‘Game of Thrones’ prequel still thinks confusion equals complexity, and that the spectacle of hot dragon-on-dragon action makes up for interchangeable characters Harry Collett, Emma D’Arcy, and Oscar Eskinazi in 'House of the Dragon.' THEO WHITMAN/HBO On , there are prominent characters named Rhaenyra, Rhaenys, and Rhaena. There’s an Alicent and also an Alys.
There are identical twins named Arryk and Erryk (both pronounced like “Eric”). There are references to multiple characters named Jaehaerys, and there’s also a Jacaerys, whose nickname is Jace, though you shouldn’t confuse him with a different character named Jason. And did I mention that Jason has an identical twin? There’s also a scene in the fantasy epic’s second season where two characters with similar names are dressed in similar styles while they fight to the death; an ally to one of them enters the room and is rightly uncertain which is which, who’s winning, or how to even discuss the battle in a coherent fashion.
And the civil war at the heart of this season came about because Alicent (Olivia Cooke), then the queen of Westeros, heard her husband talk on his deathbed about Aegon becoming king, and assumed he wanted her to install their son Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) onto the Iron Throne, when in fact he was referring to a legend about his own ancestor, Aegon the Conqueror. I appreciate that Ryan Condal, who co-created the prequel with , has allowed his characters to experience the same level of .
