greens’ claim to the throne for good. The problem is that Aegon manages to escape the capital with Larys Strong before Rhaenyra can get to him.
That means the war still has a living rival king at its center. As long as Aegon is alive, the Greens have someone they can rally behind, even if his support has been badly damaged. Rhaenyra may be sitting on the Iron Throne, but that doesn’t automatically make every lord in Westeros accept her as queen.
And then there is Aemond.
The prince still has Vhagar, the largest dragon in Westeros, and that alone is enough to make the Greens dangerous. Rhaenyra has more dragons on her side at this stage, but having more dragons doesn’t mean much if one of the enemy’s riders is capable of turning an army into ash before anyone can react. Aemond doesn’t need to retake King’s Landing immediately. He just needs to keep the countryside unstable and make sure Rhaenyra never gets the chance to believe the war is over.
King’s Landing Has a Serious Food Problem
There is also the slightly less glamorous problem of feeding an entire capital.
King’s Landing was already in terrible shape before Rhaenyra arrived. The Velaryon blockade has disrupted supplies, food prices have climbed and the city’s smallfolk are increasingly desperate. Taking the Red Keep doesn’t suddenly make those problems disappear.
If anything, they now belong to Rhaenyra.
The treasury has also taken a serious hit, with the Greens removing much of the available wealth before abandoning the capital. So Rhaenyra is trying to run a city that is hungry while also paying for a war that is nowhere near finished. That’s not exactly the easiest first week on the job.
Raising taxes might help fill the treasury, but doing that to people who are already struggling to find food is unlikely to make Rhaenyra more popular. And this is where the show’s larger theme about the smallfolk becomes particularly important. The Targaryens may see King’s Landing as the prize at the center of their civil war, but the people living there are the ones who have to deal with the consequences.
The Dragonseeds Could Become Their Own Problem
Rhaenyra’s growing dragon advantage is one of the reasons she can take King’s Landing in the first place. The problem is that some of those dragons are now being ridden by people who have never been part of the traditional Targaryen power structure.
Hugh Hammer and Ulf the White are the obvious examples. They go from being ordinary men to dragonriders with the ability to destroy armies almost overnight. That’s an enormous amount of power to hand to anyone, let alone people who have little reason to feel loyal to the royal family beyond whatever rewards they receive.
Rhaenyra needs the dragonseeds. There’s no getting around that. But she also has to trust them, and the history of the Dance suggests that trust is going to become increasingly difficult. A dragonrider who decides the queen isn’t giving him enough respect, money or power isn’t just another unhappy soldier. He has a dragon.
That’s a rather serious difference.
Rhaenyra and Daemon May Not Want the Same Thing
The problems aren’t all outside the castle, either. Rhaenyra still has to manage the increasingly complicated relationship between herself and Daemon, along with the members of her Small Council who don’t necessarily agree on how the war should be fought.
What happens to Green prisoners? How aggressively should Rhaenyra pursue Aegon? Should she concentrate on holding King’s Landing or send more forces against the remaining Green armies? And what should she do about the people in the capital who openly hate her?
Those decisions could create divisions within Team Black at exactly the wrong moment.
Daemon, in particular, has never been the easiest person to keep under control. He has his own ideas about how power should be used, and Rhaenyra’s position as queen doesn’t automatically mean he will agree with every decision she makes. The longer the war continues, the harder it may become for the two of them to stay on the same page.
So, How Long Can Rhaenyra Actually Stay on the Throne?
That’s the uncomfortable part of Rhaenyra’s victory. From the outside, taking King’s Landing looks like the moment when everything finally turns in her favor. But once you look at what she has actually inherited, it is a pretty miserable prize.
She has a capital that is running out of food, a treasury that has been badly drained, a rival king who escaped, Aemond and Vhagar still threatening the realm, and a group of newly empowered dragonriders whose loyalty isn’t exactly guaranteed. On top of that, she has to keep her own supporters from turning against one another.
So while Rhaenyra has finally reached the Iron Throne, the Dance of the Dragons is nowhere near finished. In fact, this may be the point where holding the throne becomes more difficult than ever.
The crown gives Rhaenyra authority, but it also makes every failure hers to answer for. And in Westeros, that’s usually when things start going very badly.
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