Warning: obvious spoilers ahead for House of the Dragon season one, episode 10, “The Black Queen.”
If the Greens and the Blacks were already headed for what seemed like an inevitable civil war in the House of the Dragon season one finale, Aemond poured gasoline on the fire. Naturally, the ensuing drama has been given the meme treatment on social media.
Following the death of King Viserys, the faction at King’s Landing conspired to install Aegon as heir to the throne instead of Viserys’ first-born daughter, Rhaenyra, as he had decreed decades earlier. As the chess pieces were moved around the board, both Alicent and Rhaenyra sent their second-born sons, Aemond and Lucerys, to Storm’s End in an attempt to woo Lord Borros Baratheon to their respective sides.
Unfortunately for Lucerys, Aemond had already beaten him to the punch, and a marriage had been arranged to unite the two houses. Even more unfortunately for Lucerys, Aemond once again demanded an eye for an eye to settle their old childhood score. And when Lucerys refused, his uncle decided to have a little fun by chasing him on dragonback. While Aemond almost certainly did not intend to kill Lucerys, dragons will do what dragons will do. As such, when Lucerys’ much smaller Arrax gave Vhagar a snout full of fire in self defense, Vhagar became incensed, effectively chomping the younger dragon and his rider in half.
Now, we’ve already seen Rhaenyra’s reaction to learning of her son’s death, setting the stage for a long and bloody battle heading into season two. However, we can’t imagine Alicent is going to take the news in stride, either. While Vhagar may indeed be the biggest dragon in the Seven Kingdoms, Team Rhaenyra still outnumbers them in dragons by 13 to four.
As such, many on Twitter are imagining the awkward conversation that would have taken place when Aemond confesses to his mother that he killed his nephew, committing the cardinal sin of kinslaying.
Even before Aemond arrived home, that had to have been a pretty awkward dragon ride back to King’s Landing, as others imagined.
Some went so far to suggest that this whole thing could have been avoided with some dragon training.
As a very wise man once said, “The idea that we control dragons is an illusion.” Sadly for the countless lives that are about to be lost in battle, Aemond learned this lesson the hard way.
