House of the Dragon: 52 unconfirmed details about the Storm Queen Argella Durrandon

Nell C.

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Ingénue Voice

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8 min read

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Aug 22, 2019

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“I am not a girl. I am a storm with skin.”- Unknown.

1. Whether Argella and her father, Argilac, interpreted “Ours is the Fury” differently.
2. Little girls in her time did not dream of being rescued from dragons or slaying dragons themselves. We don’t know what she dreamt of fighting as a child.
3. How she was raised/what her father allowed: To feel about the Dornish, how she actually felt, (if any) her skill with a sword, her knowledge of governance, her attendance at her father’s small council, her travels/campaigns with her father.
4. If she wanted to know and have more control over governance when she was younger, and if such power was ever outright promised to her only to never be granted. If the times are more or less savage 300 years later.
5. How her father explained why the sigil of House Durrandon is yellow and a stag, and how she in turn explained it to Orys and her children throughout her life. What they initially assumed the color and animal meant is unknown.
6. How her feelings toward the story of how King Durran the Fair married the unnamed daughter of King Edwyn Evenstar of Tarth changed or didn’t throughout her life. Though marriage King Durran made the independent kingdom of Tarth subject to and part of the Stormlands.
7. The year her mother died/left/disappeared. We really don’t know what happened.
8. How Argilac, Argella, and the people of the Stormlands both large and small, felt about her marrying the inbred Lord Aegon. We know Argilac felt is was necessary but necessity doesn’t automatically and with absolute certainty mean he was happy about it. Suppose Aregella preferred even Harren the Black to Aegon, and Harren did have many sons.
9. When Argella found out about the messenger’s hands and what her reaction was. How and when Argilac came to the decision to remove the hand or hands of Aegon’s messenger. The idea may not have been his. Also, the hands may not have been removed in Argilac’s presence as there could be outcry against harming a guest under ones own roof, but outside of Storm’s End isn’t technically under Argilac’s roof…
10. If Argilac and Argella were insulted Aegon went to fight Harren and sent Orys to fight them, the cause of the conquest. Aegon didn’t fight his true enemies.
11. What Argilac’s last words were. Orys could have used the fate of Argella in an attempt to get him to surrender, and that is why Argilac curses Orys.
12. If Argilac the Arrogant left instructions about what should happen upon his death before leaving for the battle of the Last Storm. We don’t know whether her father would have wanted her to bend the knee. We don’t know if Argilac faced and fought Meraxes.
13. If she worried she would be made to worship Valyrian gods. If Orys or his sons believed in the Seven and if not is that an issue with Argella or the servants or nobles. What King Ormund III said or did to convert the people of the Stormlands to the faith of the Seven. If Orys believed House Durrandon was descended from gods.
14. If she ever thought of the gods as clueless and powerless: they didn’t know about the wedding of Durran Godsgrief and Elenei or didn’t intervene until it was to late, the two were wed. Whether Storm’s End was built to defy the gods or protect the pair from the gods anger.
15. How many days Argella reigned as the Storm Queen and if she considered her reign to have begun when she received news of her father’s death or when she rebuked Rhaenys.
16. Why Rhaenys did not tell Argella of her father’s noble end at the parley and instead left that job to Orys. If even though he was a bastard Orys wanted to be the Targaryen representative at the parley instead of his queen Rhaenys, or at least go with her. Why Argella was presented to Orys and not Rhaenys, what explanation did the turncloak guards give. Where Rhaenys was when Argella was presented. Why Orys didn’t give Argella the cloak to put on herself. She can cloth herself chained or not.
17. How Argella was presented to Orys. We know she was chained but she could have made to walk into the camp past Targaryen soldiers in chains, or slug over a horse like a dead deer or tied to a stick and carried between several men.
18. If Argella thought Orys would kill her in that tent away from the crowd, and claim her guards did it.
19. Why she accepted the wine from Orys. It rained several days prior during the battle of the Last Storm so it could still be windy and the ground near Storm’s End could still be cold and muddy. Argella may have been cold, thirsty if she hadn’t already had dinner, or have a dry mouth as a side effect of being gagged.
20. Why and how long she was gagged. At what time Rhaenys came to parley and at what time Argella’s guards chained her up. Why the guards waited until night to surrender, and then walked her out through the front gate, surely the peace flag isn’t easier to spot in the dark. If the guards went in intending to gag her from the start or brought the gag as a last resort and used it when she spoke and no doubt threatened to kill them.
21. When she fought them if she wounded any of them.
22. Who removed the gag. Orys could have left her gagged while he talked.
23. Suppose Argella already believed her father died well without being told by anyone. Telling someone how their father died isn’t the most endearing way to start anything except a saga.
24. She was ever able to call Storm’s End her home after that.
25. If she ever traveled outside of the Stormlands.
26. If Orys took the chains off and cloaked Argella in front of the whole camp or waited until they were in the tent. Where the key was located assuming the chains came with a key: around her neck while her hands were bound at her sides, or binding her hands together like handcuffs.
