When Dragons Dance: Rook's Rest and Dragon War in Westeros Before House of the Dragon 

Sunfyre immediately made me love him when he nudged and smiled at Aegon. You can tell he’s such a good boy! He didn’t deserve that :(

😭 😭 beautiful Sunfyres cries! Meleys looking back at Rhaenys as she closed her eyes for the last time. Rhaenys died in that moment too. The fall just made it stick. 😭 😭

Rhaenys was born on the 7th day of the 7th moon. July 7th. The episode aired in which she perished. AMAZING show writing!!

I've gotta give props to the sound people, I'm always on Rhaenys and Meleys' side, but when Meleys was attacking Sunfyre, the sounds Sunfyre was making had me tearing up they were so heartbreaking!

Jace had the right idea. Dragons are perfect for hit and run maneuvers. Rhaenys should have strafed the tree-line where Criston was, knocking out the leadership and the bulk of the Green’s army. Then when dragons show up, make a beeline for King’s Landing. Aegon and Aemond would be forced to abandon the storming of Rook’s Rest to pursue.

If HBO has erased Lord Kermit "The Lad" Tully I swear by the old gods and the new that I will do a funny thing

Episode 5 suggests Aegon getting maimed but not killed fighting Meleys was the best possible thing for the Greens PR wise since Meleys' massacre in the Dragon Pit made her particularly hated among the smallfolk, so seeing the King personally go out to smite the very same dragon, at great personal risk and expense, is going to play VERY well in King's Landing. It seems that they are going out of their way to set up the Storming of the Dragon Pit by making Aegon II more well-liked by the smallfolk than he was in the book.

This episode was CINEMA

I loved how you could really see the disparity in flight experience between all the combatants. Rhaenys and Meleys have 42 years flying together by my count, compared to 12 for Aegon/Sunfyre and 9 for Aemond/Vhagar. And you could definitely see it in the way the dragons moved through the air, Aegon and Aemond were much clumsier and visibly less practiced.

Honestly this episode makes Daemons plan of he and Rhaenys teaming up to kill Vhagar seem like a great idea

Why is nobody talking about the fact that Cole witnessed Aemon try to kill his own brother the king TWICE and thousands saw him attack Aegon/sunfyre instead of Rhanys/Meleys???

I loved how they threat Dragons both with humanity and the Atomic Bomba they are

Rip the queen who never was and meleys.

The scene with high Valyrian along with the cinematography and imagery of breaking dragons throughout the episode (as well as the goat and hounds in Harrenhal) made it ever so slightly my favourite so far. I also really enjoyed the inception reference with Aegon spinning the sphere.

Sunfyre had 5 minutes of Screen Time, yet I was so worried that he died. Aemond is gonna be f*cked when Aegon gets better, do you reckon he’ll banish Aemond to Harrenhal?

the small folk rejoice at the death of rhaenys, they neednt fear the beast beneath the boards any longer

I love how as Sunfyre is falling he purposely turns to land on his injured stomach that was ripped open instead of his back so that Aegon has a chance to survive the fall. Truly a Good boy

WE GOT MUPPET TULLY!!!!!

I think they did a great job of showing not just how physically powerful Vhagar is, but also how Aemond uses her power intelligently. He could have just charged Meleys head-on, but instead chose to hide behind the castle and ambush her, allowing no opportunity to retaliate.

Aemond is gonna try that Jaws Death from below attack on Daemon and Caraxes, but because Caraxes neck is so long, he's able to swing around and deal the death blow to Vhaegar. Callin it now.

Excellent episode. I spent the whole hour (the whole week honestly) anticipating that fight and they delivered big time. So many great character moments throughout the episode. I'm glad Rhaenyra got called on her shit and I'm glad Rhaenys is done for.

I like the part where Vhagar looked frustrated when Aemond told her to hold off.

Tbh, I really think they butchered the whole storyline with Aegon and Sunfyre, by not showing them off earlier and establishing their great bond. In the books it is well described, and it truly is one of Aegon's few redeeming qualities, at least to me. He clearly has so much love and affection for the beast and it goes both ways. It's not like they didn't have the chance to show this either. Maybe if they had decided to stick to the books a little bit more during Aegon's Coronation, we could have avoided the character suicide on Rhaenys in that awful scene and instead have had Aegon flying around King's Landing on Sunfyre. Anyways, love the video as always Quinn! Keep up the great work!

I love how Condal is putting great emphasis on Harrenhal and the God's Eye.

Love your vids

I think re: Luke’s clothes, dragons probably eat in a similar manner to cats and dogs (yknow the thing they do where they chomp on it in mid air and it’s almost like juggling) and I’m guessing some of Luke got dropped Also the moment where Rhaenys and Meleys tried to tactically swirl around Vhaegar and vhaegar just snatches them out of the air was so cool

Vhagar, largest dragon and master of aerial ambushes. Makes sense to me!

Maybe my favorite episode in HOTD Dragons Dragons oh my Just so fun!!

BEST epsidoe of the season! !

