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Home / Television / House of the Dragon Best Quotes

House of the Dragon Best Quotes

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Our list of the best quotes from HBO TV series created by George R. R. Martin and Ryan J. Condal. House Of The Dragon is set three hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones and chronicles the rise and the downfall of the Targaryens, who are the only family of dragonlords to survive the Doom of Valyria, and the events leading up to the Targaryen civil war, known as the “Dance of the Dragons”.

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1. The Heirs of the Dragon

'If the world of men is to survive, a Targaryen must be seated on the Iron Throne. A king or queen. Strong enough to unite the realm against the cold and the dark.' - King Viserys Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: As the first century of the Targaryen dynasty came to a close, the health of the Old King, Jaehaerys, was failing. In those days, House Targaryen stood at the height of its strength with ten adult dragons under its yoke. No power in the world could stand against it. King Jaehaerys reigned over nearly sixty years of peace and prosperity, but tragedy had claimed both his sons, leaving his succession in doubt. So, in the year 101 The Old King called a Great Council to choose an heir.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Fourteen succession claims were heard, but only two were truly considered. Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, the King’s eldest descendant, and her younger cousin, Prince Viserys Targaryen, The King’s eldest male descendant.

 

'The gods have yet to make a man who lacks the patience for absolute power.' - Otto Hightower (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Rhaenys, a woman, would not inherit the Iron Throne. The lords instead chose Viserys, my father. Jaehaerys called the Great Council to prevent a war being fought over his succession. For he knew the cold truth. The only thing that could tear down the House of the Dragon was itself.


 

Ser Harrold Westerling: [to young Rhaenyra, referring to Syrax] Every time that golden beast brings you back unspoiled it saves my head from a spike.

 

'Jaehaerys called the Great Council to prevent a war being fought over his succession. For he knew the cold truth. The only thing that could tear down the House of the Dragon was itself.' - Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen Click To Tweet

 

Aemma Arryn: You will lie in this bed soon enough, Rhaenyra. This discomfort is how we serve the realm.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I’d rather serve as a knight and ride to battle and glory.
Aemma Arryn: We have royal wombs, you and I. The child bed is our battlefield. We must learn to face it with a stiff lip. Now take a bath. You stink of dragon.

 

'I want to fly with you on dragon back, see the great wonders across the Narrow Sea, and eat only cake.' - Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

King Viserys Targaryen: Rhaenyra, you’re late. The King’s cupbearer must not be late. Leaves people wanting for cups.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: There’s a boy in the Queen’s belly. I know it. And my heir will soon put all of this damnable hand-wringing to rest himself.

 

'The idea that we control the dragons is an illusion. They're a power man should never have trifled with. One that brought Valyria its doom. If we don't mind our own histories, it will do the same to us.' - King Viserys Targaryen Click To Tweet

 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [in High Valyrian, finds Daemon sitting on the Iron Throne] What do you think you’re doing, Uncle?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] Sitting. This could well be my chair one day.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] Not if you’re executed for treason.

See more Episode 1 Quotes


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] I heard your father was hosting a tournament in my honor.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] The tournament is for his heir.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] Just as I said.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: Until your mother brings forth a son, you are all cursed with me.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Then I shall hope for a brother.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: [referring to the necklace] I bought you something. Do you know what it is?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: It’s Valyrian steel. Like Dark Sister.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: [as he places the neclace on her] Turn around. Now you and I both own a small piece of our ancestry.


 

Young Alicent Hightower: When Princess Nymeria arrived in Dorne, who did she take to husband?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: A man.
Young Alicent Hightower: What was his name?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Lord Something.


 

Young Alicent Hightower: [referring to Viserys] You want him to have a son?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I want to fly with you on dragon back, see the great wonders across the Narrow Sea, and eat only cake.
Young Alicent Hightower: I’m being serious.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I never jest about cake.


 

Young Alicent Hightower: You aren’t worried about your position?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I like this position. It’s quite comfortable.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: You spend more time in that bath than I do on the throne.
Aemma Arryn: This is the only place I can find comfort these days.
King Viserys Targaryen: It’s tepid.
Aemma Arryn: It’s as warm as the maesters will allow.
King Viserys Targaryen: Don’t they know dragons prefer heat?


 

Aemma Arryn: After this miserable pregnancy, I wouldn’t be surprised if I hatched an actual dragon.
King Viserys Targaryen: And he will be loved and cherished.


 

Aemma Arryn: The tourney, to celebrate the firstborn son that we presently do not have. You do understand nothing will cause the babe to grow a c**k if it does not already possess one?
King Viserys Targaryen: This child is a boy, Aemma. I’m certain of it. I’ve never been more certain of anything.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: The dream. It was clearer than a memory. Our son was born wearing Aegon’s iron crown. When I heard the sound of thundering hooves, splintering shields, and ringing swords. And I placed our son upon the Iron Throne as the bells of the Grand Sept tolled, and all the dragons roared as one.
Aemma Arryn: Born wearing a crown? Gods spare me. Birth is unpleasant enough as it is.


 

Aemma Arryn: This is the last time, Viserys. I’ve lost one babe in the cradle, had two stillbirths, and two pregnancies ended well before their term. That’s five in twice as many years. I know it is my duty to provide you an heir, and I’m sorry if I have failed you in that. I am. But I’ve mourned all the dead children I can.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: My brother’s city has fallen into squalor. Crime of every breed has been allowed to thrive. No longer. Beginning tonight, King’s Landing will learn to fear the color gold.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: [as they enter the council room] The Prince cannot be allowed to act with this kind of unchecked impunity.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Brother.
King Viserys Targaryen: Daemon.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Carry on. You were saying something about my impunity.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: Our city should be safe for all its people.
King Viserys Targaryen: I agree. I just hope you don’t have to maim half of my city to achieve this.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Time will tell.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: In the Vale, men are said to f*** sheep instead of women. I can assure you, the sheep are prettier.


 

Mysaria: You are Daemon Targaryen. Rider of Caraxes. Wielder of Dark Sister. The King cannot replace you.


 

Princess Rhaenys Velaryon: [referring to the tournament] And the day grows ugly.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: I wonder if this is how we should celebrate the birth of our future king. With wanton violence.


 

Princess Rhaenys Velaryon: These knights are as green as summer grass. None have known real war. Their lords sent them to the tourney field with fists full of steel, and balls full of seed, and we expect them to act with honor and grace. It’s a marvel that war didn’t break out at first blood.


 

Grand Maester Mellos: During a difficult birth, it sometimes becomes necessary for the father to make an impossible choice.
King Viserys Targaryen: Well, speak it.
Grand Maester Mellos: To sacrifice one, or to lose them both.


 

Grand Maester Mellos: Congratulations, Your Grace. You have a son.
King Viserys Targaryen: It’s a boy?
Grand Maester Mellos: A new heir, Your Grace. Had you and the Queen chosen a name?
King Viserys Targaryen: Baelon.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] I wonder if, during those few hourse my brother lived, my father finally found happiness.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] Your father needs you more now than he ever has.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] I will never be a son.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: This is the last thing any of us wish to discuss at this dark hour, but I consider the matter urgent.
King Viserys Targaryen: What matter?
Ser Otto Hightower: That of your succession. These recent tragedies have left you without an obvious heir.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: The King has an heir, my Lord Hand.


 

Lord Corlys Velaryon: Shall we say his name? Daemon Targaryen.
Grand Maester Mellos: If Daemon were to remain the uncontested heir, it could destabilize the realm.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: The realm? Or this council?
Ser Otto Hightower: No one here can know what Daemon would do were he king, but no one can doubt his ambition.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I named Daemon Master of Laws, but you said he was a tyrant. As Master of Coin, you said he was a spendthrift that would beggar the realm. Putting Daemon in command of the City Watch was your solution!
Ser Otto Hightower: A half-measure, Your Grace. The truth is, Daemon should be far away from this court.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Daemon is my brother. My blood. And he will have his place at my court.
Grand Maester Mellos: Let him keep his place at court, Your Grace. But if the gods should visit some further tragedy on you, either by design, or accident…
King Viserys Targaryen: Design? What are you saying? My brother would murder me, take my crown? Are you?


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Daemon has ambition, yes, but not for the throne. He lacks the patience for it.
Ser Otto Hightower: The gods have yet to make a man who lacks the patience for absolute power, Your Grace.


 

Lord Lyonel Strong: Well, who else would have a claim?
Ser Otto Hightower: The King’s firstborn child.
Lord Lyonel Strong: Rhaenyra? A girl? No queen has ever sat the Iron Throne.
Grand Maester Mellos: That is only by tradition and precedent, Lord Strong.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: Daemon would be a second Maegor, or worse. He is impulsive and violent. It is the duty of this council to protect the King and the realm from him. I’m sorry, Your Grace, but that is the truth as I see it.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I will not be made to choose between my brother and my daughter.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: You wouldn’t have to, Your Grace. There are others who would have a claim.
Lord Lyonel Strong: Such as your wife, Lord Corlys? The Queen Who Never Was?


 

King Viserys Targaryen: My wife and son are dead! I will not sit here and suffer crows that come to feast on their corpses!


 

Young Alicent Hightower: [to Viserys] When my mother died people only ever spoke to me in riddles. All I wanted was for someone to say that they were sorry for what happened to me. I’m very sorry, Your Grace.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: King and Council have long rued my position as next in line for the throne. But dream and pray as they all might, it seems I’m not so easily replaced. The gods give just as the gods take away. To the King’s son.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: [referring to Daemon] He toasted Prince Baelon. Styling him the Heir for a Day.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: You cut the image of the conqueror, brother.
King Viserys Targaryen: Did you say it?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I don’t know what you mean.
King Viserys Targaryen: You will address me as “Your Grace”, or I will have my Kings guard cut out your tongue.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: “The Heir for a Day.” Did you say it?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: We must all mourn in our own way, Your Grace.
King Viserys Targaryen: My family has just been destroyed. But instead of being by my side, or Rhaenyra’s, you chose to celebrate your own rise! Laughing with your whores, and your lickspittles! You have no allies at court but me! I have only ever defended you! Yet everything I’ve given you, you’ve thrown back in my face.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: Ten years you’ve been king, and yet not once have you asked me to be your Hand!
King Viserys Targaryen: Why would I do that?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Because I’m your brother. And the blood of the dragon runs thick.
King Viserys Targaryen: Then why do you cut me so deeply?


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: I’ve only ever spoken the truth. I see Otto High tower for what he is.
King Viserys Targaryen: An unwavering and loyal Hand?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: A c***.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: [referring to Otto] He doesn’t protect you. I would.
King Viserys Targaryen: From what?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Yourself. You’re weak, Viserys. And that council of leeches knows it. They all prey on you for their own ends.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I have decided to name a new heir.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I’m your heir.
King Viserys Targaryen: Not anymore.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Everyone says Targaryens are closer to gods than to men, but they say that because of our dragons. Without them, we’re just like everyone else.
King Viserys Targaryen: The idea that we control the dragons is an illusion. They’re a power man should never have trifled with. One that brought Valyria its doom. If we don’t mind our own histories, it will do the same to us. Targaryen must understand this to be King, or Queen.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I’m sorry, Rhaenyra. I have wasted the years since you were born wanting for a son. You are the very best of your mother. And I believe it, I know she did, that you could be a great ruling queen.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Daemon is your heir.
King Viserys Targaryen: Daemon was not made to wear the crown. But I believe that you were.


 

Lord Corlys Velaryon: I, Corlys Velaryon, Lord of the Tides and Master of Driftmark, promise to be faithful to King Viserys and his named heir, the Princess Rhaenyra. I pledge fealty to them and shall defend them against all enemies, in good faith and without deceit. I swear this by the old gods and the new.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: This is no trivial gesture, Rhaenyra. A dragon’s saddle is one thing, but the Iron Throne is the most dangerous seat in the realm.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Our histories, they tell us that Aegon looked across the Blackwater from Dragonstone saw a rich land ripe for the capture. But ambition alone is not what drove him to conquest. It was a dream. And just as Daenys foresaw the end of Valyria, Aegon foresaw the end of the world of men. ‘Tis to begin with a terrible winter gusting out of the distant north.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Aegon saw absolute darkness riding on those winds. And whatever dwells within will destroy the world of the living. When this Great Winter comes, Rhaenyra, all of Westeros must stand against it. And if the world of men is to survive, a Targaryen must be seated on the Iron Throne. A king or queen. Strong enough to unite the realm against the cold and the dark. Aegon called his dream The Song of Ice and Fire. This secret, it’s been passed from king to heir since Aegon’s time. Now you must promise to carry it and protect it. Promise me this, Rhaenyra. Promise me.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I, Viserys Targaryen, first of his name, King of the Andals, and the Rhoynar, and the First Men Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm, do hereby name Rhaenyra Targaryen, Princess of Dragons tone, and heir to the Iron Throne.

 

2. The Rogue Prince'To elude a storm, you can either sail into it, or around it. But you must never await its coming.' - Lord Corlys Velaryon (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Lord Corlys Velaryon: What reason does the Crabfeeder have to fear us? The King’s own brother has been allowed to seize Dragonstone and fortify it with an army of his gold cloaks. Daemon has squatted there for over half a year without even a protest from The Crown.
Ser Otto Hightower: I’ll caution you, Lord Corlys, a seat at the King’s table does not make you his equal.

 

'You are the King. But I do not envy you.' - Otto Hightower (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: You have dragonriders, Father. Send us.
King Viserys Targaryen: It isn’t that simple, Rhaenyra.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: It would be a show of force.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: At least the Princess has a plan.

 

'You sit upon the highest seat in the realm, Your Grace. Proud men don't like having to look up.' - Lord Lyonel Strong (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Do any of these knights have combat experience? Beyond capturing poachers.
Ser Harrold Westerling: Ser Criston Cole. Son of the steward of the Lord of Blackhaven.

 

'Our worth is not given. It must be made.' - Lord Corlys Velaryon (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I choose Ser Criston Cole.
Ser Otto Hightower: Let’s not be too hasty, Princess. There’s no doubt Ser Criston is a fine warrior, but houses such as Crakehall and Mallister are important allies of The Crown. Seagard, for instance, is the realm’s prime defense against reavers from the Iron Islands.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Those men are tourney knights. My father should be defended by a man who’s known real combat. Should he not?
Ser Otto Hightower: Of course, Princess.

