House of the Dragon showrunner defends Daemon choking Rhaenyra scene: ‘His darkness is simmering below the surface…’

House of the Dragon Season 1 came to a heart-stopping end after an unexpected death, with Emma D’Arcy’s Rhaenyra ready to declare war, hence bringing forth the Dance of The Dragons. Season 2 is going to be all war as fans can gather from Rhaenyra’s expressions—eerily similar to Danerys in Game of Thrones Season 8, before she decimated King’s Landing.

Season 1 of HOTD saw many character developments, including the most positive being from Matt Smith’s Daemon, the brother to King Viserys I. He still loses his temper, but saves the hot-headedness for special occasions. In the finale, there’s a particular scene where Daemon and Rhaenyra have a rift and he holds her by the neck, after hearing about the prophecy that Viserys told her and not him. Ryan Condal, executive producer of the HBO show, explained to Variety the reason behind the scene. “It’s a moment that I think is surprising and shocking for Daemon as a character, but I also think it’s one of those things that’s been set up over the course of the entire season. Daemon — while an incredibly charismatic and deeply interesting, complex character, I think — he’s also capable of great darkness,” Condal said.

Also Read | House of the Dragon: Game of Thrones spinoff is a guilty pleasure, but it’s less offensive than the original

He added, “It’s simmering just beneath the surface. When he learns in that moment that Viserys never believed in him enough, as his actual heir to the throne, to pass this thing on that he clearly just easily passed on to Rhaenyra, it breaks him. He loved his brother so deeply and trusted him, even through all the problems that they had, and Viserys never shared it with him. He kept [Daemon] in the dark, and it just it breaks Daemon. Instead of reacting with grief or sadness that you see out of him later, he reacts with rage and he takes it out on Rhaenyra.”

The finale saw a lot of things happening—including Rhaenyra learning of Viserys death, leading to her miscarrying a stillborn child, as well as losing her son, Lucerys during a terrible prank gone wrong with Aemond Targaryen. House of the Dragon Season 2 is expected to go on floors in 2023.