That sh** hit me when Meleys looked back at princess Rhaenys before they fell out the sky

It still puzzles me how a gigantic dragon keeps ambushing smaller and faster dragons.

I think, it depended on Rhaenys, that they lost. She decided to fly away when Vhagar fell on the ground, instead of attacking her. From that position, Meleys also just simply could have killed Aemond with dragonfire. Anyway the death of Rhaenys and Meleys just really hurt me. :(

when vhagar fell, there is no logical explanation why Rhaenys did not go for the kill, or even dracarys Aemond

It's all down to Rhaenys hesitation. Rhaenys should have fled or gone for the kill straight after downing Vhagar. It seems Rhaenys character is that of hesitation and it hasn't served her well. She hesitated to incinerate the greens at the coronation, then failed to eliminate Vhagar when Daemon asked her to join him and finally found her demise second guessing her decision to attack. Poor choices

Killing the rider alone is much more tactical

How can you lose sight of a jumbo jet??????

Yes she absolutely could have. She bodied Vhagar. If Rhaenys had flown down to attack Vhagar while she was down Meleys could have killed her

The moment Vhagar crashed into the ground. Meleys rider could have had her burn Aemond alive on the spot.

The way Vhagar ambushed Meleys was kind of senseless. A slow giant dragon is somehow behind a small keep waiting for the fastest dragon to pass by. It would require an explosive takeoff from Vhagar that seems physically impossible. We have seen multiple times how hard it is for Vhagar to take off.

Meleys could have easily won if rehnys just kept tailing vhaghar just like she did with sunfyre , like jets in a dog fight ...stay above vhaghar keep burning aemond and target her wings ....as meleys is more nimble even if vhaghar were to try to get close she could have evaded .... Even at last she should have tried to take height so that she can spot vhaghar .... And above else as she managed to put vhaghar on the ground she should have kept an eye .... There is no way she expected her to be injured just because of a crash.... I feel bad for meleys man.. ......

In all honesty vaghar should have broken her wings with that fall

Despite Vaghar being the biggest thing on Earth, she is surprisingly good at hiding!

Size doesnt matter when you are flat on your back- but then again if Melys killed Vhagar, that would have pretty much ended the dance , and we all dont want that

How can meleys not sense vhegar coming up to bite her??? I hate when shit doesn’t make sense.

It was like the fight between Oberyn and The Mountain but with Dragons!!!

I think Meleys could of given Vhagar a good fight with a good possibility of winning do to how fast she is, you can see how slow Vhagar is, the ONLY reason she lost was of course Vhagar's surprise attack which I was actually surprised that happened, especially given Vhagars HUGE size and not see that coming for you???, that fight was hard to watch how Meley's died :(.

its ridiculous how a godzilla sized dragon can perform an ambush

Meleys never stood a chance of beating Vhagar in a 1v1. So many people aren't understanding what happened in this fight. Meleys didn't knock vhagar down, it's actually the exact opposite. Vhagar was the one who brought the fight down to the ground As vhagar and meleys flew towards each other, Vhagar grabbed Meleys by the leg and broke it, then began dragging meleys down to the ground. Vhagar knew meleys wouldn't be able to take flight again with a broken leg, which would've made her a sitting duck. As they got closer to the ground Vhagar had to release meleys leg so she could start slowing her own descent rate, thus cushioning her landing. Meleys almost touched the ground, but she had just enough time/altitude to flap her wings to create lift and save herself from impact with the ground.

How Rhaenys feels about kin (at least how the show writers portray her) maybe why she didn't rain down fire on Aemond, when Meleys was able to stay in the air and Vhagar wasn't. The look Meleys gives before they turn back.

When Vhagar crashed onto the ground, Meleys could have done a sharp turn and laid fire to Aemon. Concluding that Vhagar would have been emotionally disconnected and now riderless at that point, therefore having less of an incline to continue the fight for the greens. Meleys was definitely a formidable fighter. Rhaenys and The Red Queen Meleys were my favorite from the very beginning in the show.

