In the final episode of the 1st season of “House of the Dragon”, an HBO series that takes place about 200 years before “Game of Thrones”, a disagreement between Prince Aemond Targaryen and his dragon, Vhagar, generated a key event for the echo of war.
WARNING: The text below contains spoilers for the final episode of the 1st season of “House of the Dragon”.
In an attempt to win Borros Baratheon's support for the Black cause, Rhaenyra sent her own son, Lucerys Velaryon, to Storm's End. However, upon arriving there, the boy discovered that the Greens arrived first under the figure of his uncle, Aemond Targaryen, the giant dragon Vhagar.
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While Aemond wants revenge for the loss of his eye, caused by Lucerys a few years earlier, young Lucerys seems to just want to return home, mainly because of the promise he made to his mother that he would only go as a messenger and not get involved in fights.
But it all ends in a chase involving Aemond mounted on Vhagar, and Lucerys mounted on the small dragon Arrax, which ended in the death of the last two. Although Aemond clearly has no intention of killing his nephew in the series (the story is different in the book), the prince is unable to control the dragon himself.
Thus, Vhagar ends up attacking Arrax, which also did not appear to be fully under Lucerys' control. The scene in question draws attention to the complexity of the dragons' personalities, and the connections shared between them and their Valyrian-blooded riders. the two riders trying to stop the confrontation caused by their dragons, why did this happen?
The relationship between dragons and riders in the series
In the universe of the series, known as the World of Ice and Fire, the bond between a rider and his dragon carries great emotional weight, dragons being able to feel and reflect the feelings of their masters.
Rhaenyra and Syrax, for example, maintain a close relationship, and this bond is shown in the same episode, the dragon feeling Rhaenyra's pain while she is in labor. Caraxes and Daemon share a similar relationship, Prince Targaryen's dragon picking him up in several battles.
However, there are complex relationships involving older dragons, in the case of Vhagar, the oldest and largest dragon among all Targaryen dragons in Westeros at the time. Vhagar has been ridden by Visenya Targaryen and Baelon Targaryen in the past, and during the series she bonds with Laena Velaryon and later Aemond Targaryen, which we see happen in Episode 7.
In “House of the Dragon”, and even in “Game of Thrones”, there are hints that controlling a dragon is not that simple. In episode 4 of season 3 of “Game of Thrones”, Daenerys Targaryen pretends to gift slaver Kraznys one of her small dragons, in exchange for the army of the Unsullied.
In one of the most famous scenes of the series, Kraznys complains that the dragon does not respond to his movements. At this, Daenerys responds that a dragon is not a slave.
Already in the first episode of "House of the Dragon", Viserys tells Rhaenyra that the idea that anyone can control a dragon is an illusion.
What may have happened in the final episode of “House of the Dragon”?
When Arrax leaves the castle, Lucerys tries to calm him down right away. There, the dragon was already nervous, because Lucerys himself was restless. Though he wants to follow through on the promise he made to his mother, the young prince also wants to fight Aemond for all the years of enmity between uncle and nephew that grew up together. So it's possible that Arrax attacked Vhagar, despite Lucerys' protests, because the boy wanted to fight his uncle.
On the other hand, Vhagar is a much older dragon, and may have channeled Aemond's anger against his nephew, even though it was not his intention to kill the boy at that moment, to the point of simply failing to obey. Like any other creature, dragons are guided by instincts, and in this case, it's likely that both Vhagar and Arrax responded to their riders' emotions, and their own instincts, culminating in the tragic deaths of Lucerys and Arrax.
All episodes of Season 1 of “House of the Dragon” are available on HBO Max.
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