 

'Men would sooner put the realm to the torch than see a woman ascend the Iron Throne.' - Princess Rhaenys Velaryon (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

King Viserys Targaryen: [referring to Rhaenyra] I wish she would approach me.
Young Alicent Hightower: What if you went to her?
King Viserys Targaryen: There are times when I would rather face the Black Dread himself than mine own daughter of fifteen.
Young Alicent Hightower: I think she would open herself to you if invited. You do have such an easy way about you, Your Grace.

See more Episode 2 Quotes


 

King Viserys Targaryen: You do not mention our talks to Rhaenyra, do you? I just, I fear that she wouldn’t understand them.
Young Alicent Hightower: No, Your Grace.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: It’s only been half a year since my mother died, and already they tried to marry my father off and replace me as heir. I know those men and how they plot in their secret councils when I’ve been sent away.
Young Alicent Hightower: You cannot worry at the matters of lords and kings, Rhaenyra. And what if your father were to remarry? Your father loves you. He chose you for his heir.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: He didn’t choose me. He spurns Daemon.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I want him to see me as more than his little girl.
Young Alicent Hightower: Mine own father does not know the language of girls either. When I wish to talk with him, I know that I must make the effort.


 

Lord Corlys Velaryon: I fear that the eyes of our enemies are presently fixed on the Red Keep. The Queen has passed. A girl has been named heir to the Iron Throne, the first in its history. The King’s brother, so disinherited, has claimed the Targaryen seat on Dragonstone without challenge. And now, a foreign power has established a colony in our most critical shipping lane.
King Viserys Targaryen: You paint such an aspirant portrait of my reign, Lord Corlys.
Princess Rhaenys Velaryon: It is an honest one, Cousin.


 

Lord Corlys Velaryon: To elude a storm, you can either sail into it, or around it. But you must never await its coming.
King Viserys Targaryen: Do you have a specific course of action to propose, my lord?
Lord Corlys Velaryon: Join our families. Wed our daughter, Laena. Unite the two great surviving Valyrian houses. With the Targaryen dragons and the Velaryon fleet bound in blood, you can show the realm that The Crown’s strongest days are ahead, not behind.


 

Grand Maester Mellos: [to Viserys] This is our best chance to save the digit, Your Grace. The maggots will remove the dead flesh and hopefully stop the advance of the rot.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: I dearly loved my own lady wife. The pain of her passing still haunts me. And to be compelled to replace her for duty’s sake. You are the King. But I do not envy you.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I imagine even dragons get lonely.


 

Young Laena Velaryon: Your Grace, it would be a great honor to join our houses, as they were in Old Valyria. I would give you many children of pure Valyrian blood so that we might strengthen the royal line and the realm.
King Viserys Targaryen: Is that what your father told you to say? What did your mother tell you?
Young Laena Velaryon: That I wouldn’t have to bed you until I turned fourteen.


 

Princess Rhaenys Velaryon: It bothers you, does it not?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: My father is a king. It is his duty to take a new wife and strengthen his line.
Princess Rhaenys Velaryon: I did not ask for a lesson in politics. I asked whether this bothers you.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Laena is your daughter, Princess. Does it bother you?
Princess Rhaenys Velaryon: Of course, it does. But I understand the order of things. I’m not sure you do.


 

Princess Rhaenys Velaryon: Whether it’s to my daughter, or to someone else’s, your father will remarry sooner than late. His new wife will produce new heirs, and chances are better than not that one of those will be male. And when that boy comes of age, and your father has passed, the men of the realm will expect him to be heir, not you. Because that is the order of things.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: When I’m Queen, I will create a new order.
Princess Rhaenys Velaryon: How I wish that could be, Rhaenyra.


 

Princess Rhaenys Velaryon: The men of the realm already had their opportunity to appoint a ruling queen at the Great Council, and they denied it.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: They denied you, Princess Rhaenys. The Queen Who Never Was. But they bent the knee to me, and called me heir to the throne.
Princess Rhaenys Velaryon: Do you remind your father’s men of that as you carry their cups?


 

Princess Rhaenys Velaryon: [to Rhaenyra] Here is the hard truth, which no one else has the heart to tell you. Men would sooner put the realm to the torch than see a woman ascend the Iron Throne. And your father is no fool.


 

Grand Maester Mellos: [reading Daemon’s note] “It is the pleasure of Daemon Targaryen, the Prince of Dragonstone, and rightful heir to the Iron Throne, to announce that he is to take a second wife in the tradition of Old Valyria. She is to assume the title Lady Mysaria of Dragonstone. Her Grace is with child, and is to have a dragon’s egg placed in the babe’s cradle in the custom of House Targaryen.”


 

King Viserys Targaryen: My brother wishes to provoke me. To answer is to give him what he wants.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: The realm is watching, Your Grace.
King Viserys Targaryen: What would you have me do? Send him to the Wall? Perhaps I could put his head on a spike.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: [referring to her bleeding fingers] You’re the most comely girl at court. Why do you destroy yourself? Will you see the King tonight?
Young Alicent Hightower: If you wish it.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: Welcome to Dragonstone, Otto.
Ser Otto Hightower: Your occupation of this island is at an end. You’re to relinquish the dragon’s egg, disband your army, banish your whore, and leave Dragonstone by order of His Grace, King Viserys.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Where is the King? I don’t see him.
Ser Otto Hightower: His Grace would never lower himself to entertain such a mummer’s farce.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: Ser Crispin, wasn’t it?
Ser Criston Cole: Ser Criston Cole, my Prince.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Yes, apologies. I couldn’t recall.
Ser Criston Cole: Perhaps my Prince recalls when I knocked him off his horse.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: You’ve come for the egg. Here it is.
Ser Otto Hightower: Are you mad? You’d never survive this.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Well, happily, neither would you.
Ser Otto Hightower: To choose violence, here, is to declare war against your King.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Wonderful.
Ser Otto Hightower: Even if it ends in the death of your unborn child and its mother?


 

Ser Otto Hightower: [to his men see Caraxes] All of you, sheathe the f***ing steel.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: [after Rhaenyra flies in on Syrax] What are you doing here, Princess?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Preventing bloodshed.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I’m right here, Uncle, the object of your ire, the reason that you were disinherited. If you wish to be restored as heir, you’ll need to kill me. So, do it. And be done with all this bother.
[Daemon turns to leave and tosses the egg at her]


 

Mysaria: You announced that we were to be wed?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: On the morrow.
Mysaria: And that I was with child. Your child.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Well, perhaps when we are wed, we can make that true.
Mysaria: I ensured long ago that I would never be threatened by childbirth.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Good. Children can be such irritating creatures.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: No one will harm you.
Mysaria: I have been sold as property more times than I care to count, beginning in a homeland I can no longer recall. Most of my years have been spent living in terror.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: You’re safe with me, I swear it.
Mysaria: You are Targaryen. You can afford to play your stupid games with the King, but I cannot.


 

Mysaria: I didn’t come into your service wanting gold, or power, or station. I came to you to be liberated.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Liberated. From what?
Mysaria: Fear.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Ever since my name was read by the archmaesters at the Great Council, I have felt Corlys Velaryon’s envious gaze staring at me from across the Blackwater.
Lord Lyonel Strong: You sit upon the highest seat in the realm, Your Grace. Proud men don’t like having to look up.


 

Lord Lyonel Strong: Lord Corlys is your Master of Ships, and she is the eldest daughter of the wealthiest house in the realm. She comes from unimpeachable Valyrian stock, and she has Targaryen blood. What’s to mislike?
King Viserys Targaryen: She is twelve.
Lord Lyonel Strong: She will mature.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: You went to Dragonstone.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: And retrieved the egg without bloodshed. A feat I’m not sure Ser Otto could’ve accomplished alone.
King Viserys Targaryen: Yes, well, I sometimes forget how alike you both were.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Your mother’s absence is a wound that will never heal. Without her, the Red Keep has lost a warmth and I dare say it will never recover.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: It pleases me to hear you say this. To know that I’m not alone in my grief.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I wish I had known better what to say to you in the aftermath. I struggled to realize that my daughter had so quickly become a woman grown. But I know she understands what is now expected of me.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: The King must take a new wife.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I do not wish to make us estranged.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: You are the King, and so, your first duty is to the realm. Mother would’ve understood this. Just as I do.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I have decided to take a new wife. I intend to marry the Lady Alicent Hightower before spring’s end.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: This is an absurdity. My house is Valyrian, the greatest power in the realm.
King Viserys Targaryen: And I am your King.


 

Lord Corlys Velaryon: For centuries, my house had to scratch out an existence from the sea with grit and luck. When I ascended the Driftwood Throne, I knew what I wanted. So I went out and seized it. Unlike every other lord of the realm, I can say that I built my house’s high seat with the strength of mine own back.


 

Lord Corlys Velaryon: I’ve always thought of you and I as having been made from the same cloth.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I wasn’t aware you had a king for a brother.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: We’re both men who have had to cut our own way through the world. We’ve been passed over too often.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Did you call me to Driftmark to remind me of my low standing, Lord Corlys, or was there some other reason?


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: It was never my brother’s strongest trait.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: What?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Being King.


 

Lord Corlys Velaryon: If those shipping lanes fall, my house will be crippled. And I will not have Driftmark beggared while our King idles himself with feasts, and balls, and tourneys.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I will speak of my brother as I wish. You will not.


 

Lord Corlys Velaryon: Waiting in the Stepstones is a chance for you to prove your worth to any who might yet doubt it. We are the realm’s second sons, Daemon. Our worth is not given. It must be made.

 

3. Second of His Name

'The road ahead is uncertain, but the end is clear.' - Otto Hightower (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Velaryon Knight: [just before Caraxes steps on him] Here, my Prince Save me!


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: Come out and face me, Drahar! Come out, Drahar! Where are you? I’m going to feed you to your own crabs!

 

'I may be the Princess of Dragonstone, but I am toothless.' - Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Lord Hobert Hightower: [referring to young Aegon] Two years-old and already our boy has a kingly presence.
Ser Otto Hightower: He may yet, brother, but this morning he insisted on eating porridge with his hands.


 

Lord Hobert Hightower: It is Aegon’s second name day. His infancy’s behind him. It only remains for Viserys to name him heir to the throne.
Ser Otto Hightower: I wouldn’t be so sure.
Lord Hobert Hightower: He’s the King’s firstborn son.
Ser Otto Hightower: I don’t know that His Grace sees it so clearly.
Lord Hobert Hightower: Then it lies with you to make him see it, Lord Hand.

 

'What is the power of a dragon next to the power of prophecy.' - King Viserys Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Tyland Lannister: The matter of the Step stones is regrettably urgent.
King Viserys Targaryen: It’s been three years. It can wait another three days.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Can someone tell me where in the Seven Hells Rhaenyra might be?

 

'I am forever doomed to anger one person in the pleasing of another.' - King Viserys Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

King Viserys Targaryen: You are my daughter, the Princess. And you have duties.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: As I am ceaselessly reminded.
King Viserys Targaryen: I’m sorry?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: As I am ceaselessly reminded.
King Viserys Targaryen: You wouldn’t need to be reminded if you ever attended to them.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: No one’s here for me.

See more Episode 3 Quotes


 

Lord Hobert Hightower: Hail, hail Aegon, the Conqueror-Babe, Second of His Name! Here’s to His Grace on his second name day!


 

Lady Ceira Lannister: Your dear uncle is the great mind behind this war. Is he not?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I wouldn’t know. I’ve not spoken to Daemon in years.
Lady Ceira Lannister: Since you supplanted him as heir.
Young Alicent Hightower: Daemon made his choices, Lady Ceira. The Princess was more suited to the role.


 

Lady Joselyn Redwyne: He’s made a mess and the King must put an end to it. Send fleets and men and clear out the Triarchy for good.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: But the crown is not at war.
Lady Joselyn Redwyne: The crown is at war, Princess. Though your father refuses to admit it, we’ve been dragged into it by your uncle and The Sea Snake.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: And how have you served the realm of late Lady Redwyne, by eating cake?


 

Lord Jason Lannister: I wonder, Princess, was your own second name day as grand as this?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I honestly don’t recall, and neither will Aegon.


 

Lord Jason Lannister: Lord Jason Lannister.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I gathered that from all the lions.
Lord Jason Lannister: I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Your twin serves on my father’s council.
Lord Jason Lannister: Tyland is frightfully dull, gods love him.


 

Lord Jason Lannister: I don’t have a Dragon pit, of course, but I do have the means and resources to build one.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Why would you need a Dragon pit?
Lord Jason Lannister: To house dragons, of course. I’d do anything for my Queen, or, lady wife.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Is that what I am to you? A prize to proffer about to the great houses?
King Viserys Targaryen: You’re of age, Rhaenyra. And Jason Lannister is an excellent match.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: He’s arrogant and self-serious.
King Viserys Targaryen: Well, I thought you might have that in common.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Since you came of age, I’ve been slowly drowning in a lake of parchment flung from every corner of the realm. Marriage proposals, all. And I have tried often to discuss it with you, but you’ve refused me at every turn.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: That is because I do not wish to get married!
King Viserys Targaryen: Even I do not exist above tradition and duty, Rhaenyra!


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: My father, trying to sell me off to Jason Lannister. Was I named heir to the Iron Throne so that I might only further raise the standing of a Lord of Casterly Rock?
Ser Criston Cole: Do you want me to kill him?


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: How lucky you are to have a say in your own life.
Ser Criston Cole: Many in the realm would gladly trade positions with you, Princess.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Only because none of them has ever held my position.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I may be the Princess of Dragonstone, but I am toothless.
Ser Criston Cole: One day, not so long ago, you held enough power to write my name into the White Book. And when your father named me to his Kings guard, it was the highest honor any Cole have ever known. All that I have, I owe to you. Now I’d hardly call that toothless, Princess.


 

Lord Jason Lannister: I would be honored to take the Princess Rhaenyra to wife, Your Grace. What I offer you, The crown and your daughter, is strength.
King Viserys Targaryen: Do you think that House Targaryen wants for strength?
Lord Jason Lannister: If someone offered you more dragons, would you not take them?
King Viserys Targaryen: Do you have dragons to offer?


 

Lord Jason Lannister: Casterly Rock is a splendid seat. Rhaenyra may take her place there by my side without shame, and feel herself well-compensated for her loss in station.
King Viserys Targaryen: What loss of station?
Lord Jason Lannister: If you were to name young Aegon heir, Your Grace.
King Viserys Targaryen: And when would I be doing that?


