Pradeep Ranganathan starrer Dragon released in theaters on February 21, 2025, and became a massive hit. Now, it looks like the film will be remade in Hindi.
Is Pradeep Ranganathan starrer Dragon being remade in Hindi?
According to a report by Valai Pechu, Pradeep Ranganathan’s coming-of-age comedy drama Dragon is expected to be remade in Hindi, with the makers working on pre-production. However, an official confirmation has not been announced.
Earlier, Pradeep’s romantic comedy Love Today was remade in Hindi as Loveyapa. The Bollywood adaptation featured Junaid Khan and Khushi Kapoor in the lead roles.
More about Dragon
Dragon is a comedy-drama film that follows the story of D. Ragavan, aka Dragon, an engineering dropout who leads a life of facade, tricking his parents. However, his life turns upside down when his girlfriend dumps him, prompting him to chase a high-paying job.
Taking the easy route, Dragon forges his qualifications and lands a lucrative offer at an engineering firm. However, hell breaks loose when his former college principal finds out the truth and threatens to expose him.
In a chance at retribution, the principal offers him a choice: either get exposed or complete his 42 arrears in a single 6-month-long semester. Whether Ragavan manages to complete the task or loses everything becomes the central narrative of the story.
With Pradeep in the lead, the movie features Anupama Parameswaran and Kayadu Lohar, Mysskin, Gautham Vasudev Menon, KS Ravikumar, George Maryan, and many more in key roles.
Directed by Ashwath Marimuthu, the film was a massive success in theaters and was lauded by critics upon its release.
Pradeep Ranganathan’s next films
Pradeep Ranganathan will next appear in the sci-fi romantic comedy Love Insurance Kompany (LIK), directed by Vignesh Shivan. Backed by Nayanthara, SS Lalit Kumar, and LK Vishnu Kumar, the film is slated to release on October 17, 2025, coinciding with Diwali this year.
The movie, which has Krithi Shetty as the female lead, boasts an ensemble cast, including SJ Suryah, Yogi Babu, Seeman, Gouri G Kishan, Shah Ra, Mysskin, and more.
Looking ahead, Pradeep also has the romantic action comedy Dude in his lineup. The movie stars Mamitha Baiju as his co-star, with R Sarathkumar playing a pivotal character.
Interestingly, Dude is also announced for a Diwali release, though an exact date hasn’t been confirmed yet.
We’re firmly in the era of the video-game-to-prestige-TV-adaptation pipeline, and you know what? It might not be all that bad. Coming off the impressive results of HBO’s The Last of Usand Amazon Prime’s Fallout TV show, we now have the first full trailer for Like a Dragon: Yakuza and it’s looking really good so far.
Total Recall: Why Yakuza Is So Much More Than A Japanese GTA
Out on Prime Video on October 24, Like a Dragon: Yakuzaadapts the hit Sega sandbox action series beloved for mixing criminal underworld drama with fun open-world gaming hijinks. While we don’t get a ton of the off-kilter humor and quirky flamboyancy of the Like a Dragon games (previously known as Yakuza in the West) from the first extended trailer, we do get an introduction to some slick action and high-stakes dialogue.
Here’s a look:
The show will follow former yakuza Kazuma Kiryu, played by Ryoma Takeuchi of Kamen Rider fame, as he’s drawn into a conspiracy of rival factions and conflicting allegiances on the streets of Tokyo. Drawing mostly from the original 2005 Yakuza game, the first trailer shows a lot of familiar faces, including the Shimano Family mad dog Goro Majima. About a minute into the trailer, longtime fans are rewarded with his iconic “Kiryu-Chan!” line delivery.
The timing of Like a Dragon: Yakuza’s arrival has been surprisingly fortuitous. While the streaming wars appear to be losing gas, video game adaptations have helped breathe some new life into online TV. And while a subtitled Japanese thriller might have previously seemed like a tougher sell, Hulu’s Shōgun stole the show at the recent 2024 Emmy Awards, and Sony has already doubled-down on further adaptations of its Ghost of Tsushima series, including for its upcoming sequel, Ghost of Yōtei.
And for anyone who’s somehow managed to remain on the periphery of the Like a Dragon/Yakuza games these last several years, there have never been more ways to dip your toes into the Kamurochō district, from the Yakuza Kiwami remakes of the early games to recent turn-based spin-offs like Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. And another game in that lineage has already been announced, with Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii starring Goro Majima arriving early next year.
Back in May, House of the Dragon writer Sara Hess said that the decision to scale back Season 2 from 10 to eight episodes “wasn’t really our choice.” Dragon’s audience didn’t have a choice either, but viewers have had their say since Sunday, and most seem to have sided with Hess. This season didn’t quite get to where book readers estimated it might end; Episode 8 would have worked great as the setup for a final couple of episodes, but it had way too many loose threads and half-fulfilled plot points to feel satisfying as a season finale. All in all, this was one of the more bizarrely structured seasons of TV I can remember—and unfortunately, the odd ending puts a damper on what had at one point been looking like a strong season.
Nevertheless, we’re here to take a look at all the lore, big questions, and book implications we can. Here are my thoughts on “The Queen Who Ever Was.”
Deep Dive of the Week: Everything Daemon’s Final Vision Tells Us About the Future of House of the Dragon
I must admit to a growing fatigue about the extent to which House of the Dragon has used prophecy to create character growth and move the story forward. In a 2000 interview, George R.R. Martin explained his own philosophy regarding the use of prophecy in storytelling, saying, “Prophecy is one of those tropes of Fantasy that is fun to play with, but it can easily turn into a straightjacket if you’re not careful.” He continued: “One of the themes of my fiction, since the very beginning, is that the characters must make their choices, for good or ill. And making choices is hard.”
But House of the Dragon is all-in on prophecy, and I’m grateful, at least, for the fodder it provides for this column. This week, we reach the culmination of Daemon’s Harrenhal arc, resulting in a rich vision in the godswood. Daemon gets glimpses of the future and even communes with Helaena, who herself has been rattled by visions from a young age. Let’s break down what it all means.
Before Daemon’s vision even begins, he sees an antlered figure disappear behind Harrenhal’s heart tree:
All images via HBO
This is a deep cut. Harrenhal lies on the north bank of the Gods Eye, the largest lake in Westeros. In the center of that lake is a mysterious island known as the Isle of Faces. This island has ancient significance. It’s where, many thousands of years prior to the events of House of the Dragon, the First Men and the children of the forest signed the Pact, ending a long war between the two. Faces were carved into the many weirwood trees on the island so that the gods could witness the pact, giving the island its name. It’s said that, in the current day, the Isle of Faces is the only place in the south of Westeros where a significant population of weirwoods still exists (there’s actually a very clear shot of the island and its trees in this episode when Rhaenyra and Addam arrive at Harrenhal). All the rest in the south have been cut down or burned.
In more recent times, a group known as the green men keep a “silent watch” over the island, per Catelyn in A Game of Thrones. “No one visits the Isle of Faces,” Bran tells us in A Storm of Swords. Thus, the green men are incredibly secretive to the point of possibly being apocryphal. Nursery tales claim that the green men have horns and dark green skin, though most maesters would say that they just wear headdresses of antlers and green garments.
We don’t even know what the green men do. There are rumors that some children of the forest still live on the Isle of Faces, and are protected by the green men. But no one knows for sure.
This particular green man is gone before Daemon—or we—can get too good a look at him. But for readers who’ve bought into the theory that Daemon may precede Brynden Rivers as the three-eyed crow, Westeros’s foremost greenseer, this sighting could cause a red alert. We’re very much in fan theory territory here, but this hypothesis seems much less far-fetched after “The Queen That Ever Was.”
Speaking of Brynden, this is where Daemon’s vision really begins: with a silver-haired figure encased in a tree. His wine stain birthmark gives him away: This is Brynden Rivers, the same greenseer who mentors Bran Stark in Season 6 of Game of Thrones (though Thrones omitted the birthmark). The birthmark is what gives him the moniker Bloodraven.
This is a vision of the future, as Brynden hasn’t actually been born yet. (He is also supposed to be missing an eye, a detail I imagine House of the Dragon omitted because it’d prompt some viewers to mistake him for Aemond). Bloodraven is actually Daemon’s great-grandson, and should appear in HBO’s forthcoming A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which is set about 100 years after House of the Dragon.
Next up, a three-eyed bird flies in front of Bloodraven’s face:
I’m not much of a bird watcher, but to my eye this is a crow. That’s a neat detail—Thrones changed the bird to a raven, probably to avoid confusion when the Night’s Watch is so frequently referred to as “crows.” But in the books, Brynden appears to Bran as the three-eyed crow, not the three-eyed raven, and this is a nod to that.
Next up, a White Walker with an army of wights:
I don’t think that one needs much explanation. I do wonder if this is more or less what Aegon the Conqueror saw in his vision. I’m surprised this wasn’t the Night King himself.
Then, a couple of dragons lie dead on a battlefield:
These two are difficult to identify. Book readers could guess, but then we’d get into spoiler territory. And there is more than one potential explanation, especially if the show tweaks some things from the books.
