The Dance of the Dragons began in the premiere season.
The much-anticipated second season of House of the Dragon is almost here.
The popular HBO drama series is based on the book Fire & Blood, set hundreds of years before the events of Game of Thrones as a succession crisis emerges within the family tree of House Targaryen.
King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) faced failing health as rival claimants emerged from the likes of his roguish brother Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), his eldest child Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy, Milly Alcock), and his children by second wife Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke, Emily Carey).
The second season sees the civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons come about, but just what happened in the first season to lead up to it?
Here is everything you need to remember heading into the new season.
10 House of the Dragon season 1 recap moments to remember before new episodes
1. King Viserys I Targaryen named his daughter Princess Rhaenyra as his heir
The series opens with tragedy for the royal family when Queen Aemma Arryn gives birth to a son who dies shortly afterwards, while the traumatic medieval caesarean section delivery kills the Queen.
After the loss of his much-desired son and his fractious relationship with his roguish brother Prince Daemon Targaryen, Viserys chooses instead to formally declare his daughter Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen as heir to the Iron Throne, Princess of Dragonstone and makes the lords of the Seven Kingdoms swear fealty and their honour to her.
This is a break from precedent, and the realm had previously voted to choose Viserys to the King of the Seven Kingdoms over his cousin Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, despite her closer lineage to the then-monarch, King Jaehaerys II Targaryen.
Viserys also filled Rhaenyra in on the prophecy of Aegon the Conqueror’s dream of The Prince Who Was Promised, who will protect Westeros from the coming darkness, and believes she will be vital in this.
2. King Viserys I Targaryen married Princess Rhaenyra’s best friend Alicent Hightower
Despite his overwhelming grief for Aemma, Viserys is pressured to marry once more to secure his family’s bloodline and strengthen the royal family.
Despite multiple potential matches, the prime candidate for marriage is Lady Laena Velaryon, the daughter of the powerful “Sea Snake” Lord Corlys Velaryon and his wife Princess Rhaenys – the Queen Who Never Was.
However, despite entertaining the prospect, Viserys instead marries Lady Alicent Hightower, the daughter of his ambitious chief advisor Ser Otto Hightower and the beloved best friend of Princess Rhaenyra.
House Velaryon is alienated as a result of the decision and Rhaenyra is heartbroken, feeling betrayed by her father and by Alicent.
3. Queen Alicent Hightower gave birth to a son – Prince Aegon Targaryen
The main consequence of Viserys’s marriage to Alicent is the birth of a son: Prince Aegon Targaryen.
As a result, many in the realm begin to question whether the succession decision regarding Rhaenyra will still stand, with even Ser Otto pushing privately for his grandson to be the heir to the Iron Throne.
Ser Otto even suggests marrying Rhaenyra and Aegon to each other to bind the two lines, but Viserys will not hear of it. Instead, Viserys pushes Rhaenyra to find a strong marital prospect of her own choosing.
Meanwhile, Alicent goes on to have three more children with Viserys: Princess Helaena Targaryen, Prince Aemond Targaryen, and Prince Daeron Targaryen.
4. Ser Criston Cole felt spurned by Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen
A rising star of the Kingsguard who was chosen for his position by Princess Rhaenyra, Ser Criston Cole becomes her protector and grows close to her in her youth.
Eventually, after a night of witnessing debauchery and nearly engaging in an incestuous union with her uncle Prince Daemon, Rhaenyra lost her virginity in a sexual union with Ser Criston and he became her secret lover – something that could damage their honour and reputations thoroughly.
However, Rhaenyra chose duty over passion and revealed that she would marry politically and not flee Westeros with Ser Criston, leaving him spurned and angry.
In fact, Ser Criston took out his rage at Rhaenyra’s wedding and killed the male lover of her fiancé. After this, Ser Criston contemplated suicide until he was stopped by Queen Alicent.
Alicent herself felt spurned by Rhaenyra’s lies about her sexual behaviour – the reports of which had seen her father Ser Otto fired from his position as Hand of the King – and so the two were united in their hatred.
5. Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen married into House Velaryon – but had bastard sons
Rhaenyra married the heir of House Velaryon, Ser Laenor Velaryon, and their houses were united and strengthened.
However, due to Ser Laenor’s homosexuality, the pair engaged in an open marriage and all three of Rhaenyra’s subsequent children – Prince Jacaerys Velaryon, Prince Lucerys Velaryon, and Prince Joffrey Velaryon – were all the result of an adulterous romance with the knight Ser Harwin Strong, the son of Lord Lyonel Strong, the Hand of the King.
The three princes’ bastardy becomes something of an open secret and is even implied in royal circles with harsh comments by the likes of Queen Alicent and Ser Criston.
Rhaenyra tries to ease tensions with a suggested marriage between Prince Jacaerys and Princess Helaena, but Alicent refuses. Following this and continued tension, Rhaenyra departs King’s Landing with her family for Dragonstone.
An alliance between Queen Alicent and Larys Strong comes about in a bid to see Ser Otto returned to power, to strengthen Alicent’s position, and advance Larys.
In a plot that shocked Alicent, Larys has mercenaries set fire to the ancestral seat of Harrenhal to kill his father Lord Lyonel and brother, Ser Harwin.
