House of the Dragon is playing coy. Episode 4 of Season 3 included a scene where Aegon bumped into what appears to be the corpse of his dragon, Sunfyre, supposedly killed during the Battle of Rook’s Rest. However, this seems very much like a fake-out, especially since both the source material, Fire & Blood, and Game of Thrones itself, have already spoiled it.
The clues are all there if you’re looking for them, but needless to say, unpacking this little ruse may well significantly spoil developments later in this season and beyond. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Game of Thrones Confirmed What Happened to Sunfyre
The main thing to pay attention to is Game of Thrones itself. Back in Episode 4 of Season 3, Joffrey Baratheon gloated to Margaery Tyrell that Rhaenyra Targaryen was murdered by her brother’s dragon; that he ate her while her son watched. Aegon is Rhaenyra’s brother, and Sunfyre is his dragon. We don’t exactly need Poirot to work this out.
This also coincides with the events depicted in George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood. In that novel, Sunfyre survives the battle of Rook’s Rest, albeit badly wounded, and gradually heals enough that he can fly again. He’s still badly compromised, but he’s alive.
Notably, as Joffrey described, Sunfyre also eats Rhaenyra. House of the Dragon has already changed plenty of details from the source material, including its handling of Daeron and potentially even Maelor, but this would be a gigantic deviation that, thanks to being name-checked in Game of Thrones, would also create an obvious plot hole.
Aegon Knows Sunfyre Is Alive
Despite outward appearances, when Aegon encounters Sunfyre, he’s adamant that the dragon is alive. This is written off by Larys as a kind of childish fancy, but it’s characteristic of how dragons and dragon riding work in this universe.
Dragons and their riders have an incredibly deep, intuitive bond. We’ve often seen how dragons reject potential riders, almost always resulting in the would-be rider’s demise, but by the same token, once a rider is accepted, the bond runs deep.
Even though the show hasn’t been very explicit about how all this works, it has provided enough clues for us to know that Aegon’s sensing Sunfyre is alive is significant.
A Useful Counterpoint
I made a note in the recap that this latest episode included not just one “dead” dragon, but two. We also saw Meleys, the Red Queen, who was killed in the same battle. And she was very dead, visibly much worse for wear than Sunfyre.
Again, this is a pretty obvious clue. In showing us what a properly dead dragon looks like, it’s also planting seeds in our minds that Sunfyre doesn’t quite look like that. Like Aegon being able to sense the dragon is alive, we’re subtly being told that Sunfyre isn’t quite done and dusted just yet.
Nothing Is An Accident
Most people are familiar with the dramatic concept of Chekhov’s Gun, which states that if a gun is introduced into a story, it must be fired. In other words, every element of a story should be necessary, and anything unnecessary should be excised.
This doesn’t always hold true, but it holds true often enough that simply seeing Sunfyre on-screen is a big clue. The show went out of its way to have Aegon and Larys stumble upon Sunfyre so that the audience could see him. That way, it’ll feel less like an ass-pull when he inevitably shows up again alive.
Call it Chekhov’s Dragon, if you will.
Either way, I think we can say with a degree of certainty that Sunfyre isn’t dead at all, and that there are very big plans for the dragon in the future – plans that, likely, won’t be especially well-received by Rhaenyra Targaryen.
