The final episode of the first season of “House of the Dragon” arrived last Sunday (23), with the start of the Targaryen civil war, known as A Dance with Dragons, and a significant change from the book “Fire and Blood. “, by George RR Martin, from which the HBO series is based.
In the season finale, current Queen Rhaenyra I Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) sends her sons Jacaerys (Harry Collett) and Lucerys Velaryon (Elliot Grihault) as heralds astride her dragons Vermax and Arrax, respectively. The purpose of the two boys ‘missions is to forge alliances with the lords of three of Westeros’ most prominent families: the Starks, the Arryns and the Baratheons.
As Jacaerys, the eldest, heads to Eagle’s Nest and Winterfell, Lucerys goes to Storm’s End, trying to persuade Lord Borros Baratheon (Roger Evans) to support his mother’s cause, to which he had sworn in the past.
However, upon his arrival in Storm’s End, little Lucerys comes face to face with his uncle, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), and his giant dragon, Vhagar. Aemond arrived first in Borros and convinced Lord Baratheon to put aside the oath he had sworn in the past and uphold the cause of Aegon II Targaryen, his elder brother and younger brother of Rhaenyra.
The meeting between Lucerys and Aemond is significant, as it was the young Velaryon who made Aemond lose his eye. Prince Targaryen asks Luke to remove one of his eyes in exchange for the missing eye, something his mother Alicent Hightower had requested in the past. Borros forbids bloodshed in his castle, as Prince Lucerys arrived as a messenger.
So Luke goes away on the back of the little dragon Arrax, in the middle of a storm. However, Aemond follows his grandson astride the giant Vhagar. At one point in the chase, Arrax sets Vhagar on fire and the giant dragon disobeys Aemond’s orders by attacking and killing Lucerys and her little dragon in mid-air.
The tragic event that actually starts the war is the same in the book and the series: the death of Lucerys Velaryon in a fight with her uncle, Aemond, who after what happened becomes known as “Aemond, Killer of Kinfolk”.
However, in the book, Aemond is urged to go in search of Lucerys by one of Borros Baratheon’s daughters, who feels offended at not being chosen as the prince’s bride. And while it is implied in the book that Luke’s death was intentional on Aemond’s part, in the series the event appears to have been a serious accident caused by the inability of the two young men, Aemond and Lucerys, to control their dragons.
This kind of change was seen frequently during the first season of “House of the Dragon”, which leaves the Greens and the Blacks (find out about the factions within House Targaryen here) more evenly matched in the series than in the book. Thus, it eliminates some of the evil factor of the Greens in the book, making the “Game of Thrones” philosophy of the universe more visible: no one is all good and not all bad.
The first season of “House of the Dragon” is available on HBO Max. The second season of the series has already been confirmed, but it could only arrive in 2024.
Find out everything we know about the second season of “House of the Dragon” here.
The post “The house of the dragon”: tragic event of the final episode is different in the book that first appeared on Olhar Digital.
Source: Olhar Digital
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