House of the Dragon: Paddy Considine (King Viserys) responds to Aegon smashing his model of Old Valyria

The second episode of House of the Dragon's second season, "Rhaenyra the Cruel," starts with a bang. Following the horrific murder of his child Prince Jaehaerys at the hands of the vile mercenaries Blood and Cheese, King Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) descends into a rage. As the Red Keep's servants are rounded up for questioning, Aegon takes out his wrath on the model of Old Valyria which takes up a sizable portion of his bed chamber, smashing it into tiny pieces.

The destruction of the model isn't just an act of thoughtless vandalism; it has layers upon layers of meaning. Throughout the show's first season, we watched King Viserys (Paddy Considine) painstakingly build that model of Old Valyria over the course of decades. According to showrunner Ryan Condal in the Inside the Episode featurette, Aegon smashing Viserys' precious model represents how there's a "new sheriff in town, and Aegon's reign as king is very different from Viserys'."

It's also a pretty sad metaphor for the fact that this self-inflicted Targaryen civil war we're about to watch will break their dynasty until it's a shadow of its former self. The Targaryens and Velaryons are the last of the bloodlines left from the Freehold of Old Valyria, and they're about to smash each other to bits just like Aegon did to the model. But hey, at least King Viserys isn't around to see Aegon destroy his LEGO set, right?

Well, Viserys might not be, but actor Paddy Considine has seen the episode, so he knows. Considine took to Instagram to poke fun at his television son for messing up his stuff:

"Cheers Tom! That took me f@@@ing years to make," Considine wrote, captioning a picture of Viserys in the clouds with a halo and an expression of consternation on his face. Tom Glynn-Carney, who plays Aegon, got in on the fun by responding that it was "shoddy workmanship." Ah Targaryens, they're entertaining onscreen and off!

As it turns out, The House that Dragons Built behind-the-scenes feature for "Rhaenyra the Cruel" reveals more details about how the show handled the wrecking of that giant model. "The good news is, they made a stunt version that was specifically for smashing, so the beautiful Valyrian model is still intact," explains Condal.

King Aegon didn't really smash King Viserys' LEGO set — just a stunt version of it

Director Clare Kilner, who also helmed last season's penultimate episode "The Green Council," broke down the scene. "The incredible props people made these, like, eight 3D printed extra ones that would look real when we smashed and that we could have the sort of powder of it into the air. The actual 3D models are really expensive, so we couldn't have many shots of it. So I said, 'Okay Tom, you know, let's do this in one.'"

"I had extreme pangs of guilt doing that, because I was aware how much work goes into a piece like that, But I guess they made those pieces with the knowledge that they were gonna be smashed to bits," Tom Glynn-Carney said, smiling in a way that makes it look like he doesn't feel that guilty about it. "I think that is exactly what was needed for us to see where Aegon's energy was going. You know, he didn't have anywhere to put it, and he had people around him telling him to make decisions and be pragmatic, and 'It's okay, it'll get better over time.' No it fucking won't. I need to smash the crap out of this, you know."

And smash the crap out of it he did. We'll see what Aegon II Targaryen does next when House of the Dragon premieres its third episode of the season this Sunday on HBO and Max.

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