This image from the aftermath of the Battle at Rook's Rest was cut from House of the Dragon

The second season of House of the Dragon wrapped up earlier this year, and most people who watched it agree that the best episode was the fourth, "The Red Dragon and the Gold," which ended with Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) and her dragon Meleys being knocked out of the sky by Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) and his dragon Vhagar. After a pitched battle, Rhaenys and Meleys both ended up dead, although we were spared the sight of their burned and blackened bodies on the ground.

But we've known for a while that director Alan Taylor actually did film the dead bodies of Rhaenys and Meleys, but for whatever reason that shot was cut from the final episode. “It’s always like that,” he said in an interview shortly after the episode aired. “I think the impulse behind that choice was to make sure that we stayed focused on the key storylines.”

Fans of Fire & Blood, the book on which House of the Dragon is based, have long been familiar with an illustration of what Rhaenys and Meleys look like after the Battle of Rook's Rest. Now, we have an image from the set of House of the Dragon season 2 that shows the same thing. Or rather, it's an image of actor Eve Best lying on the ground with a bloodied face with her eyes open. I'm guessing it was taken right before they yelled "action" and she played dead. Check it out here.

For someone who just fell out of the sky and was engulfed by the fireball that resulted after her dragon hit the ground, Rhaenys looks remarkably well-preserved, so maybe that's why the shot didn't end up in the finished episode.

This image was likely taken from within the pages of House of the Dragon: Inside the Dawn of the Targaryen Civil War, a coffee table book all about the making of the second season of HBO's Game of Thrones prequel show. You can pick up that book here!

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