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I did not decide to name Rhaenyra my heir on a whim. All the lords of the kingdom would do well to remember that.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: What do you make of Lord Jason’s proposal?
King Viserys Targaryen: That man’s pride has pride.
Ser Otto Hightower: You’re not only Rhaenyra’s father, you’re the King. She’ll do as you command.
King Viserys Targaryen: It is not my wish to command her, Otto. I want her to be happy.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: There is another choice beyond Casterly Rock. One, perhaps, you might be more comfortable with. One closer to home.
King Viserys Targaryen: Who do you have in mind?
Ser Otto Hightower: Prince Aegon.
King Viserys Targaryen: The boy just turned two, Otto.
Ser Otto Hightower: Yes, but it would cease the endless proposals for Rhaenyra’s hand. Betroth them.
King Viserys Targaryen: I came here to hunt, not to be suffocated by all this f***ing politicking!


 

King Viserys Targaryen: The girl is a heedless contrarian. If I instead forbade her to wed a Lannister, she would’ve run off with Lord Jason out of spite. A truly great Targaryen King I am. Powerless over mine own daughter of seven-and-ten.
Lord Lyonel Strong: King Jaehaerys ruled over half a century of peace while his children drove him to the edge of madness. His daughters, in particular. It is tradition, Your Grace.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Tell me something, Ser Criston. Do you think the realm will ever accept me as their Queen?
Ser Criston Cole: They’ll have no choice but to, Princess.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: You know, I named her to protect the realm from Daemon. She was my only child. “The Realm’s Delight.” I named her out of love, because I no longer believed…
Young Alicent Hightower: Believed what, my love?
King Viserys Targaryen: Many in my line have been dragon riders. Very few among us have been dreamers. What is the power of a dragon next to the power of prophecy.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: When Rhaenyra was a child, I saw it in a dream, as vivid as these flames, I saw it. A male babe born to me, wearing the Conqueror’s crown. And I so wanted it to be true, to be a dreamer myself. I sought that vision again, night after night, but it never came again. I poured all my thought and will into it. And my obsession killed Rhaenyra’s mother.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I thought Rhaenyra was the way out of my abyss of grief and regret. And naming her heir would begin to set things right.
Young Alicent Hightower: Oh, it did.
King Viserys Targaryen: I never imagined I would remarry, that I would have a son. What if I was wrong?


 

Ser Otto Hightower: When you bore the King a son, you ended fifteen years of uncertainty and doubt. Aegon, like his namesake, was born to rule the Seven Kingdoms. If Viserys were to name him heir, the realm would fete him for it. And does this not please you? Do you not want your son to be King?
Young Alicent Hightower: And what mother wouldn’t?


 

Ser Otto Hightower: You mustn’t ignore the certain truth that if Rhaenyra were to step over Aegon to ascend the throne, the realm would tear itself apart.
Young Alicent Hightower: They all swore obeisance to her, our house among them.
Ser Otto Hightower: That was before Aegon.
Young Alicent Hightower: Rhaenyra will be a good queen.
Ser Otto Hightower: It wouldn’t matter if she were Jaehaerys himself born again. Rhaenyra is a woman.


 

Young Alicent Hightower: What of my son? Would you have me raise a man to steal his own sister’s birthright?
Ser Otto Hightower: It is Aegon that’s being robbed. He’s the firstborn son of the King. To deny that he is heir to the throne is to assail the laws of gods and men. The road ahead is uncertain, but the end is clear. Aegon will be king. You must guide Viserys towards reason. He’ll never find it on his own.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Rhaenyra has come of age. She must needs marry a high lord who will honor her, defend her, and serve her as king consort. Her wishes in this matter are irrelevant.
Young Alicent Hightower: I do believe that Rhaenyra will marry, Your Grace. But she must believe it is her choice to do so.


 

Young Alicent Hightower: Lord Corlys and Prince Daemon are losing their war.
King Viserys Targaryen: Badly, by all accounts.
Young Alicent Hightower: This is a plea for aid. Then why not send it?
King Viserys Targaryen: Because it is a war started by two malcontents, unhappy with decisions I made. If I now provide Daemon and Corlys succor, what will that say of their king?
Young Alicent Hightower: Perhaps, that he is a good man who loves his brother.
King Viserys Targaryen: Well, if you truly believe that, my dear, then you possess a generous spirit.


 

Young Alicent Hightower: What do you believe, Viserys?
King Viserys Targaryen: That I am forever doomed to anger one person in the pleasing of another.
Young Alicent Hightower: Then I pose a simpler question. Is it better for the realm if the Crabfeeder thrives, or is vanquished?


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I’m sending word to Daemon. Aid is sailing to the Stepstones.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Did he make call for help?
King Viserys Targaryen: He would sooner die. But his king does not mean to allow that. Do you not think my decision correct?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: It is no consequence to what I think, as I’m often reminded.
King Viserys Targaryen: Daemon is thorn enough in my flesh. Will you insist on taking after him? Must everything be a battle?


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Why must every effort on your behalf be resisted as if to the death?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Because you mean to replace me with Alicent Hightower’s son, the boy you always wanted. You have him in hands now. You have no further use for me. You might as well peddle me for what you can. A mountain stronghold, or a fleet of ships.
King Viserys Targaryen: You have misjudged me, Rhaenyra.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: You said it yourself, the lords of the realm gather like vultures to a carcass, hoping to feast on my bones.
King Viserys Targaryen: It is true that as rulers we must marry for advantage to forge alliances and bolster our strength. You have always understood this. I myself was promised to your mother when I was…
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Ten-and-seven years of age. The Vale had an army to rival the North. I’ve heard that story since I’ve had ears to.
King Viserys Targaryen: I loved her. She made a man of me.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I do not seek to replace you, child. You’ve been much alone these last few years. Alone and angry. I will not live forever. I wish to see you contented, happy even.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: You think a man will do it?
King Viserys Targaryen: A family.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I had a family.
King Viserys Targaryen: What would you have me do?!


 

King Viserys Targaryen: [to Rhaenyra] You must marry, strengthen your own claim, shore up your succession, multiply. As to your match, make it yourself. Search him out. Find one that pleases you, as I did.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Rhaenyra, I did waver at one time. But I swear to you now, on your mother’s memory, you will not be supplanted.


 

Vaemond Velaryon: Dragons can circle Bloodstone until they fall out of the sky. The Crabfeeder and his men have no reason to leave those caves.
Young Laenor Velaryon: We must give them one, an offering of flesh to bait the crab.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: Who?


 

Vaemond Velaryon: Which man here will happily go to his death? Show me the knight who will march into that hell pit, nephew, and I will show you a madman.
Young Laenor Velaryon: Daemon.
Vaemond Velaryon: Daemon is why we are losing!
Young Laenor Velaryon: He at least is fighting this war. What role have you played in his council, uncle, other than Master of Complaints?


 

Vaemond Velaryon: If you do not seize control of this war, my lord, the crabs will soon dine on all of us.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Brother, I have ordered ten ships, and two thousand men to set sail from King’s Landing to join the effort in the Stepstones. Though time and circumstance have seen us estranged, know that it is not my desire to see you fail in your cause. It is instead my hope that this aid will deliver the victory that has thus far evaded us. I shall pray nightly to the gods for your safe return.

 

4. King of the Narrow Sea'Hard lessons are not welcomed but suffered.' - Mysaria (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: And tell me, Lord Dondarrion, did you think my great-grandmother as beautiful as they say?
Beric Dondarrion: This was half a century ago, Princess.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Yes, it was.
Lord Boremund Baratheon: That was unseemly, Princess.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: The man is older than my father. It’s unseemly for him to put himself forward as a contender for my hand.
Lord Boremund Baratheon: Next!
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: And now a child.

 

'For men marriage might be a political arrangement. For women it is like to be a death sentence.' - Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Willem Blackwood: My Princess, ours is a bond that has long endured, since Lucas Blackwood, the grandsire of my grandsire, aided the Dragon in his war of conquest…
Jerrel Bracken: Aye, the Blackwoods truly turned the tide on that one.
Willem Blackwood: Coursed with the blood of the First Men, our history is deeply rooted in this land, which your house has made its home. If chosen as your match, Princess, your days shall be easy, and nights safe under my protection.
Jerrel Bracken: “Protection”? The Princess has a dragon, you dumb c***.
Lord Boremund Baratheon: Bracken!
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I could learn to like that one.

 

'This is a tragic world. You cannot live your life in fear, or you will foresake the best parts of it.' - Prince Daemon Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Ser Criston Cole: Princess, we’re due in Bitter bridge in three days time.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I would happily row myself back to King’s Landing if it brought an end to this ridiculous pageant.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: How do you think he will take it?
Ser Criston Cole: Do you speak of how you rejected every suitor His Grace put before you, or how you abruptly ended the tour with two months remaining?

 

'The truth does not matter. Only perception.' - King Viserys Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: [referring to Crabfeeders hammer] Add it to the chair.
King Viserys Targaryen: You wear a crown. Do you also call yourself “King”?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Once we smashed the Triarchy, they named me “King of the Narrow Sea”. But I know that there is only one true king, Your Grace. My crown and the Step stones are yours.

See more Episode 4 Quotes


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Who holds the Stepstones?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: The tides, the crabs, and two thousand dead Triarchy corsairs, staked to the sand to warn those who might follow.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: [to Daemon] You were always mother’s favorite. No, it’s no great mystery. You were. Our mother, she had no regard for custom or tradition, rules. And I, sadly, was no great warrior.


 

Young Alicent Hightower: I surmise the tour did not go well.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I endured it for as long as I could.
Young Alicent Hightower: To have every young knight and lord in the Seven Kingdoms fawning over you. What misery.


 

Young Alicent Hightower: It is rare for girls in this realm to get a choice between two suitors, no less two score of them.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Those men and boys don’t fawn over me. They only want my name and my Valyrian blood for their offspring.
Young Alicent Hightower: I think it’s rather romantic.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: How romantic it must be to get imprisoned in a castle and made to squeeze out heirs.


 

Young Alicent Hightower: I find I have few friends lately. I like to believe I’m still the Lady Alicent, but all anyone sees when they look at me now is “The Queen”.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I’ve missed you too.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: You’ve matured yourself these last four years, Princess. You’ll get used to the attention.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: The attention I can endure. It’s the rest I could do without. My father seems content to sell me off to whichever lord has the biggest castle.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: There are worse things to be sold for.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] Marriage is only a political arrangement. Once you are wed, you can do as you like.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] For men marriage might be a political arrangement. For women it is like to be a death sentence.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] My mother was made to produce heirs until it killed her. I won’t subject myself to the same fate.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] What happened to your mother was a tragedy. But this is a tragic world. You cannot live your life in fear, or you will foresake the best parts of it.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] I have no desire to live in fear. Only solitude.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Such a lonely prospect.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: Many of the smallfolk are like to believe that, as a male, Aegon should be the heir.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Their wants are of no consequence.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: They’re of great consequence if you expect to rule them one day.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: For one night, I wish to be free of the burdens of my inheritance.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: What is this place?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: It’s where people come to take what they want.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: [as he’s kissing Rhaenyra] F***ing is a pleasure, you see. For the woman as it is the man. A marriage is a duty, yes. But that doesn’t stop us from doing what we want. From f***ing who we want.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: Am I your prisoner?
Mysaria: As I was once yours? I’m your protector, lucky for you.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: I don’t need protection from a common whore.
Mysaria: I am not so common.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: A not-so-common whore then.
Mysaria: I’ve left that life behind. I learned that skin-trade could only take me so far in this life.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: You never were one to stay idle.
Mysaria: Hard lessons are not welcomed but suffered.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: The Princess was spied last evening, beyond the walls of the Keep, in a pleasure house.
King Viserys Targaryen: What of it?
Ser Otto Hightower: She was carrying on with her uncle. They were engaged in behaviors unbecoming of a maiden of a Princess.
King Viserys Targaryen: What behaviors?


 

Ser Otto Hightower: Daemon and Rhaenyra were seen together in the bowels of a pleasure den. Coupling.
King Viserys Targaryen: This is a lie. You have been lied to.
Ser Otto Hightower: I only wish that were true, Your Grace.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Are you so sick with ambition that you would have my daughter stalked? Spied upon? Awaiting your best chance to destroy her reputation?
Ser Otto Hightower: I have no such intent, Your Grace.
King Viserys Targaryen: You think yourself a cunning man. Your designs are obvious. Do you wish to have your blood on the Iron Throne so badly that you are willing to destroy mine own?


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Your father accused me of something. That I drank wine? Left the castle after dark?
Young Alicent Hightower: That you f***ed Daemon in a pleasure house.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: This is a vile accusation.
Young Alicent Hightower: Is it? You Targaryens do have queer customs. And Daemon certainly knows no limit.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Alicent. Your Grace. Sister, you must know I would never. You cannot believe such gossip.
Young Alicent Hightower: My father is no gossip.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Well, certainly he’s been misled. He could not have witnessed such a thing.
Young Alicent Hightower: Why not?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Because it did not happen.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: So you are accusing me of slanders you overheard?
Young Alicent Hightower: I only want to help you, Rhaenyra.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Okay, we drank in a tavern. Several taverns. It was getting late, and I asked to go home. But Daemon wished to continue. As he was my escort, I had no real choice.
Young Alicent Hightower: “Continue”, in a brothel?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: He took me to a show. I was only a spectator. I didn’t do anything.


 

Young Alicent Hightower: So you did not?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Must I truly refute that? Daemon never touched me. Okay, I swear this to you upon the memory of my mother.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: My daughter. Won’t you even deny it?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I need to understand the charge before I can attempt to discredit it.
King Viserys Targaryen: You defiled her. Still, you say nothing.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: Oh, what does it matter, brother? When we were Rhaenyra’s age, we f***ed our way through most of the brothels on the Street of Silk.
King Viserys Targaryen: We were young men. She is just a girl. Your niece!
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Rhaenyra’s a woman-grown. Better her first experience be with me than some whore.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: You have ruined her! What lord will wed her now? In this condition?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Who gives a f*** what some lord thinks? You are the dragon. Your word is truth and law.
King Viserys Targaryen: I have spent a lifetime defending you. But your heart is even blacker than I thought.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: Wed her to me. When I offered up my crown, you said I could have anything. I want Rhaenyra. I’ll take her as she is, and wed her in the tradition of our house.
King Viserys Targaryen: You are already wed.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: That didn’t stop Aegon the Conqueror from taking a second wife.
King Viserys Targaryen: You are no conqueror. You are a plague sent to destroy me.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: Give me Rhaenyra to take to wife, and we will return the House of the Dragon to its proper glory.
King Viserys Targaryen: Of course. It’s not my daughter you lust for, is it? It’s my throne. Go back to the Vale, Daemon, to your lawful wife. Strive to restore whatever scrap of honor remains in you. Or don’t. Matters not to me. As long as you are gone from my sight for good.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: As you wish, brother.


