Since her introduction in Season 2 of House of the Dragon, the mysterious and seemingly clairvoyant "Witch Queen" known as Alys Rivers has remained one of the show's biggest talking points, and this week's Season 3 finale finally revealed the character's startling backstory.
Though the tale she recounts to Aemond is somewhat vague, Alys strongly implies that she was actually the wife of Harrenhal's original lord, Harren the Black, which would make her well over 100 years old.
When Aegon the Conqueror laid siege to Harrenhal on the wings of Balerion the Black Dread and burned the castle to the ground, Alys' son barely survived. When "incantations" and other "older cures" could not heal her badly burned child, Alys "treated with" ancient beings in the forest (remember that brief glimpse of one of the Green Men earlier in the season?).
Even this didn't work, and when the boy died, Alys tried to join him, only then coming to the realization that she'd been cursed with immortality. Rivers doesn't want to continue her dreary existence at Harenhal alone, and Aemond decides to stay with her... until Aegon shows up.
The displaced King taunts his now repentant brother, but ultimately decides to spare his life. Aegon tells Aemond that they are going to find Vhagar and return to King's Landing, and once Rhaenyra's head sits on a pike, he may decide to forgive him.
Alys clearly doesn't want Aemond to leave, but something tells us his desire to make amends to the brother he tried to kill will overrule his loyalty to his "bethrothed."
There's speculation that Aemond and Alys could have a son who will turn out to be Lord Brynden Rivers, aka the Three-Eyed Raven, who trains Bran Stark in Game of Thrones.
“We, in giving Alys, and thus, Gayle Rankin, who so delightfully plays her, across these two — and coming four — seasons, the idea was she’s the witch character that seems to know more than anybody else in the room," showrunner Ryan Condal tells Westerosies. "But how do we underpin that with an understandable humanity that grounds the character? And for sure, it’s a crazy story, but it fits into the lore of the A Song of Ice and Fire world, and we wanted to give Alys a real underlying motivation.
This is something we actually broke for her going all the way back to Season 2, because we knew the role that we wanted her to play in the story as this kind of guru figure for both, the opposite sides of the Targaryen coin, Daemon in Season 2, and then Aemond in Season 3. But what does she actually want? And what does she want from them?"
"The prequel series finds the Targaryen dynasty at the absolute apex of its power, with more than 15 dragons under their yoke. Most empires—real and imagined—crumble from such heights. In the case of the Targaryens, their slow fall begins almost 193 years before the events of Game of Thrones, when King Viserys Targaryen breaks with a century of tradition by naming his daughter Rhaenyra heir to the Iron Throne. But when Viserys later fathers a son, the court is shocked when Rhaenyra retains her status as his heir, and seeds of division sow friction across the realm."
House of the Dragon season 3 sees Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Fabien Frankel, Ewan Mitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans reprise their respective roles. Additional returning cast includes Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Phia Saban, Jefferson Hall, and Matthew Needham.
Season 3 directors include Loni Peristere (episodes 1,6), Clare Kilner (episodes 2,3,4), Nina Lopez-Corrado (episodes 5,7), and Andrij Parekh (episode 8).