4:18 half the size?!?!?!? She was 1/3 on the screen when they both were falling down

I am waiting for Caraxes to avenge the red queen meleys 😭

I'm not sure there was a better all around fighting dragon (based on the show versions so far) than Meleys. That being said I think they should have kept it more like the books, bc the Vhagar unrealistic ambush attacks will get old fast. If vhagar attacked from above while Sunfyre and Meleys were locked up it would just make a ton more sense. Meleys looked big/strong enough to kill or inflict heavy damage to Vhagar IMO, but I don't think the eagle attack from a head on merge would be the ideal way either. It would be easy for her to get in a trail position and not allow Vhagar to attack her face up. It will be interesting how they do the fight w/ Caraxes, bc unlike Meleys, show version Caraxes doesn't look to have the head/jaw size to really inflict damage on Vhagars giant neck. Show Caraxes looks like he weighs much less than Meleys w/ less muscular strength. Much smaller jaws too. They should have made him a good bit bigger IMO.

I think a lot of people are pretending too hard to be experts on dragon on dragon combat. Even ignoring that they have minds and wills of their own and that they're not mindless beasts or fighter jets, by the time Meleys had thrown Vhagar to the ground she was tired and injured. Her leg was fucked (which would make it near impossible to grapple and, seeing as shes still a living thing, would mean she was in a LOT of pain) and one of her spines had been ripped off, which clearly hurt. Meleys was in pain, injured, and tired. That look she gave Rhaenys while they were flying made that clear, and they'd already suffered some of Vhagar's fire. Now could Meleys have gotten above Vhagar before they clashed? Maybe. Shes faster, but Vhagar was over twice the size with more combat experience. She and Aemond would either try to match her ascent, or (what i would do) they'd dive lower before rising towards Meleys to still meet her head on. Which is more likely especially considering how much Vhagar likes her "from down under" approach. Going under Vhagar in their initial encounter where the larger dragon can't grab Meleys with her jaws as easily was the right move the more i think about it, as the only way they were getting on top of Vhagar is if she was distracted or static. She may be slower, but Vhagar is pretty clearly not slow despite her size and age. Now when Meleys threw Vhagar to the ground as already clarified, she was exhausted, injured, and chances are she was terrified. She just came out of one fight and immediately entered another with a dragon much larger than her. Had she and Rhaenys turned back in time though they could have killed Aemond. Or if they had even continued to fly away from the battlefield. But what everyone also seems to ignore is that it would have taken very little time for Vhagar to run to the cliff and dive down, as she was already starting to do the moment she hit the ground because staying grounded was a death sentence and she knew it. So Meleys didnt have much time TO turn back and get Vhagar in the first place, or rather to get Aemond on her back. Had Meleys not fought Sunfyre previously, had she been fresh and her blood roaring, then it's likely that she would have been in the mindset to immediately turn back on Vhagar in time and go for Aemond, as would Rhaenys who was likely already tired of bloodshed. But in the end, Rhaenys isn't a cold and unfeeling person, and Meleys isn't a mindless monster. They feel. They think. And that was their undoing. Had Rhaenys and Meleys been more like Daemon and Ceraxes in their temperament, this would be Aemonds end. Possibly Vhagars as well. But they're not. It's what made Rhaenys a better person at the end of the day and Meleys reputed as a queen, and not a brute. As unfortunate as that may be for everyone else after this fight.

Vhagar was dominate that whole entire fight. Vhagar was the one that grabbed Meleys. Vhagar was the one who did the most significant fire damage and melee damage to both rider and Dragon. People think that Meleys won the fight when Vhagar went crashing towards the ground. Which is just dead wrong. You have to take into count the size difference between them. It's much eaiser for a dragon half the size to be able to regain flight from such a position. Vhagar is the one to push Meleys away before she hit the ground to save herself and Aemond. If Meleys was in control she would of kept hold of Vhagar's feet so Vhagar couldn't turn and fall on her back killing Aemond and hurting herself. In a free fall, let alone a spinning freefall where two dragons are entangled and fighting. It's hard for Vhagar to regain flight. The only chance is if Meleys quickly turned back around when Vhagar hit the ground to try and get the advantage. But either Aemond or Vhagar could of seen her do this and Vhagar could of turned around in time. There's a reason that Daemon and Caraxes had to commit suicide to kill Aemond and Vhagar.

i dont know about vhagar but she could have easiy roasted aemond after vhagar fell to the ground. stupid decison to fly away at that moment instead of attacking.

