Nightmare Fuel / House of the Dragon

For Game of Thrones, see here.

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Season 1

1 - The Heirs of the Dragon

• Daemon leads the City Watch of King's Landing into a "purge", allegedly to rid the city's streets of criminals before the tournament, killing or mutilating people before piling the chopped off body parts in a cart. One man in particular is emasculated for being a rapist; while the mutilation isn't shown, there's still the sound of the knife shearing through tissues as he screams and his severed penis is shown on the hand chopping block after.
• There are some lovely shots of the heads of some knights being split and bludgeoned (with much blood spattering) during The Tourney. One squire even vomits at the sight of it all (and nothing is spared to the viewer here either).
• Alicent picking at her cuticles until they crack and bleed from observing all the violence is deeply unpleasant.
• The Traumatic C-Section performed on a screaming Aemma without her consent and leaving her no chance of survival (she bleeds to death), is perhaps one of the most disturbing seen on television yet.
  Viserys: They're going to bring the babe out now.
  • Just the lead up to the surgery is more disturbing than any of the onscreen violence. Aemma goes from being delirious and relieved by her husband of all people, and then the handmaidens just start. Without a word. Not even an explanation of what is happening. And when she realizes what is happening all she can do is scream at the horror of realizing she's about to suffer a horrible death. Her complete loss of agency is truly horrifying.
• Something of an existential horror was dropped during Viserys I's speech to Rhaenyra about The Chains of Commanding, one that neatly ties it to the future of the Seven Kingdoms we saw in Game of Thrones. Viserys I claims that since Aegon the Conqueror, they already had a vague idea about the threat of the White Walkers, and the Conquest was in part an attempt to unify the Seven Kingdoms for that mission. The horror begins to sink in, especially after watching nearly a decade's worth of the previous show, that this well-intentioned sentiment was eventually lost and buried by the centuries of fire and blood wrought upon by House Targaryen against itself and the other noble houses. The fact that the Seven Kingdoms even survived the Long Night (and not without additional bloodshed and crimes against humanity in the end) further elevates the entire saga's Doomed by Canon just by a notch.
  Viserys I: There's something else that I need to tell you. It might be difficult for you to understand but you must hear it. Our histories, they tell us that when Aegon looked across the Blackwater from Dragonstone, he saw a rich land ripe for the capture. But ambition alone is not what drove him to conquest. It was a dream. And just as Daenys foresaw the end of Valyria, Aegon foresaw the end of the world of men. 'Tis to begin with a terrible winter gusting out of the distant north. ... Aegon saw absolute darkness riding on those winds. And whatever dwells within will destroy the world of the living. When this Great Winter comes, Rhaenyra, all of Westeros must stand against it. And if the world of men is to survive a Targaryen must be seated on the Iron Throne. A king or queen strong enough to unite the realm against the cold and the dark. Aegon called his dream "The Song of Ice and Fire." This secret, it's been passed from king to heir since Aegon's time. Now you must promise to carry it and protect it. Promise me this, Rhaenyra. Promise me.
  

2 - The Rogue Prince

• The scene with Viserys treating his infected finger illustrates how dangerous the Iron Throne is. The smallest of cuts from the chair is enough to cause terrible infections that spew puss, and there's a foreboding feeling that this will not be the last time he goes through this.
• The bookends involving the Myrish pirate prince, Craghas Drahar, the Crabfeeder showing us the seafaring victims of the Triarchy, left to be Eaten Alive by crabs. Some bodies show active signs of violent death (particularly those that have been nailed to the driftwoods). Some have already decayed extensively or been picked clean by the crabs—befitting the six months of unimpeded carnage reported upon by Lord Corlys Velaryon. We see Drahar not only overseeing things but even apparently nailing some of the victims himself.
  • The appearance and mask of the Crabfeeder himself is pretty unnerving. While it looks something like a cobbled and welded mask ^note harkening to the slave-driving Meereenese Sons of the Harpy in Game of Thrones—ironic considering the Myrish are of the Free Cities, it almost looks grafted or melted onto his face. The other parts of his body that are shown (like his lower face and shoulders) also betray an ugly skin condition (greyscale, most likely). Whatever turned him into this ghoulish man that revels in inflicting sadistic violence, it can't have been pretty.

