Eve Best on the Rhaenys stage

Spoilers to follow for The Dragon HouseFourth episode of, “The Red Dragon and the Gold” which first aired on HBO on July 7.

Bodies have been falling throughout this second season of The Dragon House As the war intensifies between Teams Black and Green for the Iron Throne, no death has had as much impact – or gravity – as the fatal fall of Princess Rhaenys Targaryen and her dragon Meleys at the end of the fourth episode.

No disrespect to Princes Lucerys or Jaehaerys, but a murdered child is an undeniable disappointment. The loss of Rhaenys, played by Eve Best, hurts on another level, however. One of the few actresses to have played her character since the first episode “Dragonborn,” Best gave the Queen Who Never Was layers of capability, vulnerability, and discontent as she doubted the realm would ever accept a woman as ruler while urging Rhaenyra and Alicent to rein in a war that was being amplified by the men around them. She diplomatically aligned herself with Team Black despite the deaths of her daughter and son while they were married to Rhaenyra and Daemon, respectively, and served as a thoughtful and authoritative leader on Driftmark while her husband, Lord Corlys Velaryon, spent years in combat. And no one put Daemon in his place like she could have.

But all that responsibility (and her growing knowledge that Corlys may not have been entirely faithful during their marriage) has weighed heavily on Rhaenys, Best says. When she volunteers to take on the new Hand of the King Criston Cole, Aemond, and his dragon Vhagar at Rook’s Rest in the Crownlands, “she knows full well that it’s most likely going to be a suicide mission, a kamikaze mission, and that’s why she’s volunteered to do it.” Because as tragic and shocking as Rhaenys’s death at the hands of Aemond and the surprise attacker Aegon is, Best points out that there’s a circularity to it given Rhaenys’ experience as a warrior and the way she avoids fighting back against the green team in the Season 1 episode “The Green Council.” “She thinks, If anyone is going to start, then it should be me, because it will be done in the most efficient way with the least bloodshed while still making it appear effortless.. It was just classic Rhaenys.

The Tower Rest sequence is very complex: you attack Aegon, you’re attacked by Aemond, you leave, you turn around, you do somersaults and you fly. How did the filming go? Did it all happen in one day or did you separate the different parts of the fight?
My God, one day you’re making fun of me? It took two weeks.Laughs.) I spent two whole weeks on this stag, just me, because everyone does their own work. The boys had maybe five days each. For me, it was a big block of time because Rhaenys has to cover the whole sequence. She had to hang upside down at one point, and then do pirouettes and rolls; they had to plan every single move, every little tiny move. So I spent two weeks on this thing, and I was in agony. I kept asking for more cushions, because I felt like my butt wasn’t padded enough. It’s a real workout for your thighs and your core, and I felt really ill-equipped. The boys, especially Ewan, love it. I remember meeting Ewan the first time in season 1, and he’d just done his lumberjack job, and he was sitting outside his trailer and we ran into each other. He was sitting there beaming, like he’d just done drugs. And he said, “Are you going to be lumberjacking soon?” And I said, “Yeah, what’s that like?” And he said, “Oh my God. It’s life-changing.”Laughs.) And I thought, Oh my God. Is this going to change my life? I’m not so sure. I feel like this is not going to be my comfort zone at all.. And it wasn’t. But I was incredibly impressed with myself because I did it.

Well, that looks really good. And it’s called the “buck”?
They built this thing that I’m told looks like a wild horse. I have no idea, because I’m way more of a wimp than Rhaenys. I can’t even imagine riding a roller coaster or wild horses, but apparently if you’ve ever ridden a wild horse, it’s similar, but it’s like a massive version. It’s bigger than an elephant, like a little house, really. You have to climb a staircase to get on it, and then there’s a saddle and you’re strapped to it, and then the steps are removed and everyone gets off, and you’re on this house, and it starts moving, doing all these different movements. It’s very surreal and it’s so opposite of what’s then cut to all the CGI.

