If a death doesn’t happen on screen, it hasn’t happened. That’s the general consensus of TV, and that’s why I firmly believed that two dragons survived the Battle at Rook’s Rest in House of the Dragon season 2. I didn’t even need to source material to believe that.
Now it looks like leaks from House of the Dragon season 3 have confirmed one of the two believed-to-be-dead dragons has survived. We know Vhagar survived considering her strength and size, despite some of the damage Meleys tried to do. In the end, Vhagar killed Meleys in the air, leading to Rhaenys’ death, but there was another dragon up in the skies.
Sunfyre was also in the battle in House of the Dragon season 2
Meleys had to take on both Sunfyre and Vhagar during the Battle at Rook’s Rest, and she did some significant damage to Sunfyre, who had King Aegon riding him. The two went down, and we would later find out that Aegon suffered some serious burns due to the attack.
At the end of the battle, it looked like Sunfyre had been killed. In fact, everyone seems to hint that Sunfyre was dead, but many book readers quickly pointed out that this would break source material far too much. There is a much bigger storyline for Sunfyre, and it looks like House of the Dragon season 3 is going to bring that story to life.
A Twitter fan account called House of the Dragons has long been right when it comes to leaks of the set. In a recent update, the fan account shared that Sunfyre was included in footage of House of the Dragon season 3, which indicates that he did survive after all.
Sunfyre kills an important Targaryen in Fire & Blood
We’re getting into MAJOR SPOILERS for Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin now, so if you haven’t read the source material and you don’t want to read it, then look away now.
In the source material, Sunfyre continues to play an important role. After the Battle at Rook’s Rest, he is seriously injured, and he’s unable to fly away at first. He’s fed the carcasses of the soldiers and then animals around the area to stay alive.
Eventually, Sunfyre is able to fly again, but he’s still on the injured side. However, that doesn’t stop him from fighting hard against Moondancer, Baela’s dragon, and eventually winning. He is injured further in that fight and is no longer able to fly, though, but there is still a major moment for him to come.
After Rhaenyra is captured by the Greens, Sunfyre gets to kill her. It’s after this that Sunfyre does eventually die, refusing to eat and suffering from festering wounds he previously gained. Considering the labrador energy Sunfyre has had in House of the Dragon, this isn’t a dragon death I’m looking forward to seeing play out.
House of the Dragon is available to stream on HBO Max.