SPOILER ALERT: This story contains spoilers for the season 2 finale of HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” titled “The Queen Who Ever Was,” now streaming on Max.
For much of ‘House of the Dragon’, Helaena Targaryen has spoken in riddles about what will unfold for the two factions within House Targaryen, the Greens and the Blacks.
That is, until the season 2 finale, when she tells her brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), “Aegon will be king again.” As for the one-eyed Prince Regent, he will be dead.
“You were swallowed up by the Eye of God and were never seen again,” Helaena tells him.
All the trauma Helaena has endured this season, from the murder of her son Jaehaerys to the small nation that attacked her and her mother Alicent (Olivia Cooke) outside of September, has led to this moment of clarity, Phia Saban explains.
“The present is a little too painful to live in for now, so she’s managed to step into this otherness more openly — and that’s why this moment felt so clear to her,” Saban says. Variety. “She doesn’t fight it as much anymore.”
Helaena isn’t involved in just one major prophecy in the finale; she also appears in Daemon’s weirwood tree-induced vision in Harrenhal.
“It’s all a story. And you just play a role in that,” she says to Daemon. “You know your role.”
This is where Saban speaks Variety about Helaena’s role in Daemon’s vision, her tense interaction with Aemond over his fate – and whether we’ll ever see her riding her dragon, Dreamfyre.
What was your reaction when you read Daemon’s vision sequence and Helaena’s prophecy about Aemond?
My first reaction was: I can’t wait to see that dream sequence Daemon has when he touches the tree, and I can’t wait to be involved in that. I think I had some sort of fantasy that it was going to be really trippy, and that I was going to hatch out of an egg and crawl over it, or something really scary like that.
And then my second reaction was: If this season ends with her talking directly to Aemond like that and something happened to give her this clarity, then I have to work backwards from there and say: What zone should she be in? What does she have to go through to get that moment of clarity? Because that’s not really what her visions looked like up until then – they weren’t that clear.
Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen in Season 2 of ‘House of the Dragon’.
You said that this particular vision is clearer, while Helaena has told them riddles like this in the past. How did you handle that change in Helaena’s visions?
I think what I was focusing on was the fact that in the past they seemed so abstract, because the way these dreams or these feelings washed over her wasn’t in a clear way. It wasn’t in a way that she thought she could translate into, This is what’s going to happen. It was more like really strong intuitions, or really strong feelings or strange things that stick in her head, where she thinks: If I say that out loud, maybe it means something. But it was never as clear as what happened to her in that last episode. And I think that has something to do with the fact that in the latter part of the series she’s a little bit more detached from the real world, where she’s expected to deal with all this, I think she’s confronted with reality would call. She lives more and more in her own reality.
And maybe there’s something in the fact that something very powerful has happened, and it means that something is attuned within her – she has this clarity for that moment. I wouldn’t say she’s alone now, but I think it felt as clear to her as it ever had.
Some viewers believe Helaena is secretly Team Black after her moment with Daemon and then Aemond. Do you agree, or do you just see her as an objective observer?
I don’t feel like she’s on a team. And I don’t feel like she was giving Daemon advice because she wanted him to succeed. I think the choice between one team and another suggests that you think anything can happen, and I think she feels a little above that to some extent. She has a clear vision of this goal in sight. And I wouldn’t say she knows it innately, but I think she knows enough to say: It’s not about who comes next to the throne – we’re all going in the same direction.
I would also say about the scene with Daemon that it is kind of left up to what the audience thinks about how much she is there – present in his dream. Maybe she’s a projection of something he wants to tell himself, especially since he hurt her so much with her son and all. From a psychoanalytic perspective, maybe it’s all about him, and maybe it’s not so literal.
If she’s still not entirely sure about the future, why do you think she tells Aemond he’s going to die?
I think in that moment she really believes that to be true, and I also think that what he’s asking her to do, which is take Dreamfyre and go fight for a cause that she thinks is about ego and this kind of toxicity – and killing people after everything she’s been through – that’s just a step too far. She’s used to doing things for the convenience of her family, but that’s a step too far.
The problem is that she knows him, and she loves him. That’s what keeps the family together, knowing each other and loving each other, even when things get complicated. And I think that, knowing Aemond, she knows that in order to back away, she also has to go for his ego, and just be honest. And she says, I’m not going to do it – and besides, this won’t end well for you! Do you know what I mean? And I don’t think she thinks it’s going to necessarily change his path, but it’s just a little moment of her standing up for herself.
Ewan Mitchell and Phia Saban in ‘House of the Dragon’.
Speaking of visions, I wanted to bring up something that Helaena said in the past – in episode 6 with the crickets and she says, “This one stopped singing.” What was your interpretation of that moment, because there are a few theories.
Do you know any of the theories?
One is that the crickets are the three unclaimed dragons – Seasmoke, Vermithor and Silverwing – and the one who stopped singing is Seasmoke because he is later claimed by Addam. Another is about Aegon after being burned by Aemond, so it’s related to the three Green siblings. I think there are more, but I’d say these are the top two contenders.
That’s so cool. I didn’t know this one, so I’m glad to hear that, because my answer is kind of boring. It’s fun for me to imagine those things.
Like I said, sometimes her dreams or visions aren’t that clear. They are rooted in overwhelming feelings she gets, or discomfort. I think she, just like I said about Daemon and how Helaena could be a projection of his guilt – I think for her, insects – that’s the world she lives in comfortably, that she can hold in her hands. And it just causes her sadness that one of her insects might be unhappy, and that’s why she says it. I’m not saying it doesn’t have a bigger meaning and a bigger connection, but I think that’s as simple as it is for her at that moment.
In the book ‘Fire & Blood’ it is mentioned that Helaena likes to fly Dreamfyre. Even though Helaena doesn’t want to fly her dragon into war, will you ever see Helaena riding Dreamfyre? And would you like that?
This is my public statement: I would like to fly Dreamfyre! Yes, I would love that, and I like to think they have a nice relationship and connection. But I can’t say yes or no on whether we’ll see them together, but I’d like to think we will. Who knows?
Did your co-stars prepare you at all for using the dragon riding gear?
I was in the parking lot at the same time as Tom [Glynn-Carney] and Beth [Antonia], when they were both sitting on the box. So I went to watch them both do it, and I was really jealous. It’s really cool. But I think dragon acting is something completely new – dragon riding – so maybe I should get some tips from them first.
Yes, take a course. Dragon riding 101.
Maybe they’ll give me friends’ rates for a lesson on this.
This interview has been edited and condensed.