House of the Dragon’s season two has a witch in Alys Rivers, Town & Country Magazine reported.
Gayle Rankin will join the HBO/Max show as one of the series’ power players, Alys Rivers. The show is based on George R.R. Martin’s 2018 novel Fire & Blood. The second season of the Game of Thrones prequel will see the Dance of the Dragons in full force.
In her profile by the magazine, the actress spoke about what to expect from the character. She was careful not to say too much due to the network’s strict policy against spoilers, Rankin said that Alys’ storyline is “quite contained” in season, but “very wild.”
She went on to say that Alys is “pretty prophetic” and “has a lot of power, too.”
A witch joins the Greens
“For as huge as it is, it’s quite an intimate set. My particular storyline is quite, for the moment, contained. Contained, let’s say—very wild, but contained,” Rankin said.
“I’m obsessed with [Alys]. I’ve always given the opportunity to play people who are pretty prophetic, which is cool, but it’s a lot of pressure! She’s so f***ing cool. I want to really ground her and find her humanity—I always try to find my way into that, but she has a lot of power, too. Just really exciting. I don’t think we’ve seen half of it yet, so that will be fun,” the actress continued.
According to the show’s official description of Alys, she is “a healer and a resident of Harrenhal.” However, if you’ve read Fire & Blood, you know that Alys is more than that. She could allegedly see the future and was considered by some as a witch queen. This makes her an important ally to Team Green.
As her surname indicates, Alys is a bastard daughter of House Strong, born in Harrenhall in the Riverlands. Her disputed father could be Lyonel Strong, played by Gavin Spokes in season one. If you remember both Lyonel and his son Harwin (Ryan Corr) were killed in a fire in the first season.
According to Grand Maester Munkun and Septon Eustace, Alys’ mother was unknown and was sired by Lord Lyonel Strong when he was young. Munkun also claimed that Alys was a serving wench who was interested in potions. However, Eustace claimed she was a woods witch.
The fool Mushroom tells a different story. He claims that Alys wasn’t Lord Lyone’s bastard daughter, but was from an older generation who was Harwin and Larys’ wet nurse, and maybe even Lyonel’s. He also said that she was an enchantress who bathed in the blood of maidens to keep her youthful looks.
Munkun and Eustace believe Mushroom’s claims are fantastical, but they also agreed that Alys look unusually young for her age when she was at least 40 at the start of the Dance of Dragons.
It seems House of the Dragon will combine elements from Mushroom and Munkun’s accounts, making her both healer and witch. In Fire & Blood, Alys ends up cursing a messenger to die if anyone laughs at his story. She’s also said to be Prince Aemond’s (Ewan Mitchell) paramour and claimed to be his wife later. Alys is also the one who tells Aemond where to find Prince Daemon (Matt Smith).
In most fan art, Alys is depicted either wearing green gowns or green jewelry, making plain her allegiance to the Greens.
House of the Dragon season two will premiere on HBO/Max June 17.
