Ryan Corr reflects on Harwin Strong’s complex relationship with Rhaenyra

House of the Dragon season 1 featured plenty of complicated relationships. Some, such as the romance between Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Ser Harwin Strong (Ryan Corr) were fairly short-lived…at least on screen.

Following the show’s mid-season time jump, viewers found out that Harwin and Rhaenyra had been in a relationship for the past 10 years, and that he was the father of her children Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey. All of this was done with the permission of Rhaenyra’s husband Laenor Velaryon (John MacMillan). However, viewers really only got one episode to see what Rhaenyra and Harwin were like as a couple, since the disgraced officer of the City Watch was murdered by his own brother Larys at the tail end of Episode 6, “The Princess and the Queen.”

Corr dives into all of this on a new episode of the official Game of Thrones podcast, which is all about characters we loved and lost.

Harwin Strong was “happy” to live in Rhaenyra Targaryen’s shadow

While Harwin made an impression on viewers, most of his juiciest scenes took place behind closed doors, since his relationship with Rhaenyra would have caused quite a scandal at court. We do get to see how he cares for his children. “Harwin’s a man that’s lived a lot of his life in the shadows. I think that was a part of the understanding. I think, he was happy to,” Corr said.

Leading up to Episode 6, Harwin and Rhaenyra had only briefly crossed paths in a handful of scenes: first when he laughed as young Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) returned bloody and triumphant with a slain boar during the royal hunt; when he runs into Rhaenyra and her uncle Daemon (Matt Smith) during their moonlight escapade in King’s Landing; and finally during the fracas at Rhaenyra’s wedding feast, when he punches out some guards and slings the princess over his shoulder to carry her to safety.

But even with the blessing of Rhaenyra’s husband Laenor, Rhaenrya’s relationship with Ser Harwin was always going to be tricky. “And so, trying to show those elements of the relationship with subtlety and within subtext was kind of the challenge,” Corr said. “You know, how do you show that Rhaenyra and Harwin care for each other this much and have a relationship that spans 10 years, through looks? In a world in which we’re not allowed to actually express that love. And so, I think, that’s sort of became a part of the texture of that relationship that we were forming between Emma and I, and Milly and I. It’s a tricky sort of precipice.”

Fortunately, Corr had plenty of support behind the scenes. He got a lot of help in particular from Episode 6 director Miguel Sapochnik. “If he’s going to be this doting father, and this person of honor who’s there for his kids in this way, we also need to have the hunter, and the barbarian and the man who’s capable of danger and violence. And I think treading that precipice was what we tried to bring into him,” Corr said.

All 10 episodes of House of the Dragon season 1 are available now on HBO Max.

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h/t Collider