She couldve killed the entire green at S1, lesson learned, kill your enemy while you have the upper hand.

I agree Meleys could have absolutely killed Vhagar if Rhaenys didn’t go there as basically a suicide mission 😭 when Vhagar fell to the ground Rhaenys should have had Meleys immediately ascend into the air and dive bomb them when Aemond rose back into the sky looking for them. That way Meleys would have been on Vhagars back, killed Aemond, AND had had free reign to do as much damage as possible while forcing Vhagar to hit the ground hard without giving her time to right herself in the air, thus killing her. Vhagar is huge and experienced in warfare sure, but she’s also old and SLOW. Meleys, while not as young as the young dragons the other Targaryens have save Daemon, is still relatively in her prime dragon wise and is smaller and thus faster. I have no flipping idea why none of the riders deploy proper fighting tactics 😭

I don't know how and if Meleys could of won but what I know for sure it's that is bad writing that sneak attack of Vhaghar who ended the fight. I mean it's impossible not to see a dragon as big as a Boeing 747 let's be serious...

after killing the king she could have just fly back and report, they didn't know there were 2 dragons let alone Vhagar

Based on lore, Meleys is faster and arguably more vicious than Vhagar. Could have easily beat her by outpacing and striking, but we have to follow the books.

I feel like if she could get above vhagar and slam down on her back and possibly crushing Aemond it would have been over

Vaghar is apparently "the greatest power in the realm" but she only wins by surprise attack 🤔?

It’s hard for some people not to be biased and it shows when people favor Meleys over Vhagar. Meleys had no chance to win, even if she was my favorite of the two. The only victory that could be had from her and Rhaenys is if they killed Aemond, which would actually be plausible; but they weren’t killing Vhagar. When you see the two dragons lock together it is Meleys that is burnt, battered and injured with her grappling leg, which is seen held close to her body after she flies off. Vhagar on the other hand shrugged off the fall and without a beat raced off in anger. If you rinse and repeat the process it would be Meleys that would succumb to injury. And even if Meleys did bite into Vhagar on the neck she would have died herself. Not a spoiler but it’s made very clear that should a dragon latch onto a larger one on the neck it’s then vulnerable to being clawed and and torn apart, especially when you factor in the size disparity.

It amazes me how no one has noticed Meleys' right leg was fucked..

The Red Queen would have ripped-apart Granny's belly over-time just like we saw when she maimed her belly the first time. Granny+Aemond realized Granny could not afford another head-on faceoff against the Red Queen and decided to sneak up on her.

Wonder what Vhagar eats since she has a big stomach and needs bigger prey. Some sort of big mammal like elephants to keep her going.

Just a note that a lot of the images you're showing while mentioning Vhagar are actually Vermithor~

I noticed Meleys has a distinct tactic where she would bite to take hold of the enemy dragon then rake its belly/chest with claws of its hind legs. Did it with Sunfyre and Vhagar.

The fact Vhagar was able to make it to the cliff side to ambush Vhagar makes it pretty clear that Vhagar was quickly able to recover. Meleys wasn’t going to be able to make this unheard of perfect attack while Vhagar was on the ground. The ground is the worst place to engage a large dragon as it now doesn’t have to worry about falling, it can just grab you and thrash about, which is what we will eventually see if the show follows the book

