‘House of the Dragon’ Season 1 Finale: 5 Things You May Have Missed, From Vermithor to Aemond’s White Walker-Esque Eye

One of the coolest Easter eggs in the House of the Dragon finale called back to Episode 1 (and even further in the past). When Ser Otto arrives at Dragonstone to give Rhaenyra terms of surrender, he is essentially scoffed at. However, he offers one thing to Rhaenyra that gives her pause, even if it confuses Daemon. It’s a single torn page of illuminated manuscript. What is the meaning of this page? Why did Alicent send it to Rhaenyra?

Well, if you can remember Episode 1 of House of the Dragon, young Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) and Alicent (Emily Carey) were the best of friends, giggling through King’s Landing and gossiping in the godswood. While in the godswood, Alicent tested Rhaenyra’s knowledge of Westerosi history and Rhaenyra not only aced the pop quiz, but tore a page from Alicent’s history book in rebellion. That page? This page.

Alicent has sent the page as a way of leveraging their past friendship in this fraught situation. It’s meant to be a reminder that they were once best buds and that Alicent still cares about Rhaenyra.

Of course, being that this is House of the Dragon, there is an extra layer of Easter egg in this single shot. This specific page tells part of the story of Nymeria, the Rhoynish queen who led her people across oceans from Essos to Dorne. Nymeria is an iconic female figure in the world of George R.R. Martin. So much so, Arya Stark names her direwolf after her. And yes, HBO is developing a series about this mythic queen.

This specific page tells of how Nymeria lashed her 10,000 ships together to weather storms. Symbolic? Probably. But is it symbolizing how the realm must be lashed together or how Rhaenyra is grasping at supporters?

One cool thing about the House of the Dragon finale is we finally got a true sense of how big dragons can get when left unchecked. Of course, it was hard to miss how much the centuries old Vhagar dwarfed Lucerys’s baby dragon Arrax at Storm’s End, but there was another huge dragon in this episode.

After pointing out how many random dragons the Blacks have just hanging out on Dragonstone, Daemon Targaryen is dispatched to seek out the most illustrious of them all. Armed only with a torch and Valyrian lullabies, Daemon faces down a shaggy, older dragon the captions tell us is Vermithor.

So who is Vermithor? Vermithor was the dragon ridden by King Jaehaerys, aka the old guy who was king before Viserys. Because Jaehaerys had such a long life and reign, Vermithor was allowed to grow to huge proportions. According to the books, Vermithor was a very big boy. The only dragons known to be bigger? Balerion the Dread (who is dead by this time) and Vhagar.

The largest dragon in Westeros at this time is indeed Aemond’s Vhagar. Vermithor is also huge, but not quite as big as the much older dragon. Daemon’s Caraxes seems to be the third largest dragon we’ve met so far. While Rhaenys’s dragon Meleys should technically be a lot bigger given her age, she’s a mid-size dragon. Seasmoke and Syrax are also in that middle range. The younger Targaryens’ dragons are all much smaller as they only hatched in the cradle of their riders.

A pivotal moment in House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 10 is when Jace volunteers the younger dragonriders as emissaries. He argues that dragons are faster than ravens and more convincing. He’s also, clearly, hungry to prove himself as his mother’s heir. Jace’s idea sends his brother to an early grave, but where is Jace off to? Well, that’s rather more fun…

We’re told in House of the Dragon “The Black Queen” that Jace will fly north, first to treat with Aemma Arryn’s cousin Lady Jeyne Arryn, and then to Winterfell to deal with someone named Cregan Stark.

While we’re not told much about Lady Jeyne Arryn, Rhaenyra does tell Jace that he’s closer in age to Cregan Stark and she hopes they can find something in common. Not to get all smug book reader, but Cregan Stark is hands down one of the coolest characters in this entire saga. Ironically known later as “the Old Man in the North,” he’s your typical no-nonsense Stark through and through and I’m personally stoked that we might get to meet him (and some other members of his family) next season.

Instead of getting to meet the cool Lord Cregan Stark, we had to deal with the literally boorish Lord Borros Baratheon (Roger Evans) in last night’s episode. Rhaenyra warns her son Luke that he is a proud man, but it seems he’s also an illiterate one?

Let’s back up for a second. Who is Borros Baratheon? He is the son of Lord Boremund Baratheon (Julien Lewis Jones), the relatively nice dude who put up with young Rhaenyra’s rudeness in his hall and who stanned his cousin Rhaenys for the Iron Throne. His son, on the other hand, is not quite the man Boremund was.

When Lucerys arrives at Storm’s End, he’s given a chilly reception before meeting Borros, his four unwed daughters, and Aemond. Lord Borros straight up tells Luke that he will not hold fast to the oath made by his father decades ago. All he wants a prince to marry one of his four daughters and since Lucerys has been recently betrothed to Rhaena, Rhaenyra has nothing to offer House Baratheon.

While the books make it clear that Lord Borros’s daughters have personalities of their own, the only extra character shading the show gives us is an awkward moment when Lord Borros needs a maester to read Rhaenyra’s offer for him. The implication is that Lord Borros is illiterate.

There is a darker shade to this moment, though. As we mentioned before, there’s a fan theory that the Hightowers are working with the maesters to bring House Targaryen down. The fact that Lord Borros doesn’t read the message himself, that he allows his maester to impart Rhaenyra’s words to him, is honestly suspicious. Who knows if the maester is giving Lord Borros the full scope of Rhaenyra’s offer? Or maybe he’s twisting her words to sound rude and entitled? Much to consider…

One of the most metal moments of the House of the Dragon Season 1 finale comes when Aemond takes off his eyepatch to reveal…a White Walker eye?? No, that’s not right. It’s a star sapphire, i.e. a very fancy blue gemstone that he’s placed where his old eye used to be.

While it’s never explicitly pointed out or explained in the episode — sigh — we have seen a glimpse of Aemond’s canonical star sapphire eye accessory in the House of the Dragon opening credits. A glittering blue gem is what represents Aemond in the blood line of sigils we see before each episode.

So what’s the deal with the star sapphire? It’s basically Aemond pulling a Tyrion Lannister when it comes to his missing eye. Remember how Tyrion told Jon Snow that the world would never forget he’s a bastard so he should just own it? Aemond is owning his missing eye by using a very rare jewel in its place. In the books, he keeps the eye patch on most of the time to not scare folks. You know, because it looks kind of eerie!

As for the fact that it makes Aemond look kind of like a White Walker… Well, that might be intentional. Not so much as a sign of what’s to come, but a thematic nod to the threats House Targaryen faces. Rhaenyra has been worrying about the threat of the White Walkers this entire season, but maybe the real monster was in her own family this whole time.