The first season of “Game Of Thrones: House Of The Dragon” is over – and has claimed another victim in the past few minutes: 14-year-old Lucerys Velaryon (Elliot Grihault). Anyone familiar with George RR Martin’s “Fire and Blood” may know that this deadly showdown takes place in Episode 10: Lucerys dies in a battle between his dragon Arrax and Aemond Targaryens (Ewan Mitchell) much larger dragon Vhagar.
Aemond and Luke, as he is known by his mother Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), are sent to Borror Baratheon (Roger Evans) after Storm’s End to win House Baratheon for their respective parties. Aemond is successful – but that’s not enough for him: he tells Lucerys to cut out his own eye because he lost an eye to Lucerys. By the way, in case you’re wondering, there’s a sapphire in Aemond’s empty eye socket. Lucerys flies off on Arrax, Aemond follows him on Vhagar and a chase ensues, with the young men soon losing control of their dragons…
In the series an accident, in the book probably on purpose
Arrax attacks Vhagar with fire, despite Lucerys trying to rein him in. For the huge Vhagar, however, such a small flame in the face is hardly dangerous – but he feels provoked. Although his dragon rider Aemond says “No!” several times. calls and demands obedience, eats Vhagar in flight Arrax and his rider Lucerys. Aemond looks stunned and distraught – the series clearly characterizes Lucerys’ death as a tragic accident.
It’s different in George RR Martin’s book, where Aemond’s intent appears to have been to kill Lucerys in the aerial duel with the dragon. In any case, it is an accident with terrible consequences… Because when Daemon (Matt Smith) comes to the fire in the last scene with Rhaenyra and tells her about the death of her son (we don’t hear the words, but her reaction makes clear what is going on), the queen makes a decision.
» “Fire and Blood” – the book template for the series on Amazon*
And this decision can be read on her face, which can be seen in the final shot of the episode “The Black Queen”: Rhaenyra has so far hesitated against rival King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) and the Greens around Otto and Alicent Hightower / Hohenturm has decided to go to war so as not to turn the kingdom into a “kingdom of ashes and bones”. The death of her son Lucerys is the straw that breaks the camel’s back: that means war.
The Civil War Begins
Rhaenyra’s decision, though wordless in the season finale, is confirmed by the series’ creators in the Inside The Episode video on YouTube: “If the crowning of Aegon as king didn’t start the war, it certainly will now one of the sons of the queen has been murdered.”
So in season 2 we see the civil war called Dance of the Dragons after season 1 tells the backstory. Season 2 of House Of The Dragon filming from early 2023, we don’t expect the next episodes to start until 2024.