Could Meleys defeat Vhagar 1 on 1? Yes definately. The match up is absolutely still in Vhagar's favour, but Meleys would not be defencless. This battle actually highlights one of Vhagar's most crippling weaknesses. If she falls from the sky, she'll take much longer to get back up than other dragons. Now of course, if both dragons were on the ground, Vhagar would crush pretty much any of the one on one (Except maybe Vermithor) but if the other is in the sky, Vhagar is at a massive disadvantage. We've seen many times, Vhagar needs quite the running start in order to take off, and when she does, she's not nimble at all. Her size, weight and age do have their advantages, but they also has severe disadvantages. When Meleys and Vhagar first collided, neither was able to land a fatal blow, and when they broke apart, Meleys was able to stop herself from hitting the ground, but Vhagar couldn't. Had Rhaenys immediately turned back around, she probably could have swooped down and killed definately Aemond and maybe Vhagar. I think what happened is that she was, rightfully, terrified of Vhagar, and once they were apart, she and Meleys immidately retreated. Then after a moment of thought, she turned back around to fight. Notice how Rhaenys was focused on the ground as she flew. She must have thought, or hoped, Vhagar was still on the ground. But then, it only took one good hit to end the fight. That's Vhagar's biggest strength. She only needs one solid hit to kill pretty much any other dragon (again, except maybe Vermithor). So again, I do think the fight is definately in Vhagar's favour, but also yes, Meleys could defeat Vhagar 1 on 1, just not every time.

Meleys could have definitely escaped to fight another day. Meleys was worn out before Vagar got involved

Rhaenys should have got got Meleys to breathe fire on Vhagar's back when she was down. With luck she could have burned Aemond alive and the Greens would have lost Vhagar.

No, she could barely harm Vhaegar. Aemond had a clear plan and copied what Rhaenys did to Aegon.

Scary thought but I think Vhagar’s fast despite her size is because compared to Old Valyrian higher noble families the Targaryens’ dragons are still “small”

It starts at 5:25. Thanks.

Meleys is clearly superior in battle, she could've won for sure, just like a falcon sometimes attacks and takes down birds much bigger than itself. They did her dirty, even though the CGI was amazing.

Size does not matter and caraxes fight vs vhagar will prove it. Position, timing to hit critical points and experience of the rider, thats it. Sure both dragons will die, but that is proof that size is not everything. Disappointing how Vhagar does appear out of nowhere with good speed and being so big and catches maleys. Makes no sense to catch fastest dragon like that.

it was the fault of the rider. Missed the chance when the oppurtunity was there. And when she shouldve went away after the missed oppurtunity she decided to go for it again and exposed herself heavily on top of that, shit pissed me off

You made some good points. Didn't think about that. From what I've seen dragons aren't nearly as capable while grounded. Rhaynes could've flown her down for some serious damage maybe crippling a wing.

To all yall clowns talking bout speed and agility, where was this with Vhagar vs Luke??? or Balerion vs Quicksilver. Stop the cap.

Meleys has to be the coolest looking dragon of the lot.

Meleys and Rhaenys died because their tactics kinda sucked. Their mistakes includes: Approaching from altitiude instead of treetop height. They would have been visible later if they had been at tree top height. Approached perpendicular to the target army instead of parallel. The result was burning a section of the army rather then the full length. Spent too long burning the army and didn't check for enemy dragons. Had they noticed Sunfyre earlier they could have gained altitude for an advantage in the fight. Not using altitude in general. Being higher would be a big advantage as you can trade altitude for speed and attack the enemy from above where their claws can't reach. Egressing from the fight at low altitude. Had they gone higher they would have seen Vhagar coming and could have avoided or mitigated the attack. Not to mention sending Meleys alone was pretty dumb. Even Jace and Vermax or Baela and Moondancer on lookout would have made a big differnce as they can warn Meleys and Rhaneys when the Greens approach and harass them with quick diving attacks. They weren't sent because they are apparently inexperience but what better way to gain experience then sortieing with an experienced dragon and rider. Not to mention that with the loss of Meleys and Rhaneys they will likely have to fly into battle since the Blacks don't have many other options

im confused how the big heavy dragons can ambush the fast ones idk how

Meleys was an absolute monster. Rhaenys was just stupid and emotional. She could have won the war by herself TWICE. Either burn the greens when you gad the chance or gang up on Vhagar with Daemon. She chose to do neither and that majestic beast died for nothing

Why do they never go for raking attacks of the wings of the larger dragons? Come from behind above or below and just run those giant claws over the outer edge of this wings. Make them slow as hell and then try to shoot the rider while they can’t catch up with you.

Imagine if Rhaenyra had sent more than just 1 dragon to the fight.

