Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) and Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) are two of the most important characters on House of the Dragon, a niece and uncle who are also wife and husband, dragon-riders, and hopeful occupants of the Iron Throne...or at least they both were, but by the end of season 2 Daemon seems to have recommitted himself to Rhaenyra's cause, pledging to do whatever he can to install her as queen.
But by this point there's a lot of water under the bridge, and it's possible that Rhaenyra will have trouble fully trusting Daemon again after he took out a hit on her half-nephew and spent much of the season planning his own run at the throne.
"That scene...was a real joy to shoot where he reaffirms his commitment to her," Emma D'Arcy told Collider. "You sort of see this moment of reunification in both of them. Something that I realized in the second series was that their relationship only functions when they are in positions of power and confidence.Their erotic energy is dangerous. It's bloodthirsty. It's about power. If they're in a state of need or weakness, their relationship doesn't work. They can't speak to each other. They can't reveal that stuff. I suppose what strikes me is as much as that scene was super exciting to shoot, there's surely way more to discuss. There's a lot more to say."
"I think Rhaenyra is quite a changed character by the end of the second series. I think her relationship to her name, to her Targaryen history, to her faith even, has shifted in a massive way. I think she's less compromising now. The truth is, I wait in anticipation to find out what they've written, but I can't imagine that, given all of the events that transpired in the second series, she wouldn't need to keep him on a short leash."
Historically, Daemon has not appreciated being kept on a leash; he seems like the kind of guy who would bite the hand that tries to hold it. "I'm excited to find out what that means interpersonally for them because that will be quite different," D'Arcy said. "Because I think even up until the end of series one, it was still a very specific power dynamic between them."
Emma D'Arcy on what she's learned from Matt Smith
So the dynamic between Rhaenyra and Daemon remains dicey and dangerous, but the dynamic between D'Arcy and Smith sounds delightful. "I love shooting with Matt," Emma D'Arcy said. "[H]e's taught me a huge amount about finding space, or making space, actually, to play as an actor. That sounds kind of obvious, but sometimes I become a bit of a good boy. Sets are chaotic places; there are so many people who are working, all of these people and their expertise and their time. The last thing I want is to be in the way, slowing people down, or compromising other people's work. That's all well and good; we all want to be good people, and we're all building the same thing together. Conversely, part of the actor's job is one of play, and those are sometimes forces that are not that conducive. So, I'm super grateful."
"[H]e knows the importance of playing, whether that's just throwing in flashes of improvisation that suddenly send a lightning bolt of reality back into a scene when you've been shooting for six hours or just for a take playing something completely differently to reopen possibility."
So in other words, Matt Smith isn't afraid to go off script a bit if it means finding something exciting and new, even if shooting may take a little longer while he discovers whatever it is he's looking for. "Once I understood this about him — and it's so good because he just lights up — if you want to inject something into a scene, especially when you've been at it for a lot of hours, I'm constantly there chewing on lines that I think might get a bit of a rise out of him," D'Arcy continued. "It's provocation. But what's amazing is, you do that, and he just lights up and he meets you. For Rhaenyra and Deamon, there's so much danger in their relationship that it's important for us to find ways of challenging one another within a very safe environment, but it's really exciting."
It's hard to argue with the results. One of the best scenes from the second season was a brutal argument between Rhaenyra and Daemon after Daemon takes out a hit on Rhaenyra's half-brother and rival Aemond Targaryen, but the assassins end up killing her very young half-nephew Jaehaerys Targaryen instead. I can't imagine this scene being as compelling without these two actors in the parts:
"I was so excited about that day," D'Arcy said of this scene. "It's a long scene, which is really nice, and so a lot of that prep was I wanted to feel super free, and so I wanted to know those lines inside-out and back to front so that I could be really nimble on the day. Then we shot that with Clare Kilner, who shot that specifically in a way that was very loose. A lot of it was handycam. There were some anchors within the blocking, but we were allowed to be really playful. We didn't have to lock it down completely, so it changed a lot. I remember Matt specifically wanted some breakables, like pots and stuff that will smash without it being dangerous. And honestly, I was so adrenalized, the two of us, it felt a bit like playing some sort of sport."
To bring it all back around, that scene is also the first time where there's a major break in trust between Rhaenyra and Daemon. "[F]or the first time, I think she sees him properly. It's hard," D'Arcy said. "When you meet someone and you're younger, they take on a greater size, and there's a mystification that takes place just because we look up to people who are older than us. They have broader experience. I think in that argument, and after the death of baby Jaehaerys, I think she sees him. I think she sees his flaws, she sees his vulnerability, she sees his denial, and it's hard. It's almost like suddenly she outgrows him. Well, she outgrows the conceit. She outgrows the conceit of Daemon Targaryen."
Now that Rhaenyra and Daemon are officially a team again, hopefully they'll be more of that sparring in House of the Dragon season 3, which should be out on HBO and Max sometime in 2026.
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