Calling all dragon enthusiasts and fantasy nerds because House Of The Dragon Season Two is out today! Can I get a yahoo?
While it might be an exciting day, I can understand a bit of trepidation about the new season. After all, it’s been almost two years since the first season of the Game Of Thrones prequel came out — who has the brain space to remember what the fuck went down? Especially with all those time jumps and character changes, I know I certainly don’t.
So, please join me in a walk down memory lane as we jog our memories and get up to speed on Season Two’s launch. Also, if any one of you complain about spoilers in an article that is literally just Season One spoilers, I’m going to scream.
But first, the basics.
What’s House Of The Dragon About?
House Of The Dragon is a prequel to the hit HBO series Game Of Thrones. It’s set 172 years before the events in Game Of Thrones and is based on George R.R Martin‘s A Song of Ice and Fire series. However, the series is also influenced by Fire & Blood — a “history” book which explores the fictional universe. The book — which has a bunch of stories about events which happened during the Targaryen reign — is credited to an Archmaester of Westeros.
House Of The Dragon follows the Targaryen family as they rule over Westeros and fight over who will site on the Iron Throne.
What happened in Season One of House Of The Dragon?
Season One kicked off with King Viserys I (Paddy Considine) being chosen as the next successor on the iron throne over his cousin Rhaenys (Eve Best). He’s the fifth Targaryen ruler to take place on the Iron Throne. He does a pretty good job ruling the city but causes some drama when his attempt at producing a male heir results in the death of his son and his wife Aemma Arryn (Sian Brooke). Instead of declaring his brother Daemon (Matt Smith) as his successor, Viserys decides to make his only child — his daughter Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock / Emma D’Arcy) — as his heir. It’s a controversial decision as no queen has ever ruled on the Iron Throne. What a feminist!!!
The Hand of the King, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) sees an opportunity here, so thrusts his young daughter Alicent Hightower (Emma Carey / Olivia Cooke) into the king’s orbit. And whaddya know, the king marries her — despite the fact that she’s not the most strategic alliance for him to make, and that she was his daughter Rhaenyra’s best friend.
Viserys is into her so they get hitched and have a son, Aegon II (Ty Tennant / Tom Gyln-Carney). Although Viserys is still backing his baby girl to take over his spot on the throne, others believe that the next King should be Aegon.
Meanwhile, Rhaenyra is now of age to marry and Viserys is flooded with options for her because she’s rich, powerful and has beautiful ice blonde hair. But thankfully for Rhaenyra, her papa gives her the go-ahead to choose her own match. But because this is a Game of Thrones-related show, Rhaenyra gets the hots for her uncle Daemon and they’re spotted at a pleasure house together — despite the fact that he’s already married, the dirty dawg.
Naturally Rhaenyra’s dad is piiiissssssseeddd. Surprisingly, not about the whole incest thing, but that his own brother has taken his daughter’s virtue.
He revokes her own decision to pick her future husband and decides she’ll get hitched to Laenor Velaryon (John Macmillan). But when Rhaenyra finds out that would rather hook up with other men, they agree to secretly see other people and the princess resumes a relationship with soldier Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel). Falling for Rhaenyra, Criston asks her if she’d be willing to marry him, ditch her claim to the throne and leave Westeros with him. It’s a concept she’s not willing to entertain, and she decides to see through her marriage to Laenor.
While this is all going down, Vicerys realises that his Hand played him by setting him up with his daughter Alicent. The king removes him from his post. Realising the jig is up, Otto encourages Alicent to prepare their son to be the heir.
At the wedding between Rhaenyra and Leanor, Laenor’s lover takes Criston aside, asking him to promise to keep the secrets of their lovers. After his own marriage proposal to Rhaenyra was rejected, he loses his shit, stabbing Laenor’s lover to death. It’s this scenario that makes Criston determined to never see Rhaenyra sit on the Iron Throne. He’s a bit of a baby really and would benefit from therapy.
TIME JUMP: 10 years later…
Despite the dramatic events at the wedding, Rhaenyra and Laenor are still going strong! They’ve even got three kiddos!!! But the real tea is that those kids aren’t a product of Laenor. Instead, they’re Rhaenyra’s lover Harwin Strong’s (Ryan Corr) kids. Alicent starts to catch wind of this badly kept secret and sets Harwin’s brother Larys (Matthew Needham) to look into the ~drama~. But he goes above and beyond and decides to kill Harwin and his dad too. Alicent is not happy with his overly dramatic decision.
After that kerfuffle, Daemon’s second wife carks it and everyone rocks up to the funeral where Rhaenyra and Alicent’s kids get into a fight. Sadly, Alicent’s son Aemond loses his eye and Alicent is furious, demanding retribution.
While this is all going down, the vibes between Daemon and Rhaenyra are BACK, baby! He tells her that the only way they could actually be together is if Laenor dies. So, in a fairly nice guy move, Daemon helps Laenor fake his death so that he’s out of the picture.
With this sorted, Daemon and Rhaenyra are free to marry! Despite being related! And as a bonus, her claim to the throne is even stronger now. It’s the final nail in the coffin for Alicent, who is still keen to see her son Aegon as the next king.
Meanwhile, the whole heir issue is heating up because Vicerys is sick. He’s struggling to get out of bed, and relying on a cane to move around. His skin condition is so bad that he’s even wearing a gold mask to hide how deformed it’s made his face. Although his condition is worsening at an alarming rate, he calls the entire family to the throne room and confirms that he wishes for Rhaenyra to take the throne after his death.
When the time comes for him to pass, Alicent is in the room and overhears the final muttering of the kings. He mentions “the prince that was promised” and “Aegon” — really referring to the events in Game Of Thrones and the secret prophesy he told Rhaenyra when she was young — but Alicent takes this to mean that Vicerys means for their son to rule. She tells her father Otto, who kicks off a plot to pretty much do anything to get Aegon on the Iron Throne.
With Rhaenyra’s life in danger, she flees to King’s Landing and Aegon takes the throne. However, across the kingdom, the loyalties are split between Aegon and Rhaenyra supporters.
Despite being in King’s Landing, Rhaenyra is still in her queen era. Someone even brought her fkn crown all the way there. Rhaenyra and her council hatch a plan to get the big families of Winterfell and Storm’s End — the Starks and Baratheons — to side with her and help her claim the throne. She sends her two sons Jace (Harry Collett) and Luke (Elliot Grihault) to each of the families.
When Luke arrives at Storms End, he realises he’s been beaten there by Alicent and her second-born son Aemond. By offering to marry a Baratheon daughter, they’d already locked in an alliance. While Luke tries to leave, Aemond follows, killing Luke. We leave Season One with Rhaenyra discovering that Luke has been killed and vowing to avenge his death. Ouchie mama!!
Wow, wasn’t that a rollercoaster? I hope you’re feeling up to speed for Season Two!
You can catch House Of The Dragon, Season Two on BINGE.
The post Here’s Your House Of The Dragon Season 1 Recap If You Need A Refresher Before Season 2 appeared first on PEDESTRIAN.TV .
