"House of the Dragon" Season 2, Episode 4 Spoilers Ahead On Sunday, July 8, "House of the Dragon" gave everyone what they had been waiting for. Countless voices, from the fictional lords of the Green and Black Councils to certain fans hungry for carnage, called for the Game of Thrones spinoff to bring the action promised in Season 2, where Targaryens and dragons face off on the battlefield. In the fourth episode, "The Red Dragon and the Gold," the long-awaited battle for Rook's resting place really started the war, ending with the first big death and the first big cliffhanger of Season 2.

The battle begins with Sir Christon Cole (Fabian Frankel) and the Green Army attacking one of the Crownland castles near King's Landing as a detour in their campaign to retake Harrenhal. Sir Christon (who, despite his worst, is an excellent tactician) uses this castle as bait to lure out one of the black dragons, at which point Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and his beast Vhagar, who had been hiding, appear to fight. When Princess Léanis (Eve Best) and her dragon, Maryse, arrive to defend the castle, Christon sounds the signal for Vhagar to rush in, but is interrupted by King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Kearney) riding his (much smaller) dragon, Sunfire. The leader of the Greens flies into battle without informing his family, the council, or the army, and then goes up in smoke.

The House of Dragons spends episode 4 (and every Aegon scene since the season 2 premiere) laying the groundwork for this indiscretion. Even before his son Jayheeris II was beheaded by "blood and cheese," he was hungry for bloodshed against his aunt Lenira (Emma Darcy), the black leader and rival for the throne. A new king and a poor strategist, Aegon has no idea what he is doing, and the entire council, including his mother Alicent, played by Olivia Cooke, chooses to ignore him. Even the new King's Hand Christon departed for battle as quickly as possible. In short, Aegon's decision to go to battle himself was a desperate effort to win respect and reverence, which turned out to be a disaster.

Eamon (Ewan Mitchell), on the other hand, had been angry with his brother Aegon all season. Sure, Aemon's basic state of mind is intimidation, but it's clear that he thinks his brother is incompetent. In episode 3, Aegon also torments Aemon in a brothel. So when Aemon and his beast Vhagar join the fray, Aemon chooses to attack Rhaenys and Mairis without worrying about Aegon getting caught in the crosshairs of the dragon fire. The mortally wounded Sunfire crashes to the ground, and a few minutes later, Rhaenys and Maeley also die in the crash. (R.I.P. Rhaenys, the Queen Who Never Was.)

After the deaths are confirmed, the episode ends with Kriston searching for Aegon and finding the Sunfire's crash site. Aemon stands beside it with his sword drawn. He quietly picks up Aegon's fallen dagger and uses it to point to the motionless body of his brother, framed by a dying dragon. But the episode ends before it is confirmed that the king sitting on the Iron Throne is in fact dead. The series seems to want to keep this a cliffhanger, but luckily for impatient fans, the answer is in George R. R. Martin's novel Fire and Blood. Major spoilers for "Fire and Blood" ahead.

Miraculously, Aegon suffers "broken ribs, a broken hip, and burns covering half his body" and survives the dragon's fire in the battle of "Rook's Rest." His left arm was the worst. The dragon fire burned so hot that the king's armor melted into his flesh," Martin explains. Ouch.

Sunfiel also survives (...) but he is on the ground for a long time because Meleiz broke one of his wings. The dragon stays near Rook's resting place to recuperate, and Sir Christon deploys his men to protect Sunfiel, sending him sheep to eat, and eventually the dragon recovers enough to fly again. He is a bit out of shape, however, and one historian later describes him as "a great golden fire-breathing chicken."

In other words, although not dead, Aegon no longer counted; according to Fire and Blood magazine, he had been bedridden for over a year, sleeping "nine hours out of ten" and suffering from burns. Although nominally still king, Aymond became Prince Regent and Protector of the Realm, and Cole remained as Hand of the King.

Considering the stats of the war, the battle of Rook's Rest cannot be called a victory for either side. The Greens lost their king (temporarily) and the Blacks lost their MVP and their biggest dragon.

Of course, there is also the nagging question of whether HBO's televised version of "Dance of Dragons" will end up killing Aegon. That would be the biggest change from "Fire and Blood," but "House of Dragons" has already made a major book-to-film change in Season 2. Also, the major spoilers for "House of Dragons" included in "Game of Thrones" are vague enough that the prequel series could have a legitimate ending, with or without Aegon. Still, we hope that the series decides to maintain a plot similar to the main storyline in order to give the future story a major twist.