Olivia Cooke (left) as Alicent Hightower and Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen —PHOTOS COURTESY OF HBO/ HBO GO Princess Rhaenys Targaryen may not be the first character you think about when you discuss the gut-wrenching upheavals in HBO and HBO Go’s “House of the Dragon,” which launches its eagerly anticipated sophomore season today. But the so-called Queen Who Never Was, played with as much soul-stirring grit and gravitas as endearing grace by British actress Eve Best (“The King’s Speech,” “Nurse Jackie,” “Hedda Gabler”), is certainly among the eagerly anticipated series’ most popular characters on fan faves’ lists and message boards—with good reason. While she may appear appropriately stern or stoic as she navigates the treacherous world of Westeros, the 52-year-old Bafta-winning actress-director is endearingly more animated and obliging when she isn’t required to embody the pains and foibles of fire-breathing Meleys’ formidable “dragonrider.
”In fact, we found it endearing to hear Eve getting excited—from what sounded alternately like spoken contralto to high-pitched alto—when we spoke to her in our recent one-on-one chat as we noted how the show’s episodes (we’ve seen four screeners, so far) have always played out like a Shakespearean play to us. From its “good versus evil” premise arises intertwining tales of love, ambition, betrayal, unspeakable tragedy, the absence of poetic justice, collectively magnified by the grandeu.