Now, a figure walks through a battlefield littered with bodies:
As with the dragons, there are many explanations here. I’m almost certain this figure is Daemon, given that the character falls through the battlefield as a transition to the next scene, where Daemon is drowning in a black abyss:
Next up, the comet from Season 2 of Game of Thrones:
This comet, which also plays a big role in A Clash of Kings, is one of my favorite features in A Song of Ice and Fire. In that second novel in the series, everyone has their own explanation for what the comet means; at least a dozen different interpretations are given. Some are flat-out wrong (I don’t think the comet honored the new king Joffrey, who would go on to die in the very next novel), but others are left ambiguous. Maybe the comet really did herald the return of dragons—Daenerys’s were born shortly before its appearance. Maybe it really was sent by the Undying Ones to guide Daenerys to Qarth—Dany did follow its path there. Or maybe it’s a complete coincidence. Comets just show up sometimes.
We’ll never know for sure. But as a literary device, it provides a great signifier of how symbols and prophecies can be read in many different ways. It all depends on the character doing the interpreting.
Next up, Daenerys’s eggs in a bed of fire:
And then the dragon queen herself, emerging with her dragon hatchlings:
Now back to the present day, and the current dragon queen. Rhaenyra sits the throne:
And then, the trippiest part of this whole scene for me, when Daemon turns and comes face-to-face with Helaena. “It’s all a story, and you are but one part of it,” she says. “You know your part. You know what you must do.”
At this point, it’s revealed that Daemon isn’t just having a vision of Helaena as she exists in his head: Helaena herself is communicating with Daemon in real time from King’s Landing. Here the scene shifts to Helaena, as Aemond emerges to once again try to convince his sister to fly Dreamfyre into battle. She reveals that she knows that Aemond burned Aegon and let him fall from his dragon, essentially leaving him to die.
“Aegon will be king again,” she says. “He’s yet to see victory. He sits on a wooden throne. And you … you’ll be dead. You were swallowed up in the Gods Eye, and you were never seen again.”
Aemond says he could have Helaena killed. “It wouldn’t change anything,” she spits back.
Even casual viewers probably realize that Helaena has been right about pretty much everything she’s seen in her visions. Remember when she says in Season 1 that young Aemond will have to “close an eye” to claim a dragon? Yeah, she knows the future. And based on his facial expressions during this conversation, I think Aemond knows this about his sister.
There’s a whole free-will dilemma being cracked open by Daemon and Helaena here. Maybe part of the reason Helaena has been so passive is that, in seeing the future, she’s resigned herself to it. Maybe something similar has happened with Daemon: When Rhaenyra warns him not to leave her again, he answers, “I could not. I have tried.” (Rhaenyra notes that her own lot in life was “decided for me long ago.”) That’d largely violate Martin’s philosophy—that prophecies must remain vague enough that characters can be free to make difficult choices—but it seems to be the direction the show is heading in.
But let’s set the philosophy aside and ask a more straightforward question: Is the show straight up spoiling itself with these visions?
I’ll let showrunner Ryan Condal answer that. In a virtual Q&A with press on Monday, he explained that spoilers aren’t at the top of his mind as he writes the show:
“We’re not pretending that nobody has read Fire & Blood, and that there’s not a Wikipedia that’s there one Google link away if you want to find out what happened,” Condal said. “We dispensed with the idea that there were going to be surprises on that level right at the beginning and writing the series.”
He also noted that it would have been silly to pretend that Viserys wouldn’t die at the end of Season 1—every viewer could see that coming from miles away. Granted, there’s a difference between the audience knowing the fate of the current king on a show that is clearly about a succession crisis, and the audience knowing the fates of characters who could potentially resolve that crisis. Still, Condal continued: “I will just say that, just because a thing is told to you doesn’t mean it’s going to happen exactly that way. And we’ve seen obviously in history and all that be misinterpreted before, both in the world of Fire & Blood, and in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire.”
So maybe these visions will come to pass exactly as Daemon and Helaena have seen them, and this story will turn out to be about the journey and not the destination. Or maybe the visions aren’t as set in stone as we may think.
After multiple episodes of teasing, Rhaena … still hasn’t claimed Sheepstealer, the dragon that has left Dragonstone to seek fresh mutton in the Vale. But it seems very likely that she’ll do so—and that she was probably meant to do so this season before the episode count was reduced—which surely has book readers curious and sad about a fan favorite character from Fire & Blood: Nettles.
Nearly a month ago, Martin published a particularly cranky blog post. The post contained various thoughts on dragons, including a long defense of some of his dragon-related literary decisions. For example, Martin gave his dragons two legs and two wings because “no animal that has ever lived on Earth has six limbs. Birds have two legs and two wings, bats the same, ditto pteranodons and other flying dinosaurs, etc.”
He also wrote a long paragraph detailing how his dragons are not nomadic and would never be found outside Dragonstone. He specifically said that they wouldn’t be found in the Vale. Here’s the relevant paragraph:
My dragons are creatures of the sky. They fly, and can cross mountains and plains, cover hundreds of miles … but they don’t, unless their riders take them there. They are not nomadic. During the heyday of Valyria there were forty dragon-riding families with hundreds of dragons amongst them … but (aside from our Targaryens) all of them stayed close to the Freehold and the Lands of the Long Summer. From time to time a dragonrider might visit Volantis or another Valyrian colony, even settle there for a few years, but never permanently. Think about it. If dragons were nomadic, they would have overrun half of Essos, and the Doom would only have killed a few of them. Similarly, the dragons of Westeros seldom wander far from Dragonstone. Elsewise, after three hundred years, we would have dragons all over the realm and every noble house would have a few. The three wild dragons mentioned in Fire & Blood have lairs on Dragonstone. The rest can be found in the Dragonpit of King’s Landing, or in deep caverns under the Dragonmont. Luke flies Arrax to Storm’s End and Jace to Winterfell, yes, but the dragons would not have flown there on their own, save under very special circumstances. You won’t find dragons hunting the riverlands or the Reach or the Vale, or roaming the northlands or the mountains of Dorne.
This commentary is so pointed that I have to think Martin had a heads-up about where House of the Dragon was going. In Episode 6, Sheepstealer showed up in the Vale and presented a deviation from Martin’s source material—and book readers started speculating that the show was replacing Nettles with Rhaena.
In Martin’s book, a vagabond girl named Nettles claims Sheepstealer. All of the recent Rhaena action from the Vale has been a show invention, which seems to telegraph the direction the show is moving in. This is all a bit of a shame, as Nettles is unlike any other dragonrider in A Song of Ice and Fire. She’s a bastard girl born to a dockside sex worker in Driftmark. The book describes her as “black-haired, brown-eyed, brown-skinned, skinny, foul-mouthed, fearless.” And remember, in the books the Velaryons are not Black—they have typical Valyrian features: pale skin, silver hair, purple eyes. Nettles has no known Valyrian ancestry and no Valyrian features whatsoever—the only rider in all of A Song of Ice and Fire without so much as a hint of “the blood of the dragon.”
Nettles is, apparently, one of Martin’s favorite characters. A couple of years ago, a fan asked Martin whether there were characters from Fire & Blood that he’d like to write more about. He answered Nettles, rhetorically asking, “Where does she come from? Where does she go to? What is her life like?”
I have to stop here to avoid spoiling Nettles’s story, which will likely become Rhaena’s story next season. This decision is prudent in some ways—combining characters is a classic book-to-screen adaptation move for a reason, and Rhaena is underused and often forgotten in Fire & Blood. But it does represent a dramatic shift in how each medium views dragonriders. House of the Dragon is taking Fire & Blood’s Broom Boy—its promise that dragonriding isn’t just for Valyrians—and is dashing it in favor of a character whose last name is literally Targaryen.
Will this cause problems down the line? Not that I can tell based on how the plot unfolds in the book. But Martin ended his blog post by writing, “Ignore canon, and the world you’ve created comes apart like tissue paper.”
Meet Sharako Lohar
We knew that Sharako would appear this season thanks to casting news, and in the finale she finally makes her debut. Tyland and the greens think the Triarchy could be key to winning this war, and Lohar leads their fleet. So who is this mud-loving, polygamous admiral?
Well, Sharako isn’t fleshed out much in the books. Dragon’s creators have swapped Sharako’s gender for the show, but in the books the character commands a fleet of 90 warships. It’s not clear exactly how many Corlys Velaryon has at his disposal, but as is made clear on both the page and the screen, Sharako’s fleet is powerful enough to at least challenge the Sea Snake’s.
It also appears that the show is merging Lohar with another character, Racallio Ryndoon, who was part of the force that fought Daemon in the Stepstones many years earlier. The tip-off that these two characters are being merged is the detail that Sharako keeps multiple wives—an attribute that the book ascribes to Racallio. In fact, Racallio is one of the wildest characters in all of A Song of Ice and Fire. I just have to let Fire & Blood’s description do the character justice:
Surprisingly little is known of his youth, and much of what we believe we know is false or contradictory. He was six-and-a-half feet tall, supposedly, with one shoulder higher than another, giving him a stooped posture and a rolling gait. He spoke a dozen dialects of Valyrian, suggesting that he was highborn, but he was infamously foul-mouthed too, suggesting that he came from the gutters. In the fashion of many Tyroshi, he was wont to dye his hair and beard. Purple was his favorite color (hinting at the possibility of a tie to Braavos), and most accounts of him make mention of long curling purple hair, oft streaked with orange. He liked sweet scents and would bathe in lavender or rosewater.
