The Smartest Person in ‘House of the Dragon’ Deserves the Spotlight

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 5.

The Big Picture

• Mysaria’s unique background offers leverage to the Blacks, earning her a key role in the royal civil war in
  House of the Dragon
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• Unlike other nobles, Mysaria values loyalty and the voice of the common people, making her a valuable ally.
• With Mysaria’s flexibility and influence, the Blacks may finally capture King’s Landing in the war against the Greens.

In House of the Dragon, noble families are often the focus, which is obviously understandable in a royal civil war, but Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) is certainly not noble. The fictional history books of Westeros describe her as only a shadowy figure, but the character we meet in the show remains an individual with a unique set of both skills and struggles, becoming a huge ally to the Blacks in their war against the Greens. Since the nobility has to earn her loyalty rather than try to buy it and she speaks with the voice of the common people, she has leverage and flexibility that few others possess. While she is a master manipulator, she is neither a nihilist like Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) nor a cold pragmatist like Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) both are for the Greens, but a follower who has a leader she truly believes in. Already, Mysaria has saved the life of Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and proven herself a valuable source of counsel in her royal court. If they can figure out how to work with Mysaria to the best of her ability, they just might discover the key to finally capturing King’s Landing.

Compared to the Books, Mysaria Is a Vast Improvement

Throughout its history on screen, the world of Westeros has improved many of its secondary characters, and House of the Dragon continues this trend with that of Mysaria. Part of this has to do with how Fire and Blood is primarily an unreliable history book, meaning that events that occur off the record are not the focus. Through such a perspective, Mysaria is depicted as a mysterious and unknowable woman, but is not given any attention and mainly serves as just a vessel for others to see their private plots to completion. The book almost portrays her as sadistic, reveling in the most underhanded and bloody murder plots and maximizing the suffering of her rivals, all without any mention of her loyalty and desire to return home overseas.

With a greater portrayal of scheming behind the scenes, the show is able to give more focus to Mysaria as a person overall, rather than as a shadowy figure despised by others. Already despised by political enemies, her presence is viewed as transactional even among those who tolerate her, most notably Daemon (Matt Smith) as her former lover, and her clandestine causes have been used by outside actors for both peace and bloodshed during the war. Mysaria herself is well aware of her status and remains embittered towards most of the great noble houses of Westeros, even sarcastically joking that she “might as well have remained a whore” in the face of this oppression. Rather than being an entirely natural chess player like Larys Strong, she is only forced to play the game in order to survive as a peasant in a world where the Iron Throne is everything.

The show also gives a proper reason why Mysaria sides with the Blacks at all, given that she should have no allegiance to anyone in the noble class. Rather than being in this fight for the sake of herself, she rightly believes that no side in this war is worthy of her own service as a commoner. Even before Rhaenyra proves herself worthy to her by offering to free her, Mysaria saves the life of the queen during the Cargyll duel by alerting the guards, whereas the encounter between the brothers was simple chance in the books. For the first time, Mysaria finds a noble who she truly believes cares for people like her and her dirty tricks to secure the throne come off as genuine loyalty, not mere political nihilism like Larys does.

In ‘House of the Dragon,’ Smallfolk Are the Ball in a Very Bloody Game

Although deadly battles might gain the most attention in a war with dragons, House of the Dragon has made a big effort to focus on the common people, who are arguably the most affected by the current conflict. We’ve already seen this to a degree with Hugh the Hammer (Kieran Bew) and his family in King’s Landing, but even he still has implied noble blood and Mysaria gives this viewpoint a uniquely political perspective. Although some politicians like Otto Hightower do make attempts to twist the views of the small folk to their advantage, they are usually still perceived as pieces on a board to be controlled, not as people with their own agency. Not only does Mysaria remain aware of the optics of bringing the head of a dragon into the capital and informing Rhaenyra of this mistake, but she also has the ability to win them over as one of their own.

With her status as a common woman, Mysaria has found herself in a unique position that no other politician of her time has arguably experienced before. For example, Daemon has the power of force at his command with the help of Caraxes, but he has no ability to maintain an active following, which his time with the Riverland lords makes especially clear. She also has a degree of empathy that remains lacking in a politician like Otto, who understands the importance of an appeal to the peasantry on an optics level but is thwarted even there by the actions of others and still only views them as pawns in a much more complex game. Perhaps more so than the dragons, Mysaria can give the Blacks an aura of legitimacy in the two biggest ways any faction can afford, through both the power of magic and that of the people.

As a commoner, Mysaria also has the rare ability to switch her loyalty with relative ease if she deems it necessary. To an extent, she has done this before by helping Otto Hightower find Aegon for his coronation, showing her loyalty is not fixed and must be earned and maintained, not expected. In the political world of Westeros, the people have more power than many nobles like to think, and it’s not at all difficult to imagine Mysaria switching sides if Rhaenyra loses the support of the people, giving the queen an extra incentive to listen to their concerns. Mysaria might be on her side for now, but her flexibility and leverage make her a dangerous individual to cross.

For the Blacks, Mysaria Could Be the Key to Victory

In the early stages of the war, perhaps the biggest disadvantage of the Blacks is the lack of political support among the nobility. Currently, their few victories have remained only symbolic in a war that has been evolving quickly, both on the battlefield and in the political arena. While the Starks remain an important ally, their forces will take many months to travel south, and the Riverlands are still divided. Claiming Harrenhal was a noteworthy feat for Daemon, but the status of the castle as unenforceable leaves him with little to actually claim and renders him an open target.

With the death of Rhaenys (Eve Best) and Meleys at Rook’s Rest, the Blacks remain in desperate need of a win, both political and military. As a commoner, Mysaria has the ability to grow genuine support for Rhaenyra and seems to already be setting her plans in motion to gain it. Although Aegon did have some sympathy for the small folk of the capital, he never attempted to vie for their sympathy. Now, with the colder Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) now on the throne as regent, Mysaria has the perfect opportunity to exploit an opening for her new queen.

Although the Blacks might be lacking in numbers and dragons, they now seem poised to turn the tide, but only if they know how to utilize the strengths that Mysaria offers as an ally. For one thing, Daemon was the original leader of the City Watch, who remain some of the most important guards in the city and could find a way to open the gates to the Blacks. Additionally, Jacaerys (Harry Collett) has created an insane scheme to assemble his own team of dragon riders, who could take advantage of the wild beasts still untamed on Dragonstone. Should she manage to add the power of the small folk to her arsenal with the hidden help of Mysaria as her agent, Rhaenyra might find herself with a direct path to the Iron Throne.

House of the Dragon season 2 airs every Sunday at 9:00 PM EST on Max in the US.

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