Maylese is what's considered a "horse" dragon and vhagar is a "trex" dragon which means that maylese is a lot faster and more maneuverable than vhagar which is proven when vhagar had a hard time reaching maylese and when maylese slammed vhagar to the ground and flew away while almost hitting the ground. It's also stated in the books that maylese is able to kill vhagar but it was the riders fault (rhaenys) that maylese was killed since she fell into an obvious trap which she should've realized since she has a LOT of experience. And it's not like the greens wouldn't gain other dragons later in the war and they still have dream fyre the 3rd biggest dragon. So YES maylese would have killed vhagar if rhaenys didn't overlook the obvious trap. Also i just argued with 6 people and they all rambled on about how size is the only factor in dragon fights... then when i told them to try and argue they just said that they would ignore me even though i just wanted to have an actuall argument. (Sorry for the long paragraph) Then when they tried to argue they started making up things that i supposedly said and when i listed real evidence over, and over, and over, again they just said the same things and admitted to looking up facts and i stated things without looking up anything because unlike them i actually read the books and know what happens during the war and they had the audacity to say that people who were helping me; were actually arguing on their side.

If Vhagar has no direct means of ambush and Meleys kept slamming her against the ground down to exhaustion then definitely

Well if the battle where held on open fiel or open see Meleys had thee advantage of speed and Osteoderms (the Ankylosaurus skins) the plan would be use the Speed to hurt multiple times the massive Vhaegar, because a direct confrontation, Vhaegar had the size and power

A detail i love is how meleys vs sunfire goes, you can really see how intelligent and nimble meleys is (and rhaenis) Aegon is just "Drakarys" which in a dragon combat we sew is not that big of a deal, while Rhaenis is just "Attack Meleys", and meleys in a second avoid the dragon breath and demolish the unexperienced sunfyre. Meleys probably was the strongest dragon in the dance offensively, but durability/endurance were not her best, and we sew the result... Such a beautiful episode Actually, this was basically a Mountain vs Oberin fight, where esitation lost both.

Do u think meleys still wanted to fight back after vhagars fall!l? When u rewatched the episode meleys looked back to rhaeneys like “don’t U think thats enough”? But rhaneys wanted to go back and obviously dragons can’t disobey their riders 😢

Exactly what I've been saying, there's just a surprising amount of people who are willing to excuse lazy writing / directing that leads to contrived deaths, no reason for Rhaenys to shut off her brain a la artillery outside Winterfell since she could attacked Vhagar right in front of her or have flown higher after resting to avoid blind spots, you can see Vhagar from the International Space Station, & this was after the Last Jedi / Clark Griswold comedy of errors that led to Lucerys dying instead of Aemond being a stronger character as in the book, like when I was growing up we all knew that we had to be careful with all kinds of animals, never mind ones with big teeth that were more than 10x our size (that also breathe fire), so it is really implausible that Aemond would have just not realized that Vhagar could do whatever she wanted if something caught her eye, Viserys definitely told his son what he told his daughter Rhaenyra on-screen about the illusion of controlling the dragons Again, contrived deaths are for GoT Seasons 4-8, not HotD

Sunfire became the SUN"fire"

I only wish they showed the massive strength and durability disadvantage Meleys had. Perhaps she could have pounced on Vhagar when she was down and wasn’t able to do enough damage before Vhagar overpowered her in a ground fight.

It's somewhat uncharacteristic for Rhaenys to charge back to Vhagar recklessly after surviving their first clash and felled Sunfyre.

Smartest thing for meleys to have done eas fly straight up and gain altitude over the crash sight of vhagar after vhagar hit the ground. Then she couldve looking back to see what vhagar reaction was. And she couldve pulled a suprise dive attack from above on vhagar

If i were in Rhaenys's place i should have burned Aemond and Vhagar when they fell down

In an open field, Rhaenys/Meleys wins 4 out of 10 times she 1 vs 1s Vhagar IMO.

