And just like that, it’s over.
On Sunday night, House of the Dragon delivered its tenth and final episode of the first season, leaving us on the precipice of a civil war between the Hightowers and the usurped Queen Rhaenyra.
Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of stuff to unpack — 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. The bigger dragon then retaliates with the aforementioned chomp, despite Aemond’s failed attempts to control it.
The lesson? Dragons can’t be tamed, at least not to the point where you’re fully confident they won’t go eating your relatives and escalating deadly wars.
The thing is, though, we should have seen it coming. King Viserys basically warned us what was going to happen back in Episode 1.
“When you look at dragons, what do you see?”
Credit: Ollie Upton/HBO
The moment takes place in the bowels of the castle, when King Viserys summons his daughter and tells her to look at the skull of Balerion, the great dragon ridden by Aegon I Targaryen during the Conquest. He asks her what she sees.
“Everyone says Targaryens are closer to gods than to men. But they say that because of our dragons. Without them we’re just like everyone else,” is Rhaenyra’s response.
“The idea that we control the dragons is an illusion,” replies Viserys. “They’re a power men should never have trifled with. One that brought Valyria its doom. And if we don’t mind our own histories it would do the same to us.”
Viserys is about to name Rhaenyra his heir, and at the time it feels like what he’s saying is a metaphor for the dangers of power. But clearly, the meaning is also literal — and almost prophetic.
The Targaryens’ lack of real control over dragons ends up causing the death of Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys in the show’s finale, an act that will almost certainly escalate the civil war between Rhaenyra and the Hightowers.
If Viserys’ children aren’t careful, the uncontrollable power of the dragons might well be the catalyst that brings about their own destruction.
