Season 2 delivered the kind of spectacular episode that viewers have been waiting for.
This story includes spoilers through Season 2, Episode 4, of HBO’s House of the Dragon.
If only Princess Rhaenys had unleashed her dragon, Meleys, in the Season 1 finale of House of the Dragon. Back then, the Targaryen royal (played with a quiet gravitas by Eve Best) had the perfect opportunity to end a war before it began. But she left the throne’s usurpers unharmed, later explaining that such a conflict was not hers to start.
As it turns out, it was hers to lose. In tonight’s episode of HBO’s prequel to Game of Thrones, Rhaenys finally attacked on behalf of her chosen ruler, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), burning through many of the opposing troops until two more dragons appeared: Sunfyre, steered by King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney), and the imposing Vhagar, with Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) astride her back. As the first airborne combat in the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, it’s the kind of visual-effects-laden spectacle that many of the show’s fans have been waiting for, and it ended with Rhaenys deliberately commanding Meleys to reenter the fray despite their evident exhaustion. When Vhagar overpowers them, both dragon and rider plummet from the sky, Meleys crushing Rhaenys when they fall.
With apologies to little Prince Jaehaerys and the twin Sers Erryk and Arryk, Rhaenys’s death is the first significant character exit of the season. Her departure, along with her dragon’s, delivers a blow to Rhaenyra’s campaign to win the Iron Throne: Meleys had been their biggest dragon, and Rhaenys a top lieutenant, married to the commander of the formidable House Velaryon navy. Yet Rhaenys was more than a useful ally; she was one of the show’s most rational figures, studying her enemies before she acted and advising Rhaenyra to seek alternatives to war. House of the Dragon has tended to sacrifice nuance in favor of shocking plot machinations, but through Rhaenys, the series explored a potent theme in George R.
