I’m still emotionally reeling after the heartbreaking death of Rhaenys in episode four of House of the Dragon, and ngl when I was watching I felt so confused about why she didn’t shout “Dracarys.” Because let’s be honest she had so many opportunities to tell Meleys to breathe fire onto Aemond and Aegon and save herself, but she obviously had to go the noble route.

Well, Eve Best who plays Rhaenys has explained exactly why her character didn’t just decide to char everyone in that House of the Dragon battle. And somehow this reveal adds a whole lot more emotion to her death, so make sure you have your tissues at the ready.

Via HBO

In an interview with Vulture, Eve provided clarification on why she didn’t command her dragon Meleys to breathe fire, explaining: “They’re just like boys with guns; they want to maximize the amount of carnage. And there’s something very … I don’t want to generalize, but, you know, it’s very male. Whereas she’s very specifically going for the dragon: Let’s take out the weaponry, and don’t burn everybody else randomly. There’s a gritted-teeth-ness about it, because these guys are her nephews, however appallingly badly they’ve behaved and are behaving and however dangerous they are. Aemond is responsible for Lucerys’s death.

“At the same time, they’re her family, too. There was a lot of reluctance and the knowledge that they’re effectively pushing the red button. The responsibility of that is so huge that it has to be a kamikaze mission, because how can one live with it? And that sort of samurai thing of when she comes back in — she could have escaped, and she turns around. To me, that’s pure whatever she is — Arthurian knight, Lancelot, samurai. It’s the noble warrior thinking, No, I’m not just going to save myself. I’m going to finish this.”

Via HBO

The actress also dropped a hint that this might not actually be the last we see of Rhaenys in House of the Dragon, adding: ” I think she should haunt him like crazy. She should pop up everywhere he goes, giving him all kinds of advice and a piece of her mind. We’ll see. Who knows?” I really hope we see her again because she is honestly one of the best characters on the show, Aemond and Vhagar better count their days…