As much as it’s an advantage for the director to have these two actors available, their striking visual similarities do make it a little hard to connect with either character. It’s hard to truly care about someone when you spend most of their screen-time wondering if you’re mixing him up with his twin, and that feeling of disconnect only grows when you realize that the show has literally switched the actors around for a scene, and you probably didn’t notice.
Luckily, the show has made efforts to differentiate the two characters in the audience’s minds. Throughout “The Green Council,” the twins are at odds with each other over what to make of the Greens’ coup in the wake of King Viserys’ death. Arryk decides to support the claim of Aegon II, whereas Erryk is appalled by the whole thing. He frees Rhaenys from captivity, takes Viserys’ crown, and gives it to Rhaenyra in the finale.Â
Going into the next season of “House of the Dragon,” the Cargyll twins are now on two opposing sides of what promises to be a complicated, spectacle-filled war. The twins have a minor yet very compelling storyline in George R.R. Martin’s original novel “Fire & Blood,” as their commitment to their respective Kingsguard and Queensguard oaths forces them into a heartbreaking conflict. At least now that Arryk and Erryk are on different teams, it should be a lot easier for audiences to keep track of them as we head into season 2.