House of the Dragon script records when Rhaenyra feels "new emotions" about Daemon

The first episode of Game of Thrones ended with a young Bran Stark discovering Cersei Lannister, the queen of all the realm, having sex with her twin brother Jaime. Jaime tries to kill Bran to keep this secret. Royal adultery is a big no-no, particularly when it's with your own twin sibling.

Jaime and Cersei's relationship was treated as deviant for a long while, but by the end of the show, fans were so used to it that it almost felt normal. That's wild, because incestuous relationships are justifiably a huge taboo in our society, and yet this show got people used to a couple of twins who had three children together. Game of Thrones was a really weird show when you stop to think about it.

HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon has gone even further. One of the most popular relationships on the series is between Rhaenyra Targaryen, the hopeful queen of the realm, and her husband Daemon Targaryen, who is her own uncle. It's so creepy, and yet people are interested; just ask the authors of the literally thousands of Rhaenrya/Daemon fanfics over on AO3.

We'll see more of Daemon and Rhaenyra when they return for the second season of House of the Dragon later this year. Until then, @darksvster on Twitter has been sharing pages from the scripts for the first season of the show, including scenes that didn't make it into the final episode. We don't have deleted scenes today, but we do have some notes from the scripts that give us a better idea of what the characters were thinking. For instance, take a look at this excerpt from the fourth episode, "King of the Narrow Sea," when Rhaenyra sees her uncle come home from war:

After Rhaenrya notices how Daemon looks more "strong" and "lean" than the last time she saw him — she thinks his new hairstyle "is not altogether unappealing" — she is "intrigued." Apparently, "New emotions have crept into her mind." It's getting weird and it's going to get weirder.

That's the script note that stood out the most to me, but @darksvster has plenty of interesting ones on hand. For instance, in the same episode, Daemon regards his niece with "gentle empathy" as she feels a pang of pain over the loss of her mother, which happened a few years back. Apparently he regards such feelings as examples of "childish sentiments," which seems kinda insensitive, but at least he kept it to himself.

We also have a moment from Rhaenyra's friend Alicent Hightower in this episode. She is apparently crushing on the Kingsguard knight Ser Criston Cole, tidying herself and flushing "almost imperceptibly" when she speaks to him. That will go south quickly, as Rhaenyra sleeps with Criston later that same episode.

Finally, here's an interesting insight into the final moment from Episode 3, "Second of His Name," where Daemon defeats the guerrilla fighter the Crabfeeder in a cave and emerges covered in blood. According to the script, this is the moment when he is "reborn a dragon":

The second season of House of the Dragon will air on HBO and Max sometime this summer.

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