Aemond killing Lucerys on House of the Dragon was no “accident”

The season finale of House of the Dragon shook viewers when it ended with a climactic dragon chase above Storm’s End. After arriving to treat with Lord Borros Baratheon on behalf of his mother Queen Rhaenyra, Lucerys Velaryon (Elliot Grihault) finds himself in the sights of his sadistic uncle, Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell). Though Lord Borros forbids any bloodshed in his hall, he sends Lucerys on his way despite the terrible storm battering against the keep. Aemond pursues him on his much larger dragon Vhagar, laughing about the “debt” Luke owes him for slashing out his eye when they were children.

Luke’s dragon Arrax panics, attacking Vhagar. The ancient she-dragon doesn’t take it well; in response, she disobeys Aemond and chomps Arrax and Luke to bloody bits. This is the first major casualty in the Dance of the Dragons.

House of the Dragon showrunner disputes that Luke’s death was an “accident”

The show changed things slightly from the way they’re presented in George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood. Though Fire & Blood is a “fake history book” that pulls from several unreliable narrators, Aemond is portrayed as an having purposefully killed Luke. On the show, it is framed as more of an accident, though showrunner Ryan Condal disagrees with that terminology. He explained this take on things to Variety:

"Historians have told us that Aemond intended to kill Luke, but I don’t think any of them could purport to know what was going on in Aemond’s head at the time. And I would also dispute the word “accident” a bit. I mean, Aemond got on his giant dragon and chased his nephew on his much smaller dragon through the clouds screaming and yelling at him, incensing his dragon and starting a fight. He didn’t know how Arrax or Luke were going to respond, and it ended in tragedy. I don’t think that was what Aemond intended when he threw his leg over the saddle, but he did a horrible, dangerous thing. That is the point: This is a war of many cuts that lead to a really, really bloody wound. It adds complexity and nuance to the character that’s potentially interesting. There’s lots of runway to go on with Aemond as a character and the story of the Dance. This is his first act as a dragon rider and a warrior and it’s gone very wrong. Now what happens as a result, and how does he respond? Those are the questions I’m interested in as dramatist."

You say potato, I say kinslaying.

There’s no denying that Condal has a point here: Aemond went into the sky on Vhagar intending something to happen, even if things ended up sliding beyond his control. In Fire & Blood, we learn about the clash between Arrax and Vhagar third hand, as a maester pours over eye witness accounts written many years prior. Neither Aemond nor Lucerys got to tell their side of the stories directly.

Whatever way you want to frame the death of Lucerys Velaryon, the end result is the same: Aemond is responsible for the death of his nephew, and Rhaenyra’s blacks will want to seek vengeance. Aemond will still most likely get a reputation as a kinslayer, and will have to decide whether to “own it” or not. Ah, misunderstandings, the true enemy.

House of the Dragon aims to show the “messy and unreliable” side of history

House of the Dragon has danced between the lines of Fire & Blood, such as when Laenor Velaryon rowed off into the sunset instead of meeting an untimely demise. Fire & Blood is, in part, George R.R. Martin’s commentary on how unreliable history can be, and now House of the Dragon is making the same exact point by playing with viewer expectations.

However, one pattern the show has developed is pulling its punches a bit in terms of its character motivations. The novel paints characters like Alicent Hightower, Rhaenyra Targaryen, and Aemond in a far grayer light than the show does. Instead of leaning into these characters doing horrible things because they are flawed human beings, House of the Dragon has explained several major moments as misunderstandings or misinterpretations. For instance, Alicent Hightower misinterprets her husband Viserys’ dying words and uses that as an excuse to push her son Aegon onto the Iron Throne. In the book, Alicent is described as acting on her own ambitious as much as for the sake of the realm.

Is this pattern something we should expect more of in House of the Dragon? “We’re trying to make this as much like a real history is possible, and history is messy,” Condal said. “The pieces for the Dance of the Dragons were put into place a long time ago. Whether or not Viserys has that conversation or doesn’t with Alicent, very likely the next morning they’re still having the same meeting. And I don’t know that Alicent actually has the power at that point to put a stop to them. So it’s more about how Alicent reacts to it. Her counsel, obviously, had this whole plan that they concocted without consulting her you know, to find Aegon and place him on the throne. So does history change if that [conversation] doesn’t happen? Maybe things play out a little differently, I don’t know.”

Most of the show’s major changes are in that safe zone, where they may change how we view characters but shouldn’t have much effect on the overarching narrative. This has been a very conscious decision that the creative team has made, as Condal explains:

"What we’re fascinated with, on a meta narrative level with this story, is showing how messy and unreliable history is. I mean, this is a book written by one author with an agenda trying to filter through the accounts of three other authors, all with their own agendas. And we’re expected to take the one true history out of this book? No. The thing that George is laughing at on the side is how anybody can read Fire & Blood and think that this is the one true official account of anything. It’s an expression of this story. There are things that happen in it that are very well documented and are real, and there are other things where there are huge gaps and we don’t know quite why this happened or who quite who this character was. Our story is trying to apply the whys, and the nuances to it. So I think there are things that are can be perceived as accidental are not quite as intended in real history, and that will happen in the show. But there’s plenty of instances through Season 1 where that thing happened exactly as was intended, and then you see the results."

Whether you support these misunderstandings or wish Alicent and Aemond were as venomously malicious as their book counterparts, House of the Dragon is certainly keeping book fans and show-only watchers on their toes.

Season 1 of House of the Dragon is now available to stream on HBO Max.

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