Warning House of the Dragon spoilers below
TW: Description of a stillbirth
It’s the episode we’ve been building up to for months: the start of the Dance of the Dragons, the Targaryen civil war.
Last episode, Ser Otto was calling for Rhaenyra’s head and Aegon had been controversially crowned King after Viserys died. The palace was divided as allegiances were finally made clear.
After a short time being locked up by the Greens, Rhaenys escaped and flew off on her dragon Meleys, soaring to Dragonstone to warn Rhaenyra about the imminent threat to her life.
So what will happen next? What will Rhaenyra do when she founds out her father has died and that she has been disinherited? Is it the moment of all-out war?
Foreboding
The finale starts with a dramatic zoom over the painted table, the war table at Dragonstone showing a detailed map of Westeros.
14-year-old Lucerys is looking at the map glumly. His pregnant Mum walks in. He says that he doesn’t want to inherit Driftmark. “I’ll just ruin everything.”
Rhaenyra explains that she too wasn’t ready to inherit and that her Dad looked after her and prepared her for her duties.
“I’m not like you, I’m not so… perfect,” says Lucerys. Rhaenyra kisses his head.
The news arrives
Rhaenyra and Daemon are in The Chamber of the Painted Table (the war room) when they receive news of Rhaenys’ arrival. Moments later, Rhaenys walks in. Not known for pulling her punches, it’s nevertheless a surprise when she immediately says, “Viserys is dead.”
Rhaenyra reacts as if she’s been physically shot. She is still pregnant and the news seems to have caused a momentary pain in her stomach.
There’s more, says Rhaenys, Aegon has been crowned his successor. Another shot.
Daemon is mad, teeth almost grinding. His eyes have never looked so sunken or so white hot with rage. He asks how Viserys died, and Rhaenys says she does not know.
“Viserys has been slain,” says Daemon. Then his attention turns to Rhaenys. How is it that she managed to escape? Alicent did after all demand that Rhaenys call for Aegon. Rhaenys explains that she got away.
“That whore of a queen murdered my brother and stole his throne and you could have burnt them all for it?” says Daemon, echoing the voice of nearly the entirety of the freefolk subreddit who were frustrated at Rhaenys’s moralistic, very boring decision last episode to take the high road and not burn Alicent and motley crew to a crisp.
“A war is likely to be fought over this treachery to be sure, but that war is not mine to begin,” rebukes Rhaenys.
And then, the lines from the trailer that sent a chill through our bodies: “The greens are coming for you Rhaneyra… and for your children.” She encourages Rhaneyra to leave Dragonstone at once. Does she not know Rhaneyra at all?
The princess looks appropriately alarmed, as well she might - the shock seems to have had an effect. Even though it is not time to have the baby, she has felt something shift. She goes to investigate, and as she removes her hand from under her dress she sees that it is covered in blood.
As everyone who has been watching this series knows, we’ve had a fair few births now. We get it – however difficult they are in the modern day, with hospitals, science and books, imagine what it would have been like in Westeros. It was rough. We feel these women’s pain. But another shrieking, wailing, sweating scene, we do not need.
But perhaps for the sake of symmetry, the series’ final episode must include a birth?
Daemon is in the war room making plans around the table (the focal point of the whole episode). Meanwhile, you can hear Rhaneyra’s cries and wails through the walls.
Over in her chamber, she’s not doing great. She won’t let any of her servants or midwives help her – instead she’s standing in a plain white long-sleeved nightdress, hair soaked with sweat, holding onto a wall. She asks for her sons, and Jacaerys and Lucerys appear to lurk in the doorway as their mother stands bent over in agony, trying to give birth (and props to Emma D’arcy, she’s really, properly persuasive in her pain) .
“Whatever claim remains to me, you are now its heir. Nought is to be done but by my command,” Rhaneyra says to her eldest Jacaerys, while heavily breathing and pulsating with pain. He agrees to pass on his mum’s wishes to Daemon, who is, as we know, excellent at taking orders.
Daemon and his advisors are talking about the Houses that have already made allegiances to the Targaryens and those that may need some extra persuasion. The Tullys may need some more kneading, it seems, and Daemon says he’s going to fly over to smooth matters over.
“You’ll do no such thing. My mother has decreed no action should be taken while she is in bed,” says Jacaerys who has entered the room with his brother. But Daemon ignores him and orders ravens to be sent to the different Houses. As Daemon walks out of the room he shouts towards Jacaerys: “Come with me, I’ll show you the true meaning of loyalty.”
A baby is born
Daemon is standing outside looking down on two knights of the Kingsguard. Jacaerys is with him. Daemon’s dragon sits above him on a rock, lunging towards the quivering knights, though doing nothing worse.
