What’s the significance of the hunting scene for the rivalry?

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Key Moments in the Hunting Scenes

1. Sarah teaching Abigail how to shoot Sarah brings Abigail to a game of pigeon shooting, acts as mentor, and repeatedly tells her to “relax and aim, when it crosses your eye pull the trigger.” Abigail at first misses and recoils—she’s uneasy with violence, while Sarah is practiced and commanding.

2. The final shooting in which Abigail hits a pigeon in flight In a later scene, Abigail doesn’t wait for the bird to leave the cage; she anticipates the shot and hits it mid-flight, blood spattering onto Sarah’s dress—an intentional symbolic moment and a dramatic role reversal.

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What These Scenes Symbolize for the Rivalry

• Power and hierarchy The shooting games act like duel metaphor—Sarah starts in control of the lessons and power, with Abigail in a subservient, inept position. As Abigail becomes more skilled, the power shifts: Abigail is no longer just a pupil, she becomes dangerous.

• Emotional stakes and sacrifice Sarah’s “price” is made explicit through her tough life and wartime leadership; Abigail’s rising power requires her to harden, to learn ruthlessness. The shots fired aren’t just guns; they’re symbolic arrows aimed at the hearts and souls behind courtly politeness.

• Foreshadowing betrayal When Abigail splatters Sarah with blood from her successful shot, it marks a turning point. It shows Abigail overtaking Sarah—not just in skill, but in agency. This is one moment Sarah realizes she's made a mistake letting Abigail so close.

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The Hunting Game as a Microcosm of Court Politics

• The game is also a ritual—a socially acceptable way to display dominance, to compete without direct confrontation. Sarah and Abigail don’t just shoot birds; they shoot barbs, threats, secrets. - Sarah uses tradition and public performance to maintain authority. Abigail uses adaptability, timing, and subterfuge—which the hunting scenes dramatize in the most visceral way. - Eventually, those games of shooting pigeons mirror larger shootings: political, emotional, strategic. One shot—the bird in flight—symbolizes Abigail surpassing Sarah, and the court starting to shift allegiance.

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In short: the hunting scenes are essential staging for the power dynamic between Sarah and Abigail. They show Abigail learning (and then outgrowing Sarah’s lessons), underline the cruelty beneath the court’s glamour, and deliver emotional and symbolic violence that mirrors what’s coming in plot.