***Spoilers for the finale of House of the Dragon ahead***
So, that just happened on House of the Dragon. We knew that the first season finale for HBO’s prequel to Game of Thrones had to end with a bang—especially given how Episode 9 was made of quiet tension building slowly but steadily, somehow reversing the Game of Thrones trend of having the second to last episode of each season be its most brutal and shocking.
Then again, even for those who were expecting it from having read Fire & Blood, Vhagar choosing to ignore Aemond Targaryen’s commands and snapping her jaws right over Lucerys Velaryon and his dragon Arrax definitely ranks very high up on the list of “most brutal moments of Westeros history we’ve had to witness.”
It’s giving “Stannis Baratheon somehow decides that burning his daughter is the best course of action for him to win the war”—like yes, the Red Wedding might be infamously known to fans and non-fans alike and the duel between the Mountain and Oberyn Martell (also known as the love of my life) was absolutely disgusting, but these are children we’re talking about. Don’t get me wrong: the killing of young prince Lucerys Velaryon is absolutely tragic and terrible in-universe, first and foremost from a human and moral point of view, reinforcing once more how much of a brutal place Westeros really is.
It’s also what makes the stakes of the Dance of the Dragons skyrocket way beyond the point of no return, making it a war of swords and fire rather than one of messages and envoys. You know that Rhaenyra’s side will want to have some form of retribution, and it probably won’t be pretty—there’s definitely a lot more blood waiting for us once Season 2 rolls around in a couple of years.
However, on this side of the television or computer screen and safely behind our fourth wall, the whole thing has devolved into an absolute treasure trove of memes that have taken most social media platforms by storm. There’s just something about Grandma Vhagar who thinks she’s living some hundred years in the past, still fighting in the Conquest and doing some good ol’ war crimes with her first rider, Visenya Targaryen, while actually carrying along an Aemond who’s thinking about how he’s royally screwing things up for his family that’s absolutely hilarious.
The Internet has exploded with memes and funny tweets, and I have to say I’ve been soaking them all up. Like imagine Aemond arriving back to King’s Landing:
Or what Vhagar must have thought when Arrax threw that fire at her:
And other general funny takes on the episode’s final scene:
(image: HBO)
