House of the Dragon Star Opens Up About Their Character's Heartbreaking Death
One of House of the Dragon's best characters met their end on Sunday night...
WARNING: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 4... House of the Dragon delivered one of the most devastating moments of the series on Sunday night, as Rhaenys rode Meleys into the Battle of Rook's Rest and met an unfortunate end at the hands of Aemond and Vhagar. The Queen Who Never Was has been the strongest ally to Rhaenyra and one of the show's moral cornerstones to this point, and the significance of her loss to the other characters on House of the Dragon cannot be understated.
Following the airing of "The Red Dragon and the Gold," House of the Dragon star Eve Best spoke to Entertainment Weekly about her beloved character's demise.
"She's got that nobility of that absolute samurai: honorable, noble, f---ing cool-ass warrior queen," Best said. "The honorable thing is that she could have escaped, and then she's like, 'No, we've got to go back.' Because there's the potential to end it. I think she knows she's going back to die, but she has to try because if Vhagar can be taken down, then it's done. It's cauterized. The potential for nuclear war is cut down."
Best went on to talk about Rhaenys' final moments, when she finally let go of the weight she'd been carrying throughout the series to that point.
"There was something very beautiful about it," the actress explained. "It was a moment of total surrender and letting go of everything she'd been carrying for two seasons: never, ever letting anybody see any of her pain, any of her anguish, any of her fear, any of her vulnerability, and just being this rock of wisdom and grace and stoicism and goodness and badassery at the same time. I think for her to finally let go was the most wonderful relief."
Based on George R.R. Martin's "Fire & Blood" book, House of the Dragon is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones. In Season 2 of House of the Dragon, Westeros is on the brink of a bloody civil war with the Green and Black Councils fighting for King Aegon and Queen Rhaenyra, respectively. New episodes of House of the Dragon premiere every Sunday on HBO at 9 p.m. ET.
The cast for House of the Dragon includes Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen, Olivia Cooke as Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower, Emma D'Arcy as Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, Eve Best as Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon, Fabien Frankel as Ser Criston Cole, Ewan Mitchell as Prince Aemond Targaryen, Tom Glynn-Carney as King Aegon II Targaryen, Sonoya Mizuno as Mysaria, and Rhys Ifans as Ser Otto Hightower.
