Daemon and Rhaenyra's marriage will be "challenged and tested" in House of the Dragon season 2

The Targaryen family is a tangled mess. Brothers marry sisters, fathers marry best friends, uncles marry nieces...you have to wonder if the family would be on the brink of war in the second season of House of the Dragon if they had more boundaries.

But they have the family they have. One of the most prominent couples on the show is Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) and Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), who are niece and uncle. They married towards the end of season 1, but things have always been tense, especially after King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) — Rhaenyra's father and Daemon's brother — died in the season 1 finale. And on top of that, Rhaenyra's son Luke (Elliot Grihault) was killed by Rhaenyra's own half-brother Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell), who supports her other half-brother Aegon's (Tom Glynn-Carney) claim to the Iron Throne over hers.

Rhaenyra is consumed by grief and, I imagine, confusion, which is putting pressure on her marriage to her uncle. “I don’t know if they can find solace in each other in the losses,” D’Arcy told members of the press at an event. “I don’t feel like Daemon can share his experience of losing his brother, so there is a dislocation taking place.”

If you remember, Daemon choked Rhaenyra in the season 1 finale after she revealed that King Viserys had imparted important information to her that he hadn't told Daemon. That's a red flag if there ever was one. There's also the fact that Daemon has always wanted to sit the Iron Throne, and is now in a difficult position as he must support his wife's claim to the chair. In the trailer, there's even a moment where Rhaenyra asks if he recognizes her as his queen, and he doesn't answer right away...

“I think they can’t unburden themselves from this shadow," said Matt Smith. "The way Viserys died was so horrendous, and they were next to him seeing him decompose. It’s uncomfortable for them both.”

"I believe there is a deep sense of love that is challenged and tested in season two. He also feels unaccepted by her, and reacts as Daemon reacts."

What will Alicent Hightower and Criston Cole be up to in House of the Dragon season 2?

Apart from Daemon, Rhaenyra is separated from a couple of the other people with whom she'd previously shared intimate connections: Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), both of whom support Aegon's claim to the Iron Throne and will fight against Rhaenyra in the wars to come.

From the beginning, the show has drawn parallels between Rhaenyra and Alicent, the former of whom got to live her life on something closer to her own terms and the latter of whom always did what was expected of her by her family, even at the cost of her freedom and happiness. Although they're on opposite sides of a war now, the show will continue this parallelism. “In the editing, we found ways to connect those characters even if they’re literally islands apart," said showrunner Ryan Condal. "It adds dimensionality to this story."

Meanwhile, Criston Cole is still carrying the pain of being rejected by Rhaenyra in her youth literally over a decade later, setting a record for grudge-holding. “Criston has always fascinated me,” Condal said. “He’s rare in this world because he’s a self-made man. He got to where he is because of his skills. He’s embraced it as he wears this white cloak around his neck. He’s proud of it and it’s also the burden he carries. Whatever you think of him, he’s a deeply interesting character. In season two, as we’ve moved from peace to wartime, it applies interesting pressure to his character.”

All of these characters will be back when the second season of House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and Max on Sunday, June 16.

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