 

Young Alicent Hightower: It is not in Rhaenyra’s nature to be deceitful. I cannot say the same for your brother.
King Viserys Targaryen: You believe he lied?
Young Alicent Hightower: How often does he speak the pure truth?
King Viserys Targaryen: How does confessing to such things serve him?
Young Alicent Hightower: By reducing you.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Whatever transpired, Rhaenyra is not innocent.
Young Alicent Hightower: Only because Daemon tried to corrupt her.
King Viserys Targaryen: Daemon and Rhaenyra share the blood of the dragon. They are restless and chaotic.
Young Alicent Hightower: She swore to me that she remains a maiden. And I believe her.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: That dagger once belonged to Aegon the Conqueror. It was Aenar’s before that. And before that, well, it is difficult to know. Before Aegon’s death, the last of the Valyrian pyromancers hid his song in the steel.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: “From my blood come the Prince That Was Promised, and his will be the Song of Ice and Fire.”


 

King Viserys Targaryen: The responsibility I have handed to you, the burden of this knowledge, it is larger than the throne, the king. It is larger than you and your desires. Jaehaerys would’ve disinherited you.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: For a lie? You’ve yet to ask me for the truth of what happened.
King Viserys Targaryen: The truth does not matter, Rhaenyra. Only perception. You have exposed yourself. Now we must both suffer the consequences.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Were I born a man, I could bed whomever I wanted. I could father a dozen b****rds, and no one in your court would blink an eye.
King Viserys Targaryen: You are right, but you were born a woman.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: So you’ll strip me of my titles and name Aegon in my stead.
King Viserys Targaryen: I would. But it is mine to hold the realm together, not sow it with further division.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Your courtship is at an end. You will wed Ser Laenor Velaryon, and you will do so without protest.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: The son of the Sea Snake. So I can be a remedy for your political headaches.
King Viserys Targaryen: You are my political headache!


 

King Viserys Targaryen: The House of the Dragon will stand as one for a further generation.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: And what will you do about the vulture who perches upon your throne?
King Viserys Targaryen: What vulture?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Your Hand.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: You speak of The Conqueror’s vision, and the need for strength, and unity across the realm. But how can that be accomplished with your most trusted adviser so self-interested?
King Viserys Targaryen: Every lord and lady that calls for an audience with me, every man on my small council, and all councils past, has been self-interested. It is unavoidable.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I disagree. I will do my duty as heir and wed Ser Laenor. But you must first do yours as king.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: You served my grand sire nobly in his final days. You are the man that taught me how to be King.
Ser Otto Hightower: Oh, you honor me, Your Grace.
King Viserys Targaryen: Just five days, you went from being another man in Jaehaerys’s court, to the second most powerful man in the realm. I wonder, how long did it take you to choose yourself over your King?
Ser Otto Hightower: Your Grace?


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I will never recover from Aemma’s death. But Alicent, she took me through the worst of my grief. She was a calculated distraction. I only now realize how well-calculated it was.
Ser Otto Hightower: That is an absurdity. The Queen loves you, as I know you love her.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Your interests no longer align with those of the realm. Your judgment has been compromised.
Ser Otto Hightower: A loyal Hand must tell his king a discomforting truth from time to time, Your Grace. If he doesn’t, he’s failed as a servant.
King Viserys Targaryen: You were a faithful servant, Otto. The crown and the realm both owe you a debt that can never be repaid. But I can no longer trust your judgment.


 

Grand Maester Mellos: I hope you can forgive the late hour, Princess. I took great care in its preparation. If not brewed properly, it can either prove ineffective, or else bear unpleasant…
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Brewed properly? I’m sorry, what is that?
Grand Maester Mellos: A tea, Princess. From the King. It will rid you of any unwanted consequences.

 

5. We Light the Way

'When one is never invited to speak, one learns instead to observe.' - Larys Strong (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Lady Rhea Royce: [to Daemon] Husband. What brings you to the Vale? Or have you at last come to consummate our marriage? The Vale’s sheep might be willing, even if I’m not. Our sheep are prettier, after all. Or perhaps your brother has at last had his fill of your company. Cast you aside in favor of a little girl. What will you do now? Will you strike the child down? Or…
[Daemon startles her horse which throws her off, crushing her neck]


 

Lady Rhea Royce: [to Daemon as he’s walking away] I knew you couldn’t finish. Craven!

 

'Many that are tested, only wish to have been spared it.' - Lord Lyonel Strong (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Young Alicent Hightower: I do not wish to see you go.
Ser Otto Hightower: Such is the King’s decision.
Young Alicent Hightower: A decision I most bitterly regret.
Ser Otto Hightower: And yet, you made it possible. You chose Rhaenyra.
Young Alicent Hightower: She swore her innocence, and I believe her.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: You wanted to believe her, as did her father.
Young Alicent Hightower: Your informant was wrong. An honest mistake, perhaps, but I did not foresee this!
Ser Otto Hightower: You should have.
Young Alicent Hightower: If you had not been so relentless in advancing Aegon as heir!

 

'Is it not better to live in peace than to have songs sung after you are dead?' Lord Lyonel Strong (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Ser Otto Hightower: Listen to me, daughter. The King will die. It may be months or years, but he’ll not live to be an old man. And if Rhaenyra succeeds him, war will follow, do you understand? The realm will not accept her. And to secure her claim, she’ll have to put your children to the sword. She’ll have no choice. You know it. You’re no fool, and yet you choose not to see it. The time is coming, Alicent. Either you prepare Aegon to rule, or you cleave to Rhaenyra, and pray for her mercy.

See more Episode 5 Quotes


 

Larys Strong: Your father was a good man.
Young Alicent Hightower: As is yours who took his place.
Larys Strong: Yet still, the manner of your father’s departure, it feels something of an injustice.
Young Alicent Hightower: What do you know of the manner of his leaving?
Larys Strong: When one is never invited to speak, one learns instead to observe.


 

Young Alicent Hightower: State your purpose, my lord.
Larys Strong: I did wonder if she could be relied upon now that she is unwell.
Young Alicent Hightower: Unwell? I haven’t heard anything.
Larys Strong: Begging your pardon, Your Grace, I may be mistaken. It’s just that on the very same night your father was dismissed, the Grand Maester delivered a tea to the Princess’s chambers.
Young Alicent Hightower: A tea?


 

Lord Corlys Velaryon: We would like to know how the succession will be handled.
King Viserys Targaryen: Rhaenyra is my heir. Upon my death, my throne and my titles will pass to her. She and Ser Laenor’s firstborn child, regardless of gender, will inherit the Iron Throne from her.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: Can I presume that, in keeping with Westerosi tradition, their children would take their father’s name? That they would be born Velaryons?
King Viserys Targaryen: Surely, Lord Corlys, you are not proposing the Targaryen dynasty end with my daughter simply because she is a woman?
Lord Corlys Velaryon: I only seek clarity, Your Grace.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Upon their birth, Ser Laenor and Rhaenyra’s children shall take their father’s name, Velaryon, in keeping with our traditions. However, at such time when their firstborn ascends the Iron Throne, he or she will do so bearing the name Targaryen. Dragons will rule the Seven Kingdoms for the next hundred years, just as they did the last.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: In truth, if it had to be someone, I’m glad it is you. I know this union is not what you would choose.
Young Ser Laenor Velaryon: I hold nothing against you, cousin.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: No. Rather, dare I say it is a matter of taste? I prefer roast duck to goose. I cannot say why.
Young Ser Laenor Velaryon: It’s not for a lack of trying. There are those who like goose very well.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I find it a bit greasy for my taste.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I know that whatever agreement being struck up there will not change your appetites, nor will it change mine.
Young Ser Laenor Velaryon: And what do you propose?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: That we perform our duty to our fathers and to the realm, and when it’s done, each of us dines as we see fit.


 

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: They grew up together. Familiarity is not at issue.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: Oh, I’m sure Laenor was already taken with her. She’s grown quite comely these last few years.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: You know his true nature.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: He’s still young. He will outgrow it. There is no pleasure in the world like bedding a woman.


 

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: We are placing our son in danger.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: The lords of the realm bent the knee to Rhaenyra and swore obeisance to her.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: That was before there was a true-born prince named Aegon Targaryen. Rhaenyra’s succession will be challenged. Knives will come out for her, her husband, and for their heirs.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: Our house controls the realm’s navy and half its dragons. Anyone fool enough to challenge Rhaenyra’s claim will be crushed.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: To what end, Corlys? Wealth? Power? Pride?
Lord Corlys Velaryon: Justice.


 

Ser Joffrey Lonmouth: I’ve always feared the day you’d have to marry a woman. And now it comes. Your betrothed gives you leave of her own free will to continue partaking of. Was I the duck or the goose?
Young Ser Laenor Velaryon: I’ve come to meet my fate, and you make a jape of it?
Ser Joffrey Lonmouth: Look, Rhaenyra will be Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, and you will be her king consort.


 

Ser Joffrey Lonmouth: [to Laenor, referring to Rhaenyra] Well, this is better than we could’ve hoped for. She has a paramour of her own. I wonder who it is.


 

Ser Criston Cole: You have confided in me now and then over the years of our acquaintance. I feel, forgive me, that I know you a bit.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: You know more than a bit.


 

Ser Criston Cole: I’ve heard you say so many times how you loathe the lot of your position, that you are to be married off at your father’s whim with no thought given to the yearning of your own heart, and now the day comes. Ser Laenor is a good, and decent man, but you did not choose him. He was chosen for you.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: That’s true.
Ser Criston Cole: If there were another path, one that led to freedom, would you tread it?


 

Ser Criston Cole: I’m asking you to come with me, away from all of this. From the burdens and indignities of your inheritance. Let us leave it all behind, and see the world together, where we’ll be nameless, and free, free to go where we like, to love as we like. In Essos, you could marry me. A marriage for love, not for the crown.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I am the crown, Ser Criston. Or I will be. I may chafe at my duties, but do you think I would choose infamy in exchange for a bushel of oranges, or a ship to Asshai? It is my duty to marry a nobleman from a great house, and Ser Laenor will make a fine husband.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: But my marriage does not have to be the end. Ser Criston, Laenor and I have an understanding. I’ve granted him leave to pursue his own interests, and in turn, he’s granted me the same.
Ser Criston Cole: So you want me to be your whore?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I want us to continue as we began, with you as my sworn protector, my white knight.


 

Ser Criston Cole: I took an oath. As a knight of your Kings guard. An oath of chastity. I’ve broken it.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I won’t tell anyone.
Ser Criston Cole: I’ve soiled my white cloak. And it’s the only thing I have to my f***ing name! I thought if we were married, I might be able to restore it.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: The Iron Throne looms larger than me, larger than anyone in my family. Aegon the Conqueror united the Seven Kingdoms and put them on a path.


 

Young Alicent Hightower: It is, of course, unthinkable for me to question the virtue of the Princess, whom I hold in highest regard. But I did, however, wonder if… I’m not unaware that in flush of youth there may be errors made, breaches in resolve, breaches, or rather lapses…
Ser Criston Cole: It happened, Your Grace. The sin you allude to. I have committed it. At her instigation, it is true, but that should… It is no excuse. My oath has been broken. I have dishonored myself. I deserve no consideration. But if as a clement Queen, you are inclined to pity, I would ask only this, that rather than gelding me, and having me tortured, you would sentence me mercifully to death.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Will I be remembered as a good king, Lyonel?
Lord Lyonel Strong: Your Grace?
King Viserys Targaryen: What will they say of me when the histories are written? I have neither fought, nor conquered, nor suffered any great defeat.
Lord Lyonel Strong: Some might call that good fortune.
King Viserys Targaryen: It hardly makes a good song, does it? To be sung at feasts in a hundred years, five hundred.


 

Lord Lyonel Strong: You have carried King Jaehaerys’s legacy. And kept the realm strong. Is it not better to live in peace than to have songs sung after you are dead?
King Viserys Targaryen: Perhaps. But there is a part of me wishes I’d been tested. I often think that in the crucible, I may have been forged a different man.
Lord Lyonel Strong: Many that are tested, only wish to have been spared it.
King Viserys Targaryen: Another lord might assure me that I would rise like Aegon the Conqueror given the chance.
Lord Lyonel Strong: Your Grace, that is…
King Viserys Targaryen: You’re right. You’re right, as always. It is perhaps best not to know.


 

Lord Jason Lannister: Well, if this is only the welcome feast, I admit, I cannot imagine what you might have planned for the wedding.
King Viserys Targaryen: Well, my daughter is the future queen. I wanted this to be a wedding for the histories.
Lord Jason Lannister: Where is the Queen? I had hoped to pay my respects.
King Viserys Targaryen: I understand the Queen is still readying herself for the celebrations.
Lord Jason Lannister: This is why men wage war, because women would never be ready for the battle in time.


 

Ser Harwin ‘Breakbones’ Strong: [as Alicent enters, wearing a green gown] The King will not be happy. Right in the midst of his speech.
Larys Strong: The beacon on the High tower, do you know what color it glows when Old town calls its banners to war?
Ser Harwin ‘Breakbones’ Strong: Green.


 

Young Alicent Hightower: Congratulations, stepdaughter. What a blessing this is for you.


 

Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I was never much of a dancer.
Young Ser Laenor Velaryon: It’s not much different to combat.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I shall hope for a different outcome.


 

Young Alicent Hightower: We thank you for coming, uncle.
Lord Hobert Hightower: I worried that given leave of your father’s shadow, you might wither in King’s Landing’s sun. But you stood tall. Know that Old town stands with you.


 

Ser Gerold Royce: [to Daemon] In the Vale, men are made to answer for their crimes. Even Targaryens.


 

Ser Gerold Royce: I am cousin to your late lady wife.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Ah, yes. Terrible thing. I’m positively bereft. Such a tragic accident.
Ser Gerold Royce: You know better than anyone, it was no accident.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Are you confessing some guilt, Ser Gerold?
Ser Gerold Royce: I am making an accusation.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: You know, in King’s Landing, men are made to answer for their slanders. Even old bronze c***s like you.


 

Ser Joffrey Lonmouth: I know who it is. The handsome paramour.
Young Ser Laenor Velaryon: Who?
Ser Joffrey Lonmouth: Ser Criston Cole.
Young Ser Laenor Velaryon: Her sworn protector?
Ser Joffrey Lonmouth: Look at him. The man is fully c***-struck.


