Rook’s Rest Was ‘House of the Dragon’s Red Wedding

The Dance of the Dragons is in full swing, and you know what there’s gonna be on this dance floor? Murder. And lots of it. If there’s anything that this new season of House of the Dragon has shown us, it’s that no one is safe.

We first learned this unfortunate fact during the trauma that was The Red Wedding in Game of Thrones, and while House of the Dragon’s Rook’s Rest was still no Red Wedding, it was as close as they come.

The Tragedy of Rook’s Rest

The Dance of the Dragons began with a misstep. While flying home from a failed attempt to curry favor with the Lord of Storm’s End, Lucerys Valerion and his dragon Arrax met their unfortunate end at the hand (and cavernous mouth) of Prince Aemond II and Vhagar, the Flying Godzilla. It was a mistake. Tensions between the boys had existed since they were … well, boys. Those tensions bubbled over when Aemond’s penchant for bullying caused him to lose control over meemaw Vhagar, who refused to let some young whippersnapper tell her what to do and who or who not to eat.

After that, the Greens and the Blacks continued The Dance in stumbling steps. Daemon’s ill-informed decision to use a rat-catcher and a gold cloak without a braincell between them to attempt to assassinate Aegon II led to the death of Aegon’s toddler son, beheaded in his bed—not a good look for Rhaenyra and her supporters. In return, the Greens came up with a somehow even more abysmally conceived plan to assassinate Rhaenyra with … twins? It was a foolish, wasteful miscalculation that led to the death of the Cargyll brothers, two of the few men in Westeros with a shred of honor left in their souls. The participants in the Dance certainly didn’t eat with their fumbling steps. But they did slay.

And the slaying continued at Rook’s Rest.

Never before had there been an all out battle between the Greens and the Blacks. Sure, the Brackens and the Blackwoods ripped each other to shreds in the opening sequence of episode 3, but that was motivated out of a centuries long blood feud rather by pure political affiliation. While the blood of the masses had been shed in Rhaenyra and Aegon II’s name, Rook’s Rest was the first moment in the series where such bloodshed was sanctioned.

Remember, both parties were attempting to end the war without resorting to armies and, more specifically, the high fantasy nuclear warheads known as “dragons.” But after the deaths of innocent royal children and the failure of Rhaenyra and Alicent to come to terms with one another, total war was the only option left.

For those who know the story of Fire and Blood, the written history of the Targaryen dynasty culminating in the Dance, Rook’s Rest plays out like a familiar tragedy. The stage is set at the castle and surrounding woodlands of House Staunton. Rhaenyra’s armies are dug in at the castle, ready to defend against the coming siege from the Greens led by Criston Cole and Prince Aemond, who are closing in on them from the surrounding forests.

The ensemble has assembled onstage, and the stars of the show are now entering in from the wings … on the wings of dragons. Rhaenys Targaryen, the Queen Who Never Was, is the leading lady in this production, accompanied by her loyal dragon Meleys, the mightiest beast in the Blacks’ stable. She has a confident, royal air. Her mature age has made her feel more like a marble statue than a person. She’s unbent, unbroken, unafraid to do and die as her queen commands.

And die she does.

The trick to pulling off a tragedy is to lull the audience into a false sense of security. You must feed their hopes, then dash them in the end. The best productions of famous tragedies like Romeo and Juliet don’t wallow in the death that is sure to come at the end of the fifth act. Rather, the best productions of the play trick viewers into believing that maybe, just maybe, this production is different. And then, after everything, the players remind them that this production ends as it and all others are preordained to end: with tears.

And oh boy were there tears.

Rhaenys and her dragon seem invincible at the beginning of the battle. Unkillable. Godlike. They lay fiery waste to the armies of the Greens, but just when victory seems assured, defeat rears its ugly, Vhagar-shaped head. Joined by Aegon on his dragon Sunfyre, Aemond and Vhagar are able to quickly overpower the Queen Who Never Was and force her and Meleys to retreat. There comes a moment as Rhaenys and Meleys are flying away from the field of battle and into the sunny lands beyond that the Never Queen seems safe, that she and her dragon could continue sailing far from that bloody, burning Verona and into the horizon beyond.

But Rhaenys reminds us that our hopes dashed not by the strength of her enemies, but by her own loyalty to her family. She whispers her final command, “Attack,” to Meleys and flies back towards oblivion. The most crushing moment of all? Not when Vhagar sinks its teeth into Meleys’ neck, not when the dragon’s body gives out and Rhaenys tumbles headlong from the sky, but it’s the moment when her loyal dragon turns back to look at Rhaenys, a woman she has trusted until the end, and the reptilian beast’s eyes are filled with a distinctly human combination of betrayal and love.

Many died at the Red Wedding. Many die at Rook’s Rest. But unlike the Red Wedding, there are only two deaths that truly penetrate the heart: the lonesome death of The Queen Who Never Was, and the dragon that served her faithfully until the bitter end.

Bravo.