"I cannot trust you, Daemon. I've never trusted you, wholly, much that I wished to, willed myself to. But now I have seen that your heart belongs only to you. And when I was a child, I took this as a challenge. But I am older now. I have challenges enough."
ok this is my second essay of the night but when i first watched the episode i thought it was weird how religious rhaenyra was, until ryan mentioned the cult imagery. now i think instead of the show making her paranoid, they're going to make her more of a cult leader figure.
"it was very easy in terms of will. we were excited about the prospect. milly was eager to come back and everybody was excited to have her back."
ryan condal on bringing back milly alcock for
#HouseOfTheDragon
s2
"at one moment, milly looked at matt, and his face just broke and he was in tears. then i was in tears and many of the crew were in tears. (...) this is just a man who made a mistake and just realized it."
#houseofthedragon
: matt's tearful expression made this scene!
"i had never worked with milly in the first season, so that was interesting. when she and matt came in, the first thing we talked about was their intimacy and how much they trusted each other with each otherโs feelings."
#houseofthedragon
geeta!!!!!
"there's only one person who can get underneath daemon's skin, and that's rhaenyra. and the fact that she just told him he was worthless means that he's got nothing with the adult rhaenyra, but what he remembers [is] the person who loved him the most was the young rhaenyra."
"but what's important is that daemon gave his heart to rhaenyra. he married her when he's not a marrying kind of guy. he doesn't let anyone in, but he let her in."
geeta said daemyra rights
i think rather than leaning into her paranoia and the idea of a "hysterical paranoid mother" they're going to have her drink her own kool-aid more and more. it's interesting that this is what emma and ryan discuss in this scene with the dragonseeds.
"he just kept saying, 'no, i need another take. i need another take.' he was really such a hardworking actor on this, and all of a sudden I saw his face break after milly looked at him. i just saw his hands loosen, and i saw the tear in his eye."
#houseofthedragon
"when we shot that scene, something that milly and matt and i talked about was that this scene is the product of all the scenes before it, that if you took all the words out, she could just look at him and it would break him."
#HouseOfTheDragon
director on matt and milly!!
"Yes, but before that, you sought to lead a council of war while I labored alone in my bedchamber. And afterward when I thought it meet to consider the terms our foes put before us--"
i think it's interesting that instead of positioning it like "a leader amongst the smallfolk" it's positioned like someone who is almost manipulating the people there. and when vermithor turns on the bastards, she doesn't let them run, the guards keep them barricaded in.
"My throne, Daemon! Mine! I think you use my words as an excuse to take your own revenge, to indulge the darkness you keep sheathed within you like a blade."
she is literally enraptured by the fire in these scenes. now that she knows it's possible for others to claim the dragons, she is vindicated. this is not a merciful queen who is reaching out a hand to the smallfolk. ryan literally describes it as a ritual sacrifice.
"Oh, I don't know what to think of you. I don't what you are, or who it is you serve."
"Am I not on my way, even now, to Harrenhal to raise an army in your name, Rhaenyra?! Yours!"
who do you sacrifice to? the gods. but in this case, the gods aren't just dragons, rhaenyra sees herself in the dragons. she says as much in the literal pilot of the episode. she understands the power they wield.
"she's the mirror for him, because otherwise he walks around and doesn't care what anyone thinks. but with rhaenyra, she's the only person that gets to his heart."
#HouseOfTheDragon
director on that daemyra scene
"Is that what you understand of your own brother?"
"Oh, you know him better than I do, who was raised at his side? Do you believe he made you heir because of your great wisdom? Because of your virtue?"
"How dare you--"
it's a great deconstruction of the chosen one archetype to have her drink this koolaid and believe herself the chosen one only to have that belief corrupt her. it could lead to mysaria abandoning her, her riders turning on her, and we would see more of that targ madness.
"Or did he merely use you as a tool to put me in my place because he was afraid of me? Because he knew your legacy, unlike mine, would never outshine his own."
but i think she's also inherited the worst of both viserys and daemon. that will lead into her madness. she's got viserys' belief in prophecy and daemon's desire for power and strength.
she knows that their power lies in the dragons. she doesn't reflect viserys' belief that they are a power that man never shouldn't have trifled with, she leans into the chaos and fire and blood of the dragons, we see that in the sowing, clearly.