3 - Second of His Name

• We get to see more decomposing corpses that have been eaten by crabs as per the Crabfeeder's cruel execution method, including one that was reduced to skeletal state with a crab coming out of the skull's mouth. Then there's the Crabfeeder nailing a Velaryon sailor's hand on a plank (only the bloodied end of the nail on the other side of the plank is seen.
• As much as it is Black Comedy, the aforementioned Velaryon soldier being killed by Caraxes via Giant Foot of Stomping is a very sobering case of Surprisingly Realistic Outcome when dealing with temperamental dragons used for war in the middle of the chaos of a rout. We never saw Daenerys's beloved Drogon (even at his most violent) doing such a thing to allied soldiers. Caraxes clearly has no such compunctions—and is probably more realistic and believable for it.
• Not only was the attempt to save Viserys's finger unsuccessful, the necrosis ended up costing him two fingers, and the condition still seems to be progressing.
• Rhaenyra and Criston Cole are attacked by a wild boar while camping out in the forest at night, and the show does not stint on how horrifying and potentially deadly such an encounter could well be.
• The Crabfeeder is eventually defeated by Daemon, who walks onto the battlefield having cut him in half. Some bowels can be seen as Daemon drags the upper half of his body on the sand.

4 - King of the Narrow Sea

• The scene with Rhaenyra's suitors begins humorously, but it ends very darkly when Lord Blackwood, who's still a boy, ends up fatally stabbing the Bracken knight who insulted him in the chest. Rhaenyra's shocked and disturbed, and Blackwood looks sick at what he just did.
• The blind wood's witch, or should that be a slum witch? With her eyelids painted black giving Rhaenyra this comforting bit of hedge magic.
  Hag: Would you wish to know your death, child?^note Ominously, this dialogue is book-ended by dragon gargoyles breathing fire.
• Alicent being woken in the middle of the night and summoned (commanded) to her husband's chambers at his whim is dark enough. Even creepier is that this is likely the night Aemond "One-Eye" Targaryen is conceived.

5 - We Light The Way

• The scene that opens the episode, where Rhea Royce runs into Daemon while riding through the country. She ribs a little before having a chilling realization that he intends to kill her.
  • At first, Daemon scares her horse into collapsing onto Rhea, pretty much crushing her entire body under its weight and paralyzing her with a sickening CRACK and it seems like he's going to leave her there. And then he grabs a particularly jagged rock...
  • One of the crew members in the Behind the Scenes feature after the episode implies that Daemon never even intended to kill Rhea, only making the decision on a whim once Rhea insults him as he’s walking away, while another states that Daemon went to the Vale precisely to kill his wife. Which possibility is worse, it's up to the viewer.
• Criston Cole all but erupting into Entitled to Have You hatred of Rhaenyra when she refuses to give up her title, responsibilities, wealth, dragon, and family in exchange for becoming a sellsword's wife.
• It's clear throughout the first half of the episode that Viserys is definitely not well despite his assurances. After he passes out though, we soon see exactly how not well he is when it's revealed his left arm is now practically rotting away. This one tiny cut he got, coupled with various cuts on his back, while sitting on the Iron Throne is slowly making the poor guy into a walking corpse.
• The Wedding of Rhaenyra and Laenor Velaryon. Everything starts off normally. Alicent (who just found out Rhaenyra slept with Criston) comes in and things get tense. Suddenly there’s screaming and the camera turns to a crowd. Eventually we see Sir Criston Cole beating the shit out of Joffrey Lonmouth's head. By the time he's done half of Joffrey's face is caved in, and his eye sockets are pits of gristle and hamburger.
  • Criston's demeanor throughout the entire wedding. Before this episode, he's largely been a laid-back friendly guy so it's frightening to see him slowly tense up until it finally explodes and he becomes a screaming maniac as he delivers Extreme Mêlée Revenge on Joffrey after he makes the mistake of smugly asking about him and Rhaenyra.
  • The wedding itself was hastily arranged when the planned festivities were cancelled in light of the incident, so hastily that Joffrey's blood is still pooled on the floor where he was killed.

