House of the Dragon creator reveals shocking Game of Thrones connection to brutal twin fight

House of the Dragon creator Ryan Condal revealed the brutal fight between the Cargyll twins has a shocking Game of Thrones connection.

House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 2 saw the fallout of Blood and Cheese’s actions, which included a deadly duel between twin brothers and Kingsguard members Erryk and Arryk Cargyll.

The war between Greens and Blacks led to the once united brotherly bond to meet a bloody end that left audiences horrified. And Condal revealed he went out of his way to make the fight as real as possible to make up for its sanitization in the Game of Thrones books.

“I was always fascinated by the Cargyll twins story because that was a story that Sansa Stark romanticized – going back to the Song of Ice and Fire books,” Condal told The Hollywood Reporter.

“And, of course, Sansa has this very Sansa-like romantic vision of what that fight was like and how they dueled for hours as though it was the duel from The Princess Bride. But the real thing would be much more brutal and gritty.”

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He continued, “We have these two people who found themselves on different sides of this conflict and not knowing what to do with this oath.

“I think that makes it more of a tragedy when you see these two brothers trying to hold to their oath but find themselves in literal mortal combat against each other in order to uphold it.”

At the end of House of the Dragon Season 1, the twins were torn by their conflicting allegiances; Erryk went to Dragstone to serve Rhaenyra while Arryk stayed in King’s Landing to serve Aegon.

Episode 2 saw Arryk go on a suicide mission to kill Rhaenyra in her bed chamber as retribution for Aegon and Heleana’s son being murdered on Dameon’s command.

While Arryk was not successful, as Erryk ended up killing him before he could slay Rhaenyra, the Blacks’ Kingsguard ultimately decided to end his own life as he couldn’t live with the guilt of killing his own brother.

In A Song of Ice and Fire, Sansa referred to the fight between the twins as something Shakespearean as she said they “died with tears on their cheeks after each had mortally wounded the other.”

However, House of the Dragon didn’t pull any punches by showing how awful the fight really was and exploring how the war destroyed more lives than just those in House Targaryen/Hightower.

For more, check out the full House of the Dragon Season 2 release schedule. We also have guides on Hugh Hammer and all the House of the Dragon dragons.