That he was a man of enormous ambition and enormous appetites seems clear. He was a glutton and a drunkard when at leisure, a demon when in battle. He could wield a sword with either hand, and sometimes fought with two at once. He honored the gods: all gods, everywhere. When battle threatened, he would throw the bones to choose which god to placate with a sacrifice. Though Tyrosh was a slave city, he hated slavery, suggesting that perhaps he himself had come from bondage. When wealthy (he gained and lost several fortunes) he would buy any slave girl who caught his eye, kiss her, and set her free. He was open-handed with his men, claiming a share of plunder no greater than the least of them. In Tyrosh, he was known to toss gold coins to beggars. If a man admired something of his, be it a pair of boots, an emerald ring, or a wife, Racallio would press it on him as a gift.
He had a dozen wives and never beat them, but would sometimes command them to beat him. He loved kittens and hated cats. He loved pregnant women, but loathed children. From time to time he would dress in women’s clothes and play the whore, though his height and crooked back and purple beard made him more grotesque than female to the eye. Sometimes he would burst out laughing in the thick of battle. Sometimes he would sing bawdy songs instead.
Racallio Ryndoon was mad. Yet his men loved him, fought for him, died for him. And for a few short years, they made him a king.
So yeah, get ready for more Sharako in Season 3!
Where is Otto?
For the first time since Episode 2, we get a glimpse of the man who did more than any other to put this entire war into motion. Way back at the beginning of the season, Otto, who’d been dismissed as Aegon’s hand, was supposed to head to Highgarden to rally the Tyrells to the greens’ side, as they had yet to formally declare for either faction. Then he disappeared, and we later learn that Alicent’s letters to him went unanswered.
Now we know the reason for Otto’s silence: He’s in prison … somewhere.
There are no book insights—and no book spoilers—to be had here. In Fire & Blood, Otto remains in King’s Landing after Aegon fires him. And he’s instrumental in winning the Triarchy over to the greens, though he does so by way of raven, not by mud fight. If the showrunners were determined to give Otto more to do, the obvious decision would have been to send him to Essos. At his age, he might not have been able to wrestle in the muck, but he could have been given some interesting scenes. Sending him somewhere unknown instead, and revealing he’s locked away, creates a big mystery. Color me intrigued!
Total speculation: The most likely location for Otto is Honeyholt, the seat of House Beesbury in the Reach. We know that the Beesburys declared for the blacks after their lord Lyman Beesbury was killed back in Season 1. If he passed through Beesbury lands on his way through the Reach, they would have been inclined to take him prisoner.
The problem with that theory? Honeyholt lies west of Highgarden. So if Otto met with the Tyrells first, he would have had to continue to Oldtown to cross paths with the Beesburys. And if he made it to the Tyrells, why not give him a scene or two at Highgarden?
The other problem: Otto should be much too smart to get himself captured this way. It’d be out of character for him to attempt to march through territories that are openly at war with him. In the “Inside the Episode” video that aired after the finale, Condal remained tight-lipped about Otto, saying, “We don’t know quite where he is or what happened to him.”
Finally, justice for the Tyroshis
Book readers have long had a bit of a sore spot about how Game of Thrones muted Martin’s lively world. Especially in later seasons, a world that is full of color became a mess of grays and blacks. I’m talking about literal wardrobe choices and how Thrones slowly moved away from the bright sigils and eccentric outfits described in Martin’s writing in exchange for a dreary palette that was supposed to convey how dark and serious the story was becoming.
Nowhere was this sort of change more stark than in the depiction of Daario Naharis, the Tyroshi sellsword who accompanies Daenerys for a few seasons. Here’s how Daario was described in A Storm of Swords:
Daario Naharis was flamboyant even for a Tyroshi. His beard was cut into three prongs and dyed blue, the same color as his eyes and the curly hair that fell to his collar. His pointed mustachios were painted gold. His clothes were all shades of yellow; a foam of Myrish lace the color of butter spilled from his collar and cuffs, his doublet was sewn with brass medallions in the shape of dandelions, and ornamental goldwork crawled up his high leather boots to his thighs. Gloves of soft yellow suede were tucked into a belt of gilded rings, and his fingernails were enameled blue.
And in the show, we got … two pretty-looking generic dudes (thanks to an actor change), one clean-shaven, one bearded:
Well, the blue-hair enthusiasts got their wish this week. With Tyland in Essos, we see quite a few people who bear a striking resemblance to book Daario. I mean, just look at this guy:
Heck, we got two blue-haired Tyroshis:
Big episode for blue-haired representation and for everyone who enjoys a good splash of primary color.
The Board Before Us
The Triarchy is on the board thanks to Tyland’s prowess in the mud-fighting pit. That’s the biggest change to the map in a while, and it gives the greens the naval power to match the blacks. Though Aemond and Co. still have a major dragon deficit (and are facing a reunified Daemon and Rhaenyra), the greens made up some significant ground. Here’s how it all looks:
Next Time On …
That’s it for House of the Dragon Season 2. But we did get a full seven-second look at A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, coming next year:
I encourage you to read Tales of Dunk and Egg, the three novellas that will serve as the basis for this next series. They’re possibly my favorite bit of writing in all of A Song of Ice and Fire. Just absolute delights. And they’re short.
Oh, brother, where to start? Last night was the season finale of House of the Dragon and, well, the only word that comes to mind is ‘underwhelmed.’ I think pretty much everyone can agree on that description but I’m being much less harsh than some. Sue me for not wanting to wait 2 years for the fighting dragons show to finally show us fighting dragons. This episode would’ve been a fantastic penultimate one, but as a season finale, we all got short-changed. Anyway, SPOILERS FOR THE HOUSE OF THE DRAGON SEASON 2 FINALE AHEAD so scroll these memes at your own risk.
The season finale of House of the Dragon is here, and Chris Ryan, Joanna Robinson, and Mallory Rubin are here to give you their instant reactions to all of the drama in Westeros. From Ulf’s courtly faux pas to Daemon coming through in Harrenhal to another unexpected reunion, Talk the Thrones will be there!
Hosts: Chris Ryan, Joanna Robinson, and Mallory Rubin Production: Jack Wilson, Felipe Guilhermino, Nick Kosut, Tony Perry, Bobby Gibbons, John Richter, Ryan Todd, Chia Hao, Aleya Zenieris, Arjuna Ramgopal, Steve Ahlman, Jomi Adeniran, Abreanna Corrales, and Yvonne Wang
Kieran Bew knows the power of good facial hair. He credits the look for Hugh Hammer’s success taming the massive Vermithor in House of the Dragon’s seventh episode of the season, “The Red Sowing.”
“I had a big beard, and everybody was discussing whether I should shave it off or not,” Bew says. “And I just said: I love Vermithor’s design of his teeth, sort of looking like they’re going in all different directions; like if he bit you, it would be the most painful thing, almost like being trapped in an Iron Maiden or something. And I felt like it was a slightly funny joke about people who have dogs, end up looking like their dogs.”
Bew was aware that Hugh’s whole season arc was leading up to his showdown with Vermithor, and aware of how many aesthetic choices were there to set up the depth of the decision to go to Dragonstone: He kept the beard, and his hair the same color as Daemon’s (if not Viserys’), with a bit of Bew’s own natural hue mixed own. And as he watched Hugh’s agitation with the ruling class of King’s Landing grow, Bew found the role in little beats, like being so desperate for food that he punches a fellow commoner to get a bag.
To him, the scenes were “always like a skeleton” for the larger character arc. But like any good actor (or, as is the case with interpreting a lot of Fire & Blood’s textbook-like account, historian), it was his job to piece together the lived humanity between that.
“To get given a scene where my character is revealing to his wife something enormous […] and he’s arguing to go on a suicide mission,” Bew marvels. “That’s how much he’s decided to keep that a secret. Because of shame, because of how [his mom] behaved, because of his upbringing, because of how painful it was.
“He’s been trying to do something else. And now he’s saying: Actually this is the only thing I can do. I’m in so much pain; I’ve got to do something, I’ve got to do this.”
And so, Bew took all that energy into that final scene of episode 7, where Rhaenyra’s plans to find Vermithor a rider go awry. To him, Hugh’s desperation — to do something, to matter — was near suicidal, even if he’s still afraid in the moment. “He’s come all this way, the stakes are so high, he thinks the dice is slightly loaded in his favor. But it’s still fucking terrifying,” Bew says. “How do you strategize against something that can move so quickly and squash you and drop people on your head on fire?”
Of course, his delay had some upside. “The one thing about [it] going to shit is: the odds improve.”
For inspiration for what the ultimate moment of connection should feel like for Hugh and the Bronze Fury, Bew drew from his time on set — specifically, approaching a crew member’s little Yorkshire terrier on set, who kept trying to go for the tennis ball eyes of pre-CG Vermithor.
“At the moment of claiming, it has to be this, where this dog likes me, this dog is connecting to me,” Bew says, acknowledging there is a difference between a tiny terrier and a dragon the size of four houses. “It’s a connection that’s, like, that delicate. But before we get there, it’s overwhelming. And it’s terrifying. And it requires throwing everything in.”
