House of the Dragon episode 9 focuses on the fallout of King Viserys' death, with the greens manoeuvring to use the loss of the monarch to their advantage. It's an episode packed with major happenings – but one event in particular is set-up by the episode's most dramatic moment.
Before we go any further, consider this your major spoiler warning! The following will delve into massive book spoilers along with show spoilers, including the fate of key characters, so turn back now if you don't want to know what future seasons of House of the Dragon might cover!
If you're still here, you're ready to hear about the spoilers. In the show, the Targaryen civil war has only just begun, but eventually it's going to lead to multiple tragedies, deaths, and disasters. One such tragedy is the storming of the Dragonpit, which causes the death of one of Rhaenyra's sons, five dragons, and countless civilians and Dragonkeepers – and is already being set-up in the show.
"Meleys killing all of those people is set-up/justification for the storming of the Dragonpit," predicts one viewer on Reddit. Episode 9 ends with Rhaenys bursting from the Dragonpit atop Meleys during Aegon's coronation. Dragon and rider face down the gathered Targaryens and Hightowers, who have successfully usurped the Iron Throne. Rhaenys turns and flies away without killing any of them, but the havoc of her big entrance kills an untold amount of the innocent people gathered to watch the ceremony.
In George R.R. Martin's Fire and Blood, the storming of the Dragonpit happens while Rhaenyra is reigning in King's Landing. The common people rise up in a deadly riot, which a religious prophet known as the Shepherd spurs on, telling the fearful public that the only way to be saved from a fiery death when Aegon's army arrives at the city is to kill the dragons kept in the Dragonpit.
The four dragons kept chained inside – Shrykos, Morghul, Tyraxes, and Dreamfyre – are all attacked and butchered by the rioters. Dreamfyre flies into the ceiling of the Dragonpit during the chaos, which brings half of it down and kills everyone inside, including Dreamfyre herself.
As the carnage is unfolding, Rhaenyra's son Joffrey Velaryon, whose dragon is Tyraxes, secretly takes his mother's dragon Syrax and rides the creature over the city, heading for the Dragonpit. Sadly, though, Syrax doesn't want to accept a different rider and shakes Joffrey off. He falls to his death from Syrax's back.
As if things couldn't get any worse, Syrax is then slaughtered when she attacks the surviving rioters after the Dragonpit's collapse. Instead of raining fire on them from above, Syrax lands and goes at them with her teeth and sharp claws, so the rioters are able to attack her directly. Rhaenyra can only watch the whole thing from the Red Keep, powerless to intervene.
Considering Meleys and Rhaenys are directly responsible for the death of so many of the smallfolk at Aegon's coronation, it's not a stretch to imagine this event might come up again as another motive to slay the dragons in King's Landing. After all, the creatures are killed in the very place so many of the common folk died in episode 9. Even if it's not one of the rioters' reasons to attack, though, the sight of so much destruction in this key location foreshadows the looming catastrophe.
See our House of the Dragon release schedule to find out when the finale drops in your time zone, and in the meantime, check out our guide to the Targaryen family tree to get up to speed on Westeros's ruling family.