6 - The Princess and the Queen

• Rhaenyra leaving a speckled trail of blood on her exit from the queen's chambers due to her afterbirth still sloughing out. Yikes.
• Aemond wandering down into the depths of the Dragonpit and nearly getting toasted by a territorial display from the she-dragon Dreamfyre.
• Aemond seems only to be guilty of being gullible. But tellingly, Viserys mentions that his grandsons are "more children than he is".
• Criston somehow fermenting his hatred of Rhaenyra for ten years to the point he'll do anything in his power to destroy her, stoking Alicent's own fear and envy in a lovely echo-chamber of reciprocal toxicity.
  "The Princess Rhaenyra is brazen and relentless. A spider who stings and sucks her prey dry... Spoiled cunt."
• Alicent rapidly slipping off the deep end and going full Lady Macbeth towards Aegon.
  Queen Consort Alicent Targaryen née Hightower: Urgh! You are nearly a man-grown, how is it that you can be so short-sighted?! If Rhaenyra comes into power... your very life could be forfeit. Aemond's as well. She could move to cut off any challenge to her succession.
  Prince Aegon Targaryen: Then I won't cha—
  Alicent: (grasps his face violently) YOU ARE THE CHALLENGE! You are the challenge, Aegon! Simply by living and breathing! (crazy eyes)
• Laena Velaryon's Death by Childbirth receives a far more unsettling Adaptational Context Change. While Fire & Blood mentioned that she birthed a deformed son and died of childbed fever while seeking to ride Vhagar one last time, here she suffers a difficult birth that prevents her baby coming out, not unlike Queen Aemma's. Unlike Queen Aemma, however, Daemon did not choose to subject her to Traumatic C-Section and lets it hang. Laena, instead, seeks out Vhagar and calls forth her dragonfire, essentially committing suicide out of it.
• Larys press-ganging a group of condemned men to act as his arsonist assassins. And to make sure they'll stay silent if compromised; their tongues are sliced out with pincers and a steaming hot, fresh from the brazier cleaver. Unlike in GOT, where Joffrey Baratheon sentenced Marillion the bard to this fate for a satirical song, there's no cut-away or other visual distortion to hide the torture.
• The episode portrays the fire of Harrenhal that claimed the lives of Lord Lyonel and Ser Harwin Strong. Both desperately trying to break through the door to each other, Harwin crying out that he’s going to burn. However, unlike the source material, it portrays in no ambiguous terms that the one responsible was in fact Larys Strong, their own son and brother—who seems to commit it out of a sense of twisted allegiance to Alicent. The Queen, despite becoming less and less sympathetic throughout this episode (with her unapologetic stance in ensuring Prince Aegon's succession) is very reasonably horrified that Larys took her flippant wish to see Otto Hightower restored as Hand to its ruthless extreme.

  Harwin Strong: Fire! I will burn!

• Larys is also revealed to have an extremely nihilistic view of life—encapsulated in his monologue to Queen Alicent when it became plain that the fire at Harrenhal was his doing. He seems to embody not only Varys's commitment to asexuality due to believing Love Is a Weakness but also Littlefinger's "chaos is a ladder" ethos. The result is a very terrifying player in the game of thrones, one whose reach and will is as inscrutable as his actual motivations.

