(Warning: Spoilers ahead for this season of House of the Dragon.)
With the death of Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) in “The Red Dragon and the Gold,” the Black faction in House of the Dragon has taken its first major blow. You wouldn’t know it though, by the way in which characters stare passively into the distance at the news of her death, as if they’re pondering over her existence rather than grieving the life that she lost.
Not only was she a major player in the show, Rhaenys was a wife, former mother-in-law, and grandmother to the characters on Team Black. In Season 2, she has been one of the few people on Rhaenyra Targaryen’s (Emma D’Arcy) council defending and supporting the queen’s actions. Along with Rhaenyra is Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), Rhaenys’ husband. While their relationship grew strained after they officially decreed for Rhaenyra instead of her brother Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney), the two previously had one of the most endearing relationships in the show.
