Emma D’Arcy Hopes House of the Dragon Season 2 Delves into Rhaenyra and Daemon’s Troubled Relationship

They hadn’t seen a single episode of game of Thrones before the filming of the series that revealed it to the world: Emma D’Arcy wore Rhaenyra Targaryen’s extensions with panache in this year’s flagship series 2022, House of the Dragon and confides in this experience in an interview with Keeper.

And her first appearance on the series, from episode 6, was one that got a lot of ink flowing: having just delivered a baby boy, Rhaenyra rushes to introduce him to Queen Alicent Hightower, her lifelong friend who married her father , Viserys Targaryen.

Another particularly trying birth scene to watch, it was also one of the criticisms leveled since the first episode due to the scary birth of Queen Aemma and a barbaric caesarean section.

While Home off the dragon did you want to be more feminist than your predecessor, did you really manage not to reproduce the same violence towards your female characters, even if they are more valued and central to the power war that opposes them for the throne? Nothing is less secure.

“It’s significant and interesting that this is the thing we’d rather not see on screen”says non-binary actor Emma D’Arcy. “And that raises questions for me: what do we want to see? What do we feel comfortable with when we see female characters? »

The audience’s fascination with Daemon Targaryen

Another equally heated debate has elicited reactions in this regard House of the Dragon, the one around her story with Daemon Targaryen, uncle and lover, then husband, played by Matt Smith. We really needed to start over with incestuous intrigue afterwards game of Thrones ?

Emma d’Arcy confirms that the dynamic between her character and Daemon’s is far from healthy. “She is a deeply problematic character. Seeing Rhaenyra seduced and manipulated as a child by her uncle confirms this and prevents the audience from blinding themselves to the problematic nature of their relationship. »

Yet Daemon Targaryen enjoys a fan base very active on social networks which excuses or even glorifies his worst deeds and character traits. One of showrunnerRyan Condal, also spoke in New York Times on the subject, complaining of an unhealthy fascination with a man certainly complex and charismatic, but also manipulative and violent : “I knew people would find it fascinating, but I thought it would be like with Jaime Lannister, Bronn or Red Viper. I didn’t think there would be a whole huge fan community to justify every act of him as something heroic. It’s not, it can’t be. And this will not happen. »

For her part, Emma D’Arcy hopes that ambivalence will be further challenged in upcoming seasons.

“There’s a long history of troubled love relationships in cinema, particularly with male characters. House of the Dragon uses the same scheme. Audiences have reacted to Matt playing a Daemon as a very sexy, masculine object of desire, but at the same time, I hope the show continues to acknowledge the problematic nature of that. »

Filming for the second season is expected to begin in spring 2023.