The White Worm Is Lurking Again on ‘House of the Dragon’
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Spoilers follow for Episode 4, 6 and 8 of House of the Dragon, and the book Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin.
In the fantasy world of House of the Dragon, there are so many royal titles and unofficial monikers that it can be hard to keep everyone straight. There's Corlys the Sea Snake, Daemon the self-styled King of the Narrow Sea, Rhaenys the Queen Who Never Was, etc. So it would be incredibly easy to overlook an oblique mention of somebody called the White Worm—but this character will play an integral role in the political machinations of the brewing civil war.
The White Worm was first mentioned in Episode 4, "King of the Narrow Sea". This installment delivered a series of royal hookups which ranged from the deeply depressing (poor, rotting Viserys has never made Alicent climax, has he?) to the downright disturbing (uncle-on-niece action right in front of my salad??). And because Daemon and Rhaenyra's initial, ill-advised tryst in the pleasure house took place in King's Landing, it was only a matter of time before word of their antics got back to the Red Keep.
Palace intrigue, after all, is like all good gossip: it thrives on new and scandalous information. And nobody knows this better than Otto Hightower, the soon-to-be-deposed Hand of the King, who is alerted to the incestuous coupling at the behest of somebody known only as the "White Worm."
Who is the White Worm in House of the Dragon?
While the identity of this shadowy figure is not directly revealed in that episode, it is heavily implied that Otto received his intel from Mysaria, the sex worker whom Daemon took as an unlawful second bride in Episode 2. The morning after Daemon and Rhaenyra's big night out, Mysaria is shown to be increasingly contemptuous of her lover. In the same scene, she has a wordless interaction with the young boy who was spotted tailing Rhaenyra out of the pleasure house, and money changes hands, making it pretty clear that Mysaria was the one who paid him to follow the princess.
This is all backed up by George R.R. Martin's fictional history of House Targaryen, Fire & Blood, in which it is confirmed that Mysaria is also known as the White Worm. In the book, that nickname is on account of her pale skin, although in the show she is portrayed by Japanese-American actress Sonoya Mizuno (who you might remember from modern sci-fi classic Ex Machina or Crazy Rich Asians).
Mysaria is absent from the following episodes, as Daemon first marries Laena Velaryon, and then eventually Rhaenyra. But she reappears briefly in Episode 8, "Lord of the Tides," in a short but impactful scene which reveals that she has been operating behind the scenes this entire time.
Earlier in the episode, Alicent pressures Dyana, the maid who was sexually assaulted by Prince Aegon, into drinking moon tea (essentially a Westerosi morning after pill) and manipulates her into staying quiet about the rape, paying her to secure her silence. Alicent's maid, Talia, is present for much of this exchange—and we later see her paying a clandestine visit to Mysaria, presumably to pass on Aegon and the Queen's secret.
Talia (played by Alexis Raben, the wife of House of the Dragon director Miguel Sapochnik) also appeared in Episode 6, "The Princess and the Queen," and witnessed a fragment of Alicent's conversation with Larys Strong before being dismissed—are we to assume, then, that she listened at the door, and fed back to Mysaria that Larys actually murdered Lord Lyonel and Ser Harwyn Strong on the queen's behalf?
It's clear now that Mysaria has been running her own network of "little birds," just like Varys in Game of Thrones, and has gathered all kinds of dirt on Alicent. As the season draws nearer to its conclusion, we may well see her spill the (moon) tea.
While Mysaria was initially seen to be working for Otto Hightower, it now seems that she is working against the Hightowers, collecting intelligence that can be used against them. This, again, tallies with what we know of her in the book: during the Targaryen civil war she takes on the role of royal spymaster and the unofficial title "mistress of whisperers" to Princess Rhaenyra. Which means a reunion with her ex, Daemon, is probably nigh...
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