- Where were the members of this council while the murderer threatened their king?
- Were you also threatened, Your Grace?
- I could have been!

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON (2022—) ❃ S02E02 dir. Claire Kilner

TOM GLYNN CARNEY and PHIA SABAN
↳talking about Aegon and Helaena
↳02x02 "Rhaenyra the Cruel"

AEMOND TARGARYEN
House of the Dragon (2022—) • 2x02 dir. Claire Kilner

"I feel like they're both living parallel lives, but in separate universes. They can't access each other in the way that they— that each one needs." — Tom Glynn-Carney on Aegon and Helaena

They grieve the same, why can’t they grieve together 😭

Considering how much they’re deviating from the book content, I sincerely hope they develop Helaegon differently on the show post B&C. I’m putting all my eggs in a Maelor-shaped basket but also just saying a silent prayer. Am I dumb or am I dumb 😩 Should I give up?

helaegon + the aftermath of blood and cheese

analysis and thoughts on episode 2 helaegon and what we can expect in future seasons

i think im actually surprised with how much and (yet little,) we got in episode 2. while i was expecting absolutely zilch interaction what we did we get was pretty loaded and i think it bodes well for what development we might see later.

aegon obviously is not unaware of helaena is going thru, he knows and acknowledges the parade and the weight it will put on her and alicent emotionally and so he tried to reject the idea at the small council meeting.

but at the end he did relent and made her go thru with it. there is own pain, his own grief and now there’s the added shame of “i could not save our son. but i could not even spare you.” tgc’s interpretation of aegon is that of an empathetic man, albeit unstable.

nevertheless, he does try to stop and talk to her. it’s brief. a seconds worth immediately washed away cause aegon is an escapist. he does not understand bending to the emotional needs of others and giving comfort. i don’t think this is necessarily cause it’s helaena in question.

i think we put too much into that one line of aegon calling helaena weird or an idiot. yes those were his canon thought when they were engaged but we gotta remember this is years later. they are adults. they have kids. we haven’t seen how their dynamic has changed over the years but from what we have seen he is not the cruel hard edged boy he was to her before.

i think his reluctance to engage with helaena is his own emotional shortcoming.

when have we ever seen aegon comfort his brother after he lost his eye or even his mother after she went thru several 9/11s? this is the bare bare minimum but still the most we’ve seen of him empathizing with another.

now we come to how similar they actually are. the sun and moon are two luminaries in the sky. completely different from each other yet inexplicably the same. dependent on each other yet so far apart. aegon’s scenes are lit in red orange and helaena’s in blue.

their grief is raw, unmasked and they both can’t stand putting on public airs. they want to be alone they want to rage and cry yet they are bound by duty forced to play this charade. the paralells are outward and in our face.

i think this is purposeful sowing of seeds by the writers. this is a relationship who has been planted in our sight but still has time for development.

there is time for this to move ahead there is time over the next 2 seasons for their rift to lessen. alicent and cole to started out this way. brief interactions before they developed into what they are now.

i think the king and queen need time. but there’s an heir to be born. and conversations to be had.

"I think we see why Aegon's respect for Helaena grows, because she's the only other person in this environment that really knows what this pain is. And seeing that look in Helaena's eyes when they cross on the stairs, they don't say much to each other, but they communicate through pain." – Tom Glynn-Carney

on some level I think I always understood, that these hands of mine were clumsy, not clever. and I tried to do the best that I could, but try as I might I couldn't bring myself to hold you.

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON (2022—) ⬖ 2.01 “A Son for a Son” dir. Alan Taylor