Warning: Main spoilers forward for season two, episode 4 of “Home of the Dragon.”
“Home of the Dragon” is not a present that pulls its punches, however its newest episode, “The Purple Dragon and the Gold,” landed its most devastating blow but.
Those that have learn “Fireplace and Blood” weren’t shocked to see Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, the Queen Who By no means Was, and her dragon Meleys fall to Aemond Targaryen and Vhagar. Rhaenys embarked to Rook’s Relaxation, a modest citadel near Rhaenyra’s base at Dragonstone, to satisfy Ser Criston Cole’s advancing pressure. However when she arrived, she met two dragons: Sunfyre, ridden by King Aegon II, and Vhagar, ridden by Aemond. Although she and Meleys fought till the final second, Vhagar overpowered them, and he or she fell to her dying.
Rhaenys’ dying, as a viewer, is a tragedy. However for “Home of the Dragon” to completely decide to its devastating dragon conflict, fought between a girl with a rightful declare to the throne and her usurper youthful half-brother, Rhaenys wanted to die.
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‘Home of the Dragon’s’ authentic sin is denying Rhaenys the throne
“Home of the Dragon” takes place throughout a brief interval of Targaryen household historical past — there are an enormous variety of occasions, like Aegon’s Conquest, that precede it, and clearly, a protracted historical past that follows it (you can name a few of it “Recreation of Thrones”). However throughout the context of the present, the story begins most particularly throughout the Nice Council assembly to find out King Jahaerys’ successor.
With Jahaerys’ sons lifeless, the council’s alternative boiled down to 2 choices: Rhaenys, his eldest descendant, or Viserys, his eldest male descendant. Having by no means sat a Queen on the Iron Throne, the council selected the comparatively smooth Viserys, whose choices sowed the seeds for Rhaenyra and Aegon’s conflict. Rhaenys, for the remainder of her life, bears the slight with grace because the Lord of Driftmark Corlys Velaryon’s spouse.
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However regardless of her acquiescence, the fallacious of denying Rhaenys the throne hangs like a pall over “Home of the Dragon,” and Rhaenyra particularly. Rhaenys represents and espouses an previous “order of issues,” as she admonishes a younger Rhaenyra about in season one: one the place a person will all the time be seen as a reputable ruler over a girl, no matter her declare to the throne. When Rhaenyra and Rhaenys’ son Laenor are engaged, Rhaenys worries that her son might be endangered throughout a succession problem. When her husband, Lord Corlys Velaryon, brings up her denial of the throne, Rhaenys says that she shuttered her ambition “a technology in the past.”
Rhaenys’ persistence over the course of the sequence, significantly as Rhaenyra faces additional challenges relating to her declare, asks an implicit query: if Rhaenys might bear not changing into Queen, why could not Rhaenyra?
Rhaenys’ sacrifice represents the true starting of the conflict
It feels outstanding when Rhaenys throws her weight behind Rhaenyra, although she does so seemingly reluctantly. She is aware of that if Rhaenyra pursues her declare, it should deliver calamity. However when Alicent installs her son Aegon on the throne, Rhaenys doesn’t bend the knee — however neither can she take the chance to finish Alicent’s bloodline when it is offered to her.
“That conflict isn’t mine to start,” Rhaenys tells Daemon and Rhaenyra, justifying her actions.
On the finish of season one, Rhaenys persuades her husband, Corlys, to again Rhaenyra, citing the security of their grandchildren. However she additionally praises Rhaenyra’s restraint in not submitting to all-out conflict, which proves to be a serious theme in season two. It is Rhaenys who incites Rhaenyra’s ultimate errand for peace: a face-to-face with Alicent, within the hopes of avoiding a conflict between dragons.
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And when that falls via, it is Rhaenys who should step up. Eve Finest, who performs Rhaenys with a gradual hand, informed Enterprise Insider that because the voice of restraint — and as Rhaenyra’s strongest warrior, astride Meleys — there was no different alternative.
However thematically, Rhaenys’ sacrifice is a crucial one. As she reminded Rhaenyra in her youth, she’s an emblem of the previous custom: one during which the Queen Who By no means Was should gracefully bear the insult of being denied a kingdom. Nobody higher understands the trials that Rhaenyra faces and the judgment calls that she should make. That is why Rhaenys makes this ultimate choice for her, telling Rhaenyra, “You should ship me.”
That call proves that Rhaenys could not — or would not — bear that insult for any longer, although she fights for Rhaenyra’s declare and never her personal. Her sacrifice symbolizes an open door — one via a which a brand new order, nonetheless bloody the method, could also be solid.