The dragon is squawking and Daemon demands to know that their allegiance is with Rhaenyra, as the action chops between Rhaenyra screaming in pain (no you hadn’t got away from it, it’s still very much ongoing) and the threatened knights.
Slowly the focus moves to Rhaenyra. She is bent over, there’s a lot of blood, and she leans further to pull out her baby, who slops onto the floor, stillborn. Rhaenyra picks up her baby and caresses it, rocking backwards and forwards with it cradled in her arms. It’s painfully moving. Then she binds it in a cloth, crying as she does so. Daemon, meanwhile, stands on the beach, weeping.
A crown marks a new chapter
It is the day of the baby’s cremation. Members of Dragonstone are standing outside. Ser Erryk Cargyll, one of the twins from last week’s episode, shows up with Viserys’s old crown, pledging his allegiance to the Queen, and Daemon takes it.
Rhaenyra is ashen-faced as her husband places the crown upon her head, kneels and says, “My Queen.” At that moment, everyone else on the mount kneels, bowing to Rhaenyra - with the exception of Rhaenys, who looks defiantly at her young rival, as the spectacle (accompanied by dramatic music) is taking place.
Preparations begin
Candles are lit, swords are piled up and the Queen, in slow motion, of course, walks into the Chamber of the Painted Table. Everyone is ready for her command. “Your grace,” says Daemon. Is it just us, or is he being really great these days? Fiercely loyal? Loving? Respectful?
“We have 30 knights, 100 crossbowmen, 300 men at arms,” he explains. Dragonstone is easy enough to defend, but their side is going to find it more difficult to make an actual conquest. He’s sent word to the city watch, but he’s not sure how many men his call will muster.
They need allies, so Game of Thrones fans will be happy to hear that the Blacks now have to look at Westeros to try and make allegiances. Suddenly, the Houses we know are back in the game: they’re speaking about Riverrun, the seat of House Tully and The Vale which is ruled by the Arryns. They speak of House Baratheon’s Storm’s End, and, happily, House Stark’s Winterfell.
“There has never lived a Stark that forgot an oath, and with House Stark the north will follow,” says one of the advisors. Hoorah, Stark fans will be thinking.
The Lannisters are apparently not friends (no surprise there then) – they have served Otto for too long over the years and won’t turn against him now.
They also discuss the fact that Lord Borys Baratheon will need to be reminded of his father’s promises of allegiance to the now Queen Rhaenyra.
They then turn to Rhaenys – what news of Driftmark? She says that her husband Corlys Velaryon, who is finally coming around from his terrible injuries and subsequent fever, will be the one to decide that.
As each part of the realm is spoken about, a heavy metal piece, like a chess piece, is placed over it on the map.
One advisor buts in – why all this talk of men he says, when, “Your cause owns a power that has not been seen in this world since old Valyria.” Dragon power – why not harness it? Even though both sides have dragons, Daemon estimates that the Blacks outnumber the Greens 13 to 4. The meeting is cut short by the arrival of Otto.
Back to the bridge
You remember the bridge outside Dragonstone where Daemon and Rhaenyra had a big showdown all those years ago? This time it’s Otto vs Daemon and Rhaenyra, and it’s as tense as ever. Swords are wielded, Rhaenyra arrives on a dragon, adding some theatre to the moment (one of the Targaryen specialities). He calls her Princess and she says she is Queen now. “And you all are traitors to the realm,” she spits at Otto.
Otto is offering terms. He says that Rhaenyra’s sons will be well-treated if they stand down from pursuing the throne. They’ll be given castles and high positions inside the palace.
“I would rather feed my sons to the dragons than have them carry shields and cups for your drunken usurper c**t of a king,” says Daemon. Does he have the potential to be a good Dad, too, now? Or is it just his own need for power driving him?
“Aegon sits the Iron Throne. He wears the conqueror’s crown, wields the conqueror’s sword, has the conqueror’s name. He was anointed by a septum of the Faith before the eyes of thousands,” replies the oily Otto. “Every symbol of legitimacy belongs to him.”
He mentions Stark, Tully and Baratheon, and notes that these Houses are considering terms that the King has offered them. If this came as a blow to either Daemon or Rhaenyra, they hide it well. “Stale oaths will not put you on the iron throne, Princess,” adds Otto, prodding her further.
Rhaenys has had enough. She storms towards Otto – swords are momentarily drawn – and she rips off his ‘Hand of the King’ pin, throwing it in the water while saying “f**king traitor”.
Otto then gives her a piece of paper from Alicent, a drawing of some kind from when they still had a friendship. By now, Daemon is ready to chop off Otto’s head, but the paper does move Rhaenyra, if only a little.
“King’s landing will have my answer on the morrow,” she says.