And in Bew’s mind, everything about the way Hugh claims Vermithor comes from that desperation. Unlike other dragons, Vermithor is looking for a rider who can, as the saying goes, match his freak. So it’s no surprise that Hugh’s aggressive approach spoke to the mighty dragon, given that nothing about the way Hugh claims Vermithor is selfless, in that regard — even stepping in as the dragon targets another Targaryen bastard. After all, there’s nothing like the fear of failure to turn something impossible into a race.
“He’s been pushed to this. Something about growing up underneath the shadow of the aristocracy, the family that he has been rejected from that he’s not part of — he’s not only not part of it, he’s connected to it in a way that is full of shame, that he’s angry about,” Bew says. “If Vermithor chooses her, then what happens to me?”
House of the Dragon is back, and the Dance of the Dragons is underway. The Targaryen war of succession will come down to control—who can control their impulses, their sycophants, and, yes, their dragons. With each passing episode, The Ringer will examine how Westeros’s key players are aligning their pieces on the board. As the saying goes, chaos can be a ladder. Welcome to the House of the Dragon power rankings.
The penultimate episode of House of the Dragon’s second season,“The Red Sowing,” is pretty much made for power rankings. Every episode of Dragon and Game of Thrones is ultimately about power, but this one presents its power dynamics more clearly than most. Often, in this franchise, shifts in standing are communicated subtly, with words or a glance. Other times, though, characters convey dominance or obeisance with an unmistakable, full-body display—the human equivalent of a dog rolling over, vulnerable belly to the sky.
I’m talking, of course, about bending the knee.
Early in Episode 7, newly minted dragonrider Addam of Hull bends the knee to Rhaenyra. “You kneel quickly for a man so suddenly elevated,” she says—wary, but eager to add to her air power.
Later, at Harrenhal, Willem Blackwood brags, “They who bent the knee to the usurper have been brought to heel.” Then he bends the knee to his new liege lord, Oscar Tully … who promptly orders his execution. Willem is still doing a deep knee bend as Daemon cuts off his head.
Finally, Vermithor and Silverwing bend their knees, and their necks, to Hugh and Ulf, respectively. (Dragons do have knees, right?)
All of which reminded me (sorry) of something Donald Trump Jr. recently said about conservative media mogul Rupert Murdoch. “There was a time where if you wanted to survive in the Republican Party, you had to bend the knee to him or to others,” Trump Jr. toldAxios earlier this month. “I don’t think that’s the case anymore.”
Even if Murdoch is no longer kneel-worthy, Trump Jr.’s preferred running mate for his father, JD Vance, gave his first post-nomination interview to a Murdoch-owned outlet, Fox News. Vance’s, well, sudden elevation prompted numerous mentions of knee-bending by political pundits, such as this one by New York Times columnist David French: “Trump loves it when his previous critics bend the knee, and few people have bent the knee more deeply than Vance.”
A decade ago, most of America was blissfully ignorant of everything Trump Jr. said. But there’s no way he would’ve used the specific phrase “bend the knee” on, say, the last season of The Apprentice in 2010, right? Game of Thrones didn’t premiere until 2011. And seemingly thanks to Thrones (and, perhaps, A Song of Ice and Fire),these days, everybody “bends the knee.”
Thrones haslongbeenastaple of political discourse. (If you think Vance’s stances have been divisive, check out what one of the Democratic VP hopefuls just said.) But it’s not just the political class that’s newly enamored of this saying. The culture’s increasing knee-diness is evident in this graph from the Google Books Ngram Viewer, which displays data through 2019:
Search traffic tells the same story, via Google Trends:
What if we compare “bend the knee” to a similar phrase?
Kissing the ring is out. Bending the knee is in. (By the way, if you’re wondering why “kiss the ring” popped in 2012, you can credit DJ Khaled. That 2017 spike for “bend the knee” was all Jon and Dany.)
George R.R. Martin didn’t come close to coining “bend the knee,” the way that he seems to have coined, say, the specific phrase “sweet summer child” (with its modern meaning of “naïve”). But he’s certainly made us say it much more often. Words are wind—another phrase Martin has seared into our brains—but wind can fan a fire, and every reference to knee bending reminds us that the world has collectively bent the knee to Martin’s (and HBO’s) creations. Which is, after all, why you’re reading these words … which are supposed to be about ranking characters.
1. Rhaenyra Targaryen
In a single episode, Rhaenyra doubled the number of dragons at her disposal on Dragonstone. And we’re not talking tiny ones, like Daeron’s dragon, who reportedly took wing this week in Oldtown. These are combat-ready, adult dragons, including one who’s almost as massive as Vhagar (and may be more fierce). Before receiving these reinforcements, Rhaenyra said, “I have only Syrax who may give Aemond a second thought.” But by the end of the episode, Rhaenyra has more dragons than she knows what to do with, and Aemond and Vhagar are forced to turn tail.
Not only did Rhaenyra assemble enough riders to turn Dragonstone into a no-fly zone for Team Green and potentially establish air superiority over the mainland, she did so by addressing another longstanding deficiency: her subpar political instincts. This week, she showed some serious savvy and spine by ignoring the naysayers—including Bartimos Celtigar, the dragonkeepers, and her own son and heir—recognizing the merits of Mysaria’s suggestion, and making Vermithor come when she called. She overcame her own prejudices in the interest of expediency and showed an unsuspected knack for pregame pep talks. Clear eyes, full hearts, quick fuse!
On top of all that, Rhaenyra—unbeknownst to her—gained the allegiance and swords of the Riverlords, who supported her despite Daemon’s attempt to soft-launch himself as king. Perhaps her troubles with her coup-curious consort are coming to an end. Plus, she got to meet some of her extended family! Sadly, most of her relatives’ visits didn’t last long. Family gatherings can be so incendiary. This one wasn’t heartwarming, but it was, well, warm.
2. Bastards
Episode 7 was quite a come-up for bastards, one of Westeros’s traditionally downtrodden groups. As a bastard born myself, I salute the ascendance of my fellow out-of-wedlock kids; Addam, Hugh, and Ulf may be illegitimate, but they proved that they’re legit. Even if Rhaenyra was just grinning and bearing the bastards in her midst, they came up clutch enough that the queen couldn’t front about the bastards bailing her out. Who knew that in this war among the highborn, the baseborn would prove so pivotal? (Other than millions of readers of Fire & Blood.)
Of course, things didn’t go great for every bastard: In Westeros, events that start with “The Red” and end with “-ing” must be bad news for someone. As is often the case, the sowing wasn’t so bad, but the reaping was a problem.
Me sowing: Haha fuck yeah!!! Yes!!
Me reaping: Well this fucking sucks. What the fuck.
If I have any critique of Rhaenyra, who was Reaganing this week, it’s that the bastard barbecue in the Dragonmont may have been avoidable. I couldn’t help but notice that she and her retinue got well out of range of Vermithor’s flames before Silver Denys’s ill-fated dragon-taming attempt. Why not send out the aspiring dragonriders one by one to decrease casualties and increase the chances of a successful bonding, instead of making them cluster together for maximal collateral damage and then barring their escape? I don’t expect Rhaenyra to care about the bastards’ well-being, but you’d think she’d care about upping the odds of finding a match.
3. Hugh Hammer
How Hugh like me now? When this episode started, Hugh was an unpaid contractor in King’s Landing, bereaved and bereft. Now he commands the baddest dragon on Team Black, if not in all the land. Unlike Ulf, he looks the part of a dragonlord, but he didn’t master Vermithor just by being a nepo baby with the right Valyrian midi-chlorian count. He won his dragon—and, perhaps, his fortune—by being bold and courageous. “I have to do something!” he exclaimed. Well, that was certainly something. His next chat with Kat should be a fun one.
4. Addam of Hull
“We spent the whole of our lives in the shadow of the Sea Snake’s great castle,” Addam complained last week. Now he has his own room in an even greater castle. Corlys said it: “How you have come up in the world.”
Addam doesn’t just have a way with Seasmoke; he also has a way with words. As the first of the non-Targaryens to claim a dragon, Addam had the toughest time convincing Rhaenyra of his intentions. But by pledging his loyalty and bending his knee, he opened the queen’s closed mind to the possibility of “an army of bastards.” “The order of things has changed, Your Grace,” Mysaria says to Rhaenyra. This Ad(d)am actually changed the hierarchy of power.
Pulling off the “impossible” stunt of claiming a dragon—and being rewarded with a sweet cloak, plus some time off work—was nice enough. But after last week’s lament about the Sea Snake—“Me he ignores … as he always has”—you know that “Well done” from Daddy was the greatest prize of all. Hey, people have probably done more dangerous things for parental approval.
5. Ulf the Dragonlord
So, Ulf wasn’t just boasting about being the blood of the dragon for the free drinks. Yes, he had to be peer pressured into leaving King’s Landing, and sure, he covered himself in mud more than glory when he accidentally stumbled into Silverwing’s lair. But Baelon’s sot of a son—at least, he’s believed to be Baelon’s—is now a genuine dragonrider who ends the episode by soaring over the city where he once huddled among the smallfolk. It’s a pleasure to see someone flying just for fun, for once.
