The Best House Of The Dragon Memes & Tweets About Aemond’s “Mistake” In The Finale

Spoilers ahead for the House of the Dragon season finale. During the House of the Dragon season finale on Oct. 23, the Dance of the Dragons saw its first major casualty. While on a diplomatic mission to Lord Borros on behalf of Rhaenyra, Lucerys ran into his uncle, Aemond — who was still pretty upset about losing an eye. He addressed his nephew as “Lord Strong” and demanded Lucerys’ eye in exchange for his own.

Rhaenyra had warned her son against fighting while he was in Storm’s End, so he was on the defensive as Aemond pursued him on dragonback. However, both Aemond and Lucerys had trouble controlling their respective dragons, Vhagar and Arrax. After Arrax blew fire on Vhagar, the larger dragon tore into Lucerys and Arrax, seemingly killing them both in the process. It’s pretty much what happened in the book House of the Dragon is based on, Fire & Blood, too, though the TV adaptation does add an element of regret to Aemond’s actions in the finale. In the book, the confrontation is described from a distance: “If there was a fight, it could not have lasted long,” George R. R. Martin writes.

However, the HBO series gets down to the emotional details of the scene — and clearly, Aemond is feeling some things. “Vhagar! No, no,” Aemond cries before looking down at the bloody aftermath falling from the sky. Showrunner Ryan Condal told Variety about his approach to the fatal flight. “Historians have told us that Aemond intended to kill Luke, but I don’t think any of them could purport to know what was going on in Aemond’s head [at] the time,” he explained.

The scene, though tragic, had Twitter reacting to Aemond’s “oops” moment.

Despite Aemond’s regret, several viewers pointed out that he’s very much still to blame — a reading that Condal seems to agree with. “I would also dispute the word ‘accident’ a bit,” he told Variety. “I mean, Aemond got on his giant dragon and chased his nephew on his much smaller dragon through the clouds screaming and yelling at him, incensing his dragon and starting a fight ... I don’t think that was what Aemond intended when he threw his leg over the saddle, but he did a horrible, dangerous thing.”

So far, we’ve only seen Rhaenyra’s reaction to the news of Lucerys’ death, and safe to say, she’s ready for all-out war. Fans will have to wait for Season 2 to find out how Alicent handles her son’s massive mistake — but until then, they’re already predicting what that moment might look like.

If the war wasn’t already firing up, there’s little doubt that what Aemond did officially sparked the Targaryen civil war.