7 Moments That Reigned in ‘House of the Dragon’
The civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons is almost here after an explosive Season 1 of “House of the Dragon.” Now, nearly two years later, HBO’s other popular show about succession returns this weekendas the (mostly) white-blond Targaryens from across the family tree harness alliances, resources and dragons toward an ever-escalating cycle of vengeance and cruelty.
Based on the George R.R. Martin book “Fire & Blood,” “House of the Dragon” is a “Game of Thrones” prequel occurring roughly 200 years before the events in the original series. The new season will cover some of the many plotlines of the Dance within only eight episodes, compared to the first season’s 10. (Martin, who serves as the show’s co-creator and co-writer, stated on his blog in 2022 that it would “take four full seasons of 10 episodes each to do justice to the Dance of the Dragons.” Are the writers getting enough runway to do it right? Time will tell.)
With Season 2, the Blacks and the Greens — opposing factions led by their matriarchs, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) — have reached a point of no return. Rhaenyra is the firstborn child and chosen heir of the newly dead King Viserys (Paddy Considine); Alicent was Viserys’s second wife and is the mother of the freshly anointed King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney). Both factions have legitimate claims. Neither wants to share.
“War is coming, and neither of us may win,” Rhaenyra says in a trailer. Here’s a look back at Season 1’s pivotal moments that turned childhood best friends into mortal enemies hurtling toward mutual destruction.
This article discusses the plot details of “House of the Dragon,” Season 1.
A tragic childbirth
Battle scenes, dragons and beheadings are par for the course in the “Thrones” universe. But “House of the Dragon” is also a story about women and mothers, and how they contort themselves to survive in a patriarchal society. Primogeniture, in which inheritance goes to the eldest son, urges women of the highest station to secure an heir, and depictions of childbirth prove to be among the season’s most harrowing scenes. Queen Aemma (Sian Brooke) is the first casualty during a breech birth, with her husband secretly making the call to cut the infant from her womb. Their one and only son becomes the “heir for a day.”
