House of the Dragon is back, and the Dance of the Dragons is underway. The Targaryen war of succession will come down to control—who can control their impulses, their sycophants, and, yes, their dragons. With each passing episode, The Ringer will examine how Westeros’s key players are aligning their pieces on the board.
As the saying goes, chaos can be a ladder. Welcome to the House of the Dragon power rankings. Who’s a good, sneaky girl with excellent command of “stay” and “lie down”? It seems like Aemond (or, let’s be real, the Dragonpit minders) has been putting in some quality training hours since Vhagar broke bad and had herself a little Arrax (and Luke) snack at the end of Season 1.
Vhagar was not only willing to lie in wait beneath forest camouflage for who knows how long for Ser Criston Cole’s sneak counterattack at the battle of Rook’s Rest, she consented to continue chilling when no-one-has-ever-breathalyzed-a-dragonrider Aegon and Sunfyre made an ill-advised surprise appearance to take on Rhaenys and Meleys. In the midst of Aegon getting his ass handed to him—because obviously—Aemond and Vhagar finally entered the fray, prompting Aegon to thank the gods for his brother’s clutch appearance. But Meleys wasn’t his target—Aegon was.
Aemond directed Vhagar to let loose dragonfire directly at the king, sending him and Sunfyre tumbling out of the sky. Then, when the battle continued, Vhagar again played sneaky after Rhaenys’s seeming victor.