  Larys Strong: What are children, but a weakness? A folly? A futility? Through them, you imagine you cheat the great darkness of its victory. You will persist forever, in some form or another. As if they will keep you from the dust. But for them... you surrender what you should not. You may know what is the right thing to be done, but... love stays the hand. Love... is a downfall. Best to make your way through life unencumbered... if you ask me.
  Queen Alicent: They're dead.
  Larys Strong: You've heard the stories of Harrenhal, Your Grace. It was built in hubris by Harren the Black as a monument to his own greatness. Blood mixed into the mortar. It is said to be a cursed place. That it passes judgment on all who pass beneath its gates.
  Queen Alicent: You... You passed judgment.
  Larys Strong: The Queen makes a wish. What servant of the realm would not strive to fulfill it? I assume you will write to your father now?
  Queen Alicent: Larys... I did not wish for this.
  Larys Strong: I feel certain you will reward me... when the time is right.

7 - Driftmark

• The confrontation between Aemond, Baela, Rhaena, Lucerys, and Jacaerys. Just how quickly things go from brawling children to internecine conflict is horrifying, culminating in Aemond trying to murder Jacaerys with a rock and only ending when Lucerys takes out Aemond's eye with a dagger.
  • Aemond trying to choke out Lucerys. And then trying to beat Jacaerys to death with a rock. Aemond is just a child during all of this as is Luke. It's a dark hint at just how monstrous Aemond is going to become...
• There's another subtle horrifying moment when we realise that Aemond was only holding the rock above his head and not commencing "smash the beetles" because he enjoyed seeing his cousins and nephew quail in terror of him to the point he ignores Luke.
• Alicent demanding that Criston Cole take Lucerys's eye as compensation for Aemond, and when Viserys forbids it, trying to do the deed herself. The innocent Alicent we knew is gone for good.
  Alicent: What have I done except what was expected of me?! Forever upholding the kingdom, the family, the law! While you flout it all to do as you please!
• While subtle, Rhaenyra demanding that Aemond be sharply questioned for stating "treason" is pretty disturbing. With the accusation of high treason on the table, and "sharply questioned" being a clear euphemism for torture, Rhaenyra was willing to have her younger brother further traumatized just to protect her secret.
• Otto encouraging Alicent's ugly side (as well as praising his grandson Aemond's Troubling Unchildlike Behavior)—corrupting her further into his demented queen chess piece on his board. One wonders if his years of exile honed his ruthlessness and venom or if this is the real Otto Hightower serving as Hand for decades the first time, just now shedding his pretensions of propriety.
  Otto: We play an ugly game. And now, for the first time, I see that you have the determination to win it. ... I promise you, in time, you and I together will prevail. What that rogue Aemond has done in winning Vhagar to our side. The boy was right. It's worth a thousand times the price he paid.
• Larys Clubfoot obliquely mentioning to Alicent that he could have Luke's eye gouged by his agents if she so desires, in his signature fawning yet menacing manner. He continues to set a high bar for the position of Master of Whisperers, and it should also be remembered that Luke is in fact his own nephew.
• While Rhaenyra thankfully doesn't want to murder Laenor, her plan still has Daemon murder a completely random innocent servant and then char his corpse to the point it's unrecognisable to pass off as Laenor.
  • Some men give flowers, while others...
    • The fact that Laenor, Daemon, and Rhaenyra are willing to traumatize Rhaenys and Corlys (their own family by both blood and law) for the rest of their lives with the "death" of their final child, all so that he can escape his duties and the dragons can remarry. The queen who never was is correct, the gods have indeed cursed the House of Velaryon for their pride.
• Viserys enacting the tyrannical decree to rip the tongue out from any person who calls his grandsons by Rhaenyra bastards. It would be extreme even for unproven rumors, but the fact that he himself knows it to be the truth, and thus makes himself directly complicit in Rhaenyra's deception, makes it especially vile. The truth, however inconvenient, has become illegal by law in the Seven Kingdoms, if it ever was permitted casually at all. There's no telling how many innocent folk will be maimed for stating what is self-evident. It's a powerful reminder that the Greens have a point that Rhaenyra is so unjustly favored, Viserys would stoop to any low to protect her.

