And it’s over.
Sunday night House of the DragonThe tenth episode of season one’s final series was delivered. It left us at the brink of civil war between Queen Rhaenyra and the Hightowers.
Unsurprisingly, There was a lot to pack. — but the biggest moment of the finale had to be poor old Lucerys being casually chomped in half by Aemond’s dragon Vhagar while he attempted to escape through the clouds on Arrax.
The whole thing comes about because Aemond is trying to taunt Lucerys – it’s not clear that he actually wants to harm him – and a presumably-disconcerted Arrax breathes fire at Vhagar. Aemond fails to control the bigger dragon, and it retaliates with the aforementioned choke.
What is the lesson? The lesson is: Dragons cannot be controlled, at minimum not until they are no longer eating your loved ones and starting to cause havoc.
We should have expected it. Episode 1 was basically a warning from King Viserys about what was coming.
The moment happens in the castle’s bowels. King Viserys calls his daughter and tells him to look at Balerion’s skull. Balerion was the great dragon ridden during the Conquest by Aegon II Targaryen. He then asks her to describe what she sees.
“Everyone agrees that Targaryens have a closer relationship to gods than they do to men. They claim that our dragons are the reason. Rhaenyra’s response was “Without them we’re just as everyone else,”
Viserys replied, “The idea we control dragons is an illusion.” They are a power men shouldn’t have played with. It was the one that brought Valyria her doom. If we didn’t mind our histories, it would do the exact same to us.”
Viserys is about name Rhaenyra as his heir. At the moment, it feels like he is using the metaphor to describe the dangers of power. But clearly, the meaning is also literal — and almost prophetic.
The Targaryens’ inability to control dragons effectively leads Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys to die. This is a shocking act that almost certainly will escalate civil war between Rhaenyra, the Hightowers and Rhaenyra.
Viserys’ children might not be careful enough to control the power of the dragons, which could lead to their own destruction.
