'House of the Dragon': How to Pronounce "Dracarys" Correctly?
When you want to set something on fire in High Valyrion, you want to do it right.
Some people might fight it challenging to quickly grasp the pronunciation of fantasy languages. However, the word Dracarys is something you would most likely want to pronounce correctly: after all, it is the High Valyrion word for "Dragonfire" we're talking about, so a mistake might be fatal.
Dracarys is pronounced like "Drakkarees", and it is a Targaryen command for a dragon to spew fire. The word has been most frequently used by Daenerys in 'Game of Thrones ', but now that its prequel, 'House of the Dragon ', has premiered, we will get to hear this word even more often.
In fact, Rhaenyra has already said the word in episode 1… immediately prompting a firestorm, but not the one you'd think of.
The thing is – people immediately started comparing the way Rhaenyra says it with Daenerys' pronunciation, even though they basically say it in a very similar, if not exactly the same, way. However, it seems that everything has to be a competition these days.
"Ah yes, Daenerys Stormborn, who grew up in the free cities speaking Valyrian as a native language with other native speakers, is saying it wrong, as compared to Rhaenyra, a westerosi Targaryen from a family that has been away from other native speakers for 200 years." – @valyrianda
But according to the die-hard fans, the dispute seems to be more than real. Like seriously, who is the one saying it right?
"David J. Peterson, who created Valyrian, said that the Targaryens spoke a corrupted form of high Valyrian by the time of Aegon's conquest, changing Ws to Vs, etc., and spoke Valyrian in a westerosi accent that they picked up from living on Dragonstone for a hundred years," a fan reminded on Twitter.
Still, no matter who has a better pronunciation, people seem to be settled with the idea of "Rhaenyra being the new Daenerys" – even though she is technically an old one, if you think about it. After all, it's the prequel we're talking about, and the events of 'House of the Dragons' take place 172 years before Daenerys.
The prequel debuted on HBO Max on Sunday, quickly becoming the platform's biggest premiere in history. The show will have ten episodes, with the finale to release in October.