No dragons were harmed in the making of this week’s House of the Dragon. The same, unfortunately, cannot be said of the smallfolk. After weeks of teasing new riders for House Targaryen’s unclaimed mounts on Dragonstone, the latest installment of Ryan Condal‘s spin-off series reminds audiences of the fiery price of trying to tame one of House of the Dragon‘s daunting war machines, exposing Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) dragonseeds to Vermithor’s rampage in a visually stunning display of fire and fangs. The massacre is the most dramatic moment in Season 2, Episode 7, showcasing the Bronze Fury’s raw power in an exhilarating display of strength, but before the dragon can even attempt to be tamed, House of the Dragon shines an unlikely spotlight on the series’ resident animal control unit, the dragonkeepers.
House Targaryen’s monastic order of scaly specialists takes issue with Rhaenyra’s plans in House of the Dragon‘s latest episode, “The Red Sowing.” Having witnessed firsthand that Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty) is capable of riding Seasmoke, Rhaenyra employs Mysaria’s (Sonoya Mizuno) spy network in King’s Landing to gather lowborn bastards of House Targaryen to her ancestral seat. However, before Rhaenyra can even address the scraggly, white-haired crowd who answers her summons, a senior member of the dragonkeepers openly defies the Black Queen’s plans. Insisting that dragons are sacred and not playthings for the wars of men, the dragonkeepers actually abandon their posts rather than watch Rhaenyra feed another group of Andals to the last vestiges of Valyrian magic in Westeros. While this walkout is a little anticlimactic for fans who just want House of the Dragon to embrace its firepower, the Game of Thrones universe has justified the dragonkeepers’ argument time and time again.
The Dragonkeepers’ Complaint Echoes Viserys’ Concerns in ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 1
If the Dragonkeepers’ argument sounds familiar, that’s because Viserys (Paddy Considine) voiced similar concerns about the unpredictability of dragons back in House of the Dragon Season 1. Summoning Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) in the series’ very first episode, Viserys voices his true opinions of House Targaryen’s superpower in preparation for announcing his daughter as his true heir. Not only does Viserys dismiss the myth that Targaryens can control their mounts as an illusion, but he also reveals his belief that Old Valyria’s manipulation of the dragons’ power is what brought the great civilization its Doom in the first place. Viserys ends his speech by warning Rhaenyra that dragons will do the same to Westeros if a wise Targaryen doesn’t sit the Iron Throne, a note of caution unfortunately validated by the darkest moments of House of the Dragon Season 1.
Just as Viserys warned, the entire war between Rhaenyra’s Blacks and the Hightower Greens only escalates because of Prince Aemond’s (Ewan Mitchell) inability to control Vhagar in House of the Dragon Season 1. Admitting in Season 2, Episode 2 that he regrets having killed his nephew, Lucerys (Elliot Grihault), Aemond’s decision to chase Luke just off the coast of Storm’s End results in Vhagar eagerly devouring the heir to Driftmark and his dragon, Arrax. However, as Arrax’s own unprompted attack on Vhagar demonstrates during the same fight, it’s both riders’ inability to control their mounts that ultimately seals the fate of Westeros. Aemond’s pleas for Vhagar to stop underscore how Aemond’s vendetta in House of the Dragon caused the situation to spiral out of control, proving Viserys’ point about how doom can befall an entire realm because of the careless actions of the wrong Targaryen with a willful, overpowered dragon.
Westerosi History Proves Dragons Are Not Slaves in the Game of Thrones Universe
The futility of trying to control Game of Thrones’ most powerful creatures is on even greater display in the predecessor to Condal’s series. While House of the Dragon‘s dragons exist at a time when Targaryens hold enough influence in Westeros to regulate their behavior in places like the Dragonmont and King’s Landing’s Dragonpit, Daenerys Targaryen’s (Emilia Clarke) fire-breathing children illustrate just how difficult and dangerous it can be to keep the last remnants of Valyrian magic as pets. Not only does the series demonstrate the danger of giving emotionally strained monarchs superweapons by depicting Daenerys’ controversial burning of King’s Landing in Game of Thrones Season 8, but the show also doubles down on the sometimes devastating cost of the dragons’ unbridled spirit.
As Daenerys explains to the slave masters of Astapor when she pretends to give up Drogon in exchange for the Unsullied in Game of Thrones Season 3, a dragon is not a slave, and therefore it can never be bound in chains. This characterization of dragons as creatures who are almost entirely self-possessed continues throughout the series, with the creatures’ erratic actions during Game of Thrones’ most dramatic moments often spreading death and confusion. Even the mother of dragons can’t stop her dragons from burning a shepherd’s innocent daughter in Meereen, and Drogon’s rescue of Daenerys from Meereen’s fighting pits in Season 5 likewise leaves her contending with a fresh horde of Dothraki who attempts to steal her power in Season 6. Despite Daenerys turning the situation to her advantage, the experience further proves that even the Targaryens most closely connected to their dragons can never fully dictate the creatures’ wills.
The Red Sowing Foreshadows Uncontrollable Dragons in ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2
Compared to Daenerys’ troubles, Rhaenyra’s own situation in House of the Dragon Season 2 feels even more precarious. At the height of the Targaryens’ ability to supposedly control their dragons, the Black Queen has been struggling more than ever with the creatures’ unpredictability. At almost every turn in this latest batch of episodes, Rhaenyra has either been taken by surprise by her dragons’ actions or forced others to pay the price for the creatures’ capricious appetites. This week’s Red Sowing is the clearest example of the latter category, as countless smallfolk were burned alive because of Rhaenyra’s hope that one would be able to claim Vermithor, but she was also taken aback by Seasmoke’s admittedly hilarious claiming of Addam, validating the dragonkeepers’ argument that dragons are not tools to be dictated by even the most pure-blooded dragonlords.
As a testament to dragons’ unpredictability, Ulf the White’s (Tom Bennett) own claiming of Silverwing is decidedly less stressful, with Queen Alysanne’s old mount playfully accepting the first person to walk into her den instead of instantly barbecuing her visitor. However, with House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 7’s final shot of Rhaenyra’s new adult dragons gathered around Dragonstone, the episode also foreshadows the deployment of her newest weapons in Westeros’s civil war, setting the stage for a new wave of horrors to be unleashed on innocents and dragons alike. Because, as House of the Dragon‘s Battle at Rook’s Rest demonstrates, it’s not only people who suffer when dragons are used to war. The injuries sustained by Meleys and Sunfyre are heartbreaking to watch, with Game of Thrones‘ brutal killing of Rhaegal via scorpion bolt also offering a glimpse at the real pain experienced by Westeros’s seemingly godlike creatures.
What makes this pain so heartbreaking is the fact that, ultimately, it is also unnecessary. As Rhaenyra admits to Viserys in House of the Dragon Season 1, beneath their dragons Targaryens are just like everybody else. Their house can survive without dragons just as all the other houses of the realm do, but Targaryens inflict untold harm on innocent civilians and their scaled companions alike in order to wage wars that maintain their grip on power. While the dragonkeepers are wrong in House of the Dragon‘s newest episode by assuming that only those of pure Valyrian descent are fit to claim dragons, they are more than accurate in observing that Targaryens routinely ignore the sacred beauty of their creatures out of a desire for self-gain. With Rhaenyra’s desperation only increasing her need to turn her dragons towards war, perhaps it is this same exploitation that causes Daenerys to be the first Targaryen dragon rider in centuries.