The writers are giving unfair advantage to Vhagar. She's massive and ofcourse uses ambush and stealth, but as experienced as Meleys was, she'd know this and fly higher. Also, there's no way Vhagar could fly and hide around the beach and exactly time Meleys' neck to fly upwards. Meleys could've clawed or bit Vhagars eyes off for a start flying from above and behind. But that's okay. Because these tactics is exactly how Vhagar goes down facing the most agile and bloodthirsty dragon.

Meleys was my favorite dragon, character, etc. Just such plot armor that the mountain sized Vhagar could ambush smaller, more nimble dragons.

I thought it was kinda sad how melays died. The moment they flew over the castle i was like " no way they are gonna died like that aswell"

Meleys bigger weak spot was her rider, Rhaenys was to soft.

Agree with other people here. Attack like a fighter pilot (before long range missiles) or bird of prey, get above and behind with the sun over your shoulder and take out Aemond with fire. Vhagar probably flies back to Kings Landing and it's game over for the Greens. Rhaenys and Meleys can fry the rest of the troops, kill Cole and Aegon and the throne is Rhaenyra's for the taking.

I don't understand how Vhagar was able to hide behind the castle and fly up and catch Meleys if she's always shown needing a running start to take flight.

The video explained perfectly how it couldve gone. Meleys could've actually survived wounded. But crippling both sunfyre AND vhagar when she was grounded. But she missed the chance. :( i kept screaming the eagle swoop like she did the first time she was introduced or burning aemond when vhagar was grounded. She couldve ended the war then and there :( damn this makes her death even sadder. She couldve survived too unlike caraxes albeit wounded.

Vhagar loves ambushing the enemies

Sunfyre got done dirty

The size of Vhagar... they can also let Vhagar be seen on the ground, stuggling with its size still... while Meley turns around going for the kill, at the same time Vhagar saw Meley rush down then adjust his body to counters her... then let size win the battle. Vhagar ambush is just so GoT S8.

Compared the size of Melis neckspikes and Vagar teeth. The one place that Vagar don't want to bite is the red Queens neck, heck!

The battle happened very differently in the books, Aegon and Aemond going together was the plan all along.. and its said meleys gave a good fight 1vs2 and could've had a chance to beat Vhagar if she was alone

it still felt off the way Meleys flew basically in a position to get attacked from below

Vhagar - The dragon with a gizzard.

How does someone who has so much experience fall to someone who has no experience???

Meleys vs Drogon would have made for a great fight.

Idc that the show drew this out compared to the book - I love that she pwn’d them both but as Eve Best said, her goal was to incapacitate her nephews, NOT kill them, and they went for the kill…

I found the dragon fight in this episode so disappointing and Rhaenys felt kind of incompetent. The second she started flying low to the ground I knew exactly what would happen. If they truly need to keep the Vhagar ambushing trope here’s how I personally would have done it. Don’t reveal Vhagar and Aemond are there. Rhaenys has no idea of their presence and neither does the audience. When Rhaenys first arrives you can hear the sound of horns blowing but you have no idea what it means. Instead the main battle is be between Sunfyre and Meleys. It not completely one sided, but they have a few squabbles and it’s clear Aegon is outmatched, but because of his frustration, stubbornness and drunkenness he doesn’t back down. During the final confrontation Meleys is on top of Sunfyre clawing at her belly. Aegon on the verge of defeat looks up at the sky and sees Vhagar approaching from above. He yells to Aemond thinking he’s saved, but also alerts Rhaenys to their presence, giving meleys enough time to let go of Sunfyre and turn around to face Vhagar as she dive bombs them. (Note: Vhagar could also breath fire here maybe so Aegon gets burned and it feels visually looks more like a betrayal from Aemond. But I think the main betrayal should be Aemond’s lack of interfering right away. This way Cole is really the only one who knows what Aemond did. Even the viewer is not fully aware of what happened. Aegon and Sunfyre would still be severely injured from the fall as well as from the fight with Meleys just with maybe less burns). Vhagar and Meleys then fall from the sky much like the show. Meleys claws at Vhagar as they drop and injures her a bit, but overall it’s futile. Vhagar having the momentum and being on top thrusts Meleys and Rhaenys to the ground killing them. You can then end the episode two different ways: End it immediately after Rhaenys and Meleys fall to the ground maybe with a final victorious roar from Vhagar standing on top of them then cut to black. Or like in the show have that final shot of Aegon on the ground and Aemond about to grab his sword to finish him off until Cole arrives (Aemond could also just pick up the crown if you want to keep the betrayal a secret while also foreshadowing him taking over). I think it would be a better idea to leave the reveal of the original plan and Aemond’s betrayal to either the next episode or later on in the series as this would create a sort of cliff hanger and have viewers try and comprehend what just happened before watching the next episode. Maybe Cole could explain what the plan was to Alicent while also revealing to the audience what happened. Instead of being a completely vague douche like he was in the show. Or maybe the reveal of the full plan isn’t until much later on in the series and we don’t know that Aemond betrayed his brother to take the thrown. Cole is the only one aware of this so it could be a great mental dilemma and character development for him as he has loyalty for Aegon (being his hand) and for Aemond (being his friend of some sort). Meanwhile he’s sleeping with Alicent so things are just even more awkward lmao. Honestly really like this idea might make an animatic of it at some point. Sorry if there’s any misspellings and grammar mistakes I thought this all up in like 20 minutes and I really don’t feel like writing an essay about it. Though seeing the length now it looks like I did anyways mb

