A Black Queen and a viral meme.
Warning: This article contains spoilers fromHouse of the Dragon’s season finale.
(In fairness, to some viewers, the classicGame of Thronesbanger is that.)
Emma D’Arcy on ‘House of the Dragon’.Ollie Upton / HBO
“Which, honestly, is my idea of bliss,” D’Arcy says.
“I could not possibly say,” D’Arcy tells EW with a laugh from their home over Zoom.
“I find that a perfect cocktail of surprising, bemusing, and intensely flattering,” D’Arcy says.
Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen in the ‘House of the Dragon’ season 1 finale.Ollie Upton / HBO
Very surreal and very lovely."
Someone should write an essay on that, actually.
I would definitely read it."
Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen.HBO
And it’s got its own occupation.
I would like to read something on that, as well, actually."
“I’m very aware of everyone’s pronouns and put special care on that,” he says.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) is out for vengeance in the ‘House of the Dragon’ season 1 finale.HBO
Gender politics was one allure ofHouse of the Dragonfor D’Arcy.
It’s apparent in the season finale, titled “The Black Queen” after Rhaenyra’s new moniker.
Yaitanes says “all eyes were on the birth” during the shoot.
“It was such a moment that needed everybody’s attention and sensitivity and focus.”
“Emma had a lot of input,” Yaitanes continues.
“We worked on it in many forms.
D’Arcy admits to feeling a sense of dread leading up to the filming of the miscarriage.
They wanted to see to it the show had earned that moment.
And within that, there’s a question about whether one can be neither or both.”
The camera cuts between close-ups of Rhaenyra’s screaming face and flashes of Syrax empathically shrieking.
“I had more.
We tried different stuff with Emma crawling and doing different things that felt right.”
She walks into the war room for the first time, visibly adjusting to her new position.
In a private moment, Daemon grabs Rhaenyra by the throat in anger.
She had mentioned Aegon’s prophecy, something his brother never relayed to him.
“And the same message for Daemon is to be finally humiliated.
It’s sort of perfect for Daemon because he can claim not to believe in this stuff.
He wasn’t trusted with it anyway.”
Rhaenyra’s restraint to engage in war becomes a tribute to Viserys and the diplomacy he evoked as king.
Then another tragedy befalls her House and she becomes the Black Queen we read about in the Targaryen histories.
The finale closes with a similar tight shot of adult Rhaenyra staring down the camera.
Her tear-stained cheeks now flush with rage.
“Her greatest day at her highest point [versus] her lowest point,” Yaitanes notes.
“I don’t think there is any longer the bandwidths to suppress and repress her nature… For so many very legitimate reasons, she has her hands tied practically throughout season 1.
I have a feeling that the rain might be off for season 2.”
D’Arcy says the season finale “was quite a grueling episode to shoot.”
Part of that was due to their own personal fears.
It’s like the Alps," they say.
“It’s literally a rocky, hilly landscape where these state-changing events happen one after another after another.
Practically, as an actor, you better find definition between those events.
You have to not run out the resource too quickly.”
Season 2 will start filming in the first half of 2023, the actor has heard.
Perhaps some Negronis will help them decompress.
