Let's Pour One Out For House Of The Dragon's Biggest Casualty Yet

This article contains spoilers for the latest episode of "House of the Dragon."

"House of the Dragon" is a story of buffoonery and escalation. A show where characters make terrible decisions out of hubris and doom everyone around them. Indeed, nowhere is this clearer than in the series adding an original scene not present in its source material, revealing the entire conflict that will bring an end to House Targaryen and started a war that will ravage Westeros began due to silly misunderstanding.

We saw this in the first episode of season 2, where Daemon did an oopsie and caused one of the most horrific deaths in either "House of the Dragon" or "Game of Thrones." After the subsequent episodes dealt with the fallout and feeble attempts to avoid war, episode 4 lets all hell break loose with the Battle at Rook's Rest. This is meant to be jagoff Ser Criston Cole's big maneuver to cut off Dragonstone on land and effectively end Rhaenyra's war efforts before they begin, his big surprise attack after deciding not to go to Harrenhall as everyone expected.

However, Cole didn't count on everyone being even more ridiculous than he is — for what could've been an effective sneak attack, with Vhagar and anime character Aemond on reserve, ends up becoming the first all-out dragon attack in the Dance of the Dragons. That's because Rhaenyra finally decided to act and sent out forces of her own in Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys, only for the biggest clown in Westeros, King Aegon II, to join the battle with his own dragon.

The result is horrendous for everyone involved, with heavy casualties and our first big character death in Rhaenys, the Queen Who Never Was. Now, let's pay our respects to the baddest character on the show.

"House of the Dragon" has always been about the injustices of Westeros and its patriarchal system. From the very beginning, it's always been clear that Eve Best's Rhaenys is the most capable leader on the show. Together with her husband, Lord Corlys Velaryon, they are the power couple Westeros didn't deserve but desperately needed. As Jenna Busch once wrote for /FIlm, "They're cutthroat, practical in their choices, and more willing to do what must be done for the realm." They are the ones who know how brutal their world is, and how to maneuver it.

Indeed, while Rhaenyra has been going through an existential crisis since the end of season 1, Rhaenys has slowly assumed more of a leadership position amongst Team Black. She has risked it all to prove that a woman can and should rule the Seven Kingdoms without just leaning into every one of Rhaenyra's whims. She even had a chance to end the war before it started, but was too merciful to do it. 

Out of all the characters with a dragon that we've seen on the show, except perhaps Daemon, Rhaenys also seems like the most competent fighter. When engaged in combat against Aegon II and his dragon Sunfyre, she outmaneuvers the young king and heavily wounds his dragon. But right before she can win the war for Team Black in one fell swoop, along comes the monstrosity that is Vhagar, burning Aemond's own brother alive before breaking Meleys' neck and leaving her and Rhaenys to plummet to the death. It's one of the most brutal moments of combat we've seen across either "House of the Dragon" or "Game of Thrones" — not just because of the human deaths, but mostly because of the dragons.

Indeed, what's most striking about the Battle at Rook's Rest is that this is the first time we've seen dragons used in battle on opposite ends. We noted back when season 1 ended that "House of the Dragon" was setting up a medieval nuclear war, with dragons serving as nukes on wings. Still, nothing could have prepared us for the emotional damage to come from seeing the poor little giant lizards suffer like this.

Watching Sunfyre cry out in pain when Meleys tore open its heart, and seeing Meleys give Rhaenys one last pained look before Vhagar killed her, was even harder to bear than that time ol' Jon "Know Nothing" Snow abandoned Ghost in the low point of "Game of Thrones" season 8. It is one thing to think of the dragons are nukes on wings, but another to also perceive them as being kind of like big cats that love their riders and suffer when these puny humans send them off to war to die. We know the Dance of the Dragons inevitably leads to the end of House Targaryen, and this season makes the case that they had it coming. But you know who definitely did not deserve to go nearly extinct because of the nonsense of a few privileged humans? The dragons (though at least there's some hope left).

New episodes of "House of the Dragon" premiere Sundays on HBO and Max.