Joffrey Spoils Rhaenyra's House Of The Dragon Ending In Game Of Thrones
We tend to dislike spoilers for their ability to sap the surprise and raw emotion out of an occurrence that otherwise might have left our jaws on the floor. This article contains spoilers for "House of the Dragon," so proceed at your own risk or stop right here and wait to be stunned later.
If you've read George R. R. Martin's over 700-pages-long "Fire & Blood", which chronicles the past history of House Targaryen as interpreted by Archmaester Gyldayn, a historian whose narration is not entirely reliable, you have an idea of how the famous Dance of Dragons plays out. However, due to this unreliability, book readers are still able to be shocked by how "House of the Dragon" chooses to portray some of the events narrated by Gyldayn.
But you needn't have read the novel to be spoiled about one of the major deaths that occurs during the bloody Targaryen civil war. If you are one of the many fans who watched the eight seasons of "Game of Thrones" before delving into the prequel, and if your memory serves you better than most, you might remember how a certain despised character described "House of the Dragon" protagonist Rhaenyra Targaryen's fate well before the prequel premiered.
A tragic end to our Black Queen
Who best to be the malicious bearer of spoilers than Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson)? Cersei (Lena Headey) and Jaime Lannister's (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) firstborn bastard son is, even up to now, perhaps one of the most hated characters in the franchise. Indeed, even when "House of the Dragon" was years away from production, Joffrey had already spoiled what would happen to Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) during the Dance of Dragons.
In Season 3, Episode 4, Joffrey is giving a tour of the Sept of Baelor, which hosts the bodies of deceased royals after they pass away, to his betrothed Margaery Tyrell (Natalie Dormer). One of these bodies — or rather, ashes — belonged to Aerion Targaryen, whose death Joffrey also describes to Margaery, explaining that he died as a result of drinking wildfire, erroneously thinking it would help him transform into a dragon. Spoiler: It didn't.
But before mentioning Aerion, Joffrey talks about Rhaenyra. Fans of the Black Queen will be certainly saddened to know that her fate is as tragic as can be. And, as told by a smiling, mocking Joffrey, even more aggravating.
Joffrey tells Margaery that Rhaenyra was "murdered by her brother, or rather, his dragon," adding with perverse glee that the creature ate her while her son watched. If you are wondering which brother, what dragon, and which son, the respective answers are Alicent Hightower's (Olivia Cooke) son Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), his golden dragon Sunfyre, and Rhaenyra's son, Aegon the Younger.
"What's left of her is buried in the crypts right down there," Joffrey says before walking off, as if he knew he'd just dropped a massive spoiler bomb that would still echo in years to come. We'll have to wait and see how "House of the Dragon" will choose to portray this brutal, tragic, and traumatic demise.