Highlights
- House of the Dragon has already proven to be a brutal prequel to Game of Thrones, with several on-screen deaths that are both shocking and gruesome. Here are some of the most horrifying and violent deaths in the series so far:
- Aemma Targaryen – Sacrificed for the King’s Heir (Season 1, Episode 1: “The Heirs of the Dragon”)
- Vaemond Velaryon – Decapitated in the Throne Room (Season 1, Episode 8: “The Lord of the Tides”)
Throughout its eight-season run, Game of Thrones gained a reputation for producing some of the most barbarous deaths ever seen on television. House of the Dragon may only have recently embarked on its second season, but HBO’s latest foray into Westeros has already demonstrated on multiple occasions that the prequel charting the “Dance of the Dragons” will be continuing this storied tradition.
Whether the unfortunate character in question is being slashed into pieces, torn apart by dragon fangs or bludgeoned into a puddle of viscera, it’s safe to say that House of the Dragon is decidedly not the show for any viewers with a weak stomach. With the civil war yet to kick off in earnest, a blank canvas for a litany of more horrific deaths ominously beckons.
10 Aemma Targaryen
Sacrificed For The King’s Heir
- Season 1, Episode 1: “The Heirs of the Dragon”
House of the Dragon set the show’s tone for brutality before the first episode had even closed with the heart-wrenching death of Rhaenyra’s mother Aemma. With complications ensuing as the Queen attempts to give birth to Viserys’ long-awaited son Baelon, the King makes the appalling decision to sacrifice his wife’s life in a last-ditch attempt to save his heir.
Aemma’s horrified screams of despair as the reality of her fate sets in are beyond harrowing, a devastating sequence that lingers in the viewer’s mind long after the scene ends. The fact that her torturous demise is rendered utterly futile when “The Heir for a Day” perishes shortly after is the nail in the most traumatic of coffins.
9 Vaemond Velaryon
Decapitated In The Throne Room
- Season 1, Episode 8: “The Lord of the Tides”
Considering that it was the only part of his head that he managed to keep, it’s darkly ironic that Vaemond Velaryon’s tongue cost him his life. With his elder brother Corlys incapacitated by injury, Vaemond attempted to seize the opportunity to supplant Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys as the heir to Driftmark.
The outspoken Velaryon’s carefully laid plans were unfortunately thrown into disarray by King Viserys crawling off his deathbed to affirm his grandson’s inheritance. An incensed Vaemond proceeds to make the fatal mistake of launching into an apopleptic tirade at the King and labelling Rhaenyra’s children as illegitimate. Before the open-mouthed court even has time to draw breath, Daemon brutally slashes Vaemond’s head in two with Dark Sister from behind.
8 Craghas Drahar
Split In Half By Daemon
- Season 1, Episode 3: “Second of His Name”
More commonly known as the Crab Feeder, Craghas Drahar is undoubtedly the owner of House of the Dragon’s most barbarous off-screen demise. A Prince-Admiral of the Triarchy with a penchant for feeding his enemies to crustaceans, the greyscale afflicted Drahar entered the fray when his forces ruthlessly seized control of the Stepstones.
Drahar’s forces are eventually overwhelmed with the help of a one-man army charge by Daemon Targaryen, with the Rogue Prince pursuing a fleeing Craghas into a cave. A blood soaked Daemon soon emerges, dragging the Crab Feeder’s bisected remains behind him before callously discarding his foe’s corpse in the surf for the crabs to feast on.
7 Jaehaerys Targaryen
Beheaded In His Crib
- Season 2, Episode 1: “A Son for a Son”
The first episode of House of the Dragon’s second season provided a swift and ferocious reminder of just how devoid of morality George R.R. Martin’s universe can be. In the aftermath of Lucerys’ death at the hands of Aemond and Vhagar, a vengeful Daemon sends a pair of assassins into the Red Keep in the dead of night to extract revenge.
Unable to locate Aemond, Blood and Cheese settle for murdering the sleeping Prince Jaehaerys instead. Clamping a hand over the child’s mouth to muffle his screams, the killers proceed to decapitate Aegon’s eldest son in utterly harrowing fashion. The sickening sounds of a blade sawing through the young boy’s throat make this a front-runner for House of the Dragon’s most shocking demise to date.
