[Ed. note: Spoilers for House of the Dragon season 2 episode 4 follow. There are also possible spoilers and speculation for the rest of the season, but they’re not informed by the Fire & Blood source material.]
Home of the Dragon hasn’t had many true cliffhangers in its temporary season and a half on tv thus far, nevertheless it made up for misplaced time in its newest episode. Right here’s our greatest guess at what comes subsequent for Aegon II Targaryen after his very fiery crash in Home of the Dragon season 2 episode 4.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25515901/tom_glynn_carney_matthew_needham.jpg)
Photograph: Ollie Upton/HBO
What if he’s lifeless?
This one is nearly actually the better of the 2 choices for poor King Aegon. Happening within the first main battle of a civil struggle is humiliation sufficient for a king, however taking place on dragonback provides insult to harm — none of which he’ll must cope with if he’s already kicked the bucket.
As for the remainder of the realm, Aegon’s demise actually wouldn’t imply the top of the struggle. With no son due to Blood and Cheese, and a really important-to-keep precedent establishing patrilineal succession, Aegon’s crown would probably go to his brother Aemond upon his loss of life. As we noticed on this very battle — and his doable inclination to complete his brother off — Aemond is much more hawkish than his older brother and could be all in for persevering with the struggle.
What if he’s not?
This might go considered one of two methods. The primary is that Aegon might come up from Sunfyre’s fiery crash like a phoenix, one way or the other totally unscathed, in all probability satisfied he’s immortal, and able to lead his civil struggle with renewed vigor. The one draw back is that, given how dangerous Sunfyre appeared to return out within the battle, Aegon in all probability wouldn’t have a dragon, which would go away him within the debt of his little brother Aemond, rider of the large dragon Vhagar. However at the very least Aegon would nonetheless have the ability to put on his crown and lead his kingdom.
The opposite risk is that Aegon might survive, however in fairly terrible form. He virtually actually received burned within the preventing, possible by his personal brother’s dragon, and there’s no method most of his bones survived a fall from that peak. On this case, Aegon would possible be out of fee for a substantial time frame, leaving Aemond to as soon as once more tackle the duties of the crown, simply not because the topped king however relatively the prince regent — although he’d nonetheless be named Protector of the Realm somehow.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/24134914/Aemond_house_dragon.jpg)
Picture: HBO
It doesn’t matter what occurs to Aegon himself, it does appear to be Sunfyre might be out of fee for good. This isn’t essentially a loss of life knell of Aegon’s struggle, nevertheless it does actually harm his probabilities in it. There’s no useful resource within the Dance of Dragons larger than the dragons themselves, and having one much less — significantly when that one was large enough to be ridden — is actually an enormous drawback.
Any method you slice it, and it doesn’t matter what occurs, Aegon’s resolution to trip out into battle seeking honor and a solution to upstage his brother couldn’t probably have gone worse. He’s down one dragon, an important useful resource of the struggle, and that could be the least of his issues. Nevertheless, regardless of the destiny of Aegon is, we’ll have to attend till subsequent week to get the decision to Home of the Dragon’s largest cliffhanger but.