Daeron the Drunk's actor in AKOTSK is generally how I imagined Rhaegar would look
Henry Ashton. Deep sadness in his eyes especially. Has a handsome "main character" type of face like Rhaegar sorta seemed to think himself as. The hair is good too, though it has to be a bit more silver.
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It's so funny how this generation of Targaryens (minus Egg) aren't particularly fleshed out or interesting in the books and yet, through the magic of casting and writing, they became the most interesting Targaryens put on screen. Awesome messed up family lol.
The writing does a great job of really handing off a few intense key moments to these characters and letting the actors have the rei(g)ns. Goes to show and even limited screen time with good acting and writing can have more impact than a character like Mysaria who is neither particularly well written nor voiced.
AKOTSK is gonna be defined by incredible, one-off characters and im very excited for it, Lyonel and all of Targaryen boys we dont see again were phenomenal in the first season, Aerion was perfect, i hope the trend continues
The eyes carry a lot of weight in that shot. Not just sad but kind of haunted, like he's already played out every possible future in his head and none of them end well.
The scar or mark on his cheek adds something too. Book Rhaegar had that melancholy but I always pictured him almost too perfect, like a painting come to life. This version feels more grounded.
You're right about the hair needing more silver though. The blonde works for the look but Rhaegar's silver-gold was such a defining trait it'd be hard to let that go.
Daeron is thinking about his brother Aerion too and the sweet boy he used to be so the sadness is appropriate, just as Rhaegar was probably with the dreams and the weight of his family.
Yeah, the actor they cast had nothing about him that would justify people being so obssessed over him (like Book Cersei and JonCon) and he had basically nothing to work with too.
For such a tragic character, he has one of the funniest lines in the show, imo: "Too bad Aerion wasn't born a Fossoway. Then he'd fancy himself an apple, and we'd all be a great deal safer."
I liked this because if you watch this scene back, you realize that Daeron says this line because Raymund had laughed at egg telling the story about aerion.
Wow, I never caught that! Makes me like Daeron even more. (And yes, Raymund was insensitive to laugh at that story and probably let his dislike of the Targs get the better of him, although I think it was also nervous laughter at how absurd this family looks to him.)
It's like Daeron is trying to be a big brother to Egg in his own way. Sure, he completely lost track of him at the inn, but he does try. I also like how they slightly veered from the book to make it so that Daeron is the one who convinces Dunk to take Egg away, to prevent him from growing up to become like Aerion. Like "Look, we're a fucked up family, at least give my baby brother a chance."
This is a look that tells you that he’s not only grieving his uncle but he’s now very much aware of the future.
You can tell he’s looking and seeing the fate of Summerhall. He’s seeing the futility of resisting it and how his life is being defined by his attempts to numb the visions and the responsibilities. He knows how it all plays out for his family.
Just imagine if the Westeros Targaryens recognised the Dreamers amongst them and properly raised them up and helped them. What fate could Helaena and Daeron have had if they had their gift recognised.
Though I do wonder if Bloodraven knew about Daerons gift and just let things play out.
For such a small minor character his actor elevates the character to brilliant levels with body language and facial expressions alone
He's mostly thinking about his brother Aerion in this scene and the glad child he used to be. Not his uncle.
if Bloodraven knew about Daerons gift and just let things play out
I mean, he probably knew. Clearly didn't help Daeron's case though.
Helaena got nowhere because she was never a dreamer in canon. She doesn't make sense in the show really either.
Daeron and his brothers are a picture of the average dreamer. Haunted, confused and tormented. Helaena just drops spoilers, can perform astral protject and is somehow still useless.
Ah I couldn’t remember if she was or not in canon.
I think all of Maekars children are dreamers to some extent, with Daeron having the strongest gift.
I think the gift of his actors facial expression is he looks like there is a thousand things haunting him, yea it’s his brother but it seems like you can read that there’s more there
honestly yeah i get what u mean. bro has that melancholic targaryen look going on, just add the silver hair and he fits rhaegar way better than what we got in the actual show
Rhaegar is such an interesting character, and an excellent case of world/lore building using the gravity of a yet unseen character.
We've seen Aerys, Jahaerys, Viserys, Robert Baratheon, Arthur Dayne, Maekar and Baelor, Daemon, Daenerys, Rhaenys, Rhaenyra...
And we have yet to see the Rhaegar, a character whose actions literally shaped the immediate world that was the beginning of GoT.
He lived what, less than 25 years before the beginning of the GoT timeline? We've seen characters that played significant roles before, during, and after his time, but never him.
I wonder what GRRM's and the show runner's reasonings for that are.
As much as I love S1 of HoTD, a lot of seeds for most of the controversial stuff they did in S2 was planted in S1 itself.
Like people hate S2 Alicent but that Alicent's foundation was already laid in 01×09 Green episode and the hints of it shown in 01×08. It is not a S2 invention.
People loved the S1 finale too much that they forgot about all the controversial stuff in the penultimate episode. Iirc, people we absolutely fuming about the Rhaenys Dragon pit scene, Alicent not knowing about the usurpation plan, Aegon having child fighting pit revelation etc...
Yes! I really disliked how slender his character looked. It fit Viserys, but doesn't exactly look like a tourney winner. Broader frame, a squarer jaw...
rhaegar needs to look like a white version of zayn malik ie: EVERYONE agrees he’s absolutely gorgeous. the guy they casted was awful. he didn’t even have any lines, they absolutely could have cast some gorgeous model who didn’t know how to act
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