House of the Dragon Season 1 ended with a horrific character death that has fans stunned. Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire are both known for their brutal character deaths, yet seeing this one play out on screen has clearly hardened the hearts of many fans. Fair warning: there are spoilers for House of the Dragon ahead!
Fans have been wondering for months how far House of the Dragon Season 1 would go into the story laid out in Fire & Blood. It spent most of the season jumping ahead in fits and bursts, highlighting the events that led to the Targaryen civil war. Still, even up until the last moment many fans doubted that they would see the death of Lucerys Targaryen (Harvey Grihault) this season. Although the crowning of King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) was a bad sign for the Seven Kingdoms, Luke’s death was the final straw that there would be war.
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The scene depicting Lucerys’ death was full of dread from the start, but many fans feel it was changed significantly from the book. Rhaenyra’s second son arrives at Storm’s End to ask for aid, only to see that his uncle Aemond’s (Ewan Mitchell) dragon waiting in the courtyard. Aemond feels emboldened by winning over Lord Baratheon to his side, and demands Lucerys cut out his own eye as repayment for Aemond’s maiming in an earlier episode.
The book’s historical perspective suggested that Aemond probably killed Lucerys on purpose – perhaps in a fit of rage, but certainly on purpose. However, in the show he chases Lucerys and his dragon Arrax through the air to torment him. He tries to call his dragon Vhagar off before she kills Luke, but he is unable to assert that much control. Some fans feel the show belittled this act of war by making it an “accident.” Others feel it was a grim reminder that Targaryens do not “control” their dragons as closely as they sometimes think.
That only added to the heartbreak of Luke’s death and stirred up more debate around the season finale. Here’s a look at how fans are coping with the brutal scene.
Lucerys Highlights
Now that they know they will not get any more screentime from Luke, fans are mourning him that much harder. They clung to the brief moments where this character got to shine on screen.
Hardened Hearts
Many fans joked about the emotional turmoil that comes with being a fan of George R.R. Martin’s writing and its TV show adaptations.
Flee
Viewers also joked that Luke should have known to flee as soon as he saw Vhagar in the courtyard. Not only would he have known that Aemond is unstable and holds a grudge, he would have known that his small, young dragon would be no match for Vhagar.
Rhaenyra
Many fans’ focus was on Rhaenyra, who was already mourning two tragic deaths before she learned of her son’s death.
Missed Opportunity
Fire & Blood contains little dialogue, and most of what it has is just a historian’s approximation of what its subjects would really have said. Still, in moments like this many fans wish the show would use direct quotes more often.
Emma D’Arcy
The actor who plays Rhaenyra, Emma D’Arcy discussed Rhaenyra’s state of mind in the “Inside the Episode” segment. They imagined that Rhaenyra probably felt new depths of grief that she could not have imagined in the final scene of this season.
Innocent
Finally, fans felt that Lucerys’ death was the perfect metaphor for the loss of the last shred of innocense left in this ensemble cast.
