Why Corlys Calls Rhaenyra’s Sons Bastards

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for Season 3, Episode 3 of “House of the Dragon,” now streaming on HBO Max.

Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen got a slap in the face from her hand of the queen, Corlys Velaryon, on tonight’s episode of “House of the Dragon,” when the Sea Snake publicly called out Rhaenyra’s sons (his grandsons) as “bastards” in the halls of her newly reclaimed Red Keep in King’s Landing.

Until now, Corlys (Steve Toussaint) has never wavered from acknowledging Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) three oldest boys — the “sons” of his presumed-dead son, Laenor Velaryon (John Macmillan) — as his biological family, despite the lack of resemblance and the many credible rumors of Rhaenyra’s long affair with Ser Harwin Strong (Ryan Corr). But when Rhaenyra refused his request to acknowledge his own bastards, Addam (Clinton Liberty) and Alyn (Abubakar Salim), as legitimate Velaryons during Season 3, Episode 3, he snapped.

“It’s one of the things that he does without thinking,” Toussaint tells Variety. “Looking at the scene in the script, I remember thinking, ‘OK, well, the last time someone said that to her, it was his brother, and he died within seconds.’ So this is a very dangerous thing to do, but I feel like he’s completely at the end of his tether. In that moment, he doesn’t care, which, again, is why he raises his voice. It’s not like he sort of just goes, ‘I know what’s going on.’ He screamed it out. He doesn’t care. And it’s very defiant: I dare you to prove me wrong, because the world has suspected this anyway, and I’ve kept a secret. It’s not careless abandoned, that’s not quite what it is. I think it’s like, do your worst. I don’t care. There’s nothing you can do that will make the truth any different to what it is.”

Whether the move was warranted or not, Corlys certainly risked his life and position in doing so and now viewers are left wondering what his fate will be when Rhaenyra decides how to respond to the accusation made against the now-deceased Jacaerys (Harry Collett) and Lucerys (Elliot Grihault), and Rhaenyra’s remaining heir, Joffrey (Oscar Eskinazi).

Toussaint says this situation had him recalling a scrapped scene from “House of the Dragon’s” first season, when Corlys is wounded in a battle towards the end of the season. The episode’s director, Geeta Patel, told Toussaint they were going to shoot a scene that showed Corlys plunging into the depths of the ocean with blood coming from his throat. In that scene, Corlys would have tried to get to the surface and then, realizing he can’t with all his armor on, he accepts his fate and is prepared to die at sea. Then a hand would have reached out and yanked him to safety.

“Now that always stayed with me for these last few years, because it meant to me that he wasn’t afraid to die, and that death was always near him, but he always had reasons to live, his children, his wife, and so forth,” Toussaint says. “But at this stage now, those people don’t exist anymore. The only thing that he’s got going, the only thing that’s keeping him going is, I need to set up these two boys. So when he says to her, ‘So and so is a bastard,’ and if she had said, ‘Right, let’s get the guards and we’re going to cut his head off, he would have been like, ‘Fine, that’s fine, this is as good a way to go as any.’ So I think it’s almost liberating to live with that idea that I don’t fear death, actually, because I’ve done everything in this world, I’ve done it all. So if my life ends today, fine. I guess his only concern, and it has been since Season 1 is to make sure the line, the Velaryon line continues.”

See below for more from Variety‘s interview with Toussaint about “House of the Dragon” Season 3, Episode 3.

Why did Corlys finally asks Rhaenyra to legitimize Alyn and Addam as his children? Why now?

If there is one event that is the catalyst, I would have to say it goes right back to that moment where Rhaenys says, I know who they are. Because what she says is I know who he is, and basically she says words to the effect of, “It’s not their fault that you were a shitty dad and you need to recognize them.” And then not long after that confrontation, she’s dead. So I feel that there’s an element of Corlys honoring his dead wife, the one person that he truly loved, honoring her and trying to do the right thing because she wanted that and she was smart and so forth. That’s the reason why later on in that same season when Alyn is telling him off and saying, “What do you think it was like for us as kids growing up and you were in that big house,” that’s why he takes that and doesn’t sort of argue back or banish him. That’s the reason he then has that scene in Episode 1 of this season, where they’re in the cabin before the battle, and he, for shock of all shocks for Corlys, he says to Alyn, “I’m sorry for what I did,” which is a big deal for him. I would put it back to Rhaenys saying, “You need to do right by those kids.”

What do you think pushed Corlys to the point where he would publicly call Jace, Luke and Joffrey bastards after years of defending his “grandsons” and showing great love for them and even making Luke his heir?

I remember, the night before we were going to shoot that, I was trying to think like Corlys, and thinking all those periods of time when he walked around the court and said, “These are my grandkids,” and he knew people were around, just going, “They ain’t his fucking grandkids.” He knew, and he’s like, “I dare you to say anything, I’m going to take them on.” I really believe he did actually love those children.

But all of that plagued on him, I think, those little things. There was even a scene that I recall where Rainey says it’s something like, “Come on, we know the truth, they’re not really,” and he’s like, “No, no.” So he feels like he’s gone to the mat for this girl, for Rhaenyra, and for him it is a small gesture, considering what I’ve lost, for you just to say, “Yeah, those are yours.” Because I still have to take on the fact, yes, I did father these children, and I did abandon them. I still have to take on that, so all I’m asking for you, in your wisdom, is just, “Yes, they’re Velaryons.” And then when she doesn’t, I think it all just comes to the boil. He’s counted the cost, looked for the benefits and there have been no benefits. It’s also like, I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing it for them to give them a chance, and you’re taking that away because you’re worried about how things look.

This interview has been edited and condensed.