House of the Dragon star breaks down Rhaenyra’s brutal birth scene

House of the Dragon star Emma D’Arcy (Rhaenyra Targaryen) is still reeling from the reaction to the epic season 1 finale. Speaking about “The Black Queen” to Entertainment Weekly, they broke down their feelings about some of the super-charged scenes, including Rhaenyra’s brutal miscarriage.

When Rhaenyra gets the news that the greens have crowned Aegon as king rather than her, she goes into premature labor. I had to look away for most of this scene; I don’t even think the original Game of Thrones show went this far.

“One of the reasons that moment is so important within the scope of the whole show is that, for a character who has been seeking this masculine freedom and who so early had this fear of the possible incapacitation brought by motherhood and childbearing and the mortality associated with childbearing, at the same moment, she finally receives the message that she’s waited a lifetime for,” D’Arcy said. “Your father has passed and it’s time for your ascension. It almost felt to me like she was finally being given a direct choice to be a king or to be a mother. And within that, there’s a question about whether one can be neither or both.”

Then there’s the moment where Rhaenyra screams at her baby to “get out” and pulls the child out before its time. “I think she chooses herself in that moment, and by doing so, chooses her right to rule,” D’Arcy said.

Why did we see Syrax during Rhaenyra’s birth scene?

While Rhaenyra labored with childbirth, her husband Daemon Targaryen went about planning to retaliate against the people who had put Aegon on the throne over his wife, even though that’s not what Rhaenyra wanted. And all of it was managed by director Greg Yaitanes. “Emma had a lot of input,” he said. “We worked on it in many forms. Emma went on their own on the weekend to try to work out some of what they wanted to do. Matt did a variety of different things in terms of how [Daemon] was reacting and how he was connected or not connected to what was going on. So it had a lot of conversation around it because it’s always something you want to handle very sensitively. I looked at the other birthing scenes done in the season and, as a parent, it should be hard to watch.”

One interesting touch was intercutting shots of Rhaenyra in labor with quick flashes of her dragon Syrax. “I’m glad that those found their way in, those roars and those moments,” Yaitanes said. “I had more. They were a little wider in my storyboard, so you saw the similar contortions and movement and that the dragon was physically responding, as well. We tried different stuff with Emma crawling and doing different things that felt right.”

And the birth may not have even been the most controversial part of the episode…

House of the Dragon star breaks down the scene where Daemon strangles Rhaenyra

After Rhaenyra has buried her daughter Visenya and accepted her father’s crown, she gets to work planning how to deal with Aegon getting crowned in King’s Landing. While many of her advisors encourage war, Rhaenyra — mindful of her father’s charge to safeguard the Prophecy of Ice and Fire and hold the realm together — is more diplomatic, which angers Daemon, who is seeing red. During a private moment, Daemon wraps his hand around his wife’s throat, which may be a point of no return for the couple.

“[Actor Matt Smith and I] were both hyper aware that that act of violence could possibly mark a shift in their relationship or dynamic,” D’Arcy said. “You have two people who are grieving in different ways, and perhaps Daemon’s grief is less eloquently managed than Rhaenyra’s.”

There’s also the matter of Rhaenyra letting slip about the prophecy, and learning that Viserys never told Daemon about it back when Daemon was the heir. “For Rhaenyra, realizing that Daemon was never told about the prophecy is to suddenly, finally receive legitimacy,” D’Arcy said. “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.”

In House of the Dragon season 2, Rhaenyra’s “attempt at mediation crumbles”

All that said, Rhaenyra’s attempts at restraint look like they come tumbling down in the final moments of the episode, when Daemon informs her that Aemond Targaryen has killed her son Lucerys Velaryon at Storm’s End.

“The moment that she receives the news of Luke’s passing, that attempt at mediation crumbles,” D’Arcy said. “I don’t think there is any longer the bandwidths to suppress and repress her nature… I am excited to discover what happens when Rhaenyra does less navigating and more acting on her instincts and desires. 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.”

It’s going to be a very, very epic second season, folks!

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