SPOILER WARNING: READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
To be honest, we can’t tell who’ll do it better for the whole cast did really well. It’s a slow clap, it may be hitting closer to the books but this show is absolutely perfect.
If you’re curious about how solid the finale was, you should watch how it or read this summary instead:
A TENSE DAY AT DRAGONSTONE
With a good musical scoring, it’s a tense day at Dragonstone with Rhaenyra going into labor with HERSELF. Yes, with herself. Her maids watching her while she delivers her child only to find it dead. The other thing the show does is built Rhaenyra’s labor into the flow of the plot.
After Daemon hears the news about his brother’s death and Aegon’s coronation, he jumps into action trying to plan a war. Rhaenyra isn’t so eager to draw blood, and advises her sons Jace and Luke to check Daemon from doing anything too rash.
With everything very quiet and dark, Emma D’Arcy shows a perfect Rhaenyra portrayal. This is such a queen moment and also an episode highlight.
THE PAINTED TABLE ON DRAGONSTONE
Wait. But, has anyone noticed that beautifully-painted table on Dragonstone?
Another Queen moment, when Rhaenyra gathered her lieutenants to plot for the war. The painted table showing the map of the houses is just so spectacular. This is where Corlys Velaryon returns and another episode of women slaying, just being queens, —that Rhaenys and Rhaenyra interaction though.
THE MOMENT: ARRAX AND LUCERYS
Rhaenyra sends her oldest sons out to recruit potential allies in the upcoming Targaryen Civil War. Jacaerys is sent to visit the Arryns and the Starks, while Lucerys is sent to Storm’s End to meet with Lord Baratheon.
Lucerys rides his dragon Arrax over to Storm’s End, and as he lands, we can see the hulking presence of Vhagar, Aemond’s gigantic dragon, lurking in the background. When Lucerys enters the castle, Aemond is there, smirking, having already made a deal with Lord Baratheon — allegiance to Aegon in exchange for Aemond marrying one of Lord Baratheon’s daughters. This is where everything gets complicated. Aemond got lost in words controlling his beast—Vhagar, ending game: killing Arrax and Lucerys.
It’s also appropriately brutal, with little bits of Arrax falling out of the sky as Vhagar tears into the much smaller dragon, coupled with Aemond’s shock at the situation and his inability to control Vhagar. Truly heartbreaking.
CONCLUSION
The final scene takes us back to Dragonstone as Rhaenyra learns what has happened. We see war in her eyes and this is where viewers get the chills. The dragon-on-dragon violence was odd and we’re ready for how Rhaenyra’s gonna eat them all (I meant the Greens). We literally have no words for how HOTD Season 1 ended—from wardrobe, to dialogue, to character portrayals, to the script, the dragons’ CGI, and setting? It’s absolutely the best.
While there’s a lot of on-going questions and reactions for the season finale, we keep in mind and remember Rhaenyra’s line: “We don’t choose our destinies. Our destinies choose us”, she told Lucerys. And with Lucerys gone, how’s that going to be?
This is going to be one hell of waiting with Season 2 in the works.
