It's finally time for the Dance of the Dragons to begin—the brutal, bloody civil war between members of the Targaryen house in House of the Dragon.
In George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, the Dance of the Dragons is little more than a fable, a warning of how greed can bring down an empire from the inside out.
House of the Dragon's penultimate episode saw the first stone thrown, and a key moment featured Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best) and her dragon Meleys.
Why Rhaenys' Meleys Dragon Scene Is Key for 'House of the Dragon' Future
In the penultimate episode it's revealed that King Viserys I (Paddy Considine) has died, and his wife Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) decides to put their son Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) onto the Iron Throne and usurp his daughter, and chosen heir, Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) after misunderstanding a conversation with the late king.
To make sure this happens without any interruptions, the queen and her guards put those who could oppose it under lock and key. Rhaenys is one such person, though Alicent attempts to get her to back her son's claim to the throne.
At first it seems like Rhaenys' loyalties to Rhaenyra may falter, but one key scene puts an end to that idea.
Rhaenys is able to escape her confines thanks to the assistance of one of the Kingsguard who tries to aid her escape back to Rhaenyra. However, in the scrum of King's Landing the pair get separated, and Rhaenys is swept up with the crowd to the sept where Aegon is crowned Lord of the Seven Kingdoms.
During the ceremony, Rhaenys sneaks away and goes to get her dragon, Meleys. In an explosive scene, Rhaenys and Meleys burst through the floor of the Sept, destroying it and likely killing many of the people watching the coronation.
The princess and her dragon stand threateningly in front of Aegon II, Alicent, her children Daemon (Ewan Mitchell) and Helaena (Phia Saban), her father Otto (Rhys Ifans), and others, with the dragon roaring at them.
The threat is clear, Princess Rhaenys could kill them all in one fell swoop if she just gave Meleys the order, but after a good scare she flies away, likely traveling to Princess Rhaenyra to inform her of the betrayal.
It's a key moment in the show because it highlights the conflict between the Blacks (Rhaenyra's supporters) and the Greens (Alicent's supporters) both visually and narratively speaking in the story, with Rhaenys making her position more than clear to all involved: this means war, and she is on Rhaenyra's side.
With one episode left, the bloodshed may well only just begin to bubble to the surface in the finale, but it does set the stage for the Dance of the Dragons in future seasons of the HBO show.
House of the Dragon Season 1 ends on HBO and HBO Max on Sunday, October 23, at 9 p.m. ET.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Roxy Simons is a Newsweek TV and Film Reporter (SEO), based in London, U.K. Her focus is reporting on the ... Read more