At the painted table, again
The Queen is proving that she is more like her father than she thought.
“I do not wish to rule over a kingdom of ash and bone,” she says as all her advisors, Daemon included, call for all-out action.
“To defend the realm, not cast it headlong into war,” she exclaims.
“The enemy have declared war… what are you going to do about it?” shouts Daemon. The room quietens – it’s unusual for him to be so disrespectful to his wife. She sends everyone out, leaving herself and Daemon standing alone by the fire, Daemon with his face towards us, Rhaenyra looking at him. The shadow of the fire flickers a little across their faces.
“You know my oath stretches beyond our personal ambitions,” says Rhaenyra. She is, of course, speaking about A Song of Ice and Fire, the dream her father told her about in episode one. She thinks she is whispering a tale that they both share, she’s looking in his eyes as if exchanging a secret. But then Daemon grabs her neck and starts to strangle her.
“My brother was a slave to his omens and portents. Anything to make his feckless reign seem to have purpose. Dreams didn’t make us kings. Dragons did,” he whispers as she splutters. In that moment you forget that you were warming to Daemon – liked him even. There he is in all his evil – power-hungry and selfish.
Shock runs across Rhaenyra’s face. “He never told you?” she says when he finally lets go of her neck.
Lord Corlys wakes
Lord Corlys is finally emerging from the terrible fever that nearly took his life. He is looking well, comparatively speaking. His wife, Rhaenys, is by his bed, but she’s not here with words of comfort.
“You abandoned me, when I most needed you,” she says almost immediately. Once again, getting straight to the point. “Both our children stolen from us… I needed you,” she adds. She then lets him know that his brother is dead too, killed by Daemon.
“Our pursuit for Iron Throne is at an end,” says Lord Corlys. He admits that headless ambition has been a Velaryon downfall, and that they will return to High Tide “to be content with our grandchildren”. Rhaenys rightly points out that Jacaerys, Lucerys and Joffrey will never be safe while Aegon is King.
Corlys dismisses Rhaenyra, but Rhaenys comes to her defence: “That girl is holding the realm together at present,” she says. “Every man standing round the painted table urges her to plunge the realm into war. Rhaneyra is the only one who demonstrates restraint.”
When the couple walk into Rhaenyra’s war room, it’s a major moment: Corlys so very nearly didn’t live. The Queen updates him with the alliances she hopes are going to bolster their army. “Hope is the fool’s ally,” Corlys responds, but, in a thrilling moment, he pledges his allegiance to Queen Rhaenyra.
“This Hightower treason cannot stand. You have the full support of our fleet and house, your grace,” he says, bowing. Rhaenyra is overwhelmed with emotion, smiling slightly towards Rhaenys, who smiles back. The vision of a woman in charge at last seems to appeal.
Corlys explains that he has control of the narrow sea. This means that they will be able to cut off all seaborn travel and trade to King’s Landing.
Now, they just need to know who their allies are. They are about to send ravens to the other Houses, but then Jacaerys says that dragons would be faster. He and his brother can go.
The messengers set off
Rhaenyra makes her sons promise that they are travelling as messengers, not as warriors, even getting them to swear on a giant religious book, which they obediently do.
Now satisfied that her sons are just going to zip across the country, deliver messages to a few semi-friendly Houses and return, the Queen feels much more relaxed.
Jacaerys is to fly north, stop first at the Eyrie and then to Winterfell, meanwhile Lucerys will fly south to Storm’s End. It’s close by so it’s less of a trek for the younger brother. Rhaenyra explains that Borys Baratheon is proud man who will be happy to have a prince in his castle.
“We must remind these lords of the oaths they swore, and the cost of breaking them,” she says.
It’s hard to say why, but by this time you have a feeling that something bad is going to happen to Lucerys. It may be that the episode opened with him mulling over the map, or it may be that when telling her two eldest sons their routes, she elaborates a little more with Lucerys - we’ll know if something goes wrong.
Any seasoned Thrones-watcher knows, the showrunners are trying to get us to notice something, or point us towards something, and in this case, it’s Lucerys. Uh oh.
Dragon power
Daemon is walking through a gigantic cave complex swinging a lamp and singing. Out of the blue, a dragon suddenly appears and it’s more terrifying than ever. But this isn’t Daemon’s first rodeo and he doesn’t flinch. Instead, he keeps singing, soothing the monster.
What plan does the Targaryen tyrant have up his sleeve?
Lucerys Strong
Lucerys arrives at Storm’s End. He circles the castle, landing in the courtyard. But as he dismounts, he sees a much larger dragon – perhaps six times as big – also perching on the castle. This is enough to make your stomach flip - who could it be?
When he walks into the cavernous grey hall of Storm’s End Lord Baratheon is sitting on a throne, and who should be stood to the side of the room but Aemond – arguably the worse of all of Alicent’s children.