8:05 Another thing that makes Vhagar so deadly is her rider. Aemond using the castle to set a trap on the quicker Meleys was pretty smart. Vhagar is pretty good at placing herself where she needs to be to make up for her lack of speed.

I think a good approach to defeating Vhagar would be what we saw Louis and Claudia do in Interview With the Vampire to take Lestat out... which is to say one of them severely weakened Lestat so that the other could kill him (or so was the plan if not for Louis's unwillingness to finish the job). So two dragons need to ambush, let one weaken Vhagar by tiring her out and the other can sweep in cleanly and take her out. In my opinion. Nice video.

Meleys must have been really confused last time she flew beside Vhagar their riders were husband and wife (Baelon and Alyssa)

The scariest thing about Maegor the Cruel is that he specifically waited to claim a dragon until Balerion was riderless. That type of self control, to wait until he was an adult to claim a dragon, for someone who was doing a lot of other warrior shit at a startlingly young age, is what makes him so scary. He wouldn’t bond with any dragon except the biggest, scariest dragon of them all, even if he had to wait till he was grown to claim him.

Wish we got to see more sunfyre. Would have been cool to see Aegon and Sunfyre ride around King's Landing after the coronation, instead of Rhaenys crashing through the dragonpit. He could have seen her making her escape as they were flying or something.

7:10 Sunfyre could be older. He's not Aegon's cradle egg dragon bc he didn't hatch in King's Landing.

1 view in 2 seconds bro fell off (do you think aegon's valyrian steel armor makes him fire resistant like a tiefling or what)

Constructive feedback: I’d stop using the text effect you’ve been using and have the text fade in all at once instead. When I see it come in letter by letter, my eyes are drawn to pay attention to that and I miss what your actual voice is saying.

I think one of the things highlighted here is how little military experience Rhaenyra has. Even as Viserys' heir, it doesn't appear she got much, if any, military or combat training.

The most interesting thing about this series compared to GoT, is that the whole focus is on these houses who are currently at war.. So once things pick up they pick up, and there's very little time to step away from them. It's also what makes them so unique to one another.

Dude this is the best game of thrones episode eve.Hands down best series so far aswell

It's funny because we talk about how one sided Vhaegar vs Arrax was, but most people fail to realize how close Aemond got to being incinerated by the fire blast. It wouldn't have changed anything though, aside from Aemond also dying.

Aemond should have just killed Aegon. What's Cole going to do? He would be the new king and Cole is already breaking his vows by sleeping with the Alicent. He would have had 0 consequences.

Watching this series is gonna be hard now, i didn’t think id react as badly as i did to seeing the dragons get hurt :(

Luke’s clothes being found is perfectly fine I think. Vhagar probably coughed them up or crapped them out.

new video!

All hail King Aegon, The Sevens’ drunkest flier 💪💪

This episode painted Sunfyre into a much more tragic character for me, seeing how playful and innocent the dragon was before everything else that happens to it just breaks my heart

Just on your point about dragon math, the size and ages of the dragons seems to change with every list you look at, say for a few well known things, like Vhagar being the biggest during the Dance. The Greens have 4 dragons, yes, but they have Vhagar, the largest living dragon. They also have Dreamfyre, who, if I understand correctly, is also one of the biggest currently living dragons (Although considering that her rider is Heleana, that could pose somewhat of a problem). Sunfyre is out for the count currently and Tessarion (I think?) is absolutely tiny so who cares. The Blacks currently have Caraxes, Syrax and Vermax. Caraxes is huge and a beast, but Syrax and Vermax are a lot smaller. Moondancer is even smaller still. And then there's the tiny ones that also don't matter as much. The real tipping point is the unclaimed dragons, specifically, Vermithor. Vermithor is the second largest currently living dragon and has no rider. I have read the book, but considering how things play out in the book vs the show, I'm just going to ignore it for now and follow the shows logic. I've been thinking a lot about diminishing returns when it comes to the size of the dragons, and I think this episode actually shows some of Vhagar's weaknesses. She's massive, but she's also slow. She can't turn, speed up or slow down as easily as smaller dragons can. Not only that, she's heavy. If she hits the ground, she could be injured, and it also takes her much longer to take off in the first place, as we saw back in season 1. Vermithor on the other hand, is close to half Vhagar's age, but still gigantic. Could the younger, but still massive Vermithor take on Vhagar one on one? I'd say absolutely.

I just to know where is ser Harrold Wrestling he is not shown dead till now and he is a honourable man supporting rahenrya's claim so here is he or just the writers forgot about him

If anyone has ever read the book they would realise that Aegon despite his frailty and lack of knowledge was a good king considering the circumstances he inherited the crown. In the books, as the days and years went on he did show some good qualities and care for his role.

riddle me how the dang bus of a dragon keeps sneak attacking everyone 😆

7:05 THEORY: Maybe Sunfyre is just bigger

How do you think the dragon war in Westeros will play out in ASOIAF? Considering we have 3 dragons and 3 Targaryen cadet branches + 1 Greyjoy claimant who wants to unleash the apocalypse right now.