In the aftermath, Larys Strong becomes Lord of Harrenhal and Ser Otto Hightower was reinstalled as Hand of the King.
6. Queen Alicent Hightower and Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen’s feud spread to their children
The feud between Princess Rhaenyra and Queen Alicent extends to their children too, as rivalries form, particularly between Alicent’s sons Princes Aegon and Aemond with Princes Jacaerys and Lucerys.
Events reach a nasty point when Aemond claims the dragon Vhagar and fights with Jacarys, Lucerys, and Daemon’s daughters Baela and Rhaena. In the vicious encounter, Lucerys cut the eye of Aemond and he lost his sight in it thereafter.
In the aftermath, Alicent called for justice by having an eye cut from Lucerys, promoting a fierce stand-off where she attempted to do it herself, prompting Rhaenyra to step in.
Ultimately, Viserys sided with Rhaenyra and threatened to punish any further defamation of her character and the legitimacy of her children.
7. Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen married her uncle Prince Daemon Targaryen
Following the death of Prince Daemon’s wife Lady Laena Velaryon and her funeral on Driftmark, Daemon is reunited with Rhaenyra and they consummate their relationship.
The tension with Alicent and her faction encourages Rhaenyra to find an end to her marriage to Laenor. In the end, Daemon and Rhaenyra help Laenor to fake his own death and escape Westeros with his lover Ser Qarl. Rumours would circulate that they murdered him, however.
Following this, Daemon and Rhaenyra marry in the fashion of Old Valyria.
The marriage would see the pair have two sons, Prince Aegon Targaryen and Prince Viserys Targaryen, and they remained at Dragonstone.
8. King Viserys I Targaryen died – and triggered a succession crisis
As years pass, Viserys’s health continues to fail and the running of the kingdom is left in the hands of Queen Alicent and her father Ser Otto, who also increases the power of the Faith of the Seven.
Alicent also married her son Aegon to her daughter Helaena, and the pair had children of their own, giving Viserys more grandchildren.
A succession debate regarding Driftmark sees Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys have his legitimacy questioned once more but Viserys rose from his illness to silence critics of Rhaenyra and her children, to the disappointment of Alicent and Ser Otto.
Viserys holds a banquet to reconcile his family before he dies and it seems to be going quite positively, with Alicent and Rhaenyra seeming to reconcile.
As he sleeps, however, Viserys is delirious and as Alicent nurses him, he mistakes her for Rhaenyra and speaks of the prophecy from Aegon’s dream.
As a result, Alicent believes Viserys has passed the throne to their son Aegon.
Viserys then dies.
9. Both King Aegon II Targaryen and Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen were crowned as rival claimants
The death of Viserys prompts the Greens (the Hightower-led faction) and Blacks (Rhaenyra’s faction) to each lay claim to the throne.
Viserys’s death is initially kept secret by The Green Council, who plot to install Prince Aegon on the throne – with Ser Criston even murdering Lord Lyman Beesbury in the plot.
They are eventually successful, with a coronation in the Dragonpit, seeing him crowned King Aegon II Targaryen before the masses. The ceremony was abruptly ended by an escaping Princess Rhaenys atop her dragon Meleys, but she departed before causing the royal family harm. Aegon was crowned with that of his forebearer, Aegon the Conqueror.
Meanwhile, a pregnant Rhaenyra was eventually informed of her father’s death and the treachery of the Green Council, the stress of which helped bring on her premature labour and ultimately the stillbirth of a deformed foetus.
Initially wary of war with her half-siblings and Alicent, the terms left by Ser Otto show her refuse to bow down to the Hightowers and they plot their next move after she is crowned with her father’s crown as Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen.
10. Prince Lucerys Velaryon died in a dragon clash with Prince Aemond Targareyn
The season finale sees Rhaenyra’s sons Jacaerys and Lucerys sent on dragonback to try and build alliances with the lords of the realm against the Greens.
Jacaerys is due to travel to both the Vale and Winterfell to ensure the support of House Arryn and House Stark, respectively, while Lucerys flies to Storm’s End to win the support of House Baratheon.
However, when Lucerys arrives at a rain-lashed Storm’s End, he finds that Aemond is also there for the same reason and is threatened by his half-uncle – the man whose eye he damaged years prior.
House Baratheon chooses marital alliances with the Greens over the Blacks and Lucerys makes a hurried exit atop his dragon but is pursued in the storm by Aemond.
Sadly, Lucerys and his dragon are killed by Aemond’s colossal dragon Vhagar, to Aemond’s shock – in the first Targaryen blood of the war.
The season ends with Daemon informing Rhaenyra of her second son’s death, leaving her devastated and furious…
Read more:
- House of the Dragon cast: Game of Thrones prequel series returns for season 2
- How to watch House of the Dragon – where can you stream?
- House of the Dragon planned to last three or four seasons
- When is House of the Dragon set? Game of Thrones timeline explained
- Where was House of the Dragon filmed?
- What is Dark Sister in House of the Dragon?
- Your guide to the dragons of House of the Dragon
- Game of Thrones books in order: A Song of Ice and Fire and more
House of the Dragon season 2 will air on Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK from 17th June – find out more about how to sign up for Sky TV.
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