‘House of the Dragon’ Sharpens One Mother’s Anguish at the Expense of Another’s
“I want Aemond Targaryen.”
Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) speaks just one line in the House of the Dragon Season 2 premiere, though the shattering force of it reverberates through the rest of the episode. The would-be Queen has just returned from scouring Storm’s End for the remains of her young son, killed by his uncle Aemond (Ewan Mitchell). The brutality of the murder—Lucerys (Elliot Grihault), on dragonback, is chomped into pieces mid-air by his uncle’s much larger, fiercer dragon—means that Rhaenyra could not have hoped to recover a body. On the shores of Storm’s End, all that’s washed up are fragments of dragon wing and Luke’s cloak. The camera lingers on her sobs as she kneels on the sand, clutching it close.
When Rhaenyra returns, her grief is writ large over her disheveled hair, soot-streaked face and her vacant stare. Presented with strategies for the impending civil war, her focus is clearly elsewhere: She wants Aemond Targaryen.