Farewell, the Queen Who Hardly ever Was.
Spoilers beneath for the fourth episode of “House of the Dragon.”
This week’s episode of “House of the Dragon” kills off Rhaenys (Eve Finest), the most outstanding character to die nonetheless (and her dragon, Meleys). It also severely wounded King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney).
The “Game of Thrones” spinoff series is established all-around 200 yrs right before the functions of “Game of Thrones,” pursuing a civil war in the Targaryen relatives. Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) is the rightful Queen, but her 50 percent-brother Aegon (Glynn-Carney) usurped her throne. With two distinct siblings professing that they’re the authentic monarch, the kingdom is divided — and the two sides hadn’t yet battled every single other on dragons, right up until now.
This episode sees Rhaenys — who is on Rhaenyra’s aspect of the conflict — clash with Aegon and his fierce brother, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), on the battlefield, with all a few of them riding their dragons.
Aemond rides the biggest and oldest dragon, Vhagar, so unsurprisingly, he’s the only one particular who will make it out of the battle unscathed.
Because Aegon is the king, he’s not meant to danger himself. His attendance at this battle was unplanned, but he reveals up past minute.
“He’s branded as a villain normally, and I see him far more as a tragedy,” Glynn-Carney recently instructed The Put up. “He’s heartbreaking. He’s broken in so lots of strategies.”
Aegon acted impulsively, riding out to battle to demonstrate himself — considering the fact that he is aware deep down that he’s not king material. And, as Glynn-Carney alluded to, this has tragic penalties for him.
Aegon thinks that his brother, Aemond, is his loyal enforcer. But, Aegon has also bullied his brother for a long time, and he cruelly mocked him last episode.
So, Aemond requires gain of the problem. When Aemond is seeking to unleash dragon fireplace on his enemy, Rhaenys, Aegon is in his way — and Aemond does not wait around for his brother to transfer. He nukes his possess brother with dragon hearth, capitalizing on the actuality that they’re higher in the sky, so their troops on the ground just can’t obviously see that Aemond is burning their king.
A difficult break for Aegon, but just after he bullied Aemond for a long time, nobody can say he didn’t have it coming.
It is a chaotic scene, with smoke almost everywhere. And as the dragons fly reduced, their enormous claws even squish soldiers on the ground like Godzilla.
Right after Aegon gets nuked by his individual brother, he and his dragon the two slide out of the sky and are down for the count — evidently seriously wounded, but with their precise fates unknown.
Aemond and Rhaenys then fight.
Rhaenys acts as the aggressor, pursuing Aemond as he flies absent. It is some thing of a suicide mission, given that Aemond has the bigger and fiercer dragon — but Rhaenys possibly has a slender hope that she can defeat Aemond, or she’s willing to die if she can acquire him down with her.
Just when it looks like Rhaenys may escape from this conflict with her existence, Aemond and Vhagar give her a killing blow. Rhaenys and her dragon plummet to their deaths.
This advancement is a big shake-up, and a blow to Rhaenyra’s side of the war exertion.
Rhaenys was Rhaenyra’s most valuable ally, as the only voice of explanation on her normally-squabbling Modest Council. She was also the wife of Corlys (Steve Touissant), an additional essential ally who controls the ships — so, based on how he reacts to his wife’s demise, Rhaenyra could drop her two most potent allies in one particular fell swoop.
Right after killing Rhaenys, Aemond lands his dragon and walks as a result of the forest to wherever Aegon and his dragon lie on the floor.
Aemond has his sword out, implying that he strategies to complete the work, if Aegon is not useless nevertheless.
But Criston Cole (Fabien Frankle), the newly appointed Hand of the King (and their mom’s magic formula lover), stops Aemond from killing Aegon.
The episode finishes on that ominous take note.
So, Rhaenyra’s aspect of the war experienced a key setback, in getting rid of Rhaenys — but Aegon’s aspect also took a significant blow, given that he’s now out of commission.
“House of the Dragon” airs Sundays at 9 p.m on HBO (and streams on Max).
