The grief and rage of losing a child could burn down the world. - Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) Game of Thrones - Histories & Lore: The Dance of Dragons
ALL I HAVE TO SAY IS...MAMA RHAENYRA IS GOING TO BURN SOME SHIT DOWN AND I WILL STAND BEHIND MY QUEEN.
Ok my first reaction was I didn’t like how the dragons disobeyed their riders like that, but after thinking about it I think it’s kinda brilliant when it comes to the behaviors of dragons.
First, both Arrax and Luke were really young and had absolutely zero combat experience. As soon as they saw Vhagar, it’s very obvious they simultaneously became a lot more tense. Then after Luke had his encounter with Aemond and left you can see Arrax looking in the direction of where Vhagar was in clear distress and Luke does the same thing before mounting. Luke realized their anxiety was high and he did his best to calm Arrax down before taking flight, but that all went out the window as soon as Vhagar gave chase. Now you have a child and a very young and small dragon that are bonded together in a very scary situation: being chased down by a behemoth in the middle of a raging storm (poor Arrax was flapping his wings as hard as he could) I personally think Arrax went on the offense to try and protect both himself and Luke, if only to give them a chance to escape. Both of them did the best they could.
Then you have Vhagar, an extremely old, massive, experienced dragon that is bonded to an inexperienced rider who is feeling a lot of unhinged rage and resentment. They were flying in attack maneuvers ffs I doubt she thought it was a game. And then this little dragon has the audacity to breathe fire in her face. Of course she’s not going to deal with that shit, as utterly tragic as her response is.
At the end of the day, dragons are not mindless war machines that will obey every command. They’re very powerful animals. No matter how trained or bonded with their owners they are, very powerful animals can and will do what they want.
i think it's very interesting how much this episode focused on the bonds between dragon and rider. the way syrax screamed out with rhaenyra as she was giving birth, the way arrax blew fire at vhagar because he could sense luke's fear, the way vhagar absolutely decimated arrax and luke because she could feel aemond's wrath. even though luke and aemond didn't necessarily want to escalate things, their dragons acted out in ways not unlike dogs protecting their owners and now the whole realm will bleed because of it.
You’re telling me that I’m supposed to feel BAD? Because it was an ACCIDENT? I’m supposed to feel bad for fucking EYE PATCH BILLY FOR MAKING THE PISS POOR DECISION TO BRING A FUCKING WAR MACHINE TO A GODDAMN KNIFE FIGHT?