The following article contains major spoilers for House of the Dragon season two, episode two.
With a big, brutal civil war going on, it's easy to overlook the smaller interpersonal stakes in House of the Dragon. Even if it is, in essence, a familial drama a la Succession (albeit with pails of blood sloshing around).
There have been a few reminders of this in the Targaryen ensemble so far. The first season finale ended with Rhaenyra's son getting chomped by his uncle Aemond's dragon, the inciting incident for the conflict to come; the season two premiere saw King Aegon II's heir Jaehaerys' head sawed off by an assassin hired by Daemon in a hastily calculated act of inter-familial vengeance.
In a slight change of pace, episode two takes in the deathly consequences of the dance of dragons for the lower-born households and Fleabottom peasants whose only skin in the game is to serve. First, there's Aegon II's vengeful slaughtering of the Red Keep's regiment of rat-catchers, whose corpses are displayed on the castle walls as a demonstration of his grievous wrath. Later, the climactic battle of Sers Erryk and Arryk Cargyll, identical twins who pledged themselves to the opposite sides—portrayed by real-life twins Elliot and Luke Tittensor—proves the conflict is a family affair for more than just the Targaryens.
Midway through the episode Arryk, who opted to stick around at King's Landing as a Team Green loyalist, is given a daring mission by Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel): go to Dragonstone, disguised as his Blacks-supporting brother, and slay Rhaenyra in her bed chamber, a move that would likely bring the war to a halt. It's also suicidal, but he does it anyway, and almost puts Rhaenyra to the sword. Arryk stops him at the last moment, leading to a sword fight which ends with them reunited in death.
“I feel like a part of him wanted to see his brother again,” says Luke Tittensor, who spoke to GQ alongside his brother Elliot about the battle. “He was aware that he was going to see his brother again in that last moment.” Here, they talk about the build-up to the fight, shooting a duel to the death with your own twin brother, and the episode's tragic end.
GQ: Why do you think Erryk ultimately decides to go to Dragonstone?
Luke Tittensor: That was a difficult one to actually try and find… The Cargylls, especially, are really honorable, and dutiful, and they really meant their oath, that they're going to follow it through. Arryk could see that Criston didn't necessarily follow the same standards that he set. And as far as him sending me over, it's partly duty-bound, because it's an order that's been given.
It's almost showing what it means to be an honorable person in that world, that it doesn't really matter, you can be sent on a suicide mission, but at the end of the day, if it's an order which has been given from a superior, as a dutiful man… I suppose that can also be seen a negative, you know what I mean? His honour led him to [fight and try to kill] the one person that he truly loved in the world.
And that's the undergirding tragedy of it, right? He must realize when he's on that journey, that one of the few people that will recognize him at Dragonstone is Erryk. So then he must be prepared to kill Erryk from the beginning.
LT: Yeah, one hundred per cent, and that's where I feel like the scene with [Criston], that's kind of what's going through his head: it was less the fact of it being a suicide mission, it was that he could sense it in his bones that he was gonna see his brother, because naturally, like you say, nobody else is gonna spot the difference. So if it [goes wrong], the chances are it's gonna be because Erryk's there. Percentages-wise, he's gonna be by [Rhaenyra's] side.
Elliot Tittensor: It's interesting, because within that world, a lot of it is left in the hands of the gods in the eyes of the people participating as the pawns. In the book, there is a moment where I believe Aryyk goes and prays beforehand… In a sense he's accepting the fate of it, because he knows that he's gotta follow up with his honor and duty.
There's a moment just before the fight where Arryk says that Erryk betrayed “Us”, as if they share a mind—that idea of the twin brain. Is that something that you guys get, also as identical twins?
LT: It's funny really, because it's something that we've never really tested, but recently we were doing some rehearsals for another project, and we were doing some meditative stuff—placing things on the body, and the mind. And it was funny how many things we placed in the same place without knowing… Naturally, me and Elliot have grown up all our lives [together], and nine months prior in the womb, so we're very instinctively similar.
ET: Even with doing the scenes with where we're swinging the swords… To go through a sequence like that, I think it's definitely a bond where you have one hundred per cent trust, like any relationship. When you've spent so much time together, and been through a lot of situations together, naturally you build up a great bond.
It must be pretty weird to shoot a scene where you're literally fighting your brother to the death.
ET: The ending was [especially] emotional to do, but that was great to be able to work off, anyway… It was emotional at times, but we were filming it for probably three— how many days did it take?
LT: I think it took three days to do the whole thing. We did it in stages, naturally, progressing through the stages of the fight, so it wasn't really until the last day where it was the deeply emotional stuff, where you're more with us.
The duel ends with Arryk catching the worst of it, and Erryk almost immediately falls on his own sword. Did you have a view on why he does that?
ET: He says that line to Rhaenyra, which is “forgive me,” but I feel like it was partly to his brother at that point. [It came] from him wanting to be connected with his brother, and he felt like in that moment, he'd felt the biggest loss he'd felt in his life. He couldn't accept it.
One literally says to the other “I still love you, brother,” right? And if they think of themselves as an “Us,” as a pair, then ultimately one can't live without the other.
ET: I think once they've seen each other in that space, and the severity of the situation, they both accepted in the hands of the gods that they're both gonna die in that moment.
LT: And there's something quite poetic about accepting at least it was in the hands of someone you love.