A Little ‘Rugrat’ Targaryen Surprised Everyone With A Power Move In The ‘House Of The Dragon’ Civil War

Spoilers for House of the Dragon will be found below.

This week’s House of the Dragon episode gave fans a return of the old Prince Daemon, who surprise-married Princess Rhaenyra in a Valyrian wedding. Yep, they’re proudly following in their most incestuous family tradition, and more than that, they’ve combined forces in light of the brewing Civil War. That would be the Targaryen side of the fam who isn’t the product of King Viserys I’s marriage to Alicent Hightower, who wore green as a declaration of war in the most recent bloodbath of a wedding for this franchise.

And as HBO showed in the Episode 8 preview, war is definitely on the horizon. Who made the biggest power move of the episode, though That would be young Aemond Targaryen (played by Leo Ashton), who we first got to know while his siblings bullied him for his dragon-less status while gifting him a pig. Well, Aemond got a dragon in Episode 7, and as our own Jessica Toomer concluded in her weekly recap, this positions him as a “Contender.” Following Laena Valarian’s death, Aemond decided to step up and claim her dragon, Vhagar.

Now, there’s some contention out there about whether Aemond “stole” this dragon, but it truly seems like he tamed her with some “dohaeris” (instructing her to serve) before taking his very first ride. Yes, he then got the holy hell beaten out of him and Aemond lost an eye as a result, but he was fine with this result because, hey, he has a dragon. Even more than that, Vhagar is now part of Team Hightower. Given that she’s the biggest dragon in Westeros, that’s quite an asset. Also, one has to admit that Aemond looked pretty darn cool on his ride, even if not everyone is a fan of the “rugrat.”

— Lord Travis (@ser_travis) October 3, 2022

Okay I am still Team Rhaenyra but my God, the Aemond scenes with Vhagar were FUCKING AWESOME and are among my favorite sequences of the episode. #HouseOfTheDragon pic.twitter.com/NlH46Ton6P

— Liesel (@ellemceebee) October 3, 2022

Aemond Targaryen taming Vhagar. what an amazing scene#HouseOfTheDragon #HouseOfTheDragonHBO pic.twitter.com/jEzJ7TNqzG

— House Of The Dragon TR (@HouseOTDragonTR) October 3, 2022

So, there was no time to show Laena bonding with Vhagar and claiming her but you gon show us this little white haired rugrat Aemond claim her!

Yk what that is…#HouseOfTheDragon#Vhagar pic.twitter.com/aBUey4ukxD