 

Young Lady Laena Velaryon: A Targaryen prince, a dashing knight, and a dragon rider. You appear to be every young maiden’s dream.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: That’s only because you don’t know me yet.


 

Ser Joffrey Lonmouth: I believe Ser Criston has bloodied that white cloak of his with your bride’s maidenhead.
Young Ser Laenor Velaryon: Oh, keep your voice down.
Ser Joffrey Lonmouth: This is a good thing. She knows your secret, and now you know hers.


 

Ser Joffrey Lonmouth: You don’t know me, Ser Criston. But we are both deeply invested in this union.
Ser Criston Cole: If you have something to say, Ser Joffrey, speak it.
Ser Joffrey Lonmouth: Ser Laenor is quite dear to me. As I know the Princess is to you. We should swear to each other to guard them, and their secrets, because if those are kept safe, then so are we all.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] Is this what you want?
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] I was not aware that what I wanted mattered to you.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] This is not for you. Laenor is a good man and a fine knight. He will bore you senseless.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] Marriage is only a political arrangement, I hear.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] Mine was recently dissolved.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [in High Valyrian] So take me then. Has this not been your purpose? I’m not yet married. But the hours pass swiftly. You are surely armed. Cut through my father’s Kingsguard. Take me to Dragonstone and make me your wife.


 

Young Ser Laenor Velaryon: [after Criston beats Joffrey to death] I am yours and you are mine. Whatever may come.
Young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I am yours and you are mine. Whatever may come.
High Septon: Here, in the presence of gods and men, I proclaim, Laenor of House Velaryon, Rhaenyra of House Targaryen, to be man and wife. One flesh, one heart, one soul, now and forever.

 

6. The Princess and the Queen

'The wise sailor flees the storm as it gathers.' - Ser Laenor Velaryon (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [after she’s given birth, referring to Alicent] She wants to see him.
Ser Laenor Velaryon: Now? I’m coming with you.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I should hope so.
Ser Laenor Velaryon: Let me take him.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: No, she’ll get no such satisfaction from me.

 

'You do not desert your post when the storm lashes.' - Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Ser Laenor Velaryon: Was it terribly painful?
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Oh, gods.
Ser Laenor Velaryon: I took a lance through the shoulder once.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: My deepest sympathies.
Ser Laenor Velaryon: I am glad I am not a woman.

 

'How sweetly the fox speaks when it's been cornered by the hounds.' - Queen Alicent Hightower (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

King Viserys Targaryen: Well done, my girl. I do hope the labor was easy.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I think I called the midwife a c***.
King Viserys Targaryen: Oh.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: [referring to baby Joffrey] Do keep trying, Ser Laenor. Soon or late, you may get one who looks like you.

 

'Love is a downfall. Best to make your way through life unencumbered, if you ask me.' - Larys Strong (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: You don’t think to consult me before you name my child?
Ser Laenor Velaryon: He’s our child, is he not?
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Only one of us is bleeding.
Ser Laenor Velaryon: I deserve some say in the affairs of my own family.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: You haven’t seemed so interested in our affairs of late.

See more Episode 6 Quotes


 

Ser Harwin ‘Breakbones’ Strong: [to baby Joffrey] You’re asleep in front of the Commander of the City Watch. Terrible lack of respect.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: A certain insolence runs in the family, I’m afraid.


 

Young Prince Aegon Targaryen: You’re the only one of us without a dragon.
Young Prince Aemon Targaryen: Indeed.
Young Prince Aegon Targaryen: And we felt badly about it. So we found one for you.
Young Prince Aemon Targaryen: A dragon? How?
Young Prince Aegon Targaryen: The gods provide.
Aegon, Lucerys, Jacaerys: [as Lucerys brings in a pig with wings attached to it] Behold. The Pink Dread!
Young Prince Aegon Targaryen: Be sure to mount her carefully. First flight’s always rough.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: [to Aemond] You will have a dragon one day. I know it.
Princess Helaena Targaryen: He’ll have to close an eye.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: Your grandsons are a menace.
King Viserys Targaryen: [referring to Aemond] They’re more children than he is.
Queen Alicent Hightower: They’re savages. And it’s not surprising.
King Viserys Targaryen: Are you sure it wasn’t our Aegon who put them up to it?


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: [referring to Rhaenyra’s childrent] It’s a wonder to me their eggs ever hatched.
King Viserys Targaryen: And why is that?
Queen Alicent Hightower: You know why.
King Viserys Targaryen: I’m afraid I don’t.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: [to Viserys, referring to Rhaenyra] I have raised this matter before, and you forbade me to speak of it, so I held my tongue. To have one child like that is a mistake. To have three is an insult, to the throne, to you, to House Velaryon, and the match you battled so hard to make for her. Not to mention decency itself.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Nature is a thing of mysterious works.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: [to Alicent] The consequences of an allegation like the one you toy at would be dire. Do not speak of this again.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: Have I lost my sanity, Ser Criston? Do my senses lead me astray? Or is everyone else asleep, dreaming the same woolly dream?
Ser Criston Cole: Sometimes seems so, Your Grace.
Queen Alicent Hightower: She flaunts the privilege of her inheritance without shame. She expects everyone in the Red Keep to deny the truth our eyes can all plainly see. And the King, her father…
Ser Criston Cole: He knows.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Of course, he knows. Or did once, but has convinced himself otherwise. He’ll do naught but make excuses for her.


 

Ser Criston Cole: The Princess Rhaenyra is brazen and relentless. A spider who stings and sucks her prey dry. A spoiled c***. That was beneath me, Your Grace. I apologize.
Queen Alicent Hightower: I have to believe, that in the end, honor and decency will prevail. We need to hew to that and to each other.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: Aemond is your brother.
Young Prince Aegon Targaryen: Well, he’s a t**t.
Queen Alicent Hightower: We are family. You may cuff him about as you wish at home, but in the world, we must defend our own.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: You are nearly a man-grown. How is it that you can be so shortsighted? If Rhaenyra comes into power, your very life could be forfeit. Aemond’s as well. She could move to cut off any challenge to her succession.
Young Prince Aegon Targaryen: Then I won’t challenge…
Queen Alicent Hightower: You are the challenge! You are the challenge, Aegon! Simply by living and breathing! You are the King’s firstborn son, and what they know, what everyone in the realm knows in their blood, and in their bones, is that one day, you will be our King.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: We have a good life here. We’re free to do as we please, welcomed and feted.
Lady Laena Velaryon: And eternally guests.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Precisely. We are without responsibility. The political scheming, the endless shifting of loyalties and succession is none of ours.


 

Lady Laena Velaryon: They are using us.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: It’s refreshing, isn’t it? A simple transaction. We have dragons, they have gold.
Lady Laena Velaryon: We are more than this, Daemon. We are not minstrels, or mummers who play at the pleasure of an alien prince. We are the blood of Old Valyria. We don’t belong here.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Valyria is gone. We don’t belong anywhere.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: [as they watch his children and grandchilren train] This is the stuff, Lyonel. Lads that learn together, train together, knock each other down, pick each other up. They will certainly form a lifelong bond, wouldn’t you agree?
Lord Lyonel Strong: That is the hope, Your Grace.


 

Ser Criston Cole: [to Jacaerys] You spar with Aegon. Eldest son against eldest son.
Ser Harwin ‘Breakbones’ Strong: It’s hardly a fair match.
Ser Criston Cole: I know you’ve never seen true battle, ser, but when steel is drawn, a fair match isn’t something anyone should expect.


 

Ser Harwin ‘Breakbones’ Strong: This is what you teach, Cole? Cruelty to the weaker opponent?
Ser Criston Cole: Your interest in the princeling’s training is quite unusual, Commander. Most men would only have that kind of devotion toward a cousin, or a brother, or a son.
[Harwin suddenly punches Criston]


 

Lord Lyonel Strong: You have laid us open to accusations of an uglier treachery.
Ser Harwin ‘Breakbones’ Strong: And what treachery is that?
Lord Lyonel Strong: Don’t play the fool with me, boy. Your intimacy with the Princess Rhaenyra is an offense that would mean exile and death, for you, for her, for the children!
Ser Harwin ‘Breakbones’ Strong: It is rumor only, spun by the Princess’s rivals.


 

Lord Lyonel Strong: People have eyes, boy. Yet His Grace the King, it seems, will not accept what his eyes see. This flimsy shield alone stands between you and the headsman. The willful blindness of a father towards his child.
Ser Harwin ‘Breakbones’ Strong: I wish my father affected a similar blindness.
Lord Lyonel Strong: Have I not these many years? And yet today, you publicly assaulted a Knight of the Kings guard in the, in the defense of your…
Ser Harwin ‘Breakbones’ Strong: You have your honor, and I have mine.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Dark rumors are hunting us, Laenor. They nip at our heels. Questions about our sons parentage. Vile, disgusting insinuations.
Ser Laenor Velaryon: Insinuations, are they?
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: They are our sons! Yours and mine. And their true father will not abandon them now to go carousing through the Narrow Sea, waggling his sword and winking at his sailors.


 

Ser Laenor Velaryon: I am a knight, and a warrior. And I have played my part here, faithfully for ten years. I am owed some…
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: You are owed nothing! For ten years, you have indulged yourself at court, bought the finest horses, drunk the rarest of wines, f***ed the lustiest boys. This was our agreement. I have not begrudged you. But you do not desert your post when the storm lashes.
Ser Laenor Velaryon: The wise sailor flees the storm as it gathers.


 

Lady Laena Velaryon: There is more than one way to bind yourself to a dragon. I was without one until I was fifteen years-old, and now I ride Vhagar, the largest in the world. You have a harder road. Baela’s dragon was born to her. But if you wish to be a rider, you must claim that right. Your father would tell you the same.
Lady Rhaena Targaryen: Father ignores me.
Lady Laena Velaryon: He’s doing his best.


 

Lady Rhaena Targaryen: Laenor has written. Rhaenyra has delivered another son.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Does your brother mention if this one also bears a marked but entirely coincidental resemblance to the Commander of the City Watch?
Lady Rhaena Targaryen: He seems to have left that detail out.


 

Lady Rhaena Targaryen: You laud the virtues of Pentos, but you have no interest in it. If you did, you would venture into the city, but instead, you spend your time here, in the library, reading accounts of the same dead dragon lords whose legacy you claim has no hold on you.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I didn’t know I was being so minutely observed.
Lady Rhaena Targaryen: You do not sleep.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Well, how can I with you haunting my every move?


 

Lady Rhaena Targaryen: Life has, I know, disappointed you. Perhaps, I too, am not the wife you would’ve wished for yourself.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Laena.
Lady Rhaena Targaryen: It does not pain me. I have made my peace. But you are more than this, Daemon. The man I married was more than this.


 

Lord Jasper Wylde: And where, I wonder, is our Prince Daemon? Or I suppose I should call him King, as he styled himself when he won a battle there once.
Queen Alicent Hightower: That was a decade ago, and he has since left the region undefended.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: We have left it undefended.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I have felt the strife between our families of late, my Queen. And for any offense given by mine, I apologize. But we are one house. And long before that, we were friends. My son Jacaerys will inherit the Iron Throne after me. I propose we betroth him to your daughter, Helaena. Ally ourselves, once and for all. Let them rule together.
King Viserys Targaryen: A most judicious proposition.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: How sweetly the fox speaks when it’s been cornered by the hounds.
King Viserys Targaryen: She is sincere.
Queen Alicent Hightower: She is desperate. She feels the earth washing away beneath her feet, and now she expects us to ignore her transgressions, and for me to marry my only daughter to one of her plain-featured sons.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: The proposal is a good one, my Queen. We’re a family. Let us put aside these childish quarrels. Join hands and be stronger for it.
Queen Alicent Hightower: You may do as you wish, husband, when I am cold in my grave.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: [as Lyonel wants to resign as Hand] You have served me faithfully for many years, ten as Hand. Your advice has been sage, unmarked by self-interest, which stands in contrast to all others.
Lord Lyonel Strong: You speak kind words, but there is a shadow over my house, and it grows, ever darker. I can no longer serve you with integrity.
King Viserys Targaryen: What is this shadow? Name it, if it casts such a gloom.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Yes. We must have your reasoning in plain language.
Lord Lyonel Strong: I cannot.
King Viserys Targaryen: Then I cannot accept this.


 

Larys Strong: I took the liberty of beginning without you, Your Grace. It seemed a sin to let such a pie grow cold.
Queen Alicent Hightower: You did wisely, Lord Larys. Though you had no such worry about the wine, surely.
Larys Strong: Meat without wine is also a sin.


 

Larys Strong: [to Alicent] Truth has many flavors, Your Grace.


 

Larys Strong: It’s a willful blindness, the King. I mean, you’d surely suffer the same affliction, if it came to it.
Queen Alicent Hightower: I would not.


 

Larys Strong: The Hand is compromised by the acts of his son. My father cannot give unbiased counsel to the King.
Queen Alicent Hightower: It is now that I most rue the absence of my own father. He wouldn’t hesitate to speak the truth to the King. If Otto High tower were still Hand…
Larys Strong: You cannot say, my Queen, that your father would be impartial in this matter.
Queen Alicent Hightower: No, but he would be partial to me! In all of King’s Landing, is there no one to take my side?


 

Ser Harwin ‘Breakbones’ Strong: [as he says goodbye to Jace, Lucerys, and Joffrey] I will be a stranger when we meet again.


 

Young Prince Jacaerys Velaryon: Is Harwin Strong my father? Am I a b****rd?
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: You are a Targaryen. That’s all that matters.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: We should’ve left years ago.
Ser Laenor Velaryon: What of your position? You’ve always said if you were absent from court, she would pour her honey in your father’s ear.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: The wise sailor flees the storm as it gathers.


 

Larys Strong: What are children, but a weakness? A folly? A futility? Through them, you imagine you cheat the great darkness of its victory. You will persist forever, in some form or another. As if they will keep you from the dust. But for them, you surrender what you should not. You may know what is the right thing to be done, but love stays the hand. Love is a downfall. Best to make your way through life unencumbered, if you ask me.


 

Larys Strong: [after he orchestrates the death of Lyonel and Harwin] You’ve heard the stories of Harrenhal, Your Grace. It was built in hubris by Harren the Black as a monument to his own greatness. Blood mixed into the mortar. It is said to be a cursed place. That it passes judgment on all who pass beneath its gates.
Queen Alicent Hightower: You. You passed judgment.
Larys Strong: The Queen makes a wish. What servant of the realm would not strive to fulfill it?


