Let me begin with a disclaimer: this is a very controversial opinion. I understand that. I have thought about it deeply, consulted no one, and arrived at my conclusion anyway. Here it is:
Rhaenyra Targaryen did absolutely nothing wrong.
Now, before you hurl your goblet across the room and summon your maester, allow me to explain.
The Husband Situation
Rhaenyra Targaryen was wed to Laenor Velaryon, a man of considerable charm, excellent taste in clothing, and a deeply personal disinterest in women. Specifically, in Rhaenyra. Specifically, in fulfilling what the lords of Westeros cheerfully refer to as “the marital duty” which is the medieval way of saying Laenor was not going to be fathering any children with anyone who wasn’t named Ser Joffrey Lonmouth or some other dashing knight he’d quietly fallen in love with.
This was, to put it diplomatically, a structural problem.
Rhaenyra did not choose this. Rhaenyra did not ask for a husband whose eyes glazed over during any conversation that didn’t involve tournaments or other handsome men. The political machinery of Westeros handed her a kind, lovely, completely unavailable husband and then expected her to produce heirs on sheer willpower and the power of suggestion.
She could not. He could not. This is not anyone’s fault. Some things simply are what they are.
What Was She Supposed To Do?
Let us think about this practically. Rhaenyra is heir to the Iron Throne. She requires children to secure the succession. Her husband is, with great respect and zero judgment, spectacularly uninterested in the project. The Seven Kingdoms do not offer annulments as a casual option. Divorce is not on the menu.
In this context and I cannot stress enough that this is a very controversial opinion finding Harwin Strong was not a scandal. It was a solution.
Harwin Strong: The Only Man In Westeros Who Deserved Her
Harwin Strong, called “Breakbones,” was the strongest knight in all of Westeros. He was loyal. He was present. He looked at Rhaenyra like she was the only person in any room she ever entered. He did not plot against her. He did not undermine her. He did not disappear to go do something morally questionable in the Free Cities and then return expecting a warm welcome.
He simply showed up, carried her out of a crowd when she was being crushed (romantically), and proceeded to dedicate himself entirely to her and their children.
Was this politically complicated? Yes. Did he eventually have to be sent away to protect everyone? Also yes. Did he then immediately die in a very suspicious fire? Tragically, yes. But the principle of Harwin Strong the concept of a man who is simply good, devoted, and possessed of excellent upper body strength is one that Westeros as a society was not ready for, and that is Westeros’s failure, not his.
Harwin Strong was the only knight in all of the Seven Kingdoms who genuinely deserved Rhaenyra Targaryen. This is my very controversial opinion and I will be accepting no further questions.
On The Subject Of Daemon
Daemon Targaryen is, and I say this with the exhausted affection one reserves for a deeply problematic relative, an absolute idiot.
He is charismatic, certainly. He is dangerous, undeniably. He rides a dragon and wears his silver hair like a man who has never once experienced self-doubt. But let us review his actual record as a person Rhaenyra could rely on:
He abandoned her the first time when it became politically inconvenient. He married someone else. He came back, married her, was occasionally wonderful, and then spent significant portions of their marriage either starting unnecessary conflicts, making unilateral decisions of catastrophic consequence, or staring intensely at things while other people suffered the aftermath.
Daemon is the kind of man who makes every situation about himself while somehow convincing everyone around him that he is doing it for them. He is magnetic and he is exhausting and Rhaenyra loved him completely and he still managed to be wrong about nearly everything that mattered.
Harwin Strong would never have done any of this. Harwin Strong would have said “what do you need, my love” and then done that thing without making it a whole dramatic production.
We lost Harwin Strong too soon. The realm did not deserve him.

I get break bones back in 5 days when he returns from his trip and has access to writing again, what can you say soldiers have many things to do in times of war.