Vhagar and Meleys’ fight was inspired by videos of birds of prey fighting

Episode 4 of House of the Dragon Season 2 was brimming with stunning moments, from Alicent’s unprecedented outburst against her son Aegon to Rhaenys’ tragic demise. These pivotal scenes left audiences reeling, and the creators assert that the Battle at Rook’s Rest is a crucial event, signaling the catastrophic impact of the impending Targaryen civil war. Showrunner Ryan Condal recently looked back at one of its pivotal moments.

Ryan Condal used Storm’s End chase as a template for Battle of Rook’s Rest

Lucerys’ murder at Storm’s End was pretty one-sided, the young prince stood no chance against the mighty Vhagar and his uncle, Aemond. Condal recently talked to EW about how that scene served as a prototype for the Battle of Rook’s Rest:

“As great as that Storm’s End sequence was, it was really more of a prototype or proof of concept that we could do something like this on this level. Rook’s Rest was incredibly complicated because the dragons are also interacting with the ground, so you have visual effects elements and fire elements and stunts and burns and things like that.”

Credits: HBO

How real-life predatory birds inspired Vhagar and Meleys’ fight

Director Alan Taylor recalled how they filmed the whole battle sequence, and what served as an inspiration for the in-air battles:

“That was one of the more challenging things that involved stuntmen on wires and blasting cannons with debris and getting Fabian to ride a horse, which is already challenging. But I think the real challenge was trying to tell these two stories on the ground and in the air and make sure that they connected to each other and became one story.” 

“It’s very common in the predatory bird world if you’re being attacked to do this maneuver where you go upside down and engage talon to talon,” Taylor says. “You see these birds going into a kind of pinwheel chaotic fall. We stole that idea and applied it to Vhagar and Meleys. It became one of the centerpiece action moments.”

Read Next: Ryan Condal calls Battle at Rook’s Rest the first nuclear conflict

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