27. How tight the chains were. If the chains left any marks temporary or permanent and how visible those marks were over time.
28. If Orys cloaked Argella in the same cloak he wore when he killed her father. If he did than the ground was probably less rumbled, torn, wet, muddy, foul smelling, and blood stained. If the cloak was black and red, Targaryen colors or black and gold…if the cloak even belonged to Orys.
29. Whether they were alone in the tent. What was said in that tent. If Orys could promise her she would live if she swore fealty and if he did.
30. Whose idea it was to keep the sigil and words of House Durrandon.
31. What became of the turncloaks who betrayed Argella Durrandon, the Storm Queen: were they honored by Aegon, killed by fire, executed, sent to the Wall, sent to fight in Dorne, or exhiled.
32. If anyone took the fact that Argilac’s sword and those of his soldiers wasn’t collected with the others as a sign that Orys was Aegon’s brother. How Argella felt about her father’s and soldiers swords not being collected. What became of Argilac’s sword. If Orys was permitted to keep it did he show it or give it to his sons. If Orys ever told Argella he is a bastard.
33. If Argella had refused Orys’ hand would she have died by fire or been exiled? Whether Orys even asked Argella to marry him. If they wed with Aegon’s consent.
34. Where Orys and Argella’s wedding was held and who attended. Whether Aegon ordered Orys and Argella to hold hands during their vows. If the bedding ceremony was a tradition at that time and if it was performed. If the wedding took place during or after the Conquest.
35. Whether the marriage was consummated on their wedding night. Either of them could have indicated that it was when it wasn’t. Argella could have spent the whole night lying still in a night shift having made herself as cold as a corpse.
36. Whether the servants reported Argella’s movements to Orys, visa versa, or simply talked about them among themselves. If any of the Targaryens had spies at Storm’s End.
37. Whether Argella helped Orys rule, or ruled in his name, since he knew nothing of the history of the Stormlands (i.e. which lord commonly squabbled with which lord and over what) when he first arrived. If Orys ever learned said history or left matters entirely in the hands of Argella or his castellan if he had one. Suppose she acted as Orys’ Hand as she had or hadn’t with her father.
38. How Orys, Aegon, Visenya, Rhaenys, the smallfolk, and nobles of the Stormlands felt about Argella ruling the Stormlands while Orys was away. How they felt about Argella ruling the Stormlands after his first child was born.
39. If anyone discussed what would happen to Argella if she was barren.
40. Whether or not Argella or Orys wanted a daughter and why or why not. If anyone considered Argella to have battled death in labor with any of her children.
41. What Argella first noticed about her first child. If Raymont Baratheon is her second or sixth son. What the name of her other son, Rogar Baratheon’s father, is. What the children were told about their grandfather’s life and death, and their father’s ancestry. Whether Orys was present for the birth of any of his children while he was Hand of the king.
42. What other characteristics Baratheons inherited from the Durrandons and attributed to Orys. Baratheons typically have blue eyes, while Orys had black eyes, meaning the Baratheons get their eye color from Argella. What was the predominant hair color of Durrandon males and females. If Durrandons have a booming laugh. Where Baratheons get their fondness for war hammers.
43. Suppose she payed part of the ransom, even in secret. If anyone assumed the reason Orys’ hand was cut off was because the ransom wasn’t paid in full. If Aegon thought Orys gathered information about the Dornish while being held captive.
44. Whether Argella was told in advance Orys’ sword hand had been chopped off before he returned to Storm’s End.
45. If smallfolk and nobles of the Stormlands, her sons, the Targaryens, or Wyl, thought she would be pleased Orys now only had one hand. If Wyl threatened to send Orys’ severed hand to Argella.
46. How Argella responds when someone asks her if she too (or at least a part of her) died that day along with her father.
47. How Argella responds when someone asks her if her father’s death would have been easier to bear if her husband had been trueborn.
48. If and how Argella felt about seeing Lords Massey and Bar Emmon again.
49. If there was a tapestry of Argella and Orys in Storm’s End and what it depicts.
50. The fate of the bodies of Argilac the Arrogant and Argella Durrandon. Whether they were laid beside their ancestors, or if his body left on the battlefield to rot while hers was placed beside her husband as the last and first of a house. Even though she presumably outlived Orys we don’t know if the choice was hers or if her wishes were honored.
51. How Orys and Argella felt about storms. What Orys and Argella would have settled for instead of love. What title was most important to Orys: bastard, brother, warrior, Hand, Lord, husband, or father. If he ever wanted to take the name Durrandon, and become Orys Durrandon. If Orys ever wanted to take Argella or the children to court. How Orys felt about court and if those feelings changed after he lost his hand. Why Orys was so loyal to Aegon. If Orys considered himself a Targaryen, and if his had any other bastard siblings. If Orys was bitter toward everyone or just those that got in the way of his getting his revenge. If Orys was bitter: is it a good idea to be seen happier after leaving the king’s service than when in the king’s service.
52. For know she is Argella the Ambiguous but hopefully as we get to know her she will be known as Argella the Audacious. How the turncloaks probably didn’t explain why she was naked: they couldn’t subdue her, couldn’t get her to bend the knee, so they decided to try to humiliate her until she did.