It’s nice work if you can get it. Still, it’s sort of a letdown that you evidently don’t have to do anything to claim a dragon. Hugh, at least, stood up to Vermithor and faced his dragon down. Ulf literally falls down in front of his dragon, yet Silverwing accepts him. I know Silverwing is laid-back by dragon standards, so maybe she sees the more mellow Ulf as a kindred spirit, but shouldn’t claiming a dragon be like breaking a horse or taming an ikran—a task that requires some skill or bravery? I guess it’s sort of a soulmate thing, but the bond would be more meaningful to me if it had to be built up over time or earned through an act that revealed the rider’s character. And shouldn’t you have dragonriding lessons before you go joyriding—kind of uncontrollably, to be fair—over Blackwater Bay? How much art is there to dragonriding, really?
That nitpick aside: There’s undoubtedly an art to depicting dragons on-screen, and the combination of HBO’s budget and its VFX artists’ skill made this episode a masterstroke in that respect. And though there’s only so much depth to the dragonseeds, the series has made major strides toward rectifying the first season’s lack of lowborn characters.
6. Mysaria
So, uh … are Mysaria and Rhaenyra going to talk about that (truly) spontaneous face-sucking sesh from last week, or are they just going to pretend it didn’t happen? Granted, these two have many matters other than making out on their minds. But if Mysaria thought Rhaenyra looked good with a sword at her side last week, you can’t tell me that the sight of the queen cowing a dragon and intimidating Aemond didn’t do it for her.
Whether or not Rhaenyra and Mysaria smooch again, Mysaria has once again demonstrated her platonic utility to the queen and solidified her status as Team Black’s most valuable adviser. You have to hand it to her: Keeping track of fourscore Targaryen progeny—some of whom don’t look at all like typical Targaryens—is a nifty feat of sleuthing and surveillance. It’s not like she has 23andMe.
7. Oscar Tully
Well, now we know how House Tully has kept the factious Riverlords in line: by applying a deft diplomatic touch that young Oscar seems to have inherited. Lord Oscar isn’t quite as precocious as Lady Lyanna Mormont, but he seems like an old hand at reading a room of proud rivermen. In private, he professes uncertainty about whether his vassals will heed his authority, but once the spotlight is on him, he performs flawlessly while projecting a winsome humility that the Targaryens lack. He even audaciously dresses down Daemon to his face, in front of a noble audience, knowing that Daemon can do nothing if he wants to walk away with a win.
“I hope to begin well, and go on from there,” Oscar tells his bannermen. Well, the beginning is going great. Why can’t Oscar be king? Can we get this kid a dragon?
8. Alyn of Hull
Addam is a dragonrider; might Alyn possess that power, too? He doesn’t know, nor does he care to find out. “I am of salt and sea,” he says when Corlys implies that maybe both of his bastard sons could bolster Rhaenyra’s dragon depth chart. “I yearn for nothing else.” You have to respect someone who understands their strengths and knows what they want in life, but even if he’d rather do his job in the background, Alyn’s low-profile life is probably behind him.
9. Corlys Velaryon
Corlys is Rhaenyra’s hand, so in general, events that help her also help him. And in this case, his sons are instrumental to her success—though he hasn’t publicly acknowledged them as his sons. Maybe it’s High Tide—er, high time—that he did. Rhaenys is dead, and Laenor’s long gone; now that Rhaenyra is indebted to Addam and Alyn and the Targaryens’ bastards have been brought into the fold, what reason does he have to hide them? “The Sea Snake would sooner have High Tide claimed by the sea than call us his sons,” Alyn told Addam last week. That was before Addam mounted a dragon and Alyn smuggled two other future riders to Dragonstone. Come on, Corlys: Let the father-son bonding begin.
10. Jacaerys Velaryon
Jace has been a voice of reason and an effective emissary for the blacks, even when Rhaenyra was rudderless, but their roles reverse this week when his mom’s new plan puts him on tilt. I get it: All that talk about bastards, and the sight of so many dragonseeds who look more quintessentially Targaryen than he does, are dredging up some insecurities. So is suddenly finding his dragon so outclassed. Pouting isn’t a good look on him, but hopefully it’s healthy that he and his mother had the Harwin talk; sometimes it’s good to get these things out there.
Perhaps Jace is right to be skeptical; we’ll see whether Rhaenyra’s pride goes before a fall. But Jace: You have to win the war before you stress about succession. Also, the smallfolk are saving your side’s ass, yet you’re calling underprivileged people “mongrels”? Come on, man. This is the Dance of the Dragons, not Project 2025.
11. Daemon Targaryen
Daemon accomplished his mission—uniting the Riverlands—but he did so, inadvertently, by uniting the region against him. He also suffered the indignity of a tongue-lashing from a whelp of a lord Daemon had dismissed in their last meeting. And thenhe dispensed “justice” by murdering a man for following his own orders.
Willem’s bloody demise extended a violent motif from this season. The first episode started with giving head and ended with taking one. In Episode 2, Jaehaerys’s killer, Blood, got caught head-handed, then had his head bashed in. In Episode 4, Daemon envisioned beheading young Rhaenyra. And this week, he decapitated Blackwood, who was doing Daemon’s bidding. By swinging his sword, Daemon tacitly admits that he deserves death.
“I don’t need their love,” Daemon says. “I need their swords.” Unlike Oscar, he doesn’t realize that gaining the former might make obtaining the latter more likely—or that people fight harder for causes they care about. However, he does show some signs of growth. In his latest Harrenhal hallucination, Daemon visits Viserys as an old man. “You always wanted it, Daemon,” the decrepit king says, holding out his crown clasped in one bony hand. “Do you want it still?” To his credit, Daemon doesn’t take it. Maybe he’s ready to give up the ghost, so to speak, and rededicate himself to supporting Viserys’s rightful heir.
12. Larys Strong
Larys showed a lousy nose for news in dismissing Ironrod’s intel about Seasmoke’s new rider—unless he’s trying to sabotage Aemond—but who wants to be the bearer of bad whispers, anyway? The real problem for Larys isn’t one whiff on a whisper; it’s that he’s hitched his star to a king who hardly has the will to live. Having been rebuffed in his bid to be Aemond’s hand, Larys pivoted to currying favor with the nominal monarch, whom he thinks will welcome his help adjusting to a less mobile life. Now his own survival and advancement depend on Aegon’s—hence the strict regime Larys has prescribed in his informal capacity as the king’s drill sergeant/personal trainer/physical therapist. I see the vision, but I’m not sure Larys picked the right pupil. He does lend a hand to Aegon in this episode, but it could be awhile before Aegon is in any kind of condition for him to serve as one.
13. Grand Maester Orwyle
Orwyle has little power, per se, but he’s a healer—and in wartime, those are much in demand. I don’t see why he has to take orders from Larys, though, so he should probably put his foot down. Larys tends to respond to that.
14. Aegon Targaryen
The good news is that the king is conscious and semi-ambulatory. The bad news is that he doesn’t want to be. Also, he has to be hidden away, lest his not-so-loving subjects see how weak and disfigured their monarch has become. The greatest indignity, though, is that he takes a spill during physical therapy because his cane cracks. Aegon styles himself King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, and Protector of the Realm. Is a solid walking stick too much to ask?
15. Aemond Targaryen
Tough look for my guy One-Eye. Not only is his brother (slowly) on the mend, endangering his regency, but his Small Council is much smaller than usual. Worst of all, he’s no longer invincible on Vhagar, whose Swiss-cheese wings and wattle are making her look a little old. Until this week, the blacks could’ve triple-teamed Vhagar and still stood to lose, so great was Vhagar’s size and strength advantage over any of Rhaenyra’s individual dragons. But even Vhagar wouldn’t survive a six- or seven-on-one attack—especially not with Vermithor, who’s nearly as large, in the mix. With her revamped roster, Rhaenyra could put the Vhagar Rules into effect while holding a dragon or three in reserve. As his 180 at the end of this episode shows, Aemond knows it. If he nears Dragonstone, he’ll be at great risk … but if he flies anywhere else in the realm, he’ll leave the city exposed.
16. Alicent Hightower
“Nothing is clean here,” Alicent says, staring at a rat that looks at home in her chambers. It can’t have helped that her son had the ratcatchers killed … but who bears more blame for Aegon’s ascent to the throne than Alicent? It would seem that the list of things that aren’t clean includes the dowager queen’s conscience, and understandably so.
In an effort to cleanse that much, at least, Alicent goes glamping in the Kingswood with Rickard Thorne and tries to wash away her sins. When she emerges from the figurative baptism, she finds she’s in no rush to return to court. When Thorne—who seems a little less enthused about this outdoors adventure—asks, more or less, when she means to release him from roughing it, Alicent answers, “I’m not yet certain I do.”
At least Alicent got some screen time this week, unlike estranged slam piece Criston Cole, who’s missing in action. (I can’t say that I missed the man.) She’s plummeting in the power rankings; if she falls much further, she might cease to merit Kingsguard protection, and she’d have to go glamping alone. But her demotion would be worth it if it came with a corresponding drop in the misery rankings. Maybe this dark night of Alicent’s soul will be for the best: Hasn’t she done enough damage, to Westeros and herself? If proximity to the crown is crushing, as Daemon’s vision of Viserys says, then Alicent is probably better off away from the rats and the rat race.
