10 epic moments from House of the Dragon Season 2

Despite a surprisingly chill finale, House of the Dragon Season 2 hatched out a clutch of dragon action for fans. From taking us inside the towering dark halls of Dragonstone, filled with the constant rumbling of dragons, to the dragons themselves picking riders, to the thrill and horror of dragons doing battle, it was eight episodes packed snout to tail with everything we wished we knew about dragons in Game of Thrones. And while the dragons dominated, there were plenty of other moments that breathed fire like Vhagar. Here are our top 10 House of the Dragon Season 2 moments ranked, with number 10 being an absolute “dracarys”.

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1. Aemond roasted Aegon, part 1 (episode 4)

In episode 3, King Aegon unwittingly stuck a “kick me” sign on his own back when he taunted his naked brother Aemond at Madam Sylvi’s brothel. While Aemond stalked off with his head high and his twig and berries swinging in the breeze, his revenge started with a cold burn. 

At the Green Council, after Aegon confronted Aemond for conducting the entire war behind his back, Aemond answered calmly in High Valyrian that Aegon had had more pressing matters to attend to, like deciding on what he’d like to be called, or elevating his cronies to the Kingsguard. And he dared Aegon to tell his council a better strategy. Aegon not only didn’t have a strategy, it turned out he barely spoke high Valyrian. In a few choice sentences, Aemond managed to undermine Aegon as a Targaryen, a battle leader, and a king. And he was just getting started. 

2. Daemon knelt to Rhaenyra at Harrenhal (episode 8)

All Daemon’s weird visions at Harrenhal – including chopping off young Rhaenyra’s head and having sex with his own mother – paid off when Alys Rivers placed his hand on the castle’s weirwood tree. Daemon finally realised he wasn’t the main character after he “binge-watched” Game of Thrones and saw it all: the Bloodraven, the three-eyed Raven, the White Walkers, dead dragons including Caraxes littering a battlefield, a red comet, Rhaenyra on the Iron Throne, himself drowning, three dragon eggs, and Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) hatching her dragons. 

During the vision, his niece Halaena told him, “It’s all a story, and you’re but one part in it. You know your part.” So when Rhaenyra arrived at Harrenhal, Daemon knelt to her as his Queen in one of the season’s most beautifully filmed scenes, and told her that the war is bigger than any of them because, “Winter is coming”, then rallied his army to fight in her name. 

3. Ser Arryk duelled Ser Erryk (episode 2)

Aemond and Ser Criston Cole come up with a plan to send King’s Guard Ser Arryk to masquerade as his twin Ser Erryk at Dragonstone to assassinate Queen Rhaenyra. In a twist of fate, Mysaria, who’s just been given her freedom by Rhaenyra, raised the alarm when she spotted Ser Arryk coming up from the docks, having just seen his twin in the castle. 

So as Ser Arryk raised his sword to kill Rhaenyra, Ser Erryk, alerted by Mysaria, stormed in to challenge him and an epically confusing duel broke out between the two. At no point could we tell which twin was which, so every time they got near Rhaenyra was a jump scare. In a heart-shattering end to the duel, Ser Erryk fell on his own sword to join his twin in death. 

4. Seasmoke got picky (episode 6)

Desperate for more dragonriders to counter Vhagar, Rhaenyra sent Ser Steffon Darklyn to try to bond with Seasmoke inside the Dragonmount during an impressive top secret ceremony, complete with Valyrian chanting. Alas, Seasmoke turned the last of the Darklyns into a greasy smear of ash. 

It turned out Seasmoke had already hand-picked his own new rider: his (now presumably dead) previous rider Laenor Valeryon’s illegitimate half-brother, Addam. Addam didn’t get the memo though, and ran for the hills after Seasmoke came racing after him, chasing him like a stranger in a white van waving a packet of sweets. It was the second most shambolic, heartwarming dragon bonding of the season (nonetheless, three cheers for Addam). 

5. Daemon conquered Harrenhal (episode 3)

Before we knew that Caraxes was going to spend the rest of the season twiddling his dragon thumbs in the castle parking lot, this was one the most atmospheric scenes in House of the Dragon Season 2. Terrified guards ran screaming as Daemon landed Caraxes on the burned towers of Harrenhal during a stormy night. The last time a dragon landed at Harrenhal, Aegon the Conqueror used his dragon Balerion the Black Dread to burn the castle, melting the stonework. 

But the show tipped the genuinely eerie atmosphere of Harrenhal’s haunted ruins into outright comedy the moment that Daemon flung open the door to the dining room and proclaimed, "I am claiming Harrenhal" only for Harrenhal’s castellan – instant fan-favourite Ser Simon Strong – to quip, “Apparently so,” before surrendering and offering a perplexed Daemon the dinner menu. 

