House Of The Dragon Finally Unleashed Fire And Blood With Major Casualties, And I Haven't Cried Like This Since Ned Stark Lost His Head
Warning: MAJOR SPOILERS ARE AHEAD for Episode 4 of House of the Dragon Season 2 and all eight seasons of Game of Thrones.
War within the Targaryen family tree may have been inevitable on House of the Dragon after Luke's death and accelerated with Blood and Cheese, but the fourth episode of Season 2 truly delivered on the words of House Targaryen: "Fire and Blood." The first big clash between the Blacks and the Greens involving dragons on both sides happened over Rook's Rest, and not all of the show's major players survived to make it to Episode 5 next week. The biggest death was sad enough to be a tear-jerker, and how it went down had me crying in a way that I hadn't since Ned Stark's iconic execution in Game of Thrones.
No, I wasn't sobbing, but the emotions certainly started flashing me back to Episode 9 of Game of Thrones' first season in a very particular way. First, though, let's look at what went down for the Blacks and Greens that ended in fire, blood, and death this week!
Losses At The Battle Of Rook's Rest
While Daemon was busy stewing in the spooky Harrenhal (and having another vision featuring Milly Alcock as young Rhaenyra), Criston Cole was taking castle after castle and growing the Green army in the process. He set his sights on the small but strategically important Rook's Rest, scheming with Aemond on how to best take the castle directly across from Dragonstone.
But it wasn't so simple as Cole using his forces and Aemond using Vhagar to take Rook's Rest without any losses, because Rhaenyra was finally ready to take advantage of her greatest asset: dragons. After Rhaenyra initially intended to fly into battle herself and then shot Jace down when he suggested that he go, Rhaenys said that she should go on Meleys. She had the most experience on dragonback of any of the Blacks, arguably including Daemon even if he'd been there. So, off Rhaenys went to Rook's Rest.
Even with Rhaenys and Meleys roasting soldiers right and left as they tried to assault the castle, Cole had a secret weapon: Aemond waiting for a signal to attack on Vhagar, unbeknownst to anybody else. The problem for the Greens arrived when Aegon, with wounded pride and a belly full of wine, flew up on Sunfyre – one of the dragons in House of the Dragon that hadn't appeared yet – and engaged Rhaenys and Meleys.
And there was no contest. Rhaenys was the better rider and had decades more experience on Meleys than Aegon did on Sunfyre. Even if Aemond and Vhagar hadn't showed up to interfere, it's safe to say that Rhaenys would have felled Aegon. But Aemond did show up, prompted Vhagar to shoot fire at his brother to knock Aegon out of the sky, and eventually lunged out at Meleys to grab the red dragon by the throat, killing her and sending Rhaenys falling to the ground and her death.
R.I.P. to the Queen Who Never Was, whose death was both devastating and quite well done, to the point that I can't even be mad that I was flashing back to poor dead Ned and his execution as I watched Rhaenys fall.
Why Rhaenys' Death Had Me Crying Like Ned Stark's
As a reader of Fire & Blood, I was pretty convinced that Episode 4 was going to be the end for Rhaenys and Meleys (among others). The timing was right for Rook's Rest, and the promo that featured a bloody battle as well as Meleys, Sunfyre, and Vhagar made it clear enough that fire and blood was definitely coming, and that would be the end for Rhaenys.
And I had no expectation in the slightest that the death of Rhaenys would remind me of Ned's fate on Game of Thrones. After all, Ned was executed after giving a false confession, and his death was the catalyst to truly begin the War of the Five Kings. Rhaenys would die in battle on dragonback. I cried for Ned Stark, but didn't expect to be much more than bummed about Rhaenys.
I clearly didn't account for the skills of director Alan Taylor, who helmed the episode with Ned losing his head in Thrones as well as Episode 4 of House of the Dragon with Rhaenys losing her life. The clash between the dragons for Rhaenys' death wasn't pure spectacle, nor as sudden as poor Lucerys' in the Season 1 finale. It didn't feel like it was for the purpose of shock value.
We got to see Rhaenys choose more than once to fly back into the fray despite the odds being stacked against her. There was no way Meleys could have taken Vhagar down on her own without dying in the process if it came to a 1:1 fight, and she was already injured after the encounter with Sunfyre. But Rhaenys chose to keep fighting. The quiet final moments before her death reminded me of Ned's final moments in Game of Thrones, when he'd accepted his fate but just wanted to make sure that Arya wasn't going to see him beheaded.
Like Sean Bean, Eve Best delivered a poignant performances without any histrionics, and I knew I was a goner as soon as Rhaenys exchanged one final look with her dragon. The music, the direction, the performance... was I not supposed to find parallels to Ned and start tearing up?
And my Ned Stark-induced tears have never involved sobbing uncontrollably. Even when I first watched Game of Thrones Season 1 without having read the books to know his end was nigh, I was crying both because it was sad and because it was done so damn well. I couldn't not appreciate how the twist played out on screen.
I remember immediately rewatching Ned's full death sequence through my tears back in 2012, because I couldn't help but appreciate how everything came together for Sean Bean's sendoff. Now, circa 2024 with the Game of Thrones prequel, I immediately rewound Rhaenys' death after she fell to rewatch it. It was done that well.
Game of Thrones had a knack for powerful deaths in its earlier seasons, and I would name Ser Rodrik Cassel's gruesome demise and Theon Greyjoy's death in defense of Bran as the two that came closest to capturing the beauty and tragedy of Ned's death sequence up until Rhaenys in House of the Dragon. I cried for HOTD this week because it was so sad but so good, and that was the first time I did so quite like this since 2012.
The Aftermath Of Rook's Rest
Rhaenys of course wasn't the only casualty at Rook's Rest, although the episode ended before we got to see the Blacks get the news about her death. We did see the aftermath of the battle from the perspective of the Greens on the ground, where it was clear that there were heavy losses even though they ultimately took the castle. A lot of men were dead.
And then there's Aegon. He and the once-beautiful Sunfyre weren't looking great at the end of the episode, but the dragon at least was still alive. Since Aemond had his sword drawn as he approached his brother's body, it seems that House of the Dragon hasn't fully killed off Aegon, which could be tricky for Aemond if the king regains consciousness and remembers that it was Aemond and Vhagar who blasted him and Sunfyre out of the sky.
See what House of the Dragon has in store for the aftermath of Rook's Rest with new episodes on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO, and revisit earlier episodes of both HOTD and Game of Thrones streaming with a Max subscription.