8 - Lord of the Tides

• The extent of King Viserys's bodily decay in his dying days is horrendously revealed: beyond the persistent open sores, his skeletal gauntness (in sheer contrast to his supposed obesity in Fire & Blood), his face has hollowed out to the extent that his right eye is gone and his right cheek is torn open down to the jaw, his teeth are rotting and the nail-beds of his fingers have fallen off. He's so far gone from the amiable King we once met in the beginning that he now resembles a wight more than a living man. Paddy Considine shares a VFX sculpture model of his face, and the extent of Viserys's Facial Horror remains as unsettling as it was on screen.
  • We should remember how even Jaehaerys I, in his last years, looks like a reasonably healthy (if very melancholic/tired-looking) old man. Viserys I was supposed to have died 17 years younger than Jaehaerys I. Whatever on earth caused his necrotic end (beyond his tetanus cuts from the throne, the late Mellos's Harmful Healing, Orwyle's late-stage attempts to stem it, the purported "milk of the poppy" he is being administered), we are never given a true explanation.
  • Viserys's condition is also horrifying to contemplate because of the way his advisors are using his illness to wrest control of the realm he loves so much from him. Every day, Viserys is faced with a Sadistic Choice between enduring unspeakable agony (in which case his reward is having to rule a sharply divided realm on the brink of civil war and resolve bitter familial disputes) or allow the Hightowers to essentially drug him into a coma while they work tirelessly to disinherit his beloved daughter right under his nose. Worse, even in the depths of his drugged stupor, he is clearly somewhat cognizant of the political reality, as he is able to accurately assess the consequences for Rhaenyra if he does not intervene on Lucerys's behalf.
• Crosses over with awesome, but Aemond One-Eye. In only one episode, he shows himself as an extremely dangerous and cruel man with a strong grudge against his sister and nephews. Thanks to Ewan Mitchell's brilliant acting, Aemond carries the figure of a man very mercurial, brutal, proud and unpredictable yet almost ethereal, as though even with only one eye, his solemn gaze reveals everything he needs to see and know, almost as if he were a Dreamer woken. Even how strong and physically capable he is (despite his leaner frame) is frightening, fighting with the ferocity of a wild animal yet also with hypnotizingly precise and rather elegant movement, a hint at just how monstrous he's going to be.
• Poor Dyana's rape at the hands of Aegon the Elder, the girl is petrified that the queen consort is about to have her thrown out on the street without work or even disappeared for no fault of her own.
  • Alicent's remark to Aegon the Elder that he can't "keep carrying on like this". All but confirming that her eldest is a serial rapist who's fucked his way through the staff of the Red Keep and that she's been covering up his crimes repeatedly.
• We are not given a Gory Discretion Shot when Daemon bisects Vaemond Velaryon's skull with Dark Sister. In a twisted subversion of the threatened Tongue Trauma for anyone who dares say it, Daemon was polite enough to leave Vaemond's tongue at the base of what remains of his lower jaw.
  • We are later given another moment with his corpse (head still not sewn back on), supposedly being prepared for by the Silent Sisters. While Grand Maester Orwyle asks Princess Rhaenys to look away because it is supposedly bad luck to look at the dead, Rhaenys resignedly says she's seen too much of death to fear of it now.
• Alicent's head maid seems to be in the White Worm, Lady Misery's employ... Does Daemon have a spy in the green's household? Or has Alicent got both Mysaria's and Larys's networks acting for her?

