House of the Dragon is back with another season, and once again, we get to witness the palace politics, the greed for power, the debauchery, the corruption, the vengeance, and all the terrible things that a human being is capable of. We saw that the two factions—the Black and the Green—were standing on the brink of war at the end of the previous season. Lucerys, aka Luke, was killed by Aemond, who was riding the mighty Vhagar. It felt at one point in time that Aemond didn’t actually want to kill the boy. It felt as if Vhagar did get out of control, and Aemond knew that he had started a chain reaction that had the potential to shake the foundations of his kingdom.
Spoiler Alert
In the first episode of House of the Dragon season 2, we saw that Jaehaerys was killed, though I believe that it was a misunderstanding and Daemon never intended to do so. Blood and Cheese goofed up, and even they didn’t know the kind of consequences their actions could have. As mentioned in the show, the strangest thing about death is that it always seems impossible, and the grieving ones often sit with the void inside them, not knowing how to fill it. Rhaenyra was in a similar space, and for days, she didn’t know how to cope with the grief. The beauty of House of the Dragon is that you cannot distinguish between what’s right and what’s wrong. Rhaenyra was right on her part, and even Alicent was doing what was best for her. In the fight for power, ideals are often compromised, and an individual has to focus on the end result. As long as one stayed in a position of power, it didn’t matter what way they took it. There was a fire raging inside Rhaenyra, and throughout the first episode, we didn’t see her utter a word. She wanted to make peace with her son’s death, but it was too great a loss for her, and she just couldn’t get her closure. When she found Lucerys’ cloak and the bits and pieces of Arrax, she realized what she actually wanted. She wanted to avenge her son.
“I want Aemond Targaryen,” were the first words Rhaenyra uttered, and it was a cue for Daemon to unleash his terror on the Red Keep and make the perpetrators pay for what they had done. For days, Daemon waited for Rhaenyra to say something. He just couldn’t understand where her head was, as his immediate impulse was to go and wage a war on King’s Landing. But did Rhaenyra want to kill her half-brother’s son to avenge her own, or did Daemon’s assassins misinterpret it all?
Dameon went to Mysaria, as he knew that she had her spies at King’s Landing and could help him enter there. Mysaria didn’t want to do anything for Daemon, but then he offered her, her freedom, in return for helping him enter King’s Landing. Mysaria agreed to help, and so Daemon reached King’s Land, where he met Blood and Cheese, the two mysterious people who were ready to do anything for money.
The phrase “a son for a son” logically meant something else, but Daemon was clear about who he was referring to when he said that. Aegon II Targaryen was the king, and so it was his heir that Daemon should have been after. But it was not so. For Daemon, it was straight and clear that it was always Rhaenyra versus Alicent, and he saw Aemond as a menace, an unpredictable and extremely volatile human being who was capable of doing a lot of damage. Daemon felt that if Aemond was executed, then the balance of power would tilt in his favor. Daemon never wanted to kill a kid, but the blunder happened, and I believe it will have grave consequences in the future. So, coming back to the first episode, Blood and Cheese made their way inside the palace, and they found Queen Halaena, who was in the room with her children. Cheese and Blood asked her which one among the twins was the heir to the throne, and Halaena, after resisting for a bit, pointed at Jaehaerys. Cheese knew that Halaena was not lying to them, and he asked Blood to do the needful. The poor boy was killed in his sleep, and Cheese and Blood quickly escaped from the palace. According to the book, a few days after the incident, Blood was caught by the guards, and he had the severed head of the young heir in his possession.
What Helaena saw scarred her for life. Jaehaerys’ head was severed from his body in front of her own eyes, and in that moment of desperation, she didn’t know what she should do. I believe that in a situation of conflict, the side about whom people feel sympathetic always has the upper hand. People often think from their hearts, and when they feel compassionate towards something or sympathetic towards someone’s loss, then it tilts the scale in favor of the victim. The result is that one can make a bold move and break some laws while still justifying their stance and proving their point to be right. Rhaenyra had the sympathy of the people when her son was killed. Had she gone after Aemond, nobody would have actually felt that she had done something wrong. But I would say that a mishap happened, something that even Daemon didn’t intend to do.
Jaehaerys’ death will worsen things for both factions. Regardless of Daemon’s intentions, the damage has been done, and I believe that, to some extent, Rhaenyra’s credibility was lost in the process. Nobody wanted to be seen as a child killer. Everybody looked out for their own vested interests, but even amidst such lawlessness and chaos, there were some rules—a code of conduct—that people followed. Daemon crossed that line, and when, in the next episode of House of the Dragon season 2, he gets to know about it, he will be livid. He has started a fire that won’t stop until it consumes everything.