I'm just not sure how you hide a dragon the size of vhagar behind a castle wall... Or how, without room to take off, vhagar was able to get full momentum to fly up to catch, let alone ascend while biting maelys. Loved everything about the episode except the "stealth chomp" which seems to be a theme.... A huge dragon everyone can see coming should not be this stealthy.

divas down #crying

Not sure we can’t count Dreamfyre as a green dragon. Healena it’s never gonna climb in a dragon. And Vermithor, silver wing, seasmoke and sheep stealer might come into play on the black side

Melys looks like the dragon from shrek

This is where the real dragon time began.

It’s a rarely known point about dragon biology but clothes actually pass through their system intact 🤭

Sunfyre Is the best dragon, burns and all

vhagar just spamming the same attack over and over lol

At least now we know, that Sunfyre was no match for Meleys, and Aegon didnt slay shit, they just said that he defeated Meleys)

Gunfire is not Aegons cradle egg he came from dragonstone

So is Aemond king?

Spoiler for episode 5: Rhaenyra, upon hearing of the death of Rhaenys and Meleys, shoots steam out of her red face from her ears, shakes her fist towards the direction of King's Landing, and mumbles 'Why I oughta'

Caraxes isn't vulnerable he's da GOAT dragon

I was pleased with the spectacle, and Sunfyre was beautiful and had a fantastic sound design. Very enthralling. This episode was great, but the first half - Harrenhal especially - while with cool moments, a lot of it felt distracting from the main conflict of the episode. Think that stuff being in another episode would have been to the benefit of this one - more focused, the better.

Why not send another dragon to finish off sunfyre? Seems like a missed opportunity

0:55 why do people keep comparing dragons to nukes? They are more like napalm bombing air plains than nukes

BADASS to all the people saying she should have gone with daemon and kill aemond here is the thing vhagar was in kingslanding a dragon battle between meleys carraxes and vhagar would result in the complete destruction of the capital which is not what either sides want and some of you might say we dont care about the small folks well then dont care when meleys burst opened the dragon dome and killed hundreds of people and also she could have killed the greens but as much as the blacks hate the greens they are still her extended family and kinslaying is a mark no one wants to cross well maybe daemon she would rather face them in battle then kill them all off true badass and even though she died she did it in a badass way true legend and also she is the queen who never was she bows to no one let alone follow daemon and even with carraxes and meleys the outcome is still bleak as vhagar is the LARGEST dragon she would rather follow the queens orders rhenyras orders and part of me wants to belive that she knew this battle was gonna turn out brutal and thus volunteered to go then let syrax or vermax go which they would not stand a chance against not even sunfyre let alone vhagar she bows to no one and you expect her to flee at the sight of aemond hell no she would rather die and i know some yall thinking that dumb that stupid well she is a more skillful rider than both aegon and aemond yes i know most of you say weElL iF sHe WaS suCh a SkillFUl rider why did she die firsly she fought off two dragons at once second one of them was the largest dragon in the known world meleys is the fastest dragon but vhagar purely used her size against her that is not aemond being a good rider yes i know he did a little sneak up on her but meleys did that to sunfyre meleys and rheanys has a stronger bound as we see aemond can barely control his 184 year old nuke rheanys has experience and matureness and had it been vhagar alone she might have stood a chance but not sunfyre and vhagar and also could we just agree her confidence as she knows she can beat sunfyre him and aegon are not the problem meleys and them can swipe them out with a breeze hhe

That isn't meant to be a blue whale in the scaling diagram is it?!? 9:31

The way they had to lampshade what tf Rhaenyra was doing last episode is the only downside of this episode

The Dragon 🐉 Seeds will make up the difference for the blacks

You'd think since they want to empower women in this world you'd have I don't know Sabitha Frey be 30 and a warrior along with Black Aly and show Burning Mill where she kills Amos Bracken

Aemond is heir because Maelor doesn't exist and they can't put a female on the Throne or they'd lose all credibility

You say no spoilers and then say that Aegon isn't dead

Vhagar is a camper!

Rhaenys Targaryen warrior princess. She would've made a fine queen. May the Gods greet her with the grace and honor she displayed in battle, and in life ❤👸🐉

Hi quinn, I've always loved your videos, such a great RU-vidr. But I will unsuscribe now, it's not for you, it's for me, I need to let go this nonsense of ASOIAF I'm an adult, I should not be doing this to myself, begging an author to do his job? No more. At least from me he'll not have any more revenues from his unfinished job. I'm so done. I will eliminate everything that has to do with this universe. I feel so let down and used. This guy is making millions and mock us as if it were nothing. I'm so done. This will change nothing, but I can only look out for me, I will not be in this cycle anymore. We are delusional, this old man, loves all the attention and the money, but will not do his job nor give us the fans who supported him throughout this whole process what we payed for. An ending. Is so selfish of him. He Does owe us. A lot ! Like his whole wealth and fortune. His life and legacy. I'm so done.

Am i going mad? People are hyping this episode up like its gospel. 6/10 at best

the end of melys in the show was very stupid. it doesn't make sense sun fyre is the same size.