Lucerys seems to have become smaller. He looks like he’s about six years old. He knows he needs to get out of there, but swallows and relays his mother’s message.
Lord Baratheon is put out. The Greens have offered him boons if he supports them, whereas the Blacks have come empty-handed.
“Go home pup,” says Baratheon,
“I shall take your answer to the queen, my lord,” says Lucerys turning to leave.
“Wait, my Lord Strong,” says Aemond. Don’t stop Lucerys, you want to scream at your screen. But of course, he turns around. “Did you really think that you could just fly around the realm trying to steal my brother’s throne at no cost?”
“I came as a messenger, not a warrior,” says Lucerys, repeating his mother’s words.
It’s a truly blood-curdling moment and takes you back to some of Game of Thrones’ Ramsay Bolton scenes – remember how terrifying they were?
Aemond doesn’t want to fight Lucerys. Instead, he wants one of his eyes. Literally an eye for an eye. He throws a dagger along the floor. Lucerys says no and tries to leave but Aemond moves towards him.
“Not in my hall. The boy came as an envoy, I will not have bloodshed beneath my roof,” shouts Lord Baratheon.
Lucerys runs out, but straight into a thunderstorm. He has some words with his dragon, Arrax, asking for focus and help. Your stomach at this point is doing somersaults, so worried are you for this wee lad.
They fly through the storm getting bashed from one gust of wind to another. But then a much darker shadow falls over them – the literal shadow of Aemond and his gigantic dragon Vhagar: he has come to chase Lucerys.
“You owe a debt,” cries Aemond, madly. A terrifying chase ensues.
Luckily the smaller dragon is able to fly into a narrow opening in some rocks, and for a while you that Lucerys had eluded Aemond. But Lucerys loses control of Arrax who moves to defend itself blowing fire at Vhagar before disappearing into a cloud, provoking the larger dragon.
Retaliation reaches its denouement
The camera is then with Lucerys as he manages to find reach a cloudless opening in the sky. There is no sign of Vhagar or Aemond – he might have escaped.
An that moment, out of nowhere, Vhagar appears, lunging forward full of vengeance, and completely tears Arrax, in half, chomping on Lucerys as she does.
Aemond is shocked, and the camera follows his eye as he turns to see the carcass of Arrax fall down through the clouds into the sea below. There is no sign of Lucerys’ body – it seems he has been utterly destroyed.
The final scene of the season has Daemon walking slowly towards his wife, in the war room at Dragonstone.
We’re not told how he received the news – but he takes her towards the fireplace, where it is slightly more private, and he whispers to her that her son has died. Rhaenyra’s knees buckle and she staggers for a moment. Then she rights herself, and turns around, looking straight ahead. Her eyes are glistening, her skin is ashen yet moist, and there is a peculiar look across her face – one of pain and horror, and, you know, a need for revenge.
Episode verdict
The best bit about this episode? No Alicent, no Ser Cole and no Larys. Yes, it was shocking, and deranged psycho Aemond showed up, as did the dishonourable Otto. But what a joy to be without those three malevolent musketeers for one whole episode.
Fans by and large knew that this finale was going to set things up for the forthcoming civil war. So the question was more about how they would do it. And what we watched was a terrible shock.
One dragon tearing through another? It was brutal and savage and a brilliant end to the series.
It was also fascinating to see how the conclusion of the series it was clear, in most people’s minds at least, who were the goodies (Blacks) and who were the baddies (Greens) – despite the writers’s best attempts to make things less binary.
Season one verdict
All things considered, House of the Dragon has been pretty great. We can only imagine the pressure that writers, producers, actors and directors felt while creating the new show after the blockbuster success of Game of Thrones – how can you follow that up?
The answer is that you can’t – which is why it isn’t necessarily fair to compare the two series. House of the Dragon focuses by and large on one extremely messed up family, whereas Game of Thrones flitted between at least half a dozen Houses, obviously making the story more complicated.
Nevertheless, House of the Dragon has kept us thrilled from one week to the next. Endless awkward birthing scenes notwithstanding, plots have been twisty enough to make us excited for each new week’s action, and characters have just started to get seriously complicated too.
It’s true that sometimes characters were quickly killed off when we’d barely learnt their name, and sometimes we wished matters would move on a little (Alicent, Daemon and Rhaneyra didn’t half harp on about their inheritance, did they?) but all things considered, everything has been smartly set up for a highly-anticipated season two.
So, which houses will join Rhaneyra’s cause? What revenge will Rhaneyra and Daemon exact now that Lucerys has been so savagely killed? It’s certainly been a rollercoaster and there are lots of burning questions. See you next season - we can’t wait.
