Rhaenyra needed to be a nervous wreck on the bloody finish of this week’s Home Of The Dragon

All hail Queen Rhaenyra.

On the finish of Home Of The Dragon’s newest episode, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) emerges triumphant eventually, having taken over King’s Touchdown. However her journey to the prickly Iron Throne—metaphorically over time and actually inside that nice corridor—is marred by blood. She might have bested her usurper half-brother, however King Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) is nowhere to be discovered. In his absence, fueled by grief and rage over her son’s demise on the Battle Of The Gullet, Rhaenyra beheads Aegon’s imprisoned grandfather, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), a.okay.a. her father’s former Hand. Nonetheless, this can be a man she’s identified all her life, so it’s no marvel that whereas making her first-ever kill (at such proximity and with a crowd’s eyes glued to her, no much less), Rhaenyra is jittery and tearful.

“Queen’s Touchdown” director Clare Kilner tells The A.V. Membership she thought it was essential for the digicam to remain on Rhaenyra throughout this seminal second, one that may doubtless go on to outline her reign: “I needed to attempt to specific to the viewers what it feels wish to be handed a sword and to cut off somebody’s head like that. Typically you learn stuff like this in a script, and it’s so excessive and out of all our experiences that you just don’t suppose that deeply about what it would truly be like [to experience it], so I needed to increase that second and be in Rhaenyra’s viewpoint.”

Rhaenyra is clearly disturbed by doing her personal soiled work—it’s the worth she has to pay to be revered (and feared) as the brand new queen. Her husband/uncle, Daemon (Matt Smith), encourages her to swiftly hack Otto’s neck off in order that she might earn her title. Kilner as an alternative lingers on Rhaenyra as she slowly sobs by way of the gory endeavor. Does it make her seem weaker or unfit, contemplating a person like Daemon wouldn’t hesitate to do the deed? Kilner thinks it’s more practical that Rhaenyra’s response—and D’Arcy’s efficiency—brings her conflicting emotions to life.

“How do you confront your feelings when everyone seems to be watching and ready so that you can do one thing that you just by no means imagined having to do? She does dwell in a violent world, however as a rule, there are folks on the market to try this for her,” Kilner factors out. “Now as quickly as she’s about to step on the throne, she is pressured to exit of her consolation zone.”

Kilner, who additionally helms episodes three and 4, may have directed essentially the most Home Of The Dragon outings by the point season three ends. And but, she tells The A.V. Membership that she discovered the ending of “Queen’s Touchdown” to be significantly difficult due to its logistical calls for. “That was an extremely advanced scene as a result of there have been so many various angles to get to. As quickly as I learn it within the script, I had this picture that I needed for instance the violence by exhibiting how Rhaenyra steps on Otto’s blood to go to the throne, and the reflection of her going towards it within the blood,” she provides.

“There was a lot to consider, even issues I assumed could be comparatively simple to tug off, just like the bloody footsteps exhibiting her going as much as the Iron Throne. We needed to soak sponges on the underside of Emma’s footwear, then they needed to step by way of the blood that we needed to then improve with CGI, and all whereas we needed to work out the angle of the blood and the place the reflections fall,” Kilner says about her prep for filming the scene. “Fortunately, on the day, we had good extras who understood what was happening to provide us their reactions. We additionally had Rhys Ifans again for one or two days, so it was a really quick time frame through which we may seize every thing. I felt this enormous duty to the followers to ship one thing momentous and cinematic right here. I simply needed to get it proper.”

Kilner notes that the ending brings “Queen’s Touchdown” full circle; the episode opens with Rhaenyra shattered by the sight of Jace’s (Harry Collett) corpse. Because the director, Kilner needed the episode’s bookends to convey how Rhaenyra is being weak in two other ways. “We began filming with the close-ups in that opening scene, after which bought wider and wider in order that Emma was capable of seize all that emotion.” She provides that for her and the complete crew, “It was fairly surprising to be there and watch that opening scene” due to the depths of grief that D’Arcy was tapping into. “All people felt completely exhausted from watching it. I can’t take credit score for that, although, as a result of Emma simply brings it on a regular basis.”

Saloni Gajjar is The A.V. Membership‘s TV critic.