9 - The Green Council

• Otto, Jasper Wylde, and Tyland Lannister all expressing cold pleasure at the idea of not only slaughtering the very pregnant Rhaenyra and her family, including 7 children, but using Viserys's misunderstood dying words to almost smugly claim that the late king would be all for this plan. Otto especially knew Viserys since they were young and he calls the late king "peaceful" as a sobriquet. Their cold-blooded willful dismissal of what they knew of their late king for their own political grasping is horrifying.
• Ser Criston murdering Lord Beesbury by slamming the old man's head onto the small council table, and right on top of his marble of office, which punctures clean through his temple. The rest of the conspirators then just leave his body cooling, blood pooling across the table as they hash out their plan.
  • Cole also manhandled the elderly gent to his doom not because Lyman rightfully accused them all of treason but because he implied Alicent had committed regicide. The man is certifiable.
• The servants in the Red Keep who are aware of Viserys's death are then imprisoned to keep the word from spreading (not that it actually mattered, for Mysaria's agent sent a signal before any lords were aware of the passing). This includes the page boy who most likely found the dead body in the bedchamber when he went to wake the king.
• At Flea Bottom there are fighting pits where children no older than ten are forced to fight, having their nails and teeth sharpened for maximum brutality. And Prince Aegon is such a regular patron that not only is this the first place Ser Erryk thinks to look for him, but at least one of Aegon's bastard children is among the fighters.
• There's something oddly unsettling about Alicent's scene with Larys. The way she just abruptly takes off her shoes and displays her stockings on the table between her on Larys and how she just accepts his obvious staring. Then, when Larys pauses a moment, she then takes off her stockings. There's no dialogue to clear up what exactly is happening. Then, when they're done talking, she lays down and lets Larys pleasure himself while watching her feet, all while she looks away with clear discomfort. Not to mention that Larys has known Alicent since she was a teenager, implying he was lusting for her even then.
  • When Larys first takes a seat in Alicent's chambers, he stares at her and sinks into his chair like a little boy giving his mom the Puppy-Dog Eyes. It's incredibly creepy to see such a cold, sociopathic person like Larys basically act like a child asking for dessert, especially after the audience realizes what he actually wants.
• The ruthless efficiency in which Otto Hightower has all the lords bend the knee right before arresting, intimidating, or outright killing any lords who still swear fealty to Rhaenyra. Special mention goes to Lord Caswell (the same lord who greeted Rhaenyra and Daemon in the prior episode as well as greeted Rhaenyra during her walk with baby Joffrey), who is found hanging from the rafters of the Red Keep for daring to try and leave even though Otto and Larys have no concrete proof that he was going to foment rebellion and take his silence for tacit guilt. Rhaenys is horrified to see his corpse.
• During the night before Aegon's coronation in the Dragonpit, there's a shot of Mysaria's manor, having been set on fire by Larys's agents. The camera doesn't linger long, but just before it cuts, you can see the silhouette of hands beating against the windows.
• Rhaenys showing about as much care for the smallfolk in the way of her freedom as you would ants and having Maelys bulldoze through scores of people in the dragonpit. In the stampede to escape it's likely that hundreds are crushed and trampled. The Red Queen even punts some unlucky civilians about like mice with her tail. Always the smallfolk who are the first to suffer when the high lords play their game of thrones.

