The first season of House of the Dragon ran for 10 episodes on HBO last year. Each episode is around an hour long, so that’s a good amount of time to play with. But still, there were plenty of scenes that were filmed but which didn’t make the final cut.
According to the X account @hotdcroatia, one of these scenes came at the end of Episode 2, “The Rogue Prince.” If you don’t recall, that’s the episode where King Viserys I Targaryen, having lost his wife in childbirth, is pressured to marry Laena Velaryon, the daughter of Corlys Velaryon and Viserys’ cousin Rhaenys Targaryen. The problem is that Laena is around 12 at the time. It’s very uncomfortable.
Viserys opts not to marry Laena, choosing instead to wed Alicent Hightower, who is a few years older but still well shy of the age where I can not feel gross about it. Apparently, there was a scene cut from Episode 2 where Rhaenys speaks with her daughter after they learn that Viserys will not be marrying her. Check out an image:
🚨🐉 DELETED LAENA AND RHAENYS SCENE
— Wake the Dragon (@WtDasoiaf) October 13, 2023
I'm bringing you the deleted scene of young Laena and Rhaenys from the end of S1EP2.
Rhaenys comforts her daughter after she was rejected by Viserys earlier in the episode. At the end of the scene, we hear Vhagar's shriek in the distance. pic.twitter.com/pbyj8koo5W
Somehow I think Laena was probably fine with this outcome. Later, she marries Daemon Targaryen, although that marriage is also replete with problems. She doesn’t get a great shake, does Laena.
Rhaenyra tries to connect with her little brother Aegon in House of the Dragon deleted scene
Not long after it posted that screenshot, @hotdcroatia shared an image from yet another deleted moment from the first season of House of the Dragon. This one is from the third episode, “Second of His Name,” from the scene where Rhaenyra is riding in a carriage with her father Viserys Targaryen, her father’s wife Alicent Hightower, and their new baby Aegon Targaryen, Rhaenyra’s little half-brother. Rhaenyra is none too pleased that Aegon seems to be stealing her thunder as her father’s chosen heir, but in this deleted bit, she tries to bond with her baby brother by attempting to get him to say her name:
🚨🐉 DELETED RHAENYRA & AEGON II SCENE
— Wake the Dragon (@WtDasoiaf) October 18, 2023
The original scene of the royal family in the carriage on the way to the hunt in S1EP3 included Rhaenyra trying to get her stepbrother Aegon to say her name. The scene had to be reshot differently at a later date due to unforseen issues. pic.twitter.com/tbdrV4XQek
“Rhaenyra” is hard for a full-grown person to say, so I imagine a little kid would have trouble with it. In any case, the scene reportedly had to be reshot due to “unforeseen issues.”
Deleted scenes from House of the Dragon
We’ve heard about several other deleted scenes from the first season of House of the Dragon. In a deleted scene from the premiere, Viserys tries to tell his brother Daemon something important, In another, Viserys inducts Ser Criston Cole into the Kingsguard:
And there are more where that comes from! Hopefully we get to see some of these deleted scenes in a home video release some time. In the meantime, all we have are whispers and stray images:
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