 

Larys Strong: I assume you will write to your father now?
Queen Alicent Hightower: Larys, I did not wish for this.
Larys Strong: I feel certain you will reward me, when the time is right.

 

7. Driftmark

'What is this brief mortal life, if not the pursuit of legacy?' - Lord Corlys Velaryon (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Ser Vaemond Velaryon: [in High Valyrian, at Laena’s funeral] Salt courses through Velaryon blood. Our runs thick. Ours runs true. And ours must never thin.


 

Princess Helaena Targaryen: Hand turns loom. Spool of green, spool of black. Dragons of flesh weaving dragons of thread.

 

'No matter how fat the leech grows, it always wants for another meal.' - Prince Daemon Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Prince Aegon Targaryen: [referring to Helaena] We have nothing in common.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: She’s our sister.
Prince Aegon Targaryen: You marry her then.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: I would perform my duty, if mother had only betrothed us.
Prince Aegon Targaryen: If only.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: It would strengthen the family. Keep our Valyrian blood pure.
Prince Aegon Targaryen: She’s an idiot.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: She’s your future queen.
Prince Aegon Targaryen: We actually do have one thing in common. We both fancy creatures with very long legs.

 

'History does not remember blood. It remembers names.' - Lord Corlys Velaryon (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Ser Criston Cole: Lyonel Strong’s son’s been staring at you since the moment we arrived, Your Grace. Unabashedly.
Queen Alicent Hightower: It is only a look of pride, Ser Criston. Larys is the new Lord of Harrenhal.

 

'Fire is a prison. The sea offers an escape.' - Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Prince Lucerys ‘Luke’ Velaryon: If I’m the Lord of Driftmark, it means everyone’s dead.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: You should return with us to King’s Landing. It’s time that you came home.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Pentos is my home, and that of my children.
King Viserys Targaryen: Daemon, I know we’ve had our differences, but let them pass with the years. There’s a place for you in my court if that’s something you should need.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I need nothing.
King Viserys Targaryen: Brother.

 

'A tyrant rules only through terror. If the King isn't feared, he is powerless.' - Prince Daemon Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: [referring to Laena and Daemon] She wanted to come home, and he denied her.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: Daemon did what he thought best.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: Daemon only ever does what is best for Daemon.

See more Episode 7 Quotes


 

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: Mayhaps the gods have scorned us for our insatiable pride.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: The crown was yours until those fools at the Great Council plucked it from your head. Is it such a terrible thing for your husband to wish to win it back?
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: Tonight of all nights, let us lay aside this falsehood. It is not justice for your wife that drives you. It is your own ambition. It is desire for the throne, if not for yourself, then for the scions of your house.


 

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: I gave up the idea of wearing a crown a generation ago. It is you, lord husband, who refuses to abandon this pursuit, even now, at the cost of our children.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: What is this brief mortal life, if not the pursuit of legacy?
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: Legacy may be why you live your life, Corlys.


 

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: We are alone here, husband. You can speak the plain truth as we both know it. Rhaenyra’s children are not of your blood. But Laena’s are. They are her legacy.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: History does not remember blood. It remembers names.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Laenor has been restless for years, but now, he will be useless. Or worse. I know better than anyone that our marriage is a farce. But I at least make the effort to maintain appearances.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: You have more to lose.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Yes, well, that has been my lot since my father named me heir.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: We did try to conceive a child. We performed our duty as best we could. But to no avail. There was no joy in it. I found that elsewhere. It felt good to be desired.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I understand Ser Harwin was quite devoted to you.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Yes, he was. And I trusted him.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I do not believe Alicent capable of cold murder.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Each of us is capable of depravity. And more than you would believe.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I believe it of you.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: If you’re accusing me of some depravity, you’ll need to be more specific.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I’ve been alone. You abandoned me.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: I spared you. You were a child.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Yes. Yes, I was a child. And look at what my life became without you. Droll tragedy.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Oh, and I wonder what you think of mine by comparison?
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I know little of it.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [referring to Laena] Did you love her?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: We were happy enough.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Well, that in itself is a great achievement. I am sorry.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Don’t be. I am at least allowed to mourn my losses.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [as she kisses Daemon] I’m no longer a child. I want you.


 

Lady Baela Targaryen: It’s him.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: It’s me.
Lady Baela Targaryen: Vhagar is my mother’s dragon.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: Your mother’s dead. And Vhagar has a new rider now.
Lady Rhaena Targaryen: She was mine to claim.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: Then you should’ve claimed her! Maybe your cousins can find you a pig to ride. It would suit you.


 

Prince Aemond Targaryen: [as they’re fighting] You will die screaming in flames just as your father did! B****ds.
Prince Lucerys ‘Luke’ Velaryon: My father’s still alive.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: [to Jacaerys] He doesn’t know, does he, Lord Strong?


 

King Viserys Targaryen: You swore oaths to protect and defend my blood!
Ser Harrold Westerling: I’m very sorry, Your Grace.
Ser Criston Cole: The Kings guard has never had to defend princes from princes, Your Grace.
King Viserys Targaryen: That is no answer!


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: The legitimacy of my sons birth was put loudly to question.
King Viserys Targaryen: What?
Young Prince Jacaerys Velaryon: He called us b****rds.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: My sons are in line to inherit the Iron Throne, Your Grace. This is the highest of treasons. Prince Aemond must be sharply questioned so we might learn where he heard such slanders.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Over an insult? My son has lost an eye.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Who spoke these lies to you?
Prince Aemond Targaryen: It was Aegon.
Prince Aegon Targaryen: Me?
King Viserys Targaryen: And you, boy? Where did you hear such calumnies? Aegon! Tell me the truth of it!
Prince Aegon Targaryen: We know, Father. Everyone knows. Just look at them.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: This interminable infighting must cease! All of you! We are family! Now make your apologies and show good will to one another. Your father, your grand sire, your king demands it!


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: Aemond has been damaged, permanently, My King. “Good will” cannot make him whole.
King Viserys Targaryen: I know, Alicent. But I cannot restore his eye.
Queen Alicent Hightower: No, because it’s been taken.
King Viserys Targaryen: What would you have me do?
Queen Alicent Hightower: There is a debt to be paid. I shall have one of her son’s eyes in return.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Alicent, this matter is finished. Do you understand? And let it be known, anyone whose tongue dares to question the birth of Princess Rhaenyra’s sons should have it removed.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Thank you, Father.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [as Alicent attempts to attack Lucerys] You’ve gone too far.
Queen Alicent Hightower: I? What have I done but what was expected of me? Forever upholding the kingdom, the family, the law. While you flout all to do as you please.
King Viserys Targaryen: Alicent, let her go!
Queen Alicent Hightower: Where is duty? Where is sacrifice? It’s trampled under your pretty foot again.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: And now you take my son’s eye, and to even that, you feel entitled.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Exhausting, wasn’t it? Hiding beneath the cloak of your own righteousness. But now they see you as you are.
[then with anger Alicent slashes Rhaenyra’s arm with Viserys’s dagger]


 

Prince Aemond Targaryen: Do not mourn me, Mother. It was a fair exchange. I may have lost an eye, but I gained a dragon.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: I’ve conducted myself in a manner unbefitting my station. Or any other. I lost composure, assaulted the Princess. Already the word is spreading, the gossip speculating that I’ve gone mad.
Ser Otto Hightower: All true.
Queen Alicent Hightower: I disgraced myself. And ensured my husband’s favor will forever rest on her.
Ser Otto Hightower: And yet, I’ve never seen that side of you, my daughter. I even doubted its existence.
Queen Alicent Hightower: It was an ugly thing. I regret it.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: We play an ugly game. And now, for the first time, I see that you have the determination to win it.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Rhaenyra…
Ser Otto Hightower: You see her for what she is. What the King’s stubbornness has wrought.
Queen Alicent Hightower: What will he say to me?
Ser Otto Hightower: He’ll forgive you. What else can he do?


 

Ser Otto Hightower: [to Alicent] I promise you, in time, you and I together will prevail. What that rogue Aemond has done in winning Vhagar to our side. The boy was right. It’s worth a thousand times the price he paid.


 

Ser Laenor Velaryon: I should’ve been there.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Those should be our house words.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I had hoped to bear your children. The few times we lay together. Things might’ve been different.
Ser Laenor Velaryon: I hate the gods for making me as they did.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I do not. You are an honorable man with a good heart. It’s a rare thing.


 

Ser Laenor Velaryon: We made an arrangement all those years ago to do our duty and yet explore happiness. But there are times I think when these things cannot mutually exist. Ser Qarl will return soon to the fighting in the Stepstones. But I recommit myself to you. And to strengthening our house as we prepare you for your ascension. I will raise our sons to be princes of the realm. You deserve better than what I have been. You deserve a husband.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Fire is such strange power. Everything that House Targaryen possesses is owed to it. Yet it has cost us both what we loved.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Perhaps the Velaryons knew the truth of it. The sea is the better ally.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Fire is a prison. The sea offers an escape.


 

Larys Strong: If it’s an eye you want to balance the scales, I am your servant.
Queen Alicent Hightower: That will not be necessary. But your devotion has not gone unnoticed.
Larys Strong: These are dangerous times.
Queen Alicent Hightower: The day will doubtless come when I require such a friend. With not only skill but discretion as well.
Larys Strong: I shall await your call, my Queen.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [in English and High Valyrian] I need you, Uncle. I cannot face the greens alone. Let us bind our blood, just as Aegon the Conqueror did with his sisters. With you as my husband and prince consort, my claim would not be so easily challenged. The Velaryons are of the sea. But you and I are made of fire. We have always been meant to burn together.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: We could not marry unless Laenor were dead.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I know.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I will not be a tyrant. And rule through terror.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: A tyrant rules only through terror. If the King isn’t feared, he is powerless. If you are to be a strong queen, you must cultivate love and respect, yes, but your subjects must fear you.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I do love Laenor.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Then grant him this kindness. Set him free.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: This will cost Lord Corlys and Princess Rhaenys their only remaining child. And the realm will whisper that I was somehow responsible.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Let them whisper. We will know the truth of it, and our enemies won’t.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: They will fear what else we might be capable of.

 

8. The Lord of the Tides'My own face is no longer a handsome one, if indeed it ever was. But tonight, I wish you to see me as I am. Not just a king, but your father. Your brother. Your husband, and your grand sire.' - King Viserys Targaryen Click To Tweet

 

Ser Vaemond Velaryon: [as Corlys is seriously wounded] My brother cares only for the history books. But what of the Velaryon line? Is it to be snuffed out, supplanted by the pups of House Strong? Driftmark is mine by alrights. And while I should like your support, I do not need it. The winds have shifted. The crown has good reason to take my side.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: My cousin the King would have your tongue for this.
Ser Vaemond Velaryon: But it’s not a king who sits the Iron Throne these days, good-sister. It’s a queen.

 

'You told me it was our duty to hold the realm united against a common foe. By naming me heir, you divided the realm. I thought I wanted it. But the burden is a heavy one. It's too heavy.' - Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen Click To Tweet

 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I don’t expect you to learn High Valyrian in a day, Jace.
Prince Jacaerys ‘Jace’ Velaryon: A king should honor the traditions of his forbears.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Well, unless you’re planning to depose your own mother, you have plenty of time to study.

 

'It is ill luck to look upon the face of death.' - Maester Orwyle, 'The Stranger has visited me more times than I can count, Grand Maester. I assure you, he cares little whether my eyes are open or closed.' - Rhaenys Targaryen Click To Tweet

 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: He means to call into question Luke’s legitimacy. And by extension Jace, and by extension my own claim to the throne.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Vaemond cares only about Driftmark and the Velaryon line. Not about our politics.

 

'My father and I are mere stewards of the King's will and wisdom.' - Queen Alicent Hightower, 'And how exactly is that wisdom expressed? In blinks and wheezes? I'd be surprised if he could remember his own name' - Daemon Targaryen Click To Tweet

 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Rhaenys has flown to court. Surely, she cannot be planning to back him.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: No. Whatever disagreements we may have had, she’s not cruel, or stupid enough to do that.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Disagreements? She believes we had her son killed so that we might marry.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Yes. And yet, she’s taken Baela to ward.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Yes. It is Laena’s memory she honors. She has no love for us.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: Has the vipers venom spread so far?
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Those vipers rule in my father’s name. And my father… What choice do I have?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: To King’s Landing then.

See more Episode 8 Quotes


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [to Alicent] I would say it’s nice to be home, but I scarcely recognize it.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: The Sea Snake has taken a grave wound in battle in the Stepstones.
King Viserys Targaryen: When? We won that war years ago.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: No. The Triarchy is resurgent. The fighting is anew.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Father, this is Aegon.
King Viserys Targaryen: Aegon.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: And this is Viserys.
King Viserys Targaryen: Ah. Viserys. Oh. Now that is a name fit for a king.


 

Prince Aegon Targaryen: [who Alicent covers up Aegon rape of Dayna ] Oh, it was just harmless fun. She didn’t need to go and get upset about it.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Think of the shame on your wife, on me.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: You are no son of mine.
Prince Aegon Targaryen: I did not ask for this. I’ve done everything you’ve asked me to, and I try so hard, but it will never be enough for you or father.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: It has been so long since we were granted the joy of your presence.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Indeed, Your Grace.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Though not long enough to merit a greeting upon our arrival.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I’m sure the Queen had pressing business, my love. What can either of us know of ruling a kingdom?
Queen Alicent Hightower: I do not rule, as you well know. My father and I are mere stewards of the King’s will and wisdom.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: And how exactly is that wisdom expressed, hm? In blinks and wheezes? I’d be surprised if he could remember his own name, or if you could.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: King Viserys’s condition has worsened since you saw him last. It subjects him to considerable pain. On the advice of the maesters…
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Ah, the maesters. Of course. It is they who keep him addled on milk of the poppy while the High towers warm his throne.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: Oh, Alicent, I have no doubt it was an act of the purest mercy, but tell me, for the King’s suffering, did the maesters also prescribe the removal of Targaryen heraldry and the installation in its stead of various statues and stars?
Queen Alicent Hightower: The emblems of the Seven serve only to guide us on an uncertain path. To remind us of a higher authority.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: And on the morrow, which authority will sit in judgment of my son’s claim on his own inheritance?
Queen Alicent Hightower: That would be mine, and the Hand’s. But be assured, the Father is just and commands me to forget the accusations you have hurled in this room today.


