House of the Dragon's season 1 finale has roared onto our screens, and with it the Dance of the Dragons – AKA the Targaryen civil war – has well and truly started. One tragic event kicks proceedings into gear, but the show made some changes to how things went down in Fire & Blood, George R.R. Martin's book.
Warning: major spoilers for House of the Dragon episode 10 ahead. Turn back now if you haven't seen the latest episode!
In the season finale, Rhaenyra sends her sons to visit three of Westeros' great houses – Stark, Arryn, and Baratheon – to convince their lords to pledge allegiance to her side. Lucerys (Elliot Grihault) and his dragon Arrax are sent to Storm's End to pass a message along to Lord Borros Baratheon, but when he arrives in the Stormlands he sees that Aemond (Ewen Mitchell) and his dragon Vhagar have beaten him to it.
Borros says he will support Aegon's claim to the throne over Rhaenyra's, as Aegon has offered him a marriage pact in exchange for his loyalty and one of his daughters will now marry Aemond. Luke and Aemond coming face to face again is significant as Luke was responsible for Aemond losing his eye back in episode 7. Aemond says he wants to claim one of Luke's eyes in exchange, but Borros forbids any bloodshed in his hall and Luke leaves on Arrax's back as a storm rages.
However, Aemond follows him on the much larger Vhagar. Spooked by the bad weather, Arrax breathes fire onto Vhagar and Vhagar, against Aemond's orders, responds by attacking and killing both Arrax and Luke.
In Fire & Blood, Aemond is goaded into pursuing Luke by one of Borros Baratheon's daughters, who feels slighted that she wasn't chosen as the prince's betrothed. The book implies that Luke's death was intentional on Aemond's part, whereas the show makes it look like an accident at the hands (or claws) of unruly dragons.
"Changing Lucerys's death from a cold-blooded murder to this beautifully nuanced tragic murder that proves a point about dragons is the best thing they've done so far, [in my opinion]," one viewer wrote on Reddit. "I feel a whole lot of feels about it and the scene was crafted amazingly well."
"I love that they’re showing him as slightly less psychopathic than in the books," wrote another. "He legitimately looked rattled at what Vhagar did and seems have a 'oh fuck, there’s no coming back from this' moment."
"People are saying they’re ruining Aemonds character because he looked so shaken. I think it’s perfect, as far as we’ve seen, Aemond [hasn't] killed anyone yet, this was the first time someone’s died because of his actions," added another fan. "Yes it was Vhagar doing it herself, but because of him she was in this position. It makes sense he’d be shaken up. Like you said, he just did something there’s no coming back from, and it’s a perfect way to set him on the path of becoming the horrible person he came to be."
House of the Dragon season 1 may have come to an end, but we've got the lowdown on House of the Dragon season 2 to get you ready for the next installment of the Game of Thrones prequel.
