House Velaryon has been through it.
In House of the Dragon, the ancient noble house of Westeros has sat in the glow of royal power for generations, but over two seasons of the Game of Thrones sequel, we’ve seen patriarch Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) lose his children Laena (Nanna Blondell) and Laenor (John MacMillan), as well as his beloved wife Rhaenys (Eve Best).
But Season 3 reminds us that House Velaryon still has hope, with one shot in episode 2 that brings three generations together.
Following the bloody Battle of the Gullet, Corlys’ fate is unsure. Plunged into the deep during Admiral Lohar’s (Abigail Thorne) assault, the Sea Snake is nowhere to be found between Dragonstone and Driftmark. However, his sons Alyn (Abubakar Salim) and Addam (Clinton Liberty) and his granddaughter Baela (Bethany Antonia) refuse to give up hope, scouring the marine battlefield for him.
Thankfully, they’re reunited, alive, and relatively well — unfortunately, they’re not joined by Baela’s sister Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) for Sheepstealer reasons — and it’s one of the few times we’ve see three generations of Velaryon on screen together in House of the Dragon. (The only other time is Lady Laena Velaryon’s funeral in Season 1, episode 7, which Corlys, Laenor, Baela, and Rhaena attend).
It’s a remarkable sequence, wide shots of an estranged family finally united in the wreckage of war, and one Mashable asked the House of the Dragon stars to unpack.
“In a show full of such family dysfunction, to see this unit, it just brings hope. Hope in this incredibly dark, burning show,” said Salim.
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“It means everything to Addam, because his whole life, that’s all he’s ever wanted,” Liberty told Mashable. “That one shot that you saw has been Addam’s dream since birth. He’s always wanted to belong to a family, he’s always wanted to be recognized by his father and his peers as being someone worthy of taking notice of. Unfortunately it happens in a very chaotic time with a lot of adversity, but he finds his family and his people within that chaos.”
“It was an amazing scene to film, and also just filming with Beth, Abu, and Steve was just a dream come true,” he adds.
“In a show full of such family dysfunction, to see this unit, it just brings hope. Hope in this incredibly dark, burning show.”
The moment is one of amends for Corlys and his sons, born bastards to Marilda of Hull. The Lord of Driftmark and the Queen’s Hand decides in this moment to give his sons his Velaryon name, one Alyn describes as “worth more than a mountain of gold.”
“For Corlys, at least, it’s the culmination of a journey from the moment in Season 2 when his wife at the time said, he is your son and he needs to be raised up just like the others. From that moment to this point is an inexorable journey, he was always going to be here,” says Toussaint. “When he finally says, I’m going to give you my name, I’m going to recognize you, that’s such a big deal for him. Well, it certainly has a big impact on his sons.”
Baela, meanwhile, whose sister (to her knowledge) lives far away in the Vale, has just lost her betrothed Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett) to the Battle of the Gullet. And though she’s still a royal — her father is Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) — her sense of family is restored in this beautiful Velaryon moment.
“It was so nice, and it was also just a little bit like, finally! This kid has just been desperate for family and for people that she can see herself in, and I feel like every role model that she’s had up until now has been taken away from her,” said Antonia. “When we find that [Corlys] is still alive, and she’s got this suddenly huge new family, and a side of herself that she can choose to go into, rather than feeling like she owes anyone anything, it was just beautiful, thinking about the prospect of her getting to know this side of herself, and her grandfather, who she loves so much.
“Obviously at the end of Season 2 we see her saying, ‘I’m blood and fire, I’m not salt and sea.’ I think this season she’s like, ‘I’m salt and sea! I’m salt and sea!'”
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