Spoilers for House of the Dragon will be found below.
A decade after Daemon Targaryen killed his first wife, he’s a widower again (and no longer the biggest pain in the butt or jerk-off on the show). This time, he only observed the death of his wife, Laena Velaryon (whose parents initially, and in an ick-inducing way, wanted her to marry King Viserys I) as she decided to commit Death By Dragon while knowing that her difficult childbirth was doomed to kill her. It was a tragic happening and doubly so because her dragon, Vhagar, didn’t want to obey her “Dracarys!” demand but did so nonetheless. Before that happened, though, we got to see Vhagar in all of her beauty. She’s the largest dragon (dwarfing Daemon’s dragon, Ceraxes, in size) in Westeros, and Laena looked like a badass while riding her. Viewers were impressed to see Vhagar, to say the very least.
I don’t feel like this shot does justice to #Vhagar s actual size, there was another still of Daemon and Laena riding together which truly showed you the scale of her size and it’s magnificent, it makes Caraxes look very small in comparison. https://t.co/2XTtsyDnPs
— Bleh1095 (@Bleh1095) September 25, 2022
Laena’s death raises the important question (which our own Jessica Toomer considered in detail) of whether dragon riders are immune to fire. In short, Daenerys Targaryen seemed pretty damn fireproof in Game of Thrones, but clearly, Laena’s fate showed that not all riders (and Targaryens are a Valaryon family) are impervious to flame. Laena’s death does differ from how she went down in George R.R. Martin’s source material, as well, and this tragedy seems even more awful due to her young daughters and Daemon being left to pick up the pieces (along with a heartbroken dragon).
From there, you gotta wonder if Daemon will go back to being his bad self, but also, people feel terribly for Vhagar, who didn’t want to follow orders. Poor sad dragon!
HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon’ airs on Sunday nights at 9:00pm EST.