In House of the Dragon season two, Heleana Targaryen (Phia Saban) doesn’t share any scenes with Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith)—until the finale, when she appears in Daemon’s Game of Thrones-referencing vision of the future. Considering the characters’ strongest tie thus far is that Heleana’s son was murdered as a second-choice target by assassins hired by Daemon to kill Heleana’s brother, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), it was a surprising moment.
That Song of Ice and Fire interlude is also the main thing anyone’s talking about from the House of the Dragon finale, so Variety asked Saban her thoughts about the scene. We first see Heleana within Daemon’s vision—she tells him “You know your part … You know what you must do”—then it cuts to her in real life, where she informs Aemond she is absolutely not going to join him in battle. What’s more, she knows how he’s going to die.
“My feeling isn’t that she was giving Daemon advice because she wants him to succeed,” Saban told the trade. “I think choosing between one team and the other suggests that you think anything can happen, and I think to a certain extent, she feels a little bit transcended above that. She has a clear view of this end that’s in sight. And I wouldn’t say that she knows it innately, but I think she knows enough to be like, it’s not about who’s on the throne next—we’re all going in the same direction.
“I would also say about the scene with Daemon, it’s slightly left up to what the audience thinks about how much she is there—present in his dream. Maybe she’s a projection of something he wants to tell himself, especially since he hurt her so much with her son and everything. From a psychoanalytical perspective, maybe it’s all about him, and maybe it’s not that literal.”
Saban also has thoughts on what Heleana tells her brother. “I don’t think she thinks that it will necessarily change his path,” she said. “It’s just a little moment where she stands up for herself.”
Head to Variety to read the rest of the interview, which also features Saban’s public declaration that she really wants Heleana to get a dragonriding scene before House of the Dragon reaches its end.
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