The Red Queen rises: House of the Dragon star Eve Best unpacks Rhaenys' explosive moment
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Warning: This article contains spoilers from House of the Dragon season 1, episode 9.
The Dance of the Dragons has officially begun, and Rhaenys Targaryen just showed all of Westeros why she's a true power player.
House of the Dragon episode 9, the penultimate episode of season 1, picks up in the twilight hours of the morning after King Viserys (Paddy Considine) dies in his sleep. Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) and his allies on the Small Council waste no time commencing with their long-laid plans to put Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) on the Iron Throne, while Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) is forced to make moves of her own. In the end, a grand coronation is held at the sept in the Dragonpit. Aegon, wearing the crown of the Conqueror, thrusts his father's Valyrian steel blade Blackfyre into the air before the people of King's Landing as the new ruler of the realms.
And then... an explosion. A cone of dust and stone erupts from the ground beneath the Dragonpit, raining down death on those caught in its path. It's "the beast beneath the boards" Alicent's daughter Helaena (Phia Saban) has been murmuring about since episode 8. Out of this dark cloud emerges Meleys, the dragon known as the Red Queen for the crown of spikes adorning her neck. Seated on her back is her rider, Rhaenys (Eve Best), donning silver and red armor.
Ollie Upton / HBO Eve Best as Princess Rhaenys Targaryen crashing Aegon's coronation in 'House of the Dragon.'
Series co-creator and co-showrunner Ryan Condal was keen to keep the armor hidden from the audience until this moment. "We wanted her to be rising like a phoenix from the ashes," says director Clare Kilner, who joins Best in an interview with EW.
"She's packed it," Best notes of Rhaenys' battle attire. "She's traveled to King's Landing with it because it's part of her dragon-riding equipment. Also, probably in that moment of knowledge in episode 8, she's flying into tricky waters... She hasn't worn it for a very, very, very long time and the fact that she's wearing it means business. It's like, 'This is it. No more games.'"
Rhaenys' stunt at Aegon's crowning is something author George R.R. Martin did not include in the source material, the Targaryen historical record of Fire and Blood. Though, it's not hard to imagine a royal family wanting to scrub the official account of any embarrassment for the history books. Rhaenys has the power to end the impending civil war over succession before it even begins. Alicent prepares to die as Meleys rears her head, but instead of torching them all in dragon fire, the creature unleashes a ferocious scream. Rhaenys and her steed then burst through the Dragonpit doors and fly off to Dragonstone to inform Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy), Viserys' true chosen heir, that her throne has just been usurped.
"It's the pinnacle," Best says, expounding on this sequence. "It's the moment when she shows herself to be the greatest possible ruler. It was the most outrageous and explosive action of the season. In a way, it's also the most merciful and most graceful act. It's because she's so intelligent and in the end chooses to do the right thing, which is not to destroy. It's a truly forgiving moment and sort of a loving moment, in a weird way. She has all the ammunition, and the desire for revenge is so great. She's suffered so much loss, and for her own sake and on behalf of so many others, the urge to destroy is so strong. And yet the choice not to destroy becomes even stronger. That's the mark of greatness and [a] truly inspiring moment — I think actually one that is particularly resonate in this context of what we're going through right now in our world with everything that's going on with Russia. The choice not to drop the bombs is the greater choice."
HBO Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) rides Meleys in 'House of the Dragon.'
Best and Kilner point to a scene earlier in the episode to explain Rhaenys' choice not to burn the Hightowers: the so-named Queen Who Never Was is imprisoned in her chambers as the Greens toil away with their plans. Alicent comes to Rhaenys to confirm what has transpired and urges her to side House Velaryon with Aegon and the Greens.
"Alicent really proves herself in that scene," Best comments of that meeting. "I think Rhaenys had taken her very much for granted as somebody who doesn't really need to be paid attention to, and she shows herself to be somebody actually to be reckoned with. I think there's a kind of mutual respect that happens as a result of that scene. It's two women living through the appalling treatment, abuse, repression, oppression, the horrors of this patriarchal system. They see eye to eye, they understand, they empathize."