"the fact that we got to bring back milly really delighted me, because i adore her and all that she brought to the show. and i really did know the fanbase would really delight in hopefully the surprise of seeing her come back."
RYAN YES WE DO LOVE HER.
"in my eyes, you were a god. daemon targaryen. the prince of the city. the lord of flea bottom."
"you put me on that throne. and you love me and you hate me for it."
โ rhaenyra's translated high valyrian from episode 4
#HouseOfTheDragon
#daemyra
gods are mentioned several times in 207, first by addam, who says that the gods are calling him to greater things. rhaenyra has never been the extremely religious sort but in this scene she looks like she's had a moment of clarity.
mysaria says that rhaenyra is lucky addam chose to bend the knee to her rather than himself. and her reply is that it is ordained. this religious vocabulary being used is intentional!
final thought for now but like, even this scene from the finale has over the top messiah, chosen apostles, last supper vibes. her saying "i have entrusted you with a power only few have known" as if she wasn't desperate for them and had no say in who the dragons chose. i love it!
not to be that person, but daemon targaryen is canonically against r*pe. we are literally introduced to him as a person who goes on a rampage cutting off r*pists' dicks. many of the other characters don't even seem to understand the concept of consent, including his own brother.
importantly, rhaenyra doesn't know who addam's father is, or hugh's or ulf's. this is simply the first time in history that a non-targaryen (at least in her eyes) has claimed dragons. it's something that she believed impossible. it can feel like destiny to the desperate.
Excerpt From the House of the Dragon Script
โThe Black Queenโ
โ Season 1 Episode 10
Jace agrees with Daemon's decision to go to war and argues with Rhaenyra about it while they watch Daemon train.
#HOTDS1Script
honestly in this moment, when she says "may the gods bless you" i have to wonder, is she talking about the seven? or the valyrian gods? or the dragons? i don't think she's fully in deep, but i can see the set up for a much darker storyline for rhaenyra rather than the book plot.
for years, on some level, rhaenyra has believed that even though people have insulted her sons, they are full-blooded targaryens. she says herself that if she was a man she could father a dozen bastards, and as heir, she gives birth to three without hesitation.
#daemyra
:
"you said i killed you โ haunt me, then!
be with me always โ take any form โ drive me mad!
only do not leave me in this abyss,
where i cannot find you."
"he was everything i wanted to be. carefree. and dangerous. a man.
and i was what he wanted. cherished by my father, and made my father's heir.
we were halves of a whole."
#HouseOfTheDragon
Excerpts From the House of the Dragon Script
"The Rogue Prince"
โ Season 1 Episode 2
Rhaenyra confronts Alicent after news of her engagement and insults her.
(text in brackets is summary, not verbatim)
#HOTDS1Script
"matt and i talked about how he just came from being pushed away by the one person he let in. he's embarrassed; he's hurt. he told himself he would never let himself feel this again."
again geeta getting to the heart of daemyra and daemon's psyche.
even when jace calls this out, predicting that someone (maybe hugh?) could lay claim to her throne if she legitimizes them not by name by with the power of gods. but rhaenyra's response isn't logical. she believes that the throne is part of her and her son's destiny. their right.
Missing Scene From the House of the Dragon Script
"Second of His Name"
โ Season 1 Episode 3
Viserys reminds Alicent that Rhaenyra is his chosen heir when they return back to the Red Keep after the hunt.
#HOTDS1Script
THIS IS THE FIRE I WANT FOR RHAENYRA. this is the mad queen set up that we could have had! targ exceptionalism and completely going off the deep end as a way of coping with an unwinnable conflict. without viserys, without rhaenys, no one is there to temper the fire within her.