T-17. Baela and Rhaena Targaryen
“It must be the dragon who speaks,” Rhaenyra says in Episode 7. Evidently it mustn’t be either Baela or Rhaena who speaks, because neither of them had a line this week. At least Rhaena is hot on Sheepstealer’s trail, not that Team Black seems to need more dragons right now. Back in Episode 6 of Season 1, Rhaena griped, “Father ignores me.” Good news: If Addam of Hull’s example is any guide, there’s no better way to get a distant dad’s attention than to claim a dragon. Then again, in that same Season 1 episode, Rhaena’s late mother told her, “If you wish to be a rider, you must claim that right.” So maybe Rhaena’s doing it aaaall for Leyna Laena.
19. King’s Landing Security
First, Daemon sneaked into King’s Landing and hired assassins to kill a member of the royal family within Maegor’s Holdfast. Next, Rhaenyra herself sneaked into the sept to see Alicent, right under the noses of the dowager queen’s guards. Now 80 dragonseeds have sneaked out of the city at Rhaenyra’s behest. By contrast, it took an identical twin of a Kingsguard member for the greens to (briefly) breach the blacks’ defenses. Granted, it’s easier to lock down Dragonstone than the capital city, but is there no limit to the incompetence of King’s Landing security and counterintelligence? I’d say “heads must roll,” but as we established, a lot of heads have rolled already.
20. Hugh’s Daughter
Farewell, Whatever Your Name Was. I’ll miss the mopping of your feverish brow, but I guess you died on the way back to your home planet. I’m sorry that the lettuce Hugh stole last week wasn’t enough to sustain you.
Hosts: Chris Ryan, Joanna Robinson, and Mallory Rubin Production: Jack Wilson, Felipe Guilhermino, Chris Wohlers, Kevin Cureghian, Bobby Gibbons, Jonathan Frias, Ryan Todd, Tony Perry, Cory McConnell, Aleya Zenieris, Arjuna Ramgopal, Steve Ahlman, Jomi Adeniran, Abreanna Corrales, and Yvonne Wang
Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) should be the kind of man who has songs written in his honor. A low-born knight, elevated to the Kingsguard, then made Lord Commander, before finally rising to the position of Hand of the King. Our handsome knight has some … anger issues, yes (who doesn’t in this world?), but he appears to be an honorable and gallant knight — and really that’s all that matters as far as the histories are concerned. He does have one fatal flaw though, something entirely outside of his control: he was born in the age of dragons.
Episode 4 saw Criston rise to his highest yet. His successive military victories earn him the acclaim of the masses. For a low-born knight to be named “kingmaker” is the stuff of legend, but here we saw just how far he can fall. As dragons clash in the sky over Rook’s Rest, Criston is thrown from his horse and spends most of the battle unconscious. While there is no shortage of sweeping dragon-on-dragon action, the focus of this sequence is remarkably human. This climactic battle represents one of the most important days of Criston’s career, the moment this entire campaign has been leading to, but he spends it face down in the mud. It doesn’t matter what someone’s status is, when faced with a dragon they are little more than a sack of meat and bone.
But this is just one setback in what has been a long line. He was elevated to the Kingsguard, only to discover the limits of his station. He is constantly beneath royalty (and you can take that in any way you will), which means he rarely has leave to act of his own accord. He has had two royal flings so far, and neither have gone particularly well. Even when things go his way, he is uncomfortably aware of his own fragility. No matter what he does, how hard he tries, he just isn’t enough. His military is larger and better equipped than that of team Black, but they are little more than specks when viewed from dragonback. He has seen men tossed aside like dolls, and burned in dragonfire. He knows that his little battle of men and land is a farce — there are greater powers in the sky. But Criston rails against these limits. Faced with his own powerlessness, we see him declare this a war of dragons, not men. He is restless in his position, and it’s easy to see why.
Criston is entirely convinced of his own self-importance. To be fair, he has a good deal of evidence to support that perspective, even beyond what’s outlined above. He unseated Daemon at the tourney and quickly won his position on the Kingsguard, and his military victories are all his own. Aegon looks pathetic when placed next to Criston (though this is true of most people, to be fair), but even the more formidablePrince Aemond was his pupil. He has done the impossible already, so it is no wonder that he is so confident in his own abilities; he can already hear the songs that will be sung in his honor.
Photo: Theo Whiteman/HBO
But that honor is fragile. He tries to bury any and all evidence that suggests he is not suited to his position, first by murdering Joffrey back in season 1, and more recently by deflecting blame for Jaehaerys’ murder onto Ser Arryk and sending him to his death. Criston is skilled, yes, but he is also recklessly prideful. He is locked in a constant battle to prove to himself and others that he deserves his position, but he constantly falls short. Episode by episode we can see his frustration mounting, Frankel deftly portraying the rising anger of a man who can’t quite get it right. We can all sense the danger here: We have a man who wants to prove his own greatness, who blinds himself to his shortcomings, yet is cursed to spend his life in the shadow of dragons.
In most cases, this kind of self belief would serve one well. Criston is ruthless and bold, and while that aids him on the battlefield, it presents a problem when the conflict begins to escalate. The battle at Rook’s Rest has clearly shaken him, but where some would reconsider, he doubles down. He endorses Aemond as regent, knowing that he will escalate the war. Criston has seen a fight between dragons firsthand, he knows the chaos it will bring to the Seven Kingdoms, yet he still leads team Green down the path of war. He’s not pure evil, but he is delightfully hateable in this moment. Alicent pushes for him to side with her, but he knows he can’t. It’s the dilemma at the core of the series, and Criston would rather see the Seven Kingdoms fall to ruin than be on the losing side. He’s just as doomed as anyone else in King’s Landing, no matter how high he climbs.
Criston’s attempts to rise above the dragons ultimately ensure that he will always be under them. Desperate to prove himself, he will lead this war of dragons to its bloody end. His legacy is set in stone, at least as far as his brief mention in A Feast for Crows is concerned. Of all the tragic and thoughtless mistakes characters in House of the Dragon have made so far, pitting the dragons against one another might just be the most significant.
Hosts: Van Lathan, Charles Holmes, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman Producers: Aleya Zenieris, Cory McConnell, Jonathan Kermah, and Steve Ahlman Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal
Of all the deaths in the Game of Thrones pantheon—the beheadings, stabbings, poisonings, drownings, suffocations, flayings, suicides, burnings, beatings, explosions, and zombie attacks—very little beats the intensely traumatic, harrowing childbirth of Aemma Arryn, wife of King Viserys, in the series premiere of HoD. It is the most realistic of any Game of Thrones death, an unforgettable depiction of the brutalities of childbirth. Aemma’s labor becomes complicated, and it quickly becomes evident that both her life and that of the unborn child are in grave danger. King Viserys, desperate for a male heir to secure the Targaryen succession, faces an excruciating decision when he is informed that the only way to potentially save the baby is through a risky and primitive cesarean section, which would almost certainly result in Aemma’s death. Torn between his love for his wife and his duty as king, Viserys decides to proceed with the procedure. Needless to say, you won’t soon shake the grim sights and sounds of it all.
Depicted with graphic detail and emotional intensity, Aemma is forcibly held down as the maester makes the incision without anesthesia. She dies in agony, begging for her life, grimly aware of the fate that’s been chosen for her. That the baby doesn’t survive is almost beside the point (though it sets in motion the internecine war within House Targaryen). Both GoT and HoD are, if nothing else, odes to the horrors humans inflict on one another. But very little compares to the brutalities inherent in simply living.
House of the Dragon is back, and the Dance of the Dragons is underway. The Targaryen war of succession will come down to control—who can control their impulses, their sycophants, and, yes, their dragons. With each passing episode, The Ringer will examine how Westeros’s key players are aligning their pieces on the board. As the saying goes, chaos can be a ladder. Welcome to the House of the Dragon power rankings.
1. Cregan Stark
In the opening scene of Season 2 of House of the Dragon,Cregan Stark—a.k.a. the Wolf of the North, a.k.a. the ancestor of the Starkfam we know and love from Game of Thrones—immediately comes across as the most righteous dude in all the Seven Kingdoms. Hosting disputed prince Jacaerys Velaryon at the Wall, Cregan shows him around with all the pride and extreme patience of a college senior giving a pre-frosh and their parents a campus tour: Here’s the bazillion-foot-tall elevator built by my ancestors, and over that way is basically death’s door; yes, we believe in single-sex education at this institution, our motto is “Duty Is Sacrifice,” and did you know that our admissions rate is a steady 10 percent?
After all that, Cregan also makes sure to educate the naive, young Jace about the ways of the world. “Do you think my ancestors built a 700-foot wall of ice to keep out snow and savages?” he asks, explaining that the Wall also fortifies Westeros against that oldest and wiliest of foes, Death. (These taciturnt Starks sure love to bring everything back to first principles.) He remarks that, as legend has it, Jace’s Targaryen forebears once showed up flaunting their dragons—and that the mighty beasts, for all their fire-breathing power, instinctively knew not to cross the Wall. And, crucially, Cregan agrees to uphold his family’s old oath to Rhaenyra—but stresses that it’s super not his top priority right now and that the best he can do is send the “thousands of graybeards who’ve already seen too many winters,” take them or leave them.