Rhaenys also goes through a very emotional time in this sequence. She looks determined. She looks exhausted when she turns around. How did you describe what she’s going through?
I really wanted to tell this emotional story. Rhaenys knows full well that this is most likely going to be a suicide mission, a kamikaze mission, and that’s why she volunteered to do it. Someone described her situation to me as Rhaenyra’s Lancelot: she’s their best fighter, and she knows she’s the one who has to go. She’s the one who understands the weight of what she’s about to do, which is start a nuclear war. And she’s the one who, in episode 9, deliberately chose not to start a war, and she did everything she could to stop them from getting into the war with dragons. The younger generation is all excited and desperate to start playing with weapons, and she and Corlys are actually the only adults in the room who have any experience and knowledge of what they’re potentially up against. They are standing on the edge of the abyss, and it is a decision with very serious consequences.

There was something really beautiful that happened for me, and it was one of those beautiful last-minute things: that scene where Rhaenys offers to go, when they make the choice to do it and she steps forward and says, “You have to send me,” originally that line was “Send me.” Sara Hess, one of the lead writers, said, “Should we try to do the line, ‘You have to send me’?” Which is so brilliant, because “Send me” is always a kind of suggestion. There’s a possibility in there. “You have to send me” is an instruction. And it’s like suddenly it’s Rhaenys’s final advice to Rhaenyra: That’s how you’re a good leader. That’s what you do. You don’t go it alone. You send your best people. That’s leadership.That’s what Rhaenys has been doing, as best she can, all season long: teaching Rhaenyra despite all her personal feelings for her. They have a very complicated relationship. She thinks: If anyone is going to start, then it should be me, because it will be done in the most efficient way with the least bloodshed, while still making it seem effortless.It was just classic Rhaenys.

During the fight, Aegon and Aemond both say “dracarys”, but Rhaenys tells Meleys to “attack”, which is an interesting distinction. They’re aiming for maximum firepower, whereas “attack” isn’t as violent a command.
That’s a good point, because it’s absolutely true. They’re like gun boys; they want to maximize the carnage. And there’s something very… I don’t want to generalize, but, you know, it’s very masculine. Whereas she’s very specific about the dragon: Let’s take away the guns and not burn everyone randomly. There is some concern about this, because these guys are his nephews, as horrible as they have behaved and still behave and as dangerous as they are. Aemond is responsible for Lucerys’ death. At the same time, they are also his family. There was a lot of reluctance and the awareness that they were effectively pushing the red button. The responsibility for this is so enormous that it has to be a kamikaze mission, because how can we live with that? And that kind of samurai that comes back when she comes back – she could have escaped and she turns around. To me, that’s purely what she is – Arthurian knight, Lancelot, samurai. She’s the noble warrior who thinks, No, I’m not just going to run away. I’m going to finish this..

The Meleys attack was one of the hardest things of all, because in the end, Meleys became the only person—the only being—that Rhaenys could truly connect with. They are absolutely umbilical. She has felt more and more isolated because she feels like she is losing Corlys as the season has gone on, and that stable rock of their marriage is shaking with the news of what is happening with him. That moment of vulnerability with Meleys—that connection was so important, and to see it destroyed by Vhagar was so hard. That is everything to Rhaenys. It is not abandonment, because that implies reluctance. It is surrender. She has let go and let go and let go, and has become more and more detached throughout both seasons: after the blow, after the loss, after the grief, after the death, after the abandonment by her husband. Rhaenys held everything together and held everyone together and held it together, and always managed to rise above it and always see the bigger picture. It was an incredible weight, and she could just let go at that moment. And their last moment was intensely peaceful, like a relief.

As you film this on the buck, do you see the image of Vhagar attacking Meleys on screens around you, or are you imagining it?
I was shown a little mock-up of the sequence, so I knew that’s what was happening. It’s a raw, cartoon-like thing. The boys aren’t there, Vhagar isn’t there, Meleys isn’t there. You do it all in little bits and pieces. It’s weird, but it’s also amazing because you’re imagining it, so it’s in your head and it’s in your heart.