Daemon feels regret for the first time after seeing young Rhaenyra at Harrenhal, says Geeta Patel

House of the Dragon returns for its second season, bringing more schemes and struggles for power. A standout moment in Episode 2 of the new season featured Daemon Targaryen, the audacious ‘Rogue Prince’. However, season 2 sees him softening up. And it leads to him feeling things he had never felt before, such as regret.

Daemon feels regret for the first time in House of the Dragon Season 2

House of the Dragon differed from the book quite a bit, one of which was the killing of Prince  Jaehaerys Targaryen. The third episode showed Daemon connecting with his humane side for the first time. Director Geeta Patel told ScreenRant:

“At least in my eyes, that’s what it was. “That’s the Rhaenyra I know.” And in that dream, she looks at him — and the way we talked about it is she doesn’t need to say anything. We just worked on the look; the meaning that comes from all the episodes before she looks at him, and she cuts him. She says, “Hey, you killed a boy. You don’t do that.

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People have said that to him all the way through. But when young Rhaenyra says it to him, it’s the first time he feels it. It’s the first time he processes his actions, though he’s been killing people left and right since the beginning. This is the first time we see him regret. We see him feel. We actually kept talking, in between takes, about how this is something we’ve never seen before in Daemon.”

Credits: Max

Matt Smith took several takes of Milly Alcock’s return scene

Matt Smith got so much into the role of Daemon, he actually shed tears when Daemon saw young Rhaenyra. Patel recalled,

“There was a take where Matt went in, and he just kept saying, “No, I need another take. I need another take.” He was really such a hardworking actor on this, and all of a sudden I saw his face break after Milly looked at him. I just saw his hands loosen, and I saw the tear in his eye. Then I had a tear in my eye because we both felt it. Even the crew got emotional at that moment.

And it wasn’t about House of the Dragon, it was about making a mistake that you deeply regret that hurt somebody else. It’s just that simple. That’s what I love about working on this show. I like to think that it is a documentary with dragons. We always try to make it feel real; like something we can relate to.”

Read Next: Daemon Targaryen is quite hurt over Rhaenyra’s lack of trust, says Matt Smith

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