House Of The Dragon 2 Showrunner Ryan Condal Explains Sansa Stark’s Connection With Cargyll Twin Fight

HBO’s House of the Dragon Season 2 kickstarted on a good note on June 16. In the second episode, viewers witnessed a brutal fight sequence between the Cargyll twins — Ser Arryk (Luke Tittensor) and Ser Erryk (Elliot Tittensor) with both perishing during the battle. The sequence holds special significance among fans since the event was a direct on-screen adaptation of a fan-favourite scene from George RR Martin’s novel Fire & Blood. Now, House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal has spilled the beans on the connection between Sansa Stark’s character with the Cargyll twins’ fiery duel.

In episode 2, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) orders Ser Arryk Cargyll (Luke Tittensor) to assassinate Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) at Dragonstone. Arryk however finds himself in a face-off against his twin brother, Ser Erryk (Elliot Tittensor), with both of them dying. Now, in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ryan Condal explained that he wanted the series’ version to feel more “brutal and gritty” unlike the one depicted in the book where Sansa Stark recounts and romanticises the entire scenario.

“The book depicts a few different versions of that story. I was always fascinated by the Cargyll twins’ story because that was a story that Sansa Stark romanticised — going back to the Song of Ice and Fire books. And, of course, Sansa has this very Sansa-like romantic vision of what that fight was like and how they duelled for hours, as though it was the duel from The Princess Bride. But the real thing would be much more brutal and gritty,” revealed Ryan Condal.

Elaborating on the nail-biting action sequence, Ryan Condal added “We wanted to try to find the central line through it. There’s a version where they’re cursing each other’s names and calling each other “traitor,” and that just didn’t feel like the characters we’d set up. 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.”

House of the Dragon is a Game of Thrones spinoff that highlights the conflict between the Greens and the Blacks. New episodes of Season 2 air on Sundays on HBO.