More than that, Best feels it's a moment where Alicent sees the real Rhaenys, who's told in earnest by someone other than her husband, "You should have been queen" over Viserys, if not for the Great Council of Harrenhal.
"It not only takes Rhaenys' breath completely away, but I think it's the first time, almost in her life really, that she feels truly vulnerable and taken aback," the actress adds. "Alicent has just spoken directly to her heart, and in that moment it feels like the roles are completely reversed and Rhaenys is, for a moment, like a young child. Alicent's the only one who's seen her."
It's a feeling of shared respect between these two women that extends to the final event of episode 9. Even in the face of death, Alicent steps in front of Aegon, shielding his body from the line of dragon fire. Kilner takes cinematic liberties to enhance the drama: as the soldiers in the back are pushing the Dragonpit doors shut and Meleys, looming large in the left of the screen, closes in on Alicent, the scene echoes what Rhaenys tells the Queen about needing to make "a window in the wall of your prison."
"I think [Rhaenys] learns so much from that moment because [Alicent] pushes Aegon behind her and stands to face you, and she's ready to die," Kilner tells Best. "She steps up as a mother," Best adds. "I think Rhaenys sees that and respects that."
Ollie Upton / HBO The Green Council assembles in 'House of the Dragon' episode 9. Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) and Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) flank Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke).
The act of filming this sequence was multilayered. The House of the Dragon crew had to shoot the Dragonpit coronation, roughly the size of a football field, on a stage one-third that size. So they broke it down into parts. Kilner filmed the extras portraying the small folk fleeing from Meleys in sets of 50. Then she shot the stunt performers who were being blown back like projectiles on harnesses individually against a blue screen.
It's the definition of controlled chaos, which the story itself called for. "One of the most important things was who controls the dragon," Kilner notes of Meleys. "They've got this dragon, and whilst they've got this dragon they think they have all the power. And Otto relies on having this dragon. The fact that Rhaenys emerges with the dragon and leaves means that they have very little to fight with." The director says the soldiers had initially been ordered to close the doors to the Dragonpit, but in the chaos caused by Rhaenys, all semblance of order crumbles. They fail to heed Otto's calls to open them. Call it House of the Dragon's own "hold the door" moment. "On the one hand, he wants to say 'close the doors' because he wants to keep the dragon in there and tame it and get rid of Rhaenys — have the nuclear bomb, so to speak," Kilner says. "But on the other hand, if the dragon stays in there, well, it could potentially incinerate them all."
Another layer was Best filming alone on the Leavesden Studios stage in the U.K. containing the Wall. Not the ice wall in the north from Game of Thrones, but a nearly 360-degree LED wall projecting visual effects in real time. In the center of this stage — known as the V Stage for the "virtual" tech — is a buck used to emulate riding a dragon. Best calls the process "quite bonkers," but acknowledges the strain on her body on the day of filming.
"It was the very end of the shoot. We [were] all absolutely exhausted and I remember the dragon riding sandwiched in between two days of really heavy dialogue," Best recalls. "I'd slightly done my back in somehow. I was being strapped on the dragon, really not feeling like it very much. Certainly feeling like a bit of a bag of bones."
Kilner, however, brought levity. Since it was just Best, the director performed the voices and cues for all the other characters in the scene for her actress to react. "My voice was hoarse by the end of it," Kilner admits through laughter. "It was like, 'And the dragon! It's bursting through the roof! And now it's facing Alicent, and Alicent is facing you and she doesn't trust you!' And then when we were doing the other side of it, doing Alicent [with Cooke], I was like, 'And she's bursting through the roof! Coming for you!' But it's really fun because you just feel like a kid again. You just go for it."
Listen to more of EW's interview with Best and Kilner on the West of Westeros podcast, which goes behind the making of House of the Dragon and the growing Game of Thrones universe.
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