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Mysaria a.k.a. Lady Misery a.k.a. The White Worm (Sonoya Mizuno) is one of House of the Dragon‘s most misunderstood characters.
Introduced as Prince Daemon’s (Matt Smith) mysterious paramour, the lowborn courtesan works her way up in the world to become a Flea Bottom queenpin and then unofficial mistress of whisperers to Queen Rhaenyra I (Emma D’Arcy). Oftentimes, however, Mysaria has felt vestigial to the story that House of the Dragon is telling.
Part of that is likely due to some changes the show made in adapting her from George R.R. Martin’s Targaryen prequel text Fire & Blood. The Mysaria of the book is from Lys and is known as the “White Worm” due to her milky white skin and slithery nature. The show’s Mysaria is a bit harder to nail down, hailing from parts unknown in Essos and seemingly smitten with Daemon before finding herself as a voice for the downtrodden. The questionable accent work in season 1 also certainly didn’t help.
There’s a hidden detail in the House of the Dragon pilot script, however, that suggests the Game of Thrones franchise might have plans for Mysaria that extend far past the Dance of the Dragons civil war and take the World of Ice and Fire to parts unknown: the mystical land of Yi Ti. In a copy of the House of the Dragon season 1 episode 1 teleplay, written by showrunner Ryan Condal and secured by Deadline, Mysaria’s entrance into the story is described in a very specific fashion. Page 28 depicts Daemon engaging in passionless sex with an unknown woman, who is then revealed to be “MYSARIA (30s), a porcelain-skinned woman from Yi-Ti. Her whole being is mystery.”
Mysaria being a mystery translated strongly from page-to-screen but a detail that didn’t make the explicit jump is her Yi Ti origins (the dash between “Yi” and “Ti” in the script is seemingly a typo). This is significant because no character from Yi Ti, a nation in the far east of Essos, had ever appeared on Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon up until this point. In fact, no named character from Yi Ti has turned up in Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire either aside from descriptions of anonymous YiTish traders at various ports.
But why does Mysaria’s YiTish citizenship matter beyond it being a curious fun fact? For starters, Yi Ti is just awesome. As described in Martin’s encyclopedic The World of Ice and Fire, Yi Ti is his fantasy universe’s analog to ancient China in the same way that the Seven Kingdoms resemble Medieval Europe. Yi Ti is a nation that occupies an enormous amount of lush land in eastern Essos and is believed to have more cities than any other nation in the world. It is also one of the oldest surviving continuous civilizations, and one of the first to have developed literacy. People from Yi Ti use their family name first and personal name second. So, again: China!
Though its history and present day politics are not as well-known to Westerosi maesters as their own continent’s, it is understood that the realm is governed by the Golden Empire of Yi Ti, a succession of God-Emperors who name their dynasties after colors like “Grey,” “Indigo,” and “Jade Green.” The current monarch as of The World of Ice and Fire‘s writing is Bu Gai, the Azure Emperor of Yin; though his claim is challenged by Pol Qo, the declared Orange Emperor of Trader Town. The Golden Empire was preceded by the Great Empire of the Dawn 8,000 years ago, which has a creation myth similar to Melisandre’s “Azor Ahai” beliefs. The Great Empire of the Dawn’s history even includes a hero wielding a sword named “Lightbringer” like the name Melisandre’s ill-fated messiah candidate Stannis Baratheon chose for his own fiery blade.
But even more important that Yi Ti being cool on the page is that viewers might soon get to see Yi Ti be cool on the screen as well. Among the many announced Game of Thrones spinoffs is an animated title that will take place in Yi Ti. Martin confirmed as much in a 2022 blog post, writing: “The news leaked several months ago that one of the animated shows would be set in Yi Ti. That’s true. Our working title is The Golden Empire, and we have a great young writer on that one too, and I think the art and animation is just going to be beautiful. I would tell you more if I could. I don’t think I can say a word about the other animated shows. Not yet.”
The expansive world of Yi Ti offers seemingly infinite storytelling potential, particularly following the success of FX’s Shōgun, which took place in 16th century Japan. In fact, Yi Ti has an adversarial relationship with the nearby island of Leng, which bears some similarities to Japan in the Thrones canon. Still, details on The Golden Empire have been scarce since 2022 and the project appears to have been shelved in favor of live-action efforts like the upcoming A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and the confirmed Aegon the Conqueror prequel. That renewed focus in other Targaryen-centric series makes sense as HBO is clearly relying on familiarity to keep audiences invested in the World of Ice and Fire. After all, it’s not like we know anyone from Yi Ti…hey, wait a minute.
As the only canonically YiTish character introduced in the Game of Thrones world, Mysaria could play a hugely important role in transitioning the franchise’s gaze from west to east. Sure, Queen Rhaenyra’s favored advisor is far from the most beloved character on House of the Dragon but she’s at least a familiar face. That alone would go a long way in getting a Yi Ti series watched. And since said series was intended to be animated, Sonoya Mizuno wouldn’t even need to return for it if she didn’t feel compelled to do so.
Of course there’s the small matter of Mysaria’s role in the Dance of the Dragons civil war complicating her return to her homeland. But as the character’s change from Lys to Yi Ti in the first place reveals: there’s plenty of room for error in the historical record.
The post The House of the Dragon Character That Could Hold the Key to a Spinoff appeared first on Den of Geek.
