In House of the Dragon Episode 10, Rhaenyra needs to find allies who will support her claim as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. She reluctantly sends her sons Jacaerys and Lucerys as messengers to House Arryn, Stark, and Baratheon, deciding that the latter is a safe one that Luke could easily handle. This turns out to be a mistake because Aemond Targaryen is already at Storm’s End where he threatens Lucerys yet again. Although Lord Borros Baratheon stops them from fighting each other, Aemond chases after Luke and Arrax and Vhagar kills the boy and his dragon.
The episode concludes with Daemon Targaryen informing Rhaenyra of Luke’s death and she begins to grieve her son. However, the queen is also infuriated by the news and she appears to be ready to wage war on the Greens. Emma D’Arcy has spoken up about the sequence in the latest episode of Inside the Episode and they confirmed that losing Luke was the straw that broke the dragon’s back. “What I think is really affecting about it, within a series that, you know, there is a lot of loss, there’s a lot of death, there is a lot of pain of different sorts, and yet somehow, I think this moves the goalposts for suffering,” D’Arcy said.
“Once you’ve lost both your parents and you’ve lost a lover, maybe you think you know grief,” they continued. “And then, I think what’s so awful is that losing Luke tells her she knows nothing about grief, and completely changes her outlook on the world moving forward.” It certainly looks like Rhaenyra is ready to avenge her son and that’s something to look forward to in House of the Dragon Season 2.
