[This story contains spoilers from the second episode of House of the Dragon season two.]
The second episode of Home of the Dragon season two featured a fan-favorite scene from George R.R. Martin’s e-book Fireplace & Blood: The deadly conflict of the Cargyll twins, Arryk (Luke Tittensor) and Erryk (Elliot Tittensor), whose similar appears to be like are weaponized by Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) to attempt an assassinate Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy). Under, showrunner Ryan Condal takes just a few questions in regards to the episode of the HBO hit collection, which was just lately renewed for a 3rd season.
So the twins combat is a sequence I beloved from e-book and was actually trying ahead to within the present. The plan is ridiculed by Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), but it nearly works as a result of it’s truly a mad sensible thought. You improve the scene by having them combat alongside Rhaenyra in her bedchamber, placing her in direct jeopardy. Are you able to discuss your adaptive decisions in that sequence?
The e-book depicts just a few totally different variations of that story. I used to be all the time fascinated by the Cargyll twins story as a result of that was a narrative that Sansa Stark romanticized — going again to the Tune of Ice and Fireplace books. And, in fact, Sansa has this very Sansa-like romantic imaginative and prescient of what that combat was like and the way they dueled for hours as if it was the duel from The Princess Bride. However the true factor could be rather more brutal and gritty. We needed to attempt to discover the central line by it. There’s a model the place they’re cursing one another’s names and calling one another “traitor” and that simply didn’t really feel just like the characters we’d arrange. We’ve got these two individuals who discovered themselves on totally different sides of this battle and never figuring out what to do with this oath. I feel that makes it extra of a tragedy while you see these two brothers making an attempt to carry to their oath however discover themselves in literal mortal fight in opposition to one another with a view to uphold it.
My favourite scene within the first two episodes was the wagon wheel getting caught throughout the funeral procession. I didn’t anticipate it. I believed it was very intelligent and there’s a harrowing second there that you just anticipate the decapitated youngster’s physique to go tumbling into the road.
Sara Hess wrote the script in episode two. I feel it’s certainly one of my favourite scripts to this point, and Clare Kilner directed the hell out of it. What you talked about was a Clare Kilner invention. Sara wrote the sequence that the funeral is mainly a propaganda marketing campaign that Otto makes use of the physique of Jaehaerys (Michael Carter) to curry favor with the small people to show in opposition to her in opposition to Rhaenyra. However the thought of the procession then going by the extra down components of King’s Touchdown and Flea Backside after which getting caught and pulling Helaena (Phia Saban) out of this reverie she’s in — that was pure Clare, and I really like that sequence.
You’ve wasted no time leaping into main beats from the e-book in these first two episodes, with the “Blood and Cheese” scene final week and now the Cargyll combat this week. Is that this form of the the tempo followers ought to anticipate for the remainder of the season?
I’ve simply watched many of the season again to again to see the place we’re, and it’s a reasonably pace-y season. It has peaks and valleys the place one thing occurs after which everyone type of collects their ideas and recovers. However yeah, the tempo of the present goes to most likely really feel quicker than it did in season one. We need to maintain the narrative transferring; we don’t need it to stall out and drag our toes. There’s loads of story in there. There’s loads of character to discover.