House Of The Dragon: Why Did Lucerys Velaryon Die In the First Season? Explanation

After the season finale of House of the Dragon, the reactions on Twitter have expressed what more than one viewer of the series felt in the final scenes: his heart is broken after the death of Lucerys Velaryon, the second son that Rhaenyra Targaryen conceived with Laenor Velaryon.

House Of The Dragon: Why Did Lucerys Velaryon Die In the First Season?

For those who have already read the Fire and Blood novel and considering how faithful the HBO Max adaptation has been, the first death of the dispute between the greens and the blacks was nothing new, but that did not detract from its relevance, far from it. drama to a magnificently accomplished scene, in which the young man played by Elliot Grihault and his dragon Arrax end up being slain by Aemond Targaryen, son of Alicent Hightower and the late King Viserys.

Although the scene in the Bay of Shipwrecks did not occur in the exact likeness of the books, the dark way in which it was approached in episode 10 of the series has been applauded. It is in this particular sequence that you can appreciate in detail what George RR Martin was referring to when he said that the adaptation of his book was ‘dark, powerful, visceral and disturbing’ because it not only reveals the contrast between the innocence and malice of Lucerys and Aemond but it is also implied that King Viserys was always right about the dragons in the early episodes of the series.

And it is that one of the questions that resonated after this fateful encounter was why the dragons of Aemond and Lucerys did not obey when both riders gave the order to calm down. This implication is something that was not written into the Fire and Blood novel, and it certainly added nuance to the scene of the fall of Lucerys and Arrax. The idea that we control the dragons is an illusion. They are a power that man should never interfere with,’ Viserys told a young Rhaneyra before making it known that she would be his successor. These words have been confirmed with the season finale. Aemond was also unable to stop Vaghar, as we must remember that he had never ridden the huge creature in combat, he had only used it to transport himself.

The arbitrariness of the dragons in this scene, although it is not reported in the book, is a worthy tribute to the magic that RR Martin has reported in more than one work about these mythical beings. Two centuries later in her narrative timeline, it would be Daenerys Targaryen herself, who would give more than one lesson about them to be named the Mother of Dragons. ‘A dragon is not a slave, is one of her most remembered phrases from her Game of Thrones.

Unlike in the books, where Aemond coldly planned to kill Lucerys, Ewan Mitchell‘s character’s final reaction tells us that the 13-year-old’s death was not in his plans. But it is something that had to happen, after all, it is what will trigger the so-called ” Dance of Dragons ” that will be narrated in the second season of House of the Dragon.