As the Targaryens continue to bicker about who gets to sit the Iron Throne, Cregan, quite simply, just rules. Sadly, though, like all the best sigma males, the Wolf of the North will be leaving everyone wanting more. According to showrunner Ryan Condal, we’re not likely to see Cregan Stark again until some future season. Terrible news for viewers, but if the good, cold lord has taught us anything, it’s that “this is not a sentence—but an honor.” I bend the knee.
2. Larys Strong
The total opposite of Cregan Stark in so many ways! Far from being motivated by pure familial loyalty, Larys is a dirty double kinslayer. Rather than viewing King’s Landing squabbles as distractions from a broader existential crisis, Larys’s entire existence is defined by the subtle art of the throne room scheme. Whereas Cregan speaks plainly, Larys prefers to insinuate and suggest … like when he murmurs to the Dowager Queen Alicent that he knows she was “indisposed” recently. (By “indisposed,” he means that she was Ser on Criston till she Cole.) And instead of defending against Death, he orders it up: In the Season 2 premiere, we learn that Larys, seeking to root out disloyal servants, has taken the liberty of ousting members of Alicent’s previous castle staff. (By “ousting,” I mean, in his words, that “they no longer breathe our air.”)
Still, while he may be a weird dude through and through, Larys’s lurker shtick does seem to be working. He has long had a certain podiatryst arrangement with Alicent (sorry), but now that he’s personally handpicked all her maidservants, he doesn’t even need to be in the room to make her feel vulnerable and violated and claustrophobic and in need of a good scrub-a-dub-dub. That’s quite some power to wield over the mother of the king! And speaking of the king, Larys is getting in Aegon’s head, too: “Otto Hightower was your father’s hand, your grace,” he tells the young monarch, ostensibly laying the foundation for a Small Council shake-up.
It can be hard out there for Larys types: In Game of Thrones, both Littlefinger and Varys, two elite-level manipulators, eventually made one too many chess moves and met their respective dooms. But for now, Larys appears poised to take a big leap: from Alicent’s wanker footman to, potentially, the hand of the king.
3. The Crime Cloak
Need to stay anonymous in some seedy crowd but don’t feel like hiding even an inch of your face? In the mood to conspire on, commit, or conceal any number of crimes? Look no further than the humble cloak, the hottest garment in Westeros.
Are you someone nicknamed “the White Worm”? Perhaps you’d like this version, which resembles crushed silk. Need to easily reach your various swords and jacket buckles? This one gives Aemond great placket access when he’s on a mission! Rhaenys rocked the cloak when she escaped the castle ahead of Aegon’s coronation, and so did Otto Hightower when he made a business proposition to the White Worm herself. But the GOAT cloaker remains Daemon Targaryen, who really is a man for all seasons. His collection includes a bulky overcloak (worn for the occasion of killing his pesky first wife) and a cloak with lovely trim (his boatwear). He has even sported (while in the midst of grooming his teen niece and future bride) a sort of Flea Bottom version of the Investment Banker Patagonia: a cloak that kind of looks like a vest,worn over a white collared shirt.
With a lewk that is part collegiate swim team parka and part Dark Kermit, and with a hood that somehow never gets blown off by a breeze and ruins the whole disguise, the Crime Cloak comes with all sorts of options to fit one’s sinister style—all while you’re blending in, lying low, and/or planning the murder of an heir to the Iron Throne.
4. The Power Couple (Corlys and Rhaenys Velaryon)
The Sea Snake and his dragonriding bride may not be the most powerful people in the realm, but as Season 2 begins, they are each in possession of a tremendous amount of leverage. Consider:
Corlys is effectively and operationally in charge of what is currently Team Black’s most successful tactic: a blockade of shipping lanes in the Stepstones that “has placed King’s Landing under strain,” according to Otto Hightower. While that hasn’t necessarily been easy to maintain—Corlys mentions a pressing need for more ships—it’s nevertheless a solid head start until Team Green can find a way to bolster its Lannister and Hightower navies.
Rhaenys and her dragon, Meleys, are essential to this effort: “I alone patrol over a hundred miles of open sea, endlessly, to hold the blockade,” she tells Daemon.
Rhaenys and Meleys are also essential to another effort, Daemon says: “With my dragon and yours together, we can kill Vhagar and her rider.” (That rider being Aemond Targaryen.) When Rhaenys demurs, Daemon tries to insist: “Fly with me. It is a command.” But the Queen Who Never Was always knows what’s what. “Would that you were the king,” she deadpans back. Daemon is many things, but he isn’t the boss of her.
Both Corlys and Rhaenys are cooperating with Rhaenyra and Daemon despite having many, many excellent reasons not to. Like the fact that their only two children both married Targaryens and both (to their knowledge, at least) wound up dead, conveniently enabling Rhaenyra and Daemon to wed each other. (That said, I do sometimes wonder whether Rhaenys secretly knows that Leanor lives!) Or the fact that Daemon killed Corlys’s brother, Vaemond, for speaking the truth.
For now, it behooves the Velaryons to align with Team Black. But if that personal calculus changes even a little, suddenly everything from sky to sea becomes a whole different equation altogether.
5. The Royal Couple (King Aegon II and Queen Helaena)
This brother-sister, husband-wife, dalliant-dreamer, king-queen duo has always been a bizarre couple, and not just because of the whole inbreeding thing. “The queen is an enduring mystery, is she not?” says Aegon early in the Season 2 premiere, having just heard Helaena anxiously whisper something about being scared of rats. Indeed, going into this episode and this season, one thing that most excited me was finding out more about this wedded set of sibs. Like, do they have any common interests? What do they possibly talk about?!
In the wake of “A Son for a Son,” I now have my answer: It’s safe to say that they’re about to share the common interest of “avenging the gruesome murder of our sweet, dead, 6-year-old, heir-to-the-throne child.” (Aegon doesn’t know about it yet as the episode ends, but he obviously will soon.) This is a potent motivation—particularly when it comes to Aegon and Helaena, both of whom are powerful people.
One of them, of course, is king, and not just any king: He’s (a) a young king who is (b) eager to prove himself and (c) soon to be grieving his fine boy and, oh yeah, (d) was already close to shaking up the ranks of his nearest advisers. In other words, there’s really no telling what he might do next, only that it will be something drastic. And then there’s Helaena, who has consistently, if cryptically, predicted the future. If she can start harnessing her soothsaying into more actionable thoughts and ideas, she could have a weapon as vital as any flying dragon.
6. Aemond Targaryen
Speaking of flying dragons: Aemond’s mount, Vhagar, remains Team Green’s best weapon by far at the moment. Yet: “You do not have a seat at this council,” snaps Otto Hightower to Aemond when the latter enters the Small Council room in the midst of a meeting. But Otto’s boss begs to differ: “Aemond is my closest blood and our best sword,” says King Aegon II. “I welcome him.” Aemond may be in his mother’s doghouse for that minor mistake of accidentally killing his nephew, but in the Season 2 premiere, he demonstrated that he’s more than ready for the warfare to escalate further.
“My brother is hostage to my grandsire and mother,” Aemond complains to Criston Cole as they plot paths to victory, “and they tell him that a war of dragons can yet be avoided.” Not anymore, needless to say—which means that Aemond is almost certainly about to take flight.
7. Daemon Targaryen
As Aemond positions himself to become the new Daemon, this week’s episode sort of made Daemon out to be the new Aemond: Daemon took his zest for vengeance a little too far, then everything got out of hand, now a boy is dead and war is coming, and probably thar be dragons. He has simultaneously made the world chillingly simple—tit for tat, a son for a son, repeat as often as necessary—while also complicating everything. And the scariest part, as ever, is that he’s probably pretty OK with all that he’s done.
8. Rhaenyra Targaryen
The queen in exile had only one line this episode, but it was a doozy: “I want Aemond Targaryen.” Those four words were all it took to set off the Rube Goldberg contraption of events that culminated in another dead kid. The good news: That’s some power right there! The bad news: Aemond Targaryen still lives.
9. Jacaerys Velaryon
Jace’s diplomatic visit to the Wall was a definite success. And the guy also appears to have some semblance of a moral compass, the likes of which we don’t typically see in the halls of power south of Winterfell. But that makes me nervous for him! If we’ve learned anything from Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon thus far, it’s that Westeros has a way of punishing intrinsic goodness and curdling warm hearts.
10. Mysaria the White Worm
one of the best scenes of episode 01, it summarizes perfectly what matt, emma and ryan talked about how daemon deal with grief, he’s angry but the more she explains the more he backtrack, the more he gets soft and hurt again, it’s not her fault. pic.twitter.com/nV2fqsmUiR
Wired:Saying what the hell, selling secrets to Otto, and then spitting at Daemon: “You only blame me because your true enemies are out of reach.”
Inspired: Sure, Daemon may have imprisoned Mysaria, but this is the White Worm we’re talking about; this woman downright thrives in shitty situations. I completely expect her to emerge from captivity with a whole new cadre of associates and operatives.