 

Prince Lucerys ‘Luke’ Velaryon: No one would question me being heir to Driftmark if I looked more like Ser Laenor Velaryon than Ser Harwin Strong.
Prince Jacaerys ‘Jace’ Velaryon: It doesn’t matter what they think.


 

Ser Criston Cole: Well done, my Prince. You’ll be winning tourneys in no time.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: I don’t give a s**t about tourneys.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: Hold your nerve, my Queen. What we do, we do for the good of the realm.
Queen Alicent Hightower: I must confess a certain uneasiness now this is at hand. He may yet live.
Ser Otto Hightower: But we must be prepared if he does not.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: The realm has enjoyed a long peace, a credit to the work of both Jaehaerys and Viserys, but the threat of war looms, and may arrive on our shores. When it does, will you want a child at the command of the greatest fleet in Westeros?
Queen Alicent Hightower: We must, of course act in the interest of our subjects.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I wondered for many an hour what your purpose was in coming here. Whether you’d speak for or against the suit brought by Ser Vaemond. But then, I realized, you intend to advocate for yourself. This is no fair proceeding. It is a trap set by the Queen and the Hand, I’d wager, to proclaim my son illegitimate.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: Yet you did worse than that with Laenor. Did you not?
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I loved your son. You may not believe it to be true, but I did. I did not order his death. Nor was I complicit in it. I swear this to you.


 

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: [after Rhaenyra offers that Rhaena and Luke be betrothed] A generous offer. Or a desperate one.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: What does it matter?
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: You are right in this, at least. It does not matter. You can bargain with me all you like. Bring my granddaughter with you to soften my resolve. But tomorrow, the Hightowers land their first blow. They force you to your knees, and I must stand alone.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: The Song of Ice and Fire. Do you believe it to be true?
King Viserys Targaryen: Aegon’s Dream.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: You told me it was our duty to hold the realm united against a common foe. By naming me heir, you divided the realm. I thought I wanted it. But the burden is a heavy one. It’s too heavy.
King Viserys Targaryen: My only child.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: If you wish me to bear it, then defend me. And my children.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I want to have supper, Otto.
Ser Otto Hightower: It is the morning, Your Grace.
King Viserys Targaryen: Tonight. The whole of my family are gathered at the Red Keep. I want us to dine together.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: We gather here with the grim task of dealing with the succession of Driftmark. As Hand, I speak with the King’s voice on this, and all other matters.


 

Ser Vaemond Velaryon: I have spent my entire life on Driftmark defending my brother’s seat. I am Lord Corlys’s closest kin, his own blood. The true, unimpeachable blood of House Velaryon runs through my veins.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: As it does in my sons, the offspring of Laenor Velaryon. If you cared so much about your house’s blood, Ser Vaemond, you would not be so bold as to supplant its rightful heir. No, you only speak for yourself and for your own ambition.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I will sit the throne today.
Ser Otto Hightower: Your Grace.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: I must admit my confusion. I do not understand why petitions are being heard over a settled succession. The only one present who might offer keener insight into Lord Corlys’s wishes is the Princess Rhaenys.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Well, the matter is settled. Again. I hereby reaffirm Prince Lucerys of House Velaryon as heir to Driftmark, the Driftwood Throne, and the next Lord of the Tides.
Ser Vaemond Velaryon: You break law, and centuries of tradition to install your daughter as heir. Yet you dare tell me who deserves to inherit the name Velaryon. No. I will not allow it.
King Viserys Targaryen: Allow it? Do not forget yourself, Vaemond.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Lucerys is my true-born grandson. And you are no more than the second son of Driftmark.
Ser Vaemond Velaryon: You may run your house as you see fit, but you will not decide the future of mine.


 

Ser Vaemond Velaryon: My house survived the Doom and a thousand tribulations besides. And gods be damned, I will not see it ended on the account of this…
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Say it.
Ser Vaemond Velaryon: Her children are b****rds! And she is a whore.
King Viserys Targaryen: I will have your tongue for that.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: [as he decapitates Vaemond’s head] He can keep his tongue.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: Please, my love. You must take something for the pain.
King Viserys Targaryen: I will not cloud my mind. I must put things right.


 

Maester Orwyle: [referring to Vaemond’s body] You may wish to leave the Silent Sisters to their work. It is ill luck to look upon the face of death.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: The Stranger has visited me more times than I can count, Grand Maester. I assure you, he cares little whether my eyes are open or closed.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: A toast to the young Princes and their betrothed.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Hear, hear!
Prince Aegon Targaryen: Well done, Jace. You’ll finally get to lie with a woman.


 

Prince Aegon Targaryen: [to Jace] You do know how the act is done, I assume? At least in principle? Where to put your c**k and all that.
Lady Baela Targaryen: Let it be, cousin.
Prince Jacaerys ‘Jace’ Velaryon: You can play the jester if you wish, but hold your tongue before my betrothed.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: It both gladdens my heart and fills me with sorrow to see these faces around the table. The faces most dear to me in all the world, yet grown so distant from each other in the years past. My own face is no longer a handsome one, if indeed it ever was. But tonight, I wish you to see me as I am. Not just a king, but your father. Your brother. Your husband, and your grand sire. Who may not, it seems, walk for much longer among you.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: Let us no longer hold ill feelings in our hearts. The crown cannot stand strong if the House of the Dragon remains divided. But set aside your grievances. If not for the sake of the crown, then for the sake of this old man who loves you all so dearly.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I wish to raise my cup to Her Grace, the Queen. I love my father. But I must admit that no one has stood more loyally by his side than his good wife. She has tended to him with unfailing devotion, love, and honor. And for that, she has my gratitude, and my apology.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Your graciousness moves me deeply, Princess. We are both mothers, and we love our children. We have more in common than we sometimes allow. I raise my cup to you, and to your house. You will make a fine queen.


 

Princess Helaena Targaryen: Beware the beast beneath the boards.


 

Princess Helaena Targaryen: I would like to toast to Baela and Rhaena. They’ll be married soon. It isn’t so bad. Mostly he just ignores you, except sometimes when he’s drunk.


 

Prince Aemond Targaryen: Final tribute. To the health of my nephews, Jace, Luke, and Joffrey. Each of them handsome, wise, strong.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Aemond.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: Come, let us drain our cups to these three Strong boys.
Prince Jacaerys ‘Jace’ Velaryon: I dare you to say that again.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: Why? ‘Twas only a compliment. Do you not think yourself Strong?


 

King Viserys Targaryen: His Dream. The Song of Ice and Fi… It is true. What he saw in the North. The Prince That Was Promised.
Queen Alicent Hightower: I don’t understand, Viserys.
King Viserys Targaryen: The Prince.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Prince Aegon?
King Viserys Targaryen: To unite the realm against the cold and the dark. It is you. You are the one. You must do this. You must do this.
Queen Alicent Hightower: I understand, my King.


 

King Viserys Targaryen: [as he takes his last breath] No more. No more. My love.

 

9. The Green Council

'There is no power but what the people allow you to take.' - Mysaria (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet


Queen Alicent Hightower: I saw him last night before he… He told me he wished for Aegon to be king. It is the truth. Uttered with his own lips. His last words to me and I was the only one to hear it. And now he’s dead.

 

'This is seizure! It is theft! It is treason!' - Lord Lyman Beesbury (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Ser Tyland Lannister: What is it that could not have waited an hour? Was Dorne invaded?
Ser Otto Hightower: The King is dead.

 

'It is our fate, I think, to crave always what is given to another. If one possesses a thing, the other will take it away.' - Princess Helaena Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Ser Otto Hightower: We grieve for Viserys the Peaceful, our sovereign, our friend. But he has left us a gift. With his last breath, he impressed upon the Queen his final wish, that his son, Aegon should succeed him as Lord of the Seven Kingdoms.

 

'We do not rule, but we may guide the men that do. Gently, away from violence, and sure destruction, and instead toward peace.' - Queen Alicent Hightower (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Queen Alicent Hightower: Am I to understand that members of the small council have been planning secretly to install my son without me?
Lord Jasper ‘Ironrod’ Wylde: My Queen, there was no need to sully you with darkling schemes.

 

'You toil still in service to men. Your father, your husband, your son. You desire not to be free, but to make a window in the wall of your prison. Have you never imagined yourself on the Iron Throne?' - Princess Rhaenys Targaryen Click To Tweet

 

Lord Lyman Beesbury: I will not have this. To hear that you are plotting to replace the King’s chosen heir with an imposter!
Ser Tyland Lannister: His firstborn son is hardly an imposter.
Lord Lyman Beesbury: Hundreds of lords and landed knights swore fealty to the Princess.
Ser Tyland Lannister: That was some twenty years ago. Most of them now dead.

See more Episode 9 Quotes

 

'The word of my house is not fickle.' - Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Lord Jasper ‘Ironrod’ Wylde: You heard the Lord Hand. Plot or no, the King changed his mind.
Lord Lyman Beesbury: I am six-and-seventy years old. I have known Viserys longer than any who sit at this table. And I will not believe that he said this on his deathbed, alone, with only the boy’s mother as a witness. This is seizure! It is theft! It is treason!

 

'Reluctance to murder is not a weakness.' - Queen Alicent Hightower (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Lord Lyman Beesbury: The King was well last night, by all accounts. Which of you here can swear that he died of his own accord?
Lord Jasper ‘Ironrod’ Wylde: Which of us are you accusing of regicide, Lord Beesbury?
Lord Lyman Beesbury: Whether it was one of you, or all of you, I care not. I will have no part…
Ser Criston Cole: Sit down!
[he forces Beesbury down hard, crushing his skull by his own orb, killing him]


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: What of Rhaenyra?
Ser Otto Hightower: The former heir cannot, of course, be allowed to remain free and draw support to her claim.
Queen Alicent Hightower: You mean to imprison her.
Ser Otto Hightower: She and her family will be given the opportunity to publicly swear obeisance to the new King.
Queen Alicent Hightower: She will never bend the knee. Nor will Daemon, which you know. You plan to kill them. And all here accede to this.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: It is unsavory, yes. But a sacrifice we must make to secure Aegon’s succession. And then there is Daemon to consider. The King wouldn’t wish for any unsavory…
Queen Alicent Hightower: But the King did not wish for the murder of his daughter! He loved her. I will not have you deny this.
Lord Jasper ‘Ironrod’ Wylde: And yet…
Queen Alicent Hightower: One more word, and I will have you removed from this chamber and sent to the Wall!


 

Ser Otto Hightower: Lord Commander Westerling, take your knights to Dragonstone. Be quick and be clean.
Ser Harrold Westerling: [as he takes off his cloak] I am Lord Commander of the Kings guard. I recognize no authority but the King’s. And until there is one, I have no place here.


 

Princess Helaena Targaryen: It is our fate, I think, to crave always what is given to another. If one possesses a thing, the other will take it away.


 

Princess Helaena Targaryen: What’s happened?
Queen Alicent Hightower: Your father…
Princess Helaena Targaryen: There is a beast beneath the boards.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Oh, my dearest love.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: I trust again to you, Ser Criston, and to your loyalty. Aegon must be found, and he must be brought to me. The very fate of the Seven Kingdoms depends on it. Everything you feel for me, as your Queen…
Ser Criston Cole: I will not fail you.


 

Prince Aemond Targaryen: Aegon brought me to the Street of Silk on my thirteenth name day. It was his duty as my brother, he said, to ensure I was as educated as he was. At least that’s what I understood him to mean.
Ser Criston Cole: I don’t follow.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: He said, “Time to get it wet.”
Ser Criston Cole: Every woman is an image of the Mother, to be spoken of with reverence.


 

Prince Aemond Targaryen: Here I am, trawling the city, ever the good soldier in search of a wastrel who’s never taken half an interest in his birthright. It is I the younger brother who studies history and philosophy, it is I who trains with the sword, who rides the largest dragon in the world. It is I who should be…
Ser Criston Cole: I know what it is to toil for what others are freely given.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: And we can’t find him, Cole. You are a decent man with no taste for depravity. His secrets are his own, and he’s welcome to them. I’m next in line to the throne. Should they come looking for me, I intend to be found.


 

Ser Erryk Cargyll: Something must be done. Aegon is unfit to rule.
Ser Arryk Cargyll: You tolerated the Prince’s proclivities for years.
Ser Erryk Cargyll: Because it was my sworn duty, Arryk.
Ser Arryk Cargyll: It’s for the Hand to find wisdom. We swore an oath of service until death.


 

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: I will do you the considerable courtesy of assuming there is a good reason for the outrage of my treatment here this morning.
Queen Alicent Hightower: My sincerest regrets for the lack of ceremony.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: The King. And you are usurping the throne.
Queen Alicent Hightower: It was my husband’s dying wish. Believe it or no, it is of no consequence. Aegon will be king.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: I came here to ask your support.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: Well, I must credit you for your boldness.
Queen Alicent Hightower: House Velaryon has long allied itself with the Princess Rhaenyra, and what has it gained you? Your daughter dead, alone in Pentos. Your son cuckolded. Rhaenyra’s heirs are none of yours. It is your husband who grasps so heedlessly for the throne. And even he has abandoned you, gone these six long years to fight a desperate battle, returning grievously, if not mortally, wounded, leaving the Lady of Driftmark to chart her course alone.


 

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: The word of my house is not fickle.
Queen Alicent Hightower: No. But, dear cousin, you more than any soul alive understand what I say now. Princess Rhaenys, I loved my husband, but I will speak the truth we both know. You should’ve been queen.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: I little thought to hear those words from you.
Queen Alicent Hightower: The Iron Throne was yours by blood and by temperament. Viserys would’ve lived his days a country lord, content to hunt and study his histories, but here we are.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: We do not rule, but we may guide the men that do. Gently, away from violence, and sure destruction, and instead toward peace.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: Is it in the name of peace that you’ve imprisoned me? And what of my dragon?
Queen Alicent Hightower: If we are over matched, Rhaenyra will be tempted to strike us, and war will ensue. Without your dragon, she may be persuaded to negotiate.


 

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: You are wiser than I believed you to be, Alicent Hightower.
Queen Alicent Hightower: A true queen counts the cost to her people.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: And yet you toil still in service to men. Your father, your husband, your son. You desire not to be free, but to make a window in the wall of your prison. Have you never imagined yourself on the Iron Throne?


 

Ser Otto Hightower: [to Mysaria] You yourself are the mysterious White Worm, I take it. Or are you simply a further peel in this stinking onion?


 

Mysaria: When your plots ripen, and you install your grandson on the throne, remember it was me who put him there. I could have killed him as easily as a wasp on fruit. There is no power but what the people allow you to take.
Ser Otto Hightower: I will remember.