Of course Meleys could but the strategy was all wrong. She would need to be like a falcon and dive bomb vhagar from higher altitude; climb high and go after the large wings. Rhaenys just didn’t use her head tried to rush Vhagar head on.

Regardless of the re-imagining of the battle in the series, it had to end with the same outcome.

I still wonder how a blue whale-sized flying lizard keeps ambushing smaller dragons, it looks like Southgate has been managing team black so far

I have read the books and was furious after this episode. In the books meleys lost bc sunfyre and vhagar attacked her in a 2v1. After the battle it was stated that meleys could had killed vhagar in a 1v1. I assume that the show wanted to showcase this statement (meleys/rhaenys hesitating to kill vhagar/aemond and so proving the statement of the book). So far so good, i liked that. But then to end the fight with vhagar, ridden by aemond ambushing meleys (without a doubt the fastes dragon of the dance, in the books its stated that no other dragon comes close to the speed of meleys) ridden by rhaenys who fought in 3 battles is just more than ridicilous. I am not a hater of slight changes from the books at all. But the fact that a literall child with a jumbo jet ambushed an experienced rider with a f-16 doesnt make any sense at all.

Where are you, captain hindsight!?!

Plot magic only. Meleys would have been smart enough not to fly into a blind corner. She would have just flown higher. This scene is like the last jedi where rose crashed into fin despite the fact there was no way she could have caught up. Behemoth Vhaegar has no business getting up off the ground and sneakily circling around to the cliff faster than Meleys.

I get the feeling that with their scouts they would of seen Vhagar from a mile away.. And seeing that he wasn't seen (For some reason, perhaps traveling at night?) they only sent one Dragon out.. Being so damn close to Dragonstone, it probably would of been wise to send at least 2 dragons (Or 3). Like lets be real here, if Vhagar comes for Dragonstone.. there's not much they can do at this point. Like Seamoke has no rider/The non riderless dragons won't get involved/would likely hide or ignore it.. So it would only really be Syrax/Jases dragons and Moondancer.. Not sure they could take down Vhagar.

Without a doubt meleys vould have won, she destroyed sunfyre, and had the experience and bond with her dragon far more then aemond, if she hadn't of flown close to the ground like an idiot, kept her height advantage and not allowed vhagar to suprise attack her then yes meleys could have won

Meleys looked injured after that grapple with vhagar and even if she was more agile she lost a lot of stamina fighting two dragons. Vhagar just tanked the damage and ran off for her sneak kill

I think the adrenaline fueled Vhagar in the take off; along the hesitation of the Princess lead to the Queen's death

She should just fly back to dragonstone and get reiforcement or fly around Vhagar and keep the distance until it gets tired and then trying to burn Aemond or going for the neck, starting with a frontal attack against a much bigger dragon was suicide.

It’s simple you stalk smaller faster prey and even large prey if you can’t out run them you suprise them