"it's a hard thing, i imagine, to give obeisance to one who replaced you as heir. and a woman too. a girl child you bounced on your knee."
the
#daemyra
parallels!!! ๐ญ
#houseofthedragon
her complaint against the lowborn is that there is an ancient fealty from highborn houses. mysaria correcting her doesn't make rhaenyra see the light, instead she recognizes that there's fealty to be had from lowborn people too. adapting, she calls them her army of bastards.
jace essentially begs his mother not to give commoners dragons, since she knows that he's suffered the insults of people his entire life for his parentage and this threatens his claim. but her response is now that the gods have laid this in front of her and she has no choice.
i have always said that rhaenyra is a combination of viserys and daemon, and i think that still. i think that she has both of their madnesses within her and as she loses more, the only thing she'll have to hold onto is that prophecy and the divine right she believes in now.
the dragonkeepers who call what she's doing blasphemy and note that it isn't the gods who brought the dragonseeds to her but she has done that. to them, she's using them like chess pieces, but to her, it seems like this is divine right. that's proven when hugh claims vermithor.
i always think about how fabien got "kirimvose" and spelled it right and matt and milly were struggling with "westeros" and "valyria". thank god they're so pretty.
Missing Scene From the House of the Dragon Script
โSecond of His Nameโ
โ Season 1 Episode 3
Rhaenyra stumbles on a group of men by the fire at the camp and meets Harwin Strong for the first time.
#HOTDS1Script
Missing Scene From the House of the Dragon
"The Green Council"
โ Season 1 Episode 9
Alicent speaks to Otto and insults Viserys before saying Aegon must wear the crown of the conquerer.
#HOTDS1Script
"when young rhaenyra says it to him, it's the first time he feels it. it's the first time he processes his actions (...) this is the first time we see him regret. we see him feel. (...) this is something we've never seen before in daemon."
#houseofthedragon
this is the first time he's said this without the veil of grief hanging over him and with his full conviction. it makes me cry because this is literally all she wanted from him, and the fact that he wouldn't accept her as queen was actually debilitating to her.
she paints a lovely but wholly false image. with vermithor and silverwing, there will be more suffering, more bloodshed, no promise of peace until everyone is dead. and if that happens, well the gods willed it, not her.
Missing Scene From the House of the Dragon Script
โDriftmarkโ
โ Season 1 Episode 7
Daemon rushes to Rhaenyra's side after she is cut.
#HOTDS1Script
addam claiming seasmoke changed everything for her. she talks about claiming a dragon as a transformation and in many ways, this claiming has transformed her as well. she tells the dragonseeds that their purpose now is the end the hardships of war. she promises peace in return.
Missing Scene From the House of the Dragon Script
"Second of His Name"
โ Season 1 Episode 3
Hobert and Otto talk about the Stepstones and how it benefits trade in Oldtown. Otto is surprised Hobert would suggest he would wage a war to better his own house.
#HOTDS1Script
ben barnes talking about a certain picture he has of freddy carter. i canโt deal with these four, i really want more scenes of them together but also netflix cast them in slice of life stories!!
confession: there's no spice for me in this scene, it's two very attractive people, but i think sonoya has always played mysaria as a woman who is clearly somewhat exhausted by daemon but saw him as a pathway to power and safety.
honestly i'm totally here for it, i think it's an exciting direction to go in and i'm here for the conflict that will happen with daemon as a result. idk if it'll be true but you know... just some crazy thoughts i had post-episode!
also just a note but i think daemon will be in direct opposition to this. he's NOT the type to follow cult leaders. this will be their conflict on top of the existing power struggles. this, to me, is far more interesting of a struggle as opposed to nettles.
#daemyra
: mafia au daemyra โย
instead of handling drug deals or enforcing mob rules, the rogue prince is forced to babysit bratty rhaenyra, who can't seem to hold her liquor or wear clothes that properly cover her body.
ty
@rosehearys
for this lovely piece!! you always nail it!
#daemyra
: "only the comforts of home."
inspired by my time-traveling daemon au (younger daemon not pictured for brothel crimes purposes.)
lovely art by
@alexx_moralesss
do you ever think about how rhaenyra, essentially alone in the red keep with her sons and surrounded by hightowers, resented daemon for leaving her when she would have trusted her whole world to him?
Missing Scenes From the House of the Dragon Script
โWe Light the Wayโ
โ Season 1 Episode 5
Two Scenes:
1. Laena talks to Rhaenyra when they arrive at Driftmark.
2. Laenor talks about Rhaenyra and Laena as kids.
#HOTDS1Script