Who Are Ser Erryk and Ser Arryk Cargyll, & Why Are They Important? Meet Real-Life Twins Elliot and Luke Tittensor’s Characters
Episode 9 of House of the Dragon was full of thrills and suspense, especially during the part when the characters were still looking for Prince Aegon, who had to be located early so that the Greens could crown him as early as possible before news of the king’s passing would reach Princess Rhaenyra. In that regard, two of the characters that were right in the middle of the action were Ser Erryk and Ser Arryk. So, who are Ser Erryk and Ser Arryk Cargyll?
Ser Erryk and Ser Arryk Cargyll are twins that are both sworn knights of the Kingsguard. Erryk is the sworn shield of Prince Aegon and sided with him when he became king. Erryk was also the one who helped Princess Rhaenys escape and eventually sided with the Blacks in the Targaryen civil war.
Both of these twins are actually played by real-life twins Elliot and Luke Tittensor, as it is important for them to actually be played by different people, unlike Jason and Tyland Lannister, who are played by the same actor. Of course, their importance was highlighted in this episode. That said, let’s get to know more about Erryk and Arryk in House of the Dragon.
Who Are Ser Erryk And Ser Arryk Cargyll?
One of the most suspenseful and eventful episodes in House of the Dragon was episode 9, which was able to bring the kind of drama and tension that everyone needed in this series. Of course, the entire episode focused on the events happening in King’s Landing after Queen Alicent and the Small Council found out that King Viserys Targaryen had passed away.
Thanks to the misunderstanding that happened on the king’s deathbed, Alicent told the members of the Small Council that King Viserys had changed his mind before his death and decided that Prince Aegon should be the next king. They kept the king’s death a secret while trying to find a way to peacefully install Prince Aegon on the Iron Throne. But the problem was that the prince was nowhere to be found in the Red Keep.
They discovered that Prince Aegon had escaped from the Red Keep in the middle of the night and used his royal authority to make sure that his sworn shield in the Kingsguard would not be able to stop him from going out at night. As such, a mad scramble for the prince happened, as Otto Hightower and Alicent Hightower both sent different people to search for the prince.
It was important for them to send their own people because Otto wanted to influence Aegon to kill Rhaenyra. Meanwhile, Alicent wanted to tell her son that she should spare Rhaenyra and convince her to swear her allegiance to him. So, while Alicent sent Ser Criston Cole and Prince Aemond Targaryen to look for the prince, Otto sent Ser Erryk and Ser Arryk Cargyll. In that regard, who are Ser Erryk and Ser Arryk?
Ser Erryk and Ser Arryk are both knights of the Kingsguard and belong to House Cargyll. They are twin brothers that look exactly alike, and even their own sworn brothers in the Kingsguard are not capable of telling them apart. Of course, not even the royal family can tell them apart, as Alicent even mistook one for the other in episode 8.
It was Ser Erryk whom Otto asked regarding the whereabouts of Prince Aegon because he was the prince’s sworn shield. He told Erryk to look for the prince because he was supposed to be the new king after the death of King Viserys. But the thing is that it was only Erryk who knew about the king’s death, even though Otto told him to bring his brother along while searching King’s Landing.
Erryk and Arryk went to the different places that Aegon was known to frequent, and that was what brought them to a fighting pit that involved children. While there, they even spotted a boy that appeared to be the bastard son of the prince. And that was when they met a woman that claimed that she knew where Aegon was but was only willing to speak to Otto Hightower.
The knights took the woman’s gambit as they brought Otto to Mysaria, the White Worm. She told Otto the location of the prince, who she had hidden, in exchange for him to stop the fighting pits involving the children. That was when the Hand told her that he would look into it.
Erryk and Arryk went to the spot where the prince was, and both Criston and Aemond followed them there. The twins got to the prince first, but Arryk was surprised to hear from his brother that the king was now dead and that the Greens were going to install Aegon as the new ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.
Erryk met Criston as a duel between the knights began. Meanwhile, Erryk merely looked on as he didn’t even try to help his twin brother because it was clear that he was having second thoughts. Criston defeated Arryk and won the right to take Aegon to the queen. Erryk, on the other hand, left the premises.
The morning after Aegon was brought back to the Red Keep, Erryk went to Princess Rhaenys’s room to help her escape King’s Landing, as she was being held there against her will by the Greens. He escorted her all the way to the streets, as he said himself that he was not willing to be complicit with the treacherous plot of allowing Aegon to ascent to the Iron Throne.
However, due to the crowd that the City Watch was rounding up to bring to the coronation, Ser Arryk got separated from the princess, who initially wanted to get Meleys but was urged by the knight to escape on her own. Luckily, Rhaenys got to the Dragonpit, where she was able to get to Meleys and use the dragon to escape King’s Landing.
Why Are The Cargyll Twins Important?
At this point, it does seem like the Cargyll twins are not as important as they should be. However, the thing is that they are actually quite important in the events of the Dance of the Dragons because of the fact that they end up fighting on different sides. Erryk, as suggested by the events, went on to side with the Blacks and was the one who stole King Viserys’s crown to present it to Rhaenyra. Meanwhile, Arryk ends up siding with the Greens because he was sworn to King Aegon II.
In the book, the brothers end up fighting when Arryk was sent to Dragonstone to infiltrate it as his twin brother. That was when the brothers fought one another to the death. In Fire & Blood, it was said that they both professed their brotherly love for one another before they ended up dying in each other’s arms.
While they aren’t as important as some of the other characters in the storyline, the presence of both Erryk and Arryk represents how divisive the Dance of the Dragons really is. Even though they may be twins that grew up together, the fact that they both have their own opinions regarding who should be the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms shows the fact that not even brothers who love each other could agree on who the rightful heir was. In a sense, the twins are a microcosm of the entire realm that was divided when both Aegon II and Rhaenyra fought for the Iron Throne.
