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The land of Westeros, as seen inHouse of the Dragon, has just as many sliver-tongued saboteurs and opportunists as it does raving barbarians and cutthroat bandits, with Lord Larys Strong firmly placed in the former category. His close ties to Queen Alicent Hightower allowed Larys to position himself as an influential man that rarely needs to raise a sword himself, instead using words and deception alone to clear himself a path towards power and status.
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If the end of the first season and the events of the novels that the show is adapting is any indication, the machinations of Larys Strong have only just begun. The boiling tensions in Westeros are primed and open to the honey-tongued words of a master manipulator like him.
This article containsspoilersfor HBO’s House of the Dragon and George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood novel.
Lord Larys Strong In Season 1
Lord Larys Strong comes from the house of Strong and is the second son of Lord Lyonel Strong. Unlike most men of his house that are known for their fighting prowess, Larys Strong was born with a clubbed foot that forces him to walk with a cane and bare the deriding nickname"Clubfoot"by allies and enemies alike. Larys has adapted to using his words, not his fists, to achieve his goals – using deception, observation, and manipulation of others to have his goals realized.
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Seemingly his grandest plan yet, Larys Strong positioned himself as a friend and confidant to Queen Alicent Hightower in episode 5, using his skills as a people-person to spark her curiosity and earn her trust. By Episode 6, just past the halfway point of the show’s first season, Larys Strong has already set in motion a series of events to put the Hightower house back in the position as Hand of the King by having his brother and father killed in a staged house fire.
By the end of the first season, Larys Strong himself wasnow the Queen’s Master of Whispersand found himself in a mutually beneficial arrangement with the Queen. Larys, however, has a weakness that the Queen has been using to bend him to her will much the same way he has been plotting to use her. Larys Strong, likely as a result of his clubbed foot, which he loathes with a passion, has developed astrong sexual passion for women’s feet, which Queen Alicent has used several times to coerce information and favors out of the man.
What’s Next For Larys Strong?
Larys Strong finds himself in a powerful yet conflicted position at the end of the first season. While he is a powerful and influential advisor to the Queen, doubly so with the passing of King Viserys. He and the Queen find each other in a battle of wits to use one another for their own goals, which risks conflicting ideas and methodologies, causing a split between them. If the show is to follow the events of the novels they are adapting, Larys will find himself involved in further political scheming and assassinations that lead to theoutbreak of civil warand societal instability among the allied houses, known in the novels as theDance of the Dragons.
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If this is the route the showrunners decide to follow with season 2 onwards, Larys will find himself in the conflicted service ofAegon IIduring a period of open warfare among the houses. Further fighting and political scheming would see Larys betray allies and befriend enemies for his own personal gain until his long streak of luck abruptly ends with a pause in hostilities.Larys Strong’s life in this timeline ends with a beheading, but not before his final request is granted, and his clubbed foot is lobbed off right before his execution so that he may be rid of it in death.
Viewers will have to wait and see if this fate or one similar to it befalls the television’s version of the character or if he is destined to experience a different fate. Filming for Season 2 of House of the Dragon is scheduled to begin in early 2023, so fans will likely have to wait until late 2023 or early 2024 to see what fate befalls Larys Strong, Queen Alicent Hightower, and the rest of Westeros as civil conflict threatens to boil over into open war.
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