 

Ser Erryk Cargyll: You flee what other men die seeking, Aegon.


 

Prince Aemond Targaryen: I was hoping you disappeared.
Prince Aegon Targaryen: Is our father truly dead?
Prince Aemond Targaryen: Yes, and they’re going to make you king.


 

Prince Aegon Targaryen: Let me go! I have no wish to rule! No taste for duty! I’m not suited.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: You’ll get no argument from me.
Prince Aegon Targaryen: You let me go, I will find a ship and sail away, never to be found.
Ser Criston Cole: The Queen awaits.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: Well played.
Queen Alicent Hightower: None of this is a game.
Ser Otto Hightower: And yet you treat it as one. A charming contest, the prize, a pouch of silver.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: We have relied on one another these many years. And now it is the good of the family that we both desire. Whatever our differences, our hearts remain as one.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Our hearts were never one. I see that now. Rather, I have been a piece that you moved about the board.
Ser Otto Hightower: If that is true, then I made you Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. Would you have desired it otherwise?
Queen Alicent Hightower: How could I know? I wanted whatever you impressed upon me to want. And now the debt comes due. A debt you were happy enough to pay.
Ser Otto Hightower: A sacrifice. A sacrifice made for the stability of the realm. No king has ever lived that hasn’t had to forfeit the lives of a few to protect the many. Though I understand your squeamishness.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Reluctance to murder is not a weakness!


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: We will send terms to Rhaenyra on Dragonstone. True terms, such that she may accept without shame.
Ser Otto Hightower: If she lives, her allies will mass behind her banners, looking for her return.
Queen Alicent Hightower: Then she must not return. My husband would have desired this mercy be shown to his daughter.
Ser Otto Hightower: Your husband? Or you, his daughter’s childhood companion?


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: Criston Cole will be named Lord Commander of the Kings guard. My son will be anointed tomorrow at dawn. The whole of King’s Landing must witness his ascent. He will assume authority. There will be no more dithering. My son will take the crown of his namesake, the Conqueror, and carry Blackfyre, his sword. Let the people remember the ancient strength of House Targaryen.
Ser Otto Hightower: You look so much like your mother in certain lights.


 

Larys Strong: [referring to Mysaria] It must be taken out at the head. When the Queen dies, the bees fly without purpose. Begging your pardon for the turn of phrase, Your Grace.
Queen Alicent Hightower: I assume this task falls within your expertise.
Larys Strong: If you wish it, it will be done.


 

Ser Erryk Cargyll: [to Rhaenys as he breaks her out of her room] With me, Princess. I cannot let this treachery stand.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: In an hour, you will be king.
Prince Aegon Targaryen: And my father never wanted this.
Queen Alicent Hightower: That’s not true.
Prince Aegon Targaryen: He had twenty years to name me heir and never did. Steadfastly, he upheld Rhaenyra’s claim.
Queen Alicent Hightower: He changed his mind.
Prince Aegon Targaryen: Oh. No. He could have, but he never did, because he didn’t like me.
Queen Alicent Hightower: And yet, with his final breath, he whispered to me that you should take his place on the throne.


 

Queen Alicent Hightower: Listen to me, Aegon. Your grandfather, the Hand, will try to impress on you that Rhaenyra should be put to the sword. You must reject this counsel. We must not rule with cruelty and callousness. For all her faults, she is your sister, your father’s daughter.
Prince Aegon Targaryen: Do you love me?
Queen Alicent Hightower: You imbecile.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: People of King’s Landing, today is the saddest of days. Our beloved king, Viserys the Peaceful, is dead. But it is also the most joyous of days, for as his spirit left us, he whispered his final wish, that his firstborn son, Aegon should succeed him.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: It is your great good fortune and privilege to be here to witness this, a new day for our city, a new day for our realm. A new king to lead us.


 

Ser Criston Cole: The crown of the Conqueror, passed down through generations. Let the Seven bear witness, Aegon Targaryen is the true heir to the Iron Throne.


 

Septon Eustace: All hail His Grace, Aegon, Second of his Name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm.
Ser Criston Cole: Aegon the King!
[as the crowd cheer, Rhaenys bursts through the ground with Meleys, confronting Aegon and Alicent, before fleeing]

 

10.The Black Queen'We don't choose our destiny. It chooses us.' - Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Prince Lucerys ‘Luke’ Velaryon: I can’t be Lord of the Tides. Grandsire was the greatest sailor who ever lived. I get green sick before the ship even leaves the harbor. I’ll just ruin everything! I don’t want Driftmark. It should’ve passed on to Ser Vaemond.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: We don’t choose our destiny, Luke. It chooses us.

 

'I do not wish to rule over a kingdom of ash and bone.' - Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Prince Lucerys ‘Luke’ Velaryon: Grandsire let you choose whether you’d be his heir. You told us so.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: And do you want to know the truth of it? I was frightened. I was four-and-ten. Same as you are now. I wasn’t ready to be Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. But it was my duty. And, in time, I came to understand I had to earn my inheritance.

 

'Dreams didn't make us kings. Dragons did.' - Prince Daemon Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Prince Lucerys ‘Luke’ Velaryon: I’m not like you.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: In what way, sweet boy?
Prince Lucerys ‘Luke’ Velaryon: I’m not so perfect.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I am anything but. My father looked after me, and helped to prepare me for my duties. Your mother will do the same for you.

 

'Hope is the fool's ally.' - Lord Corlys Velaryon (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: Viserys is dead. I grieve this loss with you, Rhaenyra. My cousin, your father, possessed a kind heart. There is more. Aegon has been crowned as his successor.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: They crowned him?

 

'Taking caution does not mean standing fast. I wish to know who my allies are before I send them to war.' - Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (House Of The Dragon) Click To Tweet

 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: Viserys has been slain.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Alicent demanded you declare for Aegon.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: She did. I refused her.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: And yet you are alive.

See more Episode 10 Quotes


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: That whore of a Queen murdered my brother and stole his throne. And you could have burned them all for it.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: A war is like to be fought over this treachery, to be sure. But that war is not mine to begin. I only rushed this warning to you out of loyalty to my husband and to my house. The Greens are coming for you, Rhaenyra. And for your children. You should leave Dragonstone at once.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: If the Greens attack now, it will be by stealth, not directly. We don’t have enough men to surround the island, but we can make ourselves appear stronger than they are.


 

Prince Jacaerys ‘Jace’ Velaryon: Where is Daemon?
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I don’t know. Gone to madness. Gone to plot his war.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Jacaerys. Whatever claim remains to me, you are now its heir. Naught is to be done but by my command.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: [to Jace] Come with me. I’ll show you the true meaning of loyalty.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: [to the two knights of the Kings guard] I’m grateful for your long service to the crown. So I’m presenting you with a choice. Swear anew your oath to Rhaenyra as your queen, to Prince Jacaerys as the heir to the Iron Throne. Or, if you support the usurper, speak it now, and you will have a clean and honorable death. But if you choose treachery, if you swear fealty now only to later turn your cloaks, know that you will die, screaming.


 

Ser Erryk Cargyll: [as he brings Viserys’s crown for Rhaenyra] I swear to ward the Queen, with all my strength, and give my blood for hers. I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children. I shall guard her secrets, obey her commands, ride at her side, and defend her name and honor.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: [as he crowns Rhaenyra and kneels before her] My Queen.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men. Lady of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm. Your Grace.


 

Ser Steffon Darklyn: What of Storm’s End and Winterfell?
Lord Bartimos Celtigar: There has never lived a Stark who forgot an oath. And with House Stark, the North will follow.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Lord Borros Baratheon will need to be reminded of his father’s promises.


 

Lord Bartimos Celtigar: Pray forgive my bluntness, Your Grace, but talk of men is moot. Your cause owns a power that has not been seen in this world since the days of Old Valyria. Dragons.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: The Greens have dragons as well.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: They have three adults, by my count. We have Syrax, Caraxes, and Meleys. Your sons have Vermax, Arrax, and Tyraxes. Baela has Moondancer.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Daemon, none of our dragons have been to war.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: There are also unclaimed dragons. Seasmoke still resides on Driftmark. Vermithor and Silver wing dwell on the Dragonmont, still riderless. Then there are the three wild dragons, all of whom nest here.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: And who is to ride them?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Dragonstone has thirteen to their four. I also have a score of eggs incubating in the Dragonmont.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: We cut off the west, surround King’s Landing with the dragons. And we could have every Green head mounted on spikes before the f***ing moon turns.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: Princess Rhaenyra.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I’m Queen Rhaenyra now. And you all are traitors to the realm.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: [to Otto] I would rather feed my sons to the dragons than have them carry shields and cups for your drunken, usurper c*** of a king.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: Stale oaths will not put you on the Iron Throne, Princess. The succession changed the day your father sired a son. I only regret that you and he were the last to see the truth of it.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: [as she takes his pin] You are no more Hand than Aegon is king. F***ing traitor.


 

Ser Otto Hightower: Queen Alicent has not forgotten the love you once had for each other. No blood need be spilled, so the realm can carry on in peace. Queen Alicent eagerly awaits your answer.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: She can have her answer now, stuffed in her father’s mouth along with his withered c**k. Let’s end this mummer’s farce. Ser Erryk, bring me Lord Hightower so I may take the pleasure myself.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: No. King’s Landing will have my answer on the morrow.


 

Prince Daemon Targaryen: It’s no easy thing for a man to be a dragon slayer. But dragons can kill dragons. And have. The simple truth is this, we have more dragons than Aegon.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Viserys spoke often of the Valyrian histories. I know them well. When dragons flew to war, everything burned. I do not wish to rule over a kingdom of ash and bone.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: As Queen, what is my true duty to the realm, Lord Bartimos? Ensuring peace and unity? Or that I sit the Iron Throne, no matter the cost?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: That’s your father talking.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: My father’s dead. And he chose me as his successor to defend the realm, not cast it headlong into war.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Well, the enemy have declared war! What are you going to do about it?


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Does the promise of war excite you?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: You cannot bend the knee to the Hightowers. They stole your birthright.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: If you could take the Iron Throne without putting Otto Hightower’s head on a spike, would you?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: Are you not angry?
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I should declare war because I’m angry?
Prince Daemon Targaryen: No. Because it’s your duty as Queen to crush rebellion.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: You know my oath reaches beyond our personal ambitions. A Song of Ice and Fire.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: What?
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: The coming war against the darkness in the North, The Conqueror’s Dream. Viserys shared it with me when he named me heir.
Prince Daemon Targaryen: [as he grabs her by the throat] My brother was a slave to his omens and portents. Anything to make his feckless reign appear to have purpose. Dreams didn’t make us kings. Dragons did.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: He never told you, did he?


 

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: You abandoned me when I most needed you. Both our children stolen from us. I needed you. Baela and Rhaena needed you, and you abandoned us for more adventure at sea. As has always been your way.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: I had no other place to turn. I lost everything.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: We lost, Corlys. We.


 

Lord Corlys Velaryon: Heedless ambition has always been a Velaryon weakness. You were right, Rhaenys. I reached too far. And for nothing. Our pursuit of the Iron Throne is at an end. We shall declare for no one. We will retire to High Tide to be content with our grandchildren.


 

Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: Jace, Luke, and Joff are claimants to the throne. Those boys’ll not be safe so long as Aegon is king.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: Rhaenyra was complicit in our son’s death. That girl destroys everything she touches.
Princess Rhaenys Targaryen: That “girl” is holding the realm together at present. Every man standing around the Painted Table urges her to plunge the realm into war. Rhaenyra’s the only one who’s demonstrated restraint.


 

Lord Corlys Velaryon: Hope is the fool’s ally.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: I made a promise to my father to hold the realm strong and united. If war’s first stroke is to fall, it will not be by my hand.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: You do not mean to act?
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Taking caution does not mean standing fast. I wish to know who my allies are before I send them to war.


 

Prince Jacaerys ‘Jace’ Velaryon: We should bear those messages. Dragons can fly faster than ravens, and they’re more convincing. Send us.
Lord Corlys Velaryon: The Prince is right, Your Grace.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Very well.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: We must remind these lords of the oaths they swore. And the cost of breaking them.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: It’s been said that as Targaryens, we are closer to gods than to men. And the Iron Throne puts us a touch closer perhaps. But, if we are to serve the Seven Kingdoms, we must answer to their gods. If you take this errand, you go as messengers, not as warriors. You must take no part in any fighting. Swear it to me now under the eyes of the Seven.
Prince Lucerys ‘Luke’ Velaryon: I swear it.
Prince Jacaerys ‘Jace’ Velaryon: I swear it.


 

Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Lord Borros is an eternally proud man. He will be honored to host a prince of the realm and his dragon. I expect you will receive a very warm welcome.
Prince Lucerys ‘Luke’ Velaryon: Yes, Mother. Your Grace.
Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen: Go to it then.


 

Prince Lucerys ‘Luke’ Velaryon: Lord Borros, I brought you a message from my mother, the Queen.
Lord Borros Baratheon: Yet earlier this day, I received an envoy from the King. Which is it? King or Queen? The House of the Dragon does not seem to know who rules it.


 

Lord Borros Baratheon: If I do as your mother bids, which one of my daughters will you wed, boy?
Prince Lucerys ‘Luke’ Velaryon: My lord, I am not free to marry. I’m already betrothed.
Lord Borros Baratheon: So you come with empty hands. Go home, pup. And tell your mother that the Lord of Storm’s End is not some dog that she can whistle up at need to set against her foes.
Prince Lucerys ‘Luke’ Velaryon: I shall take your answer to the Queen, my lord.


 

Prince Aemond Targaryen: Wait, my Lord Strong. Did you really think that you could just fly about the realm trying to steal my brother’s throne at no cost?
Prince Lucerys ‘Luke’ Velaryon: I will not fight you. I came as a messenger, not a warrior.
Prince Aemond Targaryen: A fight would be little challenge. No. I want you to put out your eye. As payment for mine. One will serve. I would not blind you. I plan to make a gift of it to my mother.


 

Prince Aemond Targaryen: [to Luke] Give me your eye, or I will take it, b****rd!
Lord Borros Baratheon: Not in my hall! The boy came as an envoy. I’ll not have bloodshed beneath my roof.


 

Prince Aemond Targaryen: [in High Valyrian, as he’s chasing after Luke on Vhagar] You owe a debt. Boy!


 

Prince Aemond Targaryen: [as Vhagar goes after Arrax, then kills Luke and Arrax] No, Vhagar! No! Serve me, Vhagar! No! Vhagar! No! No.

 

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