House of the Dragon slammed for Aemond’s “stupid” Aegon attack
HBOThe Battle at Rook’s Nest has left House of the Dragon fans riled up, with many taking issue with Aemond and Vhagar nearly killing Aegon.
Towards the end of Season 2 Episode 4, Aegon arrives on Sunfyre and Rhaenys teaches him a swift lesson with Meleys, clawing his dragon’s belly and easily overpowering both.
He praises the gods when Aemond arrives with Vhagar, until his brother commands, “Dracarys!” and blasts them all with fire. Aegon and his dragon plummet to the ground, and it’s unclear if he survives.
On one of the show’s subreddits, a fan complained: “The writers think Aemond would be stupid enough to intentionally lose a dragon and its rider when they’re outnumbered by their enemy.”
They have a point: if Aemond accidentally killed Aegon and the biggest dragon in the world while everyone watched, the Greens would be doomed, and he’d be executed.
“He’d go from ‘I regret that business with Luke’ to not only letting Aegon fight alone and potentially die up against most likely a larger dragon, but also go to straight up have him attempt to kill Aegon in view in front of everyone,” another fan wrote.
“If the writers were smarter and wanted to show Aemond losing control of Vhagar. This would’ve been the scene to do it, not against Luke,” a third added.
However, these complaints don’t account for Aemond’s childhood; more specifically, Aegon bullied him and rarely missed a chance to embarrass him (as Episode 3’s nude scene illustrated).
“Aemond is a damaged young man and the person behind the vast majority of that damage is Aegon… Aemond sees his brother jump into Aemond and Cole’s plan and instead of saving the King, he decides to let the King see that being the hero isn’t easy,” one user explained.
“It’s dangerous. And when he gets a chance to lash out at the person who has publicly humiliated him on more than one occasion, he takes that chance.”
Here’s another thing: being an armchair general in fictional battles is easy, as is citing the book House of the Dragon is based on, but George R.R. Martin has already confirmed the show exists separately from Fire & Blood’s canon. In other words, go with the flow.
Keep up to date with our House of the Dragon Season 2 release schedule, and check out our guides on Hugh the Hammer, Alys Rivers, and how Aemond Targaryen dies in the book.