The season finale of House of the Dragon aired last night, and the episode concluded with a tragic event that will ultimately set the stage for the brutal war between the "Greens" and the "Blacks" that came to be known as the Dance of the Dragons.
"The Black Queen" begins with Rhaenys arriving at Dragonstone to inform Princess Rhaenyra of her father's death and the usurping of her claim to the Iron Throne resulting in the coronation of her half-brother, Aegon. Daemon sees this as an act of war and urges immediate action, but when Otto Hightower arrives to offer Queen Alicent's (surprisingly fair) terms, Rhaenyra decides to consider the options available to her.
In an attempt to secure as many allies as possible, she agrees to allow her sons to fly out on dragon-back, with Lucerys making his way to Storm's End to treat with Lord Boros Baratheon. Unfortunately, Aemond Targaryen had beaten him to it, and he brought more favourable terms from his mother.
Aemond berates the lad, and demands that he remove one of his eyes in recompense for Luke blinding him when they were young. Boros puts a stop to it, and Luke makes a quick exit, commanding his steed, Arrax, to fly carefully in the raging storm.
The vengeful Aemond pursues his nephew, however, and when an agitated Arrax shoots fire at Vhagar, the much larger dragon tears Arrax - and his rider - to pieces.
Though Aemond clearly wanted to frighten Lucerys and may well have collected his "eye for an eye" if he got the opportunity, he did not actually mean to kill him, as we hear him implore Vhagar to stop right before he attacks. This marks a fairly significant change to George R.R. Martin's source material, which saw Aemond murder his nephew in cold blood.
Accident or not, it'll make little difference to Rhaenyra, who is informed of her beloved son's death in the episode's closing moments.
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