Why did Aemond kill [REDACTED]? Storm’s End explained

The House of the Dragon season finale has come and gone, and with it came the first clash between dragons. Now the Dance of the Dragon civil war is in full swing.

Let’s discuss the big moment of the episode: the shocking clash over Storm’s End. We will be getting into SPOILERS for the House of the Dragon finale below, so if you haven’t watched, obviously go do that first!

What happened at Storm’s End? House of the Dragon finale explained

While there are several important scenes that occur in “The Black Queen,” the capstone is a fateful meeting at Storm’s End, the ancestral castle of House Baratheon. We heard mention during Episode 9 that Lord Borros Baratheon had several daughters and might be amenable to a marriage alliance. In Episode 10, we find out that Aemond Targaryen has been dispatched to the castle in order to fulfill this bargain by marrying one of Borros’ daughters.

However, the negotiations grow exponentially more complicated with the untimely arrival of Queen Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys Velaryon. Lucerys comes bearing a message from his mother calling for Lord Borros Baratheon to support the blacks. But since Lucerys brings only a command and not any sort of proposal to equal that of Aemond’s, his missive is dismissed. Lord Borros tells Lucerys to return to Rhaenyra and tell her he is not a dog to be called at will.

Aemond, however, sees an opportunity to call in the “debt” he feels owed by Lucerys, who slashed out his eye when they were children. He pulls off his eye patch, revealing a sapphire that he’s placed in his eye socket, and demands that one of Luke put out one of his own eyes in exchange. Lord Borros stops the two from fighting in his hall since Luke came as an emissary.

Luke flees into a terrible storm on his young dragon Arrax, but Aemond pursues him. The massive dragon chases the much younger one across the storm-wracked landscape, while Aemond laughs and taunts Lucerys about his blood debt. However, Luke’s dragon Arrax has never seen battle before, and breathes fire into Vhagar’s face. Though both Luke and Aemond shout for their dragons to obey them, Vhagar then goes after Arrax, chomping dragon and rider into bloody bits.

Luke’s death marks the first major death of the Dance of the Dragons. The show changed the manner slightly from George R.R. Martin’s novel Fire & Blood. In the book, Aemond is believed to have killed Lucerys intentionally, while the show paints it as a tragic accident that drives home the fact that Targaryen control over dragons is not as absolute as they like to believe.

Since House of the Dragon season 2 is likely at least two years off, it may be a while before we know just how this turn of events will affect Aemond and the war at large. But ultimately, the result is the same. Luke is dead, and everyone will almost certainly think Aemond did it on purpose. Vengeance from the blacks will come swiftly and brutally.

All 10 episodes of House of the Dragon season 1 are available now to stream on HBO Max.

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