{"id":546753,"date":"2026-07-13T02:55:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T02:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/546753\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T02:55:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T02:55:14","slug":"larys-strong-and-aegon-ii-hit-rock-bottom-in-this-weeks-house-of-the-dragon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/546753\/","title":{"rendered":"Larys Strong and Aegon II hit ‘rock bottom’ in this week’s House of the Dragon"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the end of season 2 of the Game of Thrones<\/a> prequel House of the Dragon<\/a>, Master of Whisperers Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) secretly flees King\u2019s Landing with the grievously injured King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney). Larys stole most of the kingdom\u2019s gold and his plan is to wait out the Targaryen civil war in Essos and return with Aegon once Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Aegon\u2019s ruthless younger brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) have sufficiently weakened each other. But in season 3, that plan is not going great.<\/p>\n

[Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon season 3, episode 4.]<\/p>\n

\u201c[Larys] feels he\u2019s got Aegon in the palm of his hand, and events transpire, and he realizes he doesn\u2019t have any control,\u201d Needham told Polygon in a virtual interview. \u201cAegon is such a livewire, such a loose cannon. [Larys] realizes he\u2019s bitten off way more than he can chew.\u201d<\/p>\n

In episode 1, “Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood,” the pair escaped in the back of a rookery carriage only to have it intercepted by guards loyal to Rhaenyra. Larys\u2019 attempt to pose as a maester was foiled when Aegon refused to swear loyalty to Rhaenyra.<\/p>\n

\"Larys
\n Photo:\u00a0Theo Whiteman\/HBO<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this steely determination in Aegon that is born from a place of ego and entitlement and self-sabotage and pride \u2014 all these things that make him quite a complex, unpredictable bomb of a character,\u201d Glynn-Carney told Polygon.<\/p>\n

Larys had to reveal their true identities so they\u2019d be taken hostage instead of being executed as Aegon loyalists.<\/p>\n

\u201cLarys probably sees himself as a shelter, bulletproof glass to go in front of Aegon to go \u2018Follow me, copy me, and we\u2019ll survive,\u2019\u201d Needham said. \u201cHe\u2019s more experienced in terms of hiding, and I think he feels he could protect Aegon. He doesn\u2019t really have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s very hard for Aegon to follow anyone else\u2019s lead, even though Larys\u2019 plan pays off, giving them a chance to escape when the guards are attacked by raiding Triarchy forces.<\/p>\n

\"Larys
\n Photo:\u00a0Ollie Upton\/HBO<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been a bit of a lone wolf, causing chaos in his own spare time and being in a position where he\u2019s got all the people around him giving him everything, serving him, and treating him like the king, only to have that pulled away and be stuck in the back of a rookery with loads of raven shit everywhere and Larys Strong next to him,\u201d Glynn-Carney said. \u201cHe\u2019s like \u2018This man has more of a plan than I do,\u2019 so I\u2019m just going to hand myself over to him because what\u2019s my other option? Stay in the Red Keep and be killed by my own brother or someone else?\u201d<\/p>\n

Aegon insists on going to Rook\u2019s Rest to rendezvous with the forces led by his Hand of the King Christian Cole (Fabien Frankel). They receive a truly terrible welcome there in episode 4, which premiered on July 12. While Larys again has to talk his way out of getting killed, Aegon breaks down in tears holding his fallen dragon<\/a>, Sunfyre. Aegon and Sunfyre crashed to the ground<\/a>, burned, after Aemond tried to kill them with his extremely powerful dragon, Vhagar. Glynn-Carney said the prosthetics and makeup he\u2019s been wearing to simulate the dragonfire burns have changed his approach to playing his character.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt serves as a constant reminder of his injuries and his discomfort,\u201d Glynn-Carney said. \u201cI\u2019m not in pain when I\u2019m in the prosthetics. It\u2019s uncomfortable, overstimulating, and anxiety-inducing, but it\u2019s great. You let those feelings bleed into the scenes and how the character feels, and it informs the way that I move and the way that I speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"King
\n Photo:\u00a0Theo Whiteman\/HBO<\/p>\n

Things get even worse when Aegon and Larys actually get to Rook\u2019s Rest and find the garrison in disarray. Aegon is forced to earn shelter by cleaning latrines and winds up having to beg for his life by kissing the garrison leader\u2019s filthy shoes. While the situations they\u2019re in are serious, Aegon and Larys\u2019 odd-couple bickering can provide laughs in an otherwise serious show.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s inherently funny to see two people not have a plan and be panicking about their future, how much danger they\u2019re in and how high the stakes are, and to see people at rock bottom,\u201d Glynn-Carney said. \u201cPoor guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larys is still desperately trying to get Aegon to stick to the plan and flee Westeros, even though their journey has been a disaster so far.<\/p>\n

\u201cLarys has created a story in his head in which we come back when people are sick of all these people in charge with a few little stories about how \u2018Wouldn\u2019t it be better if there was someone else?\u2019\u201d Needham said. \u201cHe\u2019s got it all mapped up. The trouble is he can\u2019t get on a boat. They just need to catch a break.\u201d<\/p>\n

House of the Dragon season 3 episode 4 airs at 9 p.m. ET Sunday, July 12 on HBO.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the end of season 2 of the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, Master of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-546753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}