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House of the Dragon Premiere Recap: Here's Who's After the Iron Throne
Plus, how the prequel ties into A Song of Ice and Fire
[Warning: The following contains spoilers for the premiere episode of House of the Dragon. Read at your own risk!]
One household, rich in dragons, in fair Westeros where we lay our scene, where civil blood makes civil hands unclean… Okay, Romeo & Juliet is not the Shakespeare reference we should be making for the first Game of Thrones spin-off to launch on HBO, House of the Dragon. The new series is definitely more of a Hamlet vibe, complete with a creepy uncle hungry for the throne, but you needed to be made aware upfront that the show is just as bloody and treacherous as its predecessor.
The first episode has launched, introducing the key characters in a new fight for the Iron Throne and setting up a dangerous chess match between those closest to the coveted seat. TV Guide is here to help break down the first episode and help you find those Easter eggs and important clues you might have missed while trying to keep track of the different white-haired characters with similar sounding R names. We're even going to break it down by the important topics.
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The Backstory
Eve Best and Steve Toussaint, House of the Dragon
HBOHouse of the Dragon opened with a bit of a history lesson on the Targaryen – that's Daenerys' (Emilia Clarke) house, if you couldn't tell – dynasty. The dragon owners have been sitting on the Iron Throne for just over a century. King Jaharys' health was failing but both of his sons died, so he convened a council to decide who should inherit the throne. The only two viable options were Jaharys' niece and nephew, Rhaenys (Eve Best) and Viserys (Paddy Considine), and the lords of Westeros being the bro club that they are, go with Viserys pretty much just because he's a dude.
Then we fast forward about a decade, or to 172 years before Daenerys was born and 198 years before the original series takes place, to see Viserys is still ruling a peaceful kingdom. However, he and his queen also haven't produced a male heir, and Rhaenys is still very salty she was outvoted for the throne, though she and her husband still enjoy a very cushy spot in Kings Landing high society. That lack of a male heir is really the catalyst for the drama in the rest of the series.
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Viserys and His Tragedy
Sian Brooke, House of the Dragon
HBOViserys is not a bad king, but Westeros propaganda has screwed up his priorities. He's so concerned with getting this male heir that he projects a lot of pressure onto his (very capable!) teenage daughter and his very pregnant wife, Aemma Arryn, who is doing her best to deliver results she actually has no control over. She does give Viserys a son, but the baby is breech, and Viserys has to choose between probably letting his wife and the baby die, or doing a medieval C-section that will definitely kill his wife but could save the baby.
The aforementioned screwed-up priorities should tell you how this goes down. Viserys chooses the C-section, which his wife is very much conscious for and completely objects to. As predicted, she dies and Viserys gets his son — except the son also dies before the day is over, so his "sacrifice" was for naught.
There's a lot of violence in the world of Game of Thrones, and that stays true for the pilot of House of the Dragon, but this is one of the more harrowing situations depicted in the franchise. It's clear that George R. R. Martin's imagined archaic time period was no paradise for women, but Viserys essentially murdering Aemma was a harsh story choice, especially when the same outcome could have been achieved by having her die from a broken heart and complications from the stillbirth. Same tragic fate, way less violence against women!
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But alas, Viserys is racked with guilt (as he should be, honestly). Luckily, Viserys has his trusty Hand of the King, Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), to look after him in his time of grief. Otto is so concerned about his friend, the king, that he sends his teenage daughter, Allicent (Emily Carey) to comfort Viserys and even suggests she wear one of her own mother's dresses. The suggestion was to make it clear to anyone slow on the uptake that he was absolutely sending his child to seduce a grieving middle-aged friend, probably in hopes of being grandfather to the next king of Westeros. Westeros high lords stay absolutely gross, friends. Did we mention that Allicent is also the very best friend of Viserys' daughter? Yeah, everything about Viserys is pretty icky by the end of the episode, but speaking of his daughter…
The Sides of the Targaryen Civil War
Paddy Considine and Milly Alcock, House of the Dragon
HBOThis is really what you came to this recap for. When Viserys realizes that he will not have a male heir, a crisis presents itself. The next person in line for the throne is Viserys' brother, Daemon (Matt Smith), who has reformed the King's Watch and exhibits all of the traits of a Joffrey-type Mad King. He's impulsive, selfish, and loves grievous displays of violence more than anyone is really comfortable with.
Viserys defends his impetuous brother up until it comes to light that Daemon was gloating about the death of Viserys' infant son and his wife. At that point, Viserys disinherits his brother and names his teenage daughter, Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), the heir instead. We know that Rhaenyra doesn't care much about being married off or wifely duties, much preferring to explore, fight with swords, or fly on the backs of her dragons. However, ruling over Westeros was not something she considered a possibility until Daemon screwed it all up for himself.
You think that would be the end of it, but remember this story kicked off with a bunch of men getting together and deciding they were very uncomfortable with a woman on the throne, so there is a lot of opposition to having Rhaenyra take over. Even those who aren't opposed to having a woman in charge don't necessarily think it should be Rhaenyra, because they still support Rhaenys, her aunt, aka The Queen Who Never Was. So while the episode ended with the lords of Westeros pledging their allegiance to Viserys and his new named heir, the factions are already dividing between those who support Daemon's claim to the throne, those who support Rhaenyra, and those who wish to use the discord to advance their own lines of power. And as we know from where the story begins in Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon will detail how that discord sends a great house to ruin.
The Prophecy and What You Might Have Missed
Of course, this wouldn't be a fantasy series without a bit of a twist. When Rhaenyra agrees to become heir, Viserys informs her of a prophecy about the end of man when winter finally arrives in Westeros, and that a Targaryen must be on the throne in order to prevent an icy apocalypse. Apologies if you dove into House of the Dragon without watching Game of Thrones, but the prophecy, which Viserys name drops as "The Song of Ice and Fire," is the major storyline of the original series. It is about the Night King, who Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) defeats in the final season of GoT, and a Targaryen is definitely not on the throne when it happens. Men survive, and they elect more men to sit on the throne.
It remains to be seen whether this prophecy will be a driving force in the House of the Dragon narrative, or if it was just an Easter egg to connect the prequel more securely to the flagship series. It is also not the only time that the fall of the Targaryens is foreshadowed within the first episode. During a tournament to celebrate the birth of Viserys' new heir (before the messy C-section business), a Baratheon knight asks for the favor of the Queen Who Never Was, which Viserys' would have had the right to interpret as a direct sign of disrespect. Instead, the king, falsely confident in the fact that he's about to welcome a son into the world, says that "wagging tongues have never ended dynasties."
In this case, however, it's worth pointing out that just before the events of Game of Thrones, it is a Baratheon — Robert (Mark Addy) — who ends the Targaryen dynasty when he leads Robert's Rebellion to King's Landing and has the Mad King, Aerys II Targaryen, killed before taking the throne for himself. The Mad King was the last Targaryen to sit on the throne before Daenerys sat there for about roughly a day at the end of the original series.
The Baratheons make another appearance at the end of the House of the Dragon pilot, when pledging allegiance to Viserys and Rhaenyra, but a sly look between their house representative and Rhaenyra should lead you to believe that the Baratheons are still backing the Queen Who Never Was, and they'll be an interesting piece in the complicated chess board that has been set up.
For now, let the games for the throne begin. Pick your knights and prepare for battle.
House of the Dragon continues Sundays at 9/8c on HBO, with episodes premiering simultaneously on HBO Max.