6. Otto held a dead baby parade (episode 2) 

Following the grisly off-screen butchering of toddler prince Jaehaerys (made viscerally real by Paula Fairfield’s sound design for the series), Hand of the King Otto Hightower overrode the child’s grief-stricken parents King Aegon and Queen Helaena to parade prince Jaehaerys’ corpse through the streets of King’s Landing in an open casket.

From above, we saw the child’s severed head had been sewn back onto his body. Helaena wasn’t the only one panicking when the parade got stuck in the potholed streets. We seriously thought the prince’s coffin was either going to tip over, spilling out his body, or that his head would come loose and go bounding down the street. HOTD demonstrated that we don’t need to see something obscene playing out to fear it and feel it.

7. Two new dragonriders faced a trial by fire (episode 7)

The Dragonkeepers wanted no part of Rhaenyra’s scheme to invite all the Dragonseeds (illegitimate Targaryens) to Dragonstone, since dragons don’t read marriage certificates. In a hair-raising scene inside the Dragonmont, Rhaenyra called to Vermithor, then left the Dragonseeds to figure out how to bond with the dragons themselves. 

An irate Vermithor incinerated, stomped on, and ate his way through the stampeding crowd without stopping until Hugh the blacksmith turned and screamed at the dragon in defiance to protect another Dragonseed. In contrast, Ulf the White was fleeing in terror when he stumbled across Silverwing’s nest, accidentally putting his foot through the cover of her egg clutch. Instead of chomping and stomping him, though, Silverwing treated this egg-scented morsel as a hatching, playfully nudging and butting her chosen idiot with her head before taking him for a joyride over King’s Landing. 

8. Daemon brought to heel at Harrenhal (episode 7)

Immediately after his grandfather’s death, new lord paramount of the Riverlands Lord Oscar Tully brought the River Lords to meet with Daemon at Harrenhal, where he calmly ran political rings around Daemon despite looking like an innocent little hobbit. 

Lord Oscar insulted Daemon to his face while convincing him that he was only doing so to win the respect of the Riverlords. He then positioned them to agree to fight for Queen Rhaenyra, squashing Daemon’s hopes of getting the Riverlands’ armies to back him as king. And he got Daemon to behead Lord Willem Blackwood for committing atrocities against the Brackens in the Targaryens’ name. It was win after win for Lord Oscar, who might even have unseated Ser Simon Strong as fan-favourite in this scene. 

9. Aemond burned Aegon (episode 4)

At Rook’s Rest, as Aemond was about to bring Vhagar out of hiding, Aegon came bumbling into the battle on Sunfyre. Instead of flying to support Aegon, he let Sunfyre (chiefly known for being the supermodel dragon of Westeros) go head-to-head with Rhaenys and her battle-hardened dragon, Meleys. 

Aemond waited until Meleys was chewing on Sunfyre before flying in on Vhagar and giving Vhagar the “dracarys” order to burn both Meleys and Sunfyre, sending Sunfyre and Aegon plummeting into the woods, screaming. Ser Criston later caught Aemond standing over Aegon, seemingly preparing to kill him as he lay half-charred and whimpering under the remains of his drying dragon. Aegon got to return to King’s Landing in a discreet box in episode 5 and had to be peeled out of Aegon the Conqueror’s armour as if the healers were shelling a boiled lobster. 

And in episode 7, he described his horrific injuries to Larys Strong in detail, revealing that the “crown jewels” have been melted. No more sons for Aegon. Wow. Learn how to take a joke, Aemond!

10. Rhaenys and Aemond’s dragon battle (episode 4)

Hands-down the most gripping scenes of the entire series took place at Rook’s Rest, as Rhaenys and Aemond went head-to head in a vicious, clawing, burning dragon duel. It was the biggest dragon in Westeros vs the fastest dragon, with both riders showing what it meant to be a true dragonlord in life and death. 

Vhagar grabbed hold of Meleys and roasted her like a rotisserie chicken as the two spiralled toward the ground together. After squishing the unfortunate human soldiers below, Vhagar scattered and stomped on enemies and allies alike as she rose to her feet to take wing again, eventually rising up from behind the castle and seizing Meleys by the throat and killing her. Fans cried as Rhaenys let go the reins and accepted her death in battle as a hero, falling to the ground with Meleys. The battle also gave Ser Criston PTSD for the rest of the season and a true sense of his own doomed insignificance. 

Pick your favourite moments as you binge House of the Dragon Season 1-2 on Showmax now.