Kevin Also Blogs: House of the Dragon Post-Mortem of “The Lord of the Tides”

Tensions were high on last night’s “The Lord of the Tides” as the legitimacy of Rhaenyra’s children was once again called into question, and as Viserys made one final attempt to mend the division in his house during an awkward family dinner. With only two episodes left in the season, the drama and conflict is sure to reach new heights before the finale. Let’s not lose our heads like Vaemond just yet though – it’s time to check out today’s interviews and videos!

Episode director Geeta Patel speaks with The Hollywood Reporter about the difficulty of making Alicent sympathetic, especially during her opening scene. “Olivia [Cooke] stepped up for the occasion. Because the big challenge of this episode was, I really wanted to be in Alicent’s shoes. I didn’t like her anymore. So coming into this episode, we needed to love her. We needed to feel her point of view. My feeling was: Let’s make this like a day in the life of a working mom. You see everything she’s dealing with. You see when she’s doing ugly things, but you understand her vulnerability. You understand she’s picking between two evils.”

She continues, “That scene had always worried me because I wanted so desperately for us to understand Alicent, but the words she’s saying and actions she’s taking are all quite harsh and in line with a villain. So a lot of the prep of those scenes like, cinematically, how do we walk through the door and be with her? Then Olivia brought so much dimension. I remember after her first take, I was like, ‘Oh, thank God.’ She brought everything, and so much more than I could have even thought of. So that was one of my favorite scenes to work on because I felt like it had the dimension with Alicent we were looking for.”

Finally, she give insight into the importance of the Alicent/Rhaenyra dynamic during the family dinner. “So [the toast] was another moment! They were sincere, but they were still themselves. The goal was to get to that scene and understand how lonely each of them was and how they both missed each other in some way. Ryan and Miguel and I talked for a year about how we’ve got to earn that moment. The idea was we would feel it coming earlier in the throne room when they both see Viserys was so vulnerable. Rhaenyra realized Alicent wasn’t lying to to her and she was telling the truth that Viserys was suffering and that Alicent really loved him.” If only their tentative reconciliation could last…

Read the rest here.

In a separate conversation with Entertainment Weekly, Patel goes into depth about the pivotal throne room scene. “That was a very, very big sequence. We had a lot of logistical obstacles during that time…[Paddy Considine] had so much time in prosthetics getting ready for that, and then there was a conversation about him walking down the aisle. The real time of him walking down the aisle is just, like, you’re looking at your watch as a producer and director going, ‘Oh my God, that’s just the first take and it took, you know, 20 minutes.'”

Patel adds, “He is in an extreme amount of pain. He is walking towards something. He wants to save the realm. If we cut it short, we would lose that element forever in the edit room. We would never have that possibility. So we just put our heads down and shot Paddy walking. Even for Paddy, that was a hard thing to do because he’s got that cane and it hurts your back doing that walk more than once. But I’m very proud that we stuck to our guns because I do feel like that is what helps the emotion come out.”

When discussing the scene with showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, they planned to shoot it with Viserys eyeing the throne. “You see Viserys exerting himself and then you see he’s trying to get to the throne to help the realm. While we were rehearsing, Rhaenyra just happens to be standing there in the middle. I was like, ‘Oh, wait a minute. He’s not walking to the throne, he’s walking to her.’ At least from my own understanding, that put tears in my eyes right there during rehearsal, ’cause I’m the daughter of a father who loves me so much and he would’ve walked on fire for me. That’s when all of a sudden, even though we had no time as usual because we’re always maximizing, we did what we could to get that moment of Rhaenyra and Viserys. That was a wonderful discovery. I wish I thought of it a day before even. I would’ve shot more of it. But I’m so glad that we were able to get the shots we did and they did make it to the cut.”

