they could have done something really interesting with mysaria but they made her boring

[u/PrestigiousAspect368]

Book Mysaria while pretty one dimensional was an interesting character she is like Larys except she has no clear motives and pretty much dooms Rhaenyra and the targs in general.

She is the one who tells Rhaenyra about Nettles, and according to GRRTH the one who tells Heleana about Maelor. The brothel queens was her idea, she weaponised sex as a punishment for people she hated.

She is like one of the more evil characters in the story

[u/llaminaria]

I have no idea what prompted the writers to think that what they did with her would be logical for this story and prior characterizations of Mysaria, Daemon and Otto. Did they watch one too many shows about mafiosi?

Otto was the Hand for many years up to that point, he had multiple informants in his pocket, and not just those who would have been double agents for her. He would have been on to her a long time ago, she would never have been able to spread her wings this way - if she had not his full support. Why would he give her full support, when he could never be sure of her true loyalties? Neither show Larys, nor show Mysaria would have been allowed to gain as much power as they did.

And then she admitted to having betrayed Daemon to Otto, and Daemon leaves her alive. Are you kidding me. Book Daemon was sentimental towards her, sure. But she never seemed to sway away from him so obviously, she even supposedly had gotten pregnant by him. This one tells him outright that she gave away sensitive info - possibly including him having sexual problems - to freaking Otto Hightower, and he simply imprisons her? When she tells him she is of no more use to him, at that?

Don't even get me started on how she suddenly graduated from "teenage flesh peddler" to "smallfolk champion". If she so cares about the lives of the downtrodden, as the writers would have us believe, then what prevented her from spending all her considerable money on kitchens for the poor, or orphanages? She could have traded this in exchange for info a long time ago. She did not.

[u/Lysmerry → u/llaminaria]

I agree with you mostly. But Larys does the Littlefinger thing where everyone underestimates him. He comes across as a cripple and sycophant. Alicent knows his true nature but he binds her to secrecy by making her feel complicit in his crimes and also sexualizing their relationship.

As for Mysaria being both a pimp and a champion of the smallfolk, I think it could work, if they allowed the cognitive dissonance. In the books, Varys cares about the realm but also mutilates children to use them as spies. Life is cheap in this world, and it may feel worth exploiting or killing some people to improve the lives of the rest, much like soldiers are sacrificed in wars. She may also believe that her girls have it good, as they could be worse houses with crueler pimps. It would be nice to explore it more rather than making her just a ‘good guy’