Emma D’Arcy, the lead star of HBO’s fantasy series “House of the Dragon”, says the character of Rhaenyra Targaryen undergoes a journey of evolution in the upcoming third season, where she has a newfound conviction to rule the Westeros but there are also dangerous consequences in store for her.
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D’Arcy, who plays the claimant to the Iron Throne in the “Game of Thrones” prequel, said Rhaenyra has spent much of the first two seasons grappling with doubts about her legitimacy and her late father King Viserys’ intentions for her.
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“My learning has that one has to be very strong in one’s conviction. There’s a nice journey that we see Rhaenyra go on over the course of the three seasons, where in the sort of first two, she is kind of wrapped by doubt.
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“She has a lot of self-doubt about her inheritance, about her claim, about her father’s intentions for her. And I think some of that has dropped away, for better or for worse, by season three. But, and I suppose there is a sort of self-actualisation part to that as well as something a little more sinister,” D’Arcy said in an interview.
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Also read: HBO renews ‘House of the Dragon’ for season 3
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“House of the Dragon”, based on parts of “Fire & Blood” novel by celebrated author George R R Martin, is set nearly 200 years before the events of “Game of Thrones”, the blockbuster series which ran for eight seasons on HBO from 2011 to 2019.
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The prequel show chronicles the rise and fall of House Targaryen and centres on a bitter succession struggle known as the Dance of the Dragons, a devastating civil war that pits rival factions of the ruling family against each other in a battle for the Iron Throne.
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D’Arcy, who identifies as non-binary and uses the pronouns they/them, plays Rhaenyra, who was anointed heir to the Iron Throne by her father, King Viserys I Targaryen, only to find her succession contested following his death, setting off the bloody Targaryen civil war.
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It also stars Matt Smith as Rhaenyra’s husband Prince Daemon and Olivia Cooke as her friend-turned-foe Alicent Hightower.
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The eight-episode-long season three, which will premiere in India on JioHotstar on June 22, will see Rhaenyra in a position of real political and personal confidence for the first time, D’Arcy said.
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D’Arcy said Rhaenyra’s increasing ambition in the third season stems from the grief and trauma she has endured over the course of the story.
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Season three of “House of the Dragon” also stars Steve Toussaint, Rhys Ifans, Fabien Frankel, Ewan Mitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney, Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, James Norton, Tom Bennett, Freddie Fox, Clinton Liberty, Gayle Rankin, Abubakar Salim and Tom Cullen.