While HBO’s House of the Dragon has established the scene for gory dragon combat, the most tragic dragon death is very different from the others.
The second season of House of the Dragon will be dominated by gory dragon battles and hostilities, yet the most tragic dragon death may go unnoticed by viewers. The fantasy drama’s subtext and narrative revolve around the succession struggle between Rhaenyra, King Viserys’ eldest daughter, and Aegon II, her younger half-brother. Nearly every dragon perishes in an all-out conflict, also known as the Dance of the Dragons, along with important political leaders like Rhaenyra’s half-sister Helaena and her mount.
After Viserys’s passing, a conflict of succession breaks out, giving rise to the opposing Greens and Blacks factions in the House of the Dragon. Blacks are those who support Rhaenyra’s claim to the Iron Throne, and Greens are those who support the side supporting Aegon II’s claim.
While Prince Lucerys Velaryon’s death at the hands of his half-uncle, Aemond Targaryen, is perceived by Rhaenyra, who otherwise tries her best to prevent the Seven Kingdoms in House of the Dragon from engaging in war, as an open act of war, the crowning of Aegon II is seen as grave defiance of Viserys’ order and a breach of the oaths he extracted from Lords and Knights of the Seven Kingdom The purple she-slow dragon’s demise is, however, the saddest of all the deaths in the violent conflict.
How Blood & Cheese Could Sabotage Helaena’s Dragon Arc
Lucerys’s killing, the Dance’s first victim, has a domino effect and is avenged by the murder of a Green son, which was planned by Daemon, carried out by Mysaria, and carried out by two men known as Cheese and Blood. Blood and Cheese enter Alicent Hightower’s quarters through a hidden passageway in the Red Keep, trap Helaena, and make her choose between the two sons who should live or die. Blood kills the young Jaehaerys Targaryen, age 6, and departs with his head while Helaena agonizingly calls the child Maelor.
Helaena’s lunacy and her dragon arc are both consequences of the horrifying Blood and Cheese scene, which also intensifies the Dance of the Dragons. She eventually hangs herself from the window of her room in Maegor’s Holdfast after becoming an unreliable dragonrider and losing the ability to fly into combat. The she-dragon Dreamfyre, which was originally shown flying alongside Sunfyre of Aegon II in season 1, episode 7, “Driftmark,” is similarly rendered riderless due to her insanity.
The worst tragedy is that Dreamfyre formerly found lively young women attractive, but both of her riders suffer a similar end. She observes Princess Rhaena Targaryen, her former rider, becoming further detached from the outside world, and Helaena, her current rider, pulling back.
Dreamfyre is affected by the Dance’s effects and human fallibility, and she is so distraught about Helaena’s passing that she breaks free of her restraints and screeches loud enough to shake the Dragonpit. In the end, Dreamfyre slowly withers away without her riders, confined in a pit and kept from the sky—a tragedy brought on by the passive brutality of the people she had bonded with.
What House Of The Dragon Season 2 Likely Holds For Dreamfyre
Dreamfyre, who will undoubtedly spend the remainder of her days chained in the Dragonpit, will undoubtedly feel the effects of Helaena’s spiral into madness. The death of Dreamfyre in the literature is much more sorrowful than that in House of the Dragon, which paved the way for the widespread employment of dragons in combat. During the King’s Landing Riot, she is struck by a crossbow bolt and dies horrifyingly beneath the huge dome of the Dragonpit.
Dreamfyre is pushed back in season 1 to give more important characters and their dragons screen time because Helaena isn’t crucial to the events leading up to the Dance of the Dragons. However, the close-knit narrative and the unresolvable struggle will guarantee that every member of the House Targaryen will experience sorrow. Therefore, in Season 2 of House of the Dragon, the murder of Prince Jaehaerys will highlight Helaena and her Dreamfyre.
