The following contains spoilers for Requiem of the Rose King Episode 14, “Good Night. Brother.,” now streaming on Funimation.
It’s a bit strange to see just how differently Richard thinks of his brothers compared to his father in Requiem of the Rose King. He adored his father, revered him and believed him to be the rightful king. While he doesn’t show any outright contempt toward Edward and George, he nonetheless believes them both to be incompetent heirs to the throne. He doesn’t quite allow himself to put himself on the throne just yet, but he knows that, as of now, the two of them do not deserve to be king.
It’s not that Richard despises his brothers or even that he doesn’t like them. In fact, he was a big factor in reconciling Edward and George in the first cour. However, he seems to keep them at a careful distance, most likely cultivated at a young age by his mother who thought to protect her ‘real sons.’ When it comes to the kingdom, any brotherly affection that Richard might have had for them is long gone.
Richard has the terrifying but clever intuition to manipulate situations and people to get what he wants. There were hints of this in the first cour, but it has never been as blatantly demonstrated as in this episode, when he began laying the groundwork to get rid of Edward and the next in line, George. Edward and George’s relationship was already fraught with tension, with both brothers believing that the other was out to get them — all Richard had to do was pull the thread.
George needed to disappear, but his death had to be done in a way where it could never be connected to Richard. In fact, it needed to somehow be linked to the Woodvilles so that Elizabeth’s power couldn’t increase. Poor George was in a terrible state of mind, having lost his wife and now being framed for cursing Edward. With Richard presenting himself as his only ally, George couldn’t help but rely on him.
Richard and Buckingham’s plan was flawless. They set everyone up: when George stormed into the royal court, falsely believing that they were going to execute him without a trial, and called the Woodvilles devils and Edward a murderer, it led to his brother officially calling for his execution. When a hooded figure came to George’s room with a barrel full of wine, he thought this was Richard rescuing him once more. Little did he know that it was an assassin who framed George’s murder as a suicide, staging his death to make it look like he had drowned himself in alcohol — the red wine spilling out so that it looked like blood.
Regretting his rash decision, Edward tried to reverse his order for George’s execution, but it was too late. Grief-stricken, he rounded on the Woodvilles, blaming them for being the ones who encouraged him to punish George. If the Woodvilles had any suspicion toward Richard for pulling the strings, those doubts were quickly brushed aside at the sight of his tears.
No matter what Richard might think, George and Edward had never hated nor feared him like his mother. Nor had they treated him badly. Edward had made some snide quips about Richard’s family but overall, their relationship was amicable. Despite Cecily planting ideas in George’s head that Richard was a witch, for he was a child who was lost in the woods, George never treated Richard like he was some kind of monster.
Although George and Edward both value familial ties and their own brotherly relationship, there might be some bias happening unconsciously in their minds. For example, when George pictures his family, he thinks of his parents and Edward, with Richard at the edges of his periphery — he doesn’t really fit into their family. Even so, in his final moments, George genuinely viewed Richard, his little brother, as his last ray of hope.
Buckingham had told Richard that if he gave up hope for people, he would be able to think for himself, and that’s exactly what Richard did. He has gotten rid of one brother, and it won’t take long for Edward to suffer the same fate. However, no matter how hard Richard tries to convince himself that he’s doing this for the good of York, he can’t escape the grief that he feels for losing one brother — and how he will soon lose another.
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