SPEAKER: Duty is sacrifice.
It eclipses all things,
even blood.
In the making of season one,
we knew half that season is a prologue
and half of it is the first act of this war.
To have season one land the way it did,
with a rabid audience,
fans of George and his books the way I am.
We were excited to get into it
because this is the juicy part of the drama.
♪ (SOMBER MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
SPEAKER: The North owes a great duty to the Seven Kingdoms,
one older than any oath.
Winterfell is the one place, the one corner of this world
where news of Luke's death has not yet reached,
and it is this hearkening back to a simpler time.
I wanted to go to a place where we could experience that,
if only briefly,
and the North just felt completely the right way to go.
Ryan, when we did speak, it really, really helped me out
because we would have conversations
about how important these negotiations are
for Team Black
and the difference it makes in the war.
War is coming to the whole of the realm, My Lord.
We cannot wage it without the support of the North.
HARRY COLLETT: Well, it was all about history.
There were pledges that were made back in the day,
and Jace is sent to remind Cregan Stark of those pledges.
If your greybeards can fight, the Queen will have them.
They will fight hard, like Northerners.
ALAN TAYLOR: Rhaenyra heard the news that Luke has died
on a mission that she sent him on,
so there's guilt involved.
And she's a mother who's lost a son
and has to go through
the sort of necessary grieving process
that Daemon, her husband,
can't really appreciate or understand.
She goes and tries to make peace with Luke's demise,
but she cannot settle in it
because it is unsettled business,
until part of Arrax washes ashore.
Going in search of evidence is
quite fundamentally important to her.
I guess one of the sort of maddest things about death
is that it seems sort of impossible,
especially because really the overriding feeling often is
you just sit with the absence.
And so, anything that has, like, a tangibility about it
I think is vitally important.
Her son's cloak, the wing of his dragon,
I think it's devastating,
but I think it galvanizes a vengeful feeling,
one that maybe she hasn't paid so much mind to previously.
(SYRAX ROARS)
EVE BEST: I think that Rhaenys is probably one of the few people
that Daemon knows he can't mess with,
although I suspect probably wants to.
We're going to King's Landing.
-To what end? -Killing Vhagar.
When those two meet, it's kind of like
a panther meets a kind of electric eel.
Really dangerous combination.
He's essentially ready to go to war and get payback.
RYAN CONDAL: It was nice to throw those characters
into conflict with one another.
I think you can tell from even her demeanor
the way Rhaenys thinks of Daemon.
Daemon believes that he's, of course,
completely in the right
and has the power to order Rhaenys around.
Fly with me.
It is a command.
Would that you were the king.
AEGON II TARGARYEN: Where is Jaehaerys?
What do you need of him?
I'm taking him to the Small Council.
He'll be king one day. He must begin his instruction.
What if he does not want to be king?
(WHISPERS) Where is he?
One of the things I loved about Game of Thrones
was the character humor.
And, you know, we can spend a lot of time
being dour in this world,
and it's so important to have humor.
And when I first saw
what Tom Glynn-Carney was doing with Aegon,
I thought, "He's finding humor where I didn't know it existed."
And it's painful,
a guy who's way in over his head,
who really wants to do well
but just can't make a right move...
(LAUGHS) ...no matter what he does.
SPEAKER 2: Aegon the Magnanimous.
Hail King Aegon!
The Magnanimous?
I think Aegon is the kind of father
that encourages bad behavior because he finds it funny.
He loves his kids.
I have no doubt about that.
He loves his kids dearly.
But he's not one to discipline them.
If anything, he's, you know,
having competitions with his children
to see who can be the most rebellious.
And Aegon often wins.
He took my piece.
Is the heir to the throne bothering you, Tyland?
We see him come into a Small Council meeting
with Jaehaerys,
and, you know, he's spurring him on.
He's wanting him to be more of a-- more of a rebel,
more of a nuisance, just like his old man.
-I think he wants a ride. -ALICENT HIGHTOWER: Your Grace.
-TYLAND LANNISTER: A ride? -A pony ride.
Wouldn't that be fun, Jaehaerys?
Should the Master of Coin be your royal steed?
(ALL CHUCKLING)
It's meant to be a moment of fun, a bit.
And yes, like Aegon brings his four-year-old to work.
But I think on a perhaps nuanced character level,
this is the thing that Viserys never did for Aegon.
And Aegon did not study at the feet of his father.
His father had his male heir and then essentially said,
"Well, that box is ticked." He was ill.
I think he enjoyed having a son,
but didn't put in the work the way he did with Rhaenyra
when he was a younger man.
And I think Aegon resents that
and feels that part of the reason
that he's not seen as being suited
for the crown or the throne
is because he didn't get that training from his father,
so now he's going to make up for that tenfold
with Jaehaerys.
ALAN: Alicent's been in a marriage that was loving,
but not exactly romantic or physical for quite some time.
Cole has got a lot of issues.
One thing I love about the character
is that he is a knight in shining armor
and sort of classically handsome
and probably the most messed up person in the story
in many ways.
You know, clinging to notions of purity and duty
and just flagrantly breaking them left and right.
So, there's a lot of complex things
driving the moves closer and closer
between Alicent and Cole.
And it takes a leap forward.
But nothing is simple with them,
so for every leap forward, there's a push back.
We cannot... again.
ALAN: There's a lot of wonderful tension there.
I mean, I think there's love, but there's a lot of mess too.
(LAUGHS)
-Your Grace. -Good day.
FABIEN FRANKEL: I think, ultimately,
they're two very lost people in a pretty unforgiving world.
And I think there's always been,
you know, since the very first episode,
Alicent, you know, had her eye on Criston Cole.
And then she was a young lady,
and now she's the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.
OLIVIA COOKE: It's paramount that she keeps it a secret
because not only would her respect
completely disintegrate,
but her stay in the castle.
And Aegon is so unpredictable. Who knows what he would do
if he found out that his mother was having sex
with his Commander of the Kingsguard?
I mean, not only is it an embarrassment,
it would bring deep, deep shame.
I want Aemond Targaryen.
Rhaenyra has literally one line in the first episode,
and the one line she says,
Daemon takes as pulling the trigger.
In our first episode, we see him unleash something
that is sort of famous in the lore of House of the Dragon,
a nasty event that he triggers.
When Rhaenyra declares that she wants Aemond,
I think it's an admission of a possibly shameful desire,
and I think that admission is made directly to Daemon.
I think it's also an admission of their similarity.
She sort of discloses another way in which
they actually share a darkness.
"I want Aemond Targaryen" becomes the battle cry
that then resonates across the entire season
because that is the next domino to fall
in this back and forth that sets in motion
a horrible attack and counterattack
that continues,
and the atrocities grow worse and worse as they go.
ALAN: In our story, it's Mysaria,
who has got her tentacles into every part of King's Landing,
who is able to provide the connections
for Daemon to exact revenge.
I think it really is a big deal for the fans
because it keeps getting referred to.
And I don't know the characters' actual names.
They're forever in lore as Blood and Cheese.
-(LAUGHING) -Who the fuck is she?
She's the Queen, she is.
"A son for a son," he said.
The boldest thing that I think we did there
was decide to give the last ten minutes of the episode
over to these two characters that we have never met before
and rely on them to take us through the end of the story
and to see, hopefully,
as they go deeper and deeper into the Red Keep
and as we're spending more and more screen time on them
that something horrible is going to happen in there,
and knowing that you're watching Game of Thrones
and you don't know what is going to come for you from where.
And seeing that play out hopefully is the fun
and the horror for the audience that's yet to come.
♪ (MUSIC SWELLS) ♪
(MUFFLED YELP)
♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