6 Lucerys Velaryon
Torn Apart By Vhagar
- Season 1, Episode 10: “The Black Queen”
While Lucerys Velaryon died in an instant, that did little to take away from the ferocious nature of his death. After Rhaenyra sends her son to Storm’s End to treat with Lord Borros Baratheon, the heir to Driftmark is confronted by his cousin Aemond; a man who holds a deadly grudge against his relative for the loss of his eye.
After his advances are scorned by Lord Baratheon, Luke and his dragon Arrax are pursued by Aemond on his collosal mount Vhagar. After Arrax enrages Vhagar with a burst of flame, the gargantuan she-dragon emerges from the clouds like an airborne great white shark from the depths, ripping the unfortunate pair into bloody tatters before the audience even has time to blink in shock.
5 Lord Beesbury
Skull Crushed By Criston Cole
- Season 1, Episode 9: “The Green Council”
While his intentions were honorable, Lord Lyman Beesbury’s loyalty to Viserys Targaryen cost the Master of Coin his life. As the Greens swiftly move to seize control of King’s Landing, Beesbury finds himself as the sole Black loyalist on the Small Council.
Rising to his feet in outrage at the Greens’ treachery, Lyman is forcibly returned to his seat by Criston Cole. That’s actually somewhat of an understatement; Cole slams Beesbury back into his chair with such force that he crushes the elderly lord’s skull on his marble of office. Lyman’s corpse is left silently leaking blood as the Council resumes in decidedly macabre fashion.
4 Rhea Royce
Head Caved In By Daemon
- Season 1, Episode 5: “We Light the Way”
The estranged wife of Daemon Targaryen, Rhea Royce met a particularly nasty end halfway through House of the Dragon’s first season. Rhea is confronted by her husband in the remote hills outside Runestone, where the Rogue Prince spooks her horse into bucking its rider onto the rocky floor below.
Paralyzed from the force of the fall, things don’t get much better for Rhea from there. Daemon wordlessly performs the coup de grâce on his stricken wife after she mocks his manhood, brutally caving her skull in with a large rock in a sequence that mercifully takes place off-screen.
3 Harwin and Lyonel Strong
Burned Alive In Their Beds
- Season 1, Episode 6: “The Princess and the Queen”
The true extent of Larys Strong’s Machiavellian nature was revealed when the “Clubfoot” murdered his brother and father to allow Otto Hightower to return as Hand of the King. While this would be shocking enough in itself, the sickening manner in which Larys’ assassins dispatch Harwin and Lyonel Strong is enough to make even most hardened viewer wince.
The Lord Confessor’s minions barricade the sleeping pair in their rooms before setting the castle of Harrenhal alight in the dead of night. “Breakbones” and his father’s final moments are spent screaming in agony, choking on smoke and surrounded by white-hot flames. The pair endure such appalling final moments that it’s an absolute mercy when the roof eventually caves in on them.
2 Erryk Cargyll
Falling On His Own Sword In Despair
- Season 2, Episode 2: “Rhaenyra the Cruel”
One half of the Cargyll twins, Erryk Cargyll’s reward for his loyalty to Rhaenyra was a heartbreaking demise of the highest order. After Criston Cole dispatches his twin Arryk to assassinate Rhaenyra on Dragonstone, Erryk is forced to duel and eventually kill his beloved brother.
Unable to live with the horror of his actions, Erryk pleads with his Queen to forgive him before falling on his sword in appallingly graphic fashion. While the Kingsguard knight dies almost instantaneously, the traumatic sound of sword ramming through flesh coupled with his lifeless slump to the floor is a sequence that viewers won’t be forgetting any time soon.
1 Joffrey Lonmouth
Face Smashed In By Criston Cole
- Season 1, Episode 5: “We Light The Way”
It’s going to be exceedingly difficult for House of the Dragon to top Joffrey Lonmouth’s death in terms of sheer visceral savagery. Laenor Velaryon’s young lover made the fatal error of prodding Criston Cole about his affection for Rhaenyra in the immediate aftermath of their romantic relationship’s breakdown.
An incensed Criston beats Joffrey to death with the ferocity of an enraged silverback gorilla, literally caving the Knight of Kisses’ skull in with his mailed fist. By the time Cole’s bloodlust has subsided, Lonmouth is utterly unrecognizable; a gory mess of broken bone and ripped flesh where his face used to be.
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