10 - The Black Queen

• Much like Queen Aemma's Death by Childbirth in the pilot, Rhaenyra's Tragic Stillbirth delivery of what would have been the Princess Visenya is not given a Gory Discretion Shot. At first, it seems baby Visenya—unlike the alleged description of Fire & Blood—does not seem to be a Humanoid Abomination at all, merely a premature child with a rough-shaped head. But when one looks closer, you can see draconic scales on her head and other parts of her malformed body. (Barrie Gower, the prop maker, shares very detailed photos on Instagram.)
  • There are a few flashes of Syrax snarling while Rhaenyra is screaming. Heavily implying that due to their bond, Rhaenyra is psychically feeding the dragon all her feelings of pain, rage, and sorrow.
• Daemon threatening to feed Lorent Marbrand and Steffon Darklyn to Caraxes unless they swear loyalty to the Blacks. The two knights have done nothing to suggest anything but loyalty to Rhaenyra and even Jace looks concerned at how far his step-father is willing to go.
• When Rhaenyra tells Daemon about Aegon's Dream and by omission that Viserys shared it only with her, Daemon grasps his lady wife by the neck and very coldly tells her that prophecies have nothing to do with their greatness, it's just that they have dragons. It's a sobering reminder that despite his admirable qualities, Daemon is more dragon than man, and the fire that makes him such a devoted protector can even burn the ones he loves most and should never hurt at all.
  • What's scarier for any implications is that Rhaenyra is hardly fazed at this primal turn, so little so that she mocks her lord husband immediately after. It could be argued that there are toxic parallels here to Allicent’s situation with Larys starting back when she was a teenager, as more destructive elements of the relationship between uncle and niece - which writers of the show reminded after the episode was grooming with a teenaged Rhaenyra - are shown.
• Daemon in the pitch-black dungeons of Dragonstone, singing a haunting Valyrian lullaby into the nothingness. For a moment, there is silence. And then a sudden burst of flames lights up the place, revealing nothing less than the fearsome visage of Vermithor the Bronze Fury: the second-largest of all living dragons next only to Vhagar herself.
• Lucerys arriving at Storm's End. Not only is the place very intimidating with the stormy night, but there's also Vhagar waiting outside, dwarfing the whole bailey. It all combines to signify that Lucerys arrived too late and is not welcome there.
  • The entire meeting at Storm's End is incredibly tense, with Lucerys being at the mercy of Lord Borros and Aemond, who just glares at him the entire time. Then, Aemond tries to make Lucerys cut out his own eye, which he says he intends to gift to his mother. If Lord Borros wasn't smart enough to stop this, Lucerys may have been completely helpless.
  • Aemond's sapphire eye. One: it makes him look like the terrifying Night's King of legend. Two: Driftmark's maester sewed a flap of skin over the socket and yet now it's empty and the flesh has clearly grown around the gemstone to seal it in place. As if the prince ripped the stitches apart and made the damage worse before implanting it.
  • Aemond losing his rag and on the verge of mutilating his teenage nephew even under a peace banner.
  Prince Aemond Targaryen: GIVE ME YOUR EYE! Or I will take it, bastard!
• The aerial chase above Shipbreaker Bay. Aemond has Vhagar snap at Arrax's tail and try to seize the young drake with her talons while her rider laughs maniacally at the power he's wielding over his lesser. Either of his maneuvers could have proved the younger mount and rider's end. This is Aemond's idea of sporting with his nephew. As if it's in any way an equivalent payback of the harmless prank the boys played on him.
  • The shot of Vhagar flying above Arrax◊ during the storm. The difference in size is astonishing. A stripling fourteen-year-old dragon versus a pushing two centuries grandmother of a veteran war dragon.
  • Aemond's High Valyrian jeers to Lucerys really make it sound like he's uttering Black Speech. The tongue has been that of lovers for most of the season. Ewan's hellish, guttural shouting reminds us that it's also the language of blood mages and continental conquerors.
  Prince Aemond Targaryen: I see you! Ilībōños! (Bastard!) / Gēlȳni enkā jemēla! Taobus! (You owe a debt! Boy!)
• Vhagar eats Arrax and Lucerys! She chomps both of them up in mid-air, tears both boy and dragon apart into blood spray and viscera yet leaves the wings and tail, which flutter gruesomely to the ground like tattered ribbons. And we're treated to the full grisly spectacle, showing how nightmarishly powerful Vhagar can be.
  • What makes it worse was that this wasn't Aemond's intention: he wished to intimidate Lucerys and show off how powerful his dragon was, after Luke took his eye when he was seven. But then, Arrax attacks Vhagar in panic, who is enraged at the threat display and goes straight for the kill, and neither Aemond nor Lucerys have any real say at this point. Remember that this is the moment the Dance of the Dragons truly began. And it all stemmed from Aemond playing with a flying nuke, only to realise that Vhagar is a power beyond his grasp when her instincts demand a final action. Viserys was correct when he said that their control over the dragons was a mere illusion.
  • Rhaenyra sent Lucerys on what she thought would be the safer of the two missions and then had to find out her sweet son has been slain at the hands of her half-brother. Also, imagine poor Luke's thoughts during that chase, he probably just wanted his mother.
• People have pointed out that Rhaenyra's death glare of grief and fury at Lucerys's death has a chilling resemblance to the look on Daenerys's face when Missandei is killed. People say "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned", but what they should say is "hell hath no fury like a mother mourning" (especially if that mother is a Targaryen, in which case you've just signed your death warrant).

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