Another discovery came as the result of a happy accident during filming. “There was one moment in the throne room where Daemon helps Viserys up the stairs to the throne ’cause Viserys is so weak, he can’t make it himself…When we were shooting that — I think the rehearsal again, the first day — the crown fell off of Paddy’s head and Matt picked it up and we just kept going. We didn’t stop [filming]. There was a discovery there of this moment. So then the three of us got together and they were like, ‘We felt this. This felt like the turning point in our relationship.’ It’s just a silent moment.”

Patel continues, “We decided to shoot it both ways with the crown falling off and with the crown not falling off. Every time the crown fell off, all of us just caught our breath…I was so thankful that accident happened, that the crown fell off because it proved to be, at least for me, quite a heavy moment and quite a turning point for a storyline that had started in the pilot: Hey, I want your crown and by the end here I’m gonna put the crown back on your head and I’m gonna help you to your throne.” Judging by the emotion of that moment, they made the right call.

Head over to EW for more.

In The New York Times, Paddy Considine alludes to the corrupting nature of the Iron Throne and the decision to show that through King Viserys’ illness. “I always viewed the throne as a cursed property. It’s made of the swords that people died on, and it has this strange power about it.” He adds, “Viserys looking so emaciated, how it’s so cancerous, this thing, that it eats into his face — that decision was made more than halfway into the shoot…It becomes a physical manifestation of all the infighting and skulduggery, really. The mystery is why so many people crave the Iron Throne. It’s not something Viserys craved; he just had a sense of duty. He knows the weight of being king, the weight of the responsibility, and the toll it can take.”

Considine also elaborates on Viserys’ dismissive attitude toward his children with Alicent. “He gives up on them. He’s so protective of Rhaenyra, and he’s no fool — he knows that her [first three sons] are not Laenor Velaryon’s children. He’s just at a certain point in his life, with his new family, that he doesn’t take much of an interest in his other children. And the kids even sussed that out, you know, the actors playing the kids. They said they thought I hated them! I was like, ‘Where have you had that from? I don’t hate you.’ They meant Viserys, not Paddy.”He continues, “I certainly didn’t hate them, but I just had no time for them. That happens in families, doesn’t it? He’s there, but not there. Rhaenyra, she’s the link to Aemma, and as far as he’s concerned, she’s his only child.”

Regarding Viserys’ deathbed conversation with Alicent about the prophecy, Considine explains, “The fact that Alicent misinterprets it is horrific. What comes next would horrify Viserys. I mean, we have this knowledge of where this goes and the fact that [the prophecy] did come true. But the fact that it’s misunderstood is an absolute disaster. Viserys would be turning in his grave.” Considering what it will lead to, “disaster” is an understatement.

Go here for the entire interview.

In another interview with GQ, Considine gives his insights into the character of Viserys. “There’s this perception that he’s weak, which I think is absolutely nonsense. He’s just too compassionate for the job. I think the sense of duty is what got to him.” He adds, “He was the only person in this kingdom who had any fucking morals whatsoever. He holds everything together as long as he absolutely can. I thought he was a joy to play.”

Much like his wife Alicent, Considine believes Viserys “believed in duty above everything. I don’t know if people fully understood that correctly.” That duty exacted a terrible price on Viserys as the season went on, and he chose to reveal exactly how much of a price when he removed his mask during dinner. “It’s his chance to show everybody what being king has cost him,” Considine explains. “All the fucking falling out among his family has taken a toll. He asks them to see him as a father or brother, not as a king. Because he isn’t valued as a person while being this monarch figure.”

Ultimately, Considine empathizes with his character. “What I found really interesting about him was that he wasn’t corrupted by power. He just wanted peace. He wanted people to be happy at the end of the day, but that makes him weak. So what would have made him more relatable, if he was a dictator? If he was a tyrant? Would that be more satisfying? It’s not who he is.” Rest in the peace you were searching for, King Viserys. You deserve it.

The entire article is worth a read, so be sure to check it out here.

In this week’s “Inside the Episode,” showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, director Geeta Patel, and cast members Emma D’Arcy, Wil Johnson, Eve Best, and Paddy Considine discuss the succession of Driftmark and Viserys’ last ditch effort to heal the rift in his family.