Why Rhaenys’ shocking death changes everything

(Warning: This article contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 4 of House of the Dragon.)

House of the Dragon has shown remarkable restraint with its looming Targaryen civil war. The peak battles between the Greens and the Blacks in Season 1 were largely verbal and political, not physical. Even after the situation escalated with a usurped throne and the deaths that followed, the two warring factions resisted calls to use their most powerful weapon for anything more than patrol duty.

That changed in episode 4 in Rook’s Rest, a small but strategically important castle in the Crownlands. Criston Cole’s (Fabien Frankel) campaign to conquer the castle and cut Dragonstone off from the mainland brought Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) and her dragon Meleys into play. Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) waited in the forest to attack with Vhagar, and an uncertain King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) rode in with Sunfyre to prove himself. The ensuing “Dance of the Dragons,” in which three dragons fought to the death in the sky, ended in absolute bloodshed: countless corpses of nameless soldiers burned to ashes, and Rhaenys and Meleys both lay dead in the rubble.

As for Aegon and Sunfyre, we will have to wait and see what happened to them. But the death of Rhaenys, the queen who never was, and her dragon will fundamentally change the course of the war.

House of the Dragon tried to warn us. Rhaenyra hesitated for a long time to unleash the dragons on her enemies, which drew the ire of her council. “When dragons start fighting dragons, we invite our own destruction,” Rhaenyra responded in Episode 3 when a member of her council suggested sending them to “burn the resistance fighters.” It was only when Rhaenyra told Jacaerys (Harry Collett), her eldest son and heir, about the Song of Ice and Fire prophecy in Episode 4 that she considered unleashing the dragons as a last resort, knowing full well what would happen next. “The horrors I have just unleashed cannot be for one crown alone,” she explained.

It’s no coincidence that this scene is cut with the dragons in their most animalistic form: Rhaenys giving Meleys some encouragement, the duo have been flying together for decades; Sunfyre lightly headbutting Aegon, who looks calmer and happier than we’ve ever seen him, like a cat. In just a few minutes, the lives of the two dragon and rider couples would change forever.

But, as Rhaenys explained to Rhaenyra in Episode 3, hotter heads than Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) prevailed in drawing up the Greens’ battle plans, making civil war in the Dragon War an inevitable affair. In a brutal display of flame and claw, three dragons—two with combat experience and one green (and not just because of its rider’s loyalty)—faced off in the air. A single attack on a dragon’s skin harms the dragon and endangers the life of its rider. But any foot soldier on either side of the conflict could die if smoking dragon’s blood falls on them, so hot it kills anyone it touches instantly.

While Criston technically won this battle, it was marked by a level of violence that even the experienced knight was not prepared for. It only gets worse as more dragons fly out to meet their comrades in battle. But Rhaenys’ death also marks something House of the Dragon is struggling with this: actually adding something to this war.

House of the Dragon has had characters we cared about before die, like King Viserys (Paddy Considine), who we met in eight episodes, whose relationships with his family deteriorated and deteriorated, and whose mistakes were on full display. But that was never really surprising, because it seemed like his life was the only thing keeping the various Targaryen factions in check. Plus, death was inevitable once his body began to decompose, so the question of Viserys’ demise was no longer if, but when.

The series also gave us shocking deaths, but the pacing issues left us with little time to get to know or care about these characters before we pushed them aside. The series relied on seeing other characters in despair and grief, or using shock value to influence our own feelings at the sight of these horrors unfolding. This produced mixed results at best. These deaths drove the plot forward, but we barely knew who these people were, so why should we care?

Rhaenys Targaryen may have been the first character whose sudden death was a shock And whose fate has been with us from the beginning. She was nicknamed “The Queen Who Never Was” after her claim was passed over in the Great Council in favor of Viserys. She was the cautionary tale that, given the choice, the world would never allow a woman to rule. Rhaenys got over it, but her husband Corlys Velaryon (Steve Touissant) never did, making snide remarks whenever he could get away with it. Until recently, it was one of the more stable relationships in the series.

She may have had mixed feelings about Rhaenyra and her legacy, but she was loyal and respected Viserys’ decree. Rhaenys was the Blacks’ version of Otto Hightower, a wise advisor who supported and advocated Rhaenyra’s plans to look for non-violent ways to end the war. Although she was criticized for her reticence at the time, she exercised caution when she could have burned it down and set a precedent. She even advised her to contact Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), although Rhaenyra may not have done so in that way.

Now that Rhaenys is gone, the hotheads on Team Black will also gain the upper hand. “We are now at a point where nothing matters anymore,” she said in Episode 3. “And the desire to kill and burn is taking over, and reason is being forgotten.”

Rhaenys and Meleys will likely be just the first casualties in a bloody war. But even if they are just the first in a long line of Targaryens and dragons to meet a violent end, their deaths, more than anything before them, mark the point of no return.