Unfortunately for Ser Gwayne Hightower, George R.R. Martin’s source material for House of the Dragon is titled Fire & Blood, not Coming to a Mutually Agreeable Solution to Avoid a Mass Slaughter. But you can’t blame a guy for trying, as the character played by Freddie Fox did in “The Treasons at Tumbleton,” the season three finale of the HBO series.
As he watched Rhaenyra’s much larger army assemble just outside the city—and deprived of the knowledge that Ormund Hightower had successfully convinced one of the queen’s dragonriders to defect to Team Green—Gwayne came up with a desperate plan to head off certain destruction. With the Hightower hostage Lord Corlys Velaryon in tow, he met with Daemon Targaryen and, going behind Ormund’s back, attempted to negotiate.
Of course, Daemon, who’s just as bloodthirsty as Ormund, won’t entertain any nonsense about dividing up the Seven Kingdoms and making Queen Rhaenyra share control of the realm with “King Daeron.” He also rejected Corlys’ spontaneous suggestion that Daeron could wed Daemon’s daughter, Rhaena—a tidy way of healing the rift between the families—and be made “Lord Paramount of the Reach.”
Nope. Daemon wants heads on spikes. Sorry, Gwayne. But thank you for trying.
Fox talked to the Hollywood Reporter about that scene and what it was like going toe-to-toe with the formidable Matt Smith, who plays Daemon.
“For Gwayne, he is so daunted by the situation but knows he has to do something,” Fox said. “Me, I’ve known Matt for many years, but when you come into the boxing ring, and this was a bit like a boxing ring because we were surrounded by people in this courtyard… when he comes into the scene, you are aware that you are in the presence of a star. There’s something that happens with certain actors, very rare, where you just go, ‘Oh, Christ.’ An electricity arrives that you just have to be excited to be around and bear witness to. I went home after that and was saying to anyone that would listen that I’d just had one of the most amazing acting days of my life.”
As we see after the battle, Gwayne does survive (barely), so we’ll surely be seeing more of him when House of the Dragon returns for its fourth and final season.
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