11. Alyn of Hull
“They tell me that you are the one that dragged my body out of the sea,” Corlys Velaryon says to Alyn of Hull—a newly introduced, seemingly humble boatsman down at the Driftmark docks—in the season premiere. “I am indebted to you, Alyn,” the Sea Snake adds. Not a bad House of the Dragon character debut! Something tells me this won’t be the last we see of Alyn, who also mentions having a brother … a note that seems to pique Corlys’s interest. This situation is developing …
12. Otto Hightower
You know what, in a sick way, I almost felt bad for Otto this episode! He may be a self-involved prick, but the guy couldn’t catch a break. What’s worse: clocking your daughter and her favorite knight basking in clear post-hookup bliss, or discovering your grandson and that same knight discussing battle plans without you? Getting undermined by an amateur king who knows nothing about anything, or being plotted against by a slimy would-be usurper who knows way too much? Otto is a survivor indeed, but even cockroaches know that sometimes the only way to endure is to scatter and hide.
13. The Smallfolk
When it comes to lobbying powerful people to make decisions that benefit special interest groups, King’s Landing is a lot like New York City. You have Hugh the scorpion builder guy asking for, and being granted, better benefits for him and his fellow anti-dragon arms manufacturers, like he’s the NYPD getting funding for a bunch of new drones or surveillance vans or something. And then you have poor Jerard the Shepherd, whose simple ask—that the crown return his tithe of livestock so that he can make it through the winter!—is initially granted by Aegon the Magnanimous … only for the young ruler to get an earful from Otto and totally renege on the deal, Kathy Hochul style. Canceling congestion pricing, it turns out, is the feeding sheep to dragons of our time. Sounds about right.
14. That One Couple (Dowager Queen Alicent and Ser Criston Cole)
We’ve all known that one horned-up secret couple that thinks they’re being all sly and surreptitious with their dalliances but are actually hooking up all over creation and fooling absolutely no one. Typically, this happens during, like, adolescence. But in the case of House of the Dragon—where very few people have developmentally normal upbringings—it’s the Dowager Queen GILF and her Kingsguardsman who have apparently taken to christening every damn room in the palace.
For Alicent, who spent years married to a decaying, old King Viserys and now serves at the pleasure of her firstborn failson, King Aegon II, all this carrying on seems to be a way to reclaim both her lost youth and her feeling of power. For Ser Criston, it’s maybe a bit more complex. Once upon a time, he raged at a young Rhaenyra for even suggesting a sworn-guard-with-benefits situation, but now that’s what he basically has with Alicent. It’s a direct and dishonorable flouting of his Kingsguard oaths, yet it also helps keep Criston in the room where it happens.
This is all fun and games until someone loses a head. (An eye is so Season 1.) Alicent has for years sought to avoid a truly violent conflict, but it now seems like her window of time to achieve peace has slammed shut. And even outside the Small Council, her image as a doting mother is in shambles. It’s bad enough that Alicent and Criston were indisposed while two assassins breached a royal bedroom and killed a child in front of his mother. But then Helaena walks in on her mom mid-bone? That’s the stuff of nightmares, whether you’re a dreamer or not. I expect to see Helaena posting on the r/raisedbynarcissists subreddit before long.
15. Blood and Cheese
While Alicent is banging away, the rats will play! And for a moment, this bumbling pair of Hightower-hating, Harry-’n’-Lloyd-coded creeps seems like they might be the most powerful henchmen in the land. First, they pocket the initial half of that sweet, sweet bounty money. Then they sidle straight through the throne room in plain sight, working the “walk with purpose and act like you’re meant to be there” Super Bowl scammer strategy to perfection. And before long, they find themselves with the future of the realm literally right there in their grasp.
But then they go ahead and destroy all these Ws by completing the job that Daemon contracted them to do. Well, sort of: Unable to locate their primary target, the eminently recognizable and full-grown Aemond, they settle for the next (and worst) option: cherubic 6-year-old Jaehaerys, son of Aegon and his sister-wife, Helaena. “A son for a son,” Blood and Cheese explain to a shell-shocked Helaena, making it pretty obvious who probably sent them—and ultimately removing any remaining leverage or value they may have had.
16. The Next Generation
If you’re a youngish Targaryen or Velaryon or Hightower who thinks you have your whole life ahead of you: You probably don’t!!! While “generation” has a way of losing all meaning in the context of the incestuous Targaryen family tree, it doesn’t really matter in this case who is an uncle-husband or who is a daughter-niece: Anyone young enough to have any future at all is highly vulnerable at present, and the horrors only seem to be escalating.
One day you’re monkeying around in a dragon’s cave with your cousins and/or uncles; the next, you’re getting chomped by Vhagar. One minute you’re playing with attendance balls and being promised human horseback rides; the next, you’re missing a head. RIP, little Jaeharys! I’m bummed we won’t get to see what would have happened when you inevitably reproduced with your nearly identical twin sister a decade hence.
Hosts: Charles Holmes, Van Lathan, Jomi Adeniran, and Steve Ahlman Producers: Aleya Zenieris, Jonathan Kermah, and Steve Ahlman Social: Jomi Adeniran Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal
Last night’s second season premiere of Game of Thrones’ spinoff House of the Dragon tackled one of George R.R. Martin’s most infamous deaths—in a new way that surprised the fandom.
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In an interview with Variety, showrunner Ryan Condal explained the reasoning for the Max show’s departure from Martin’s original recollection of an event known by readers of Fire and Blood—the author’s historical explanation of Targaryen history in Westeros— as “Blood and Cheese,” named for two assassins who are responsible for the murder of Jaehaerys Targayren. In “A Son for a Son” Blood and Cheese take center stage, hired by Daemon (Matt Smith) to retaliate for the death of Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) son Lucerys at the end of last season. We pick up on the duo’s journey to do the dastardly deed which, in the show, is much more directly orchestrated than in Fire & Blood, having Rhaenyra call for Aemond’s (Ewan Mitchell) death.
“One of the things that’s challenging about adapting Fire & Blood is that there is this intentionally conflicting narrative in the book where there are often these three different viewpoints on the history that don’t line up with one another,” Condal explained, “so it’s our job as adapters to try to find the objective line through this to bring the audience into the narrative as we see it having been laid out.” In the book, it’s a whole lot more messy—Blood and Cheese weren’t given a specific target, just Daemon’s orders for “an eye for an eye, a son for a son,” and so try to kill the first boy they find.
“It felt like Rhaenyra, despite being in grief, she’s looking for vengeance, but she would choose a target that would have some kind of strategic or military advantage,” Condal continued. “Of course, if you did take out Aemond, not only would he be punished directly for his betrayal and murder of Luke, but it would eliminate the rider of the biggest dragon in the world, and immediately create an advantage for their side.” Jaehaerys still dies in House of the Dragon, but it’s presented more as due to Blood and Cheese’s incompetence—instead of finding Aemond, the assassins stumble upon his sister and wife, Queen Helaena, in her room with her twin children.
In the books, Helaena actually offers up her youngest son, Maelor (who isn’t included in House of the Dragon due to how the show has condensed the timeline of Fire and Blood), only for Jaehaerys to be killed by Blood and Cheese anyway—but in the show, Helaena is forced instead to sacrifice him to save her daughter. “We knew it would be horrifying and brutal—we didn’t want it to be gratuitous or over the top,” Condal said of the murder. “The idea of that sequence was to dramatize a heist gone wrong. So we move off the center narrative of Daemon, Rhaenyra, Alicent and Aegon’s world, and suddenly, we’re following these two characters that we’ve just met in an alley in Flea Bottom. Daemon’s given them an assignment to go in and find Aemond Targaryen, and we’re following them, and we’re following them, and we’re not cutting away and we’re not going back to the other narratives—‘oh, God, what’s going to happen?’”
House of the Dragon has always been about how the smallest decisions can have unforeseen consequences, but rarely has that theme been as clear as it was in the season 2 premiere. In the show’s first episode back from break, Daemon Targaryen decides to take matters into his own hands with a plot that probably could have used a little more planning (classic Daemon). But while the book’s version of these events is fittingly brutal, the show’s approach is quieter, more human, and arguably a little more horrifying.
[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for House of the Dragon season 2 episode 1.]
In the book version of the story, the assassins at the center of this episode’s action are named Blood and Cheese. And while they don’t get these silly names in the show, they do get a level of horror and humanity that the book doesn’t have time to afford them. The book versions are boogeymen, terrifying lowlifes who kill a handmaiden and a handful of guards, and seem gleefully cruel in the way they slay Prince Jaehaerys — tricking Queen Helaena into first naming her younger son for death before killing her firstborn instead.
Image: HBO
And while those versions of the characters are significantly more stomach-churning, the show’s approach feels much more appropriate thematically. Rather than the murderous wraiths of the book, who slip into the queen mother’s chambers, leaving a pile of bodies behind them, House of the Dragon’s assassins simply move through the castle unnoticed, a pair of hired hands of low status and low intelligence, functionally invisible to the royalty who own the halls. When they reach difficult junctures in the castle’s tunnels, or difficult choices, they panic and bicker and bumble. The Blood and Cheese of the show aren’t gifted killers, they’re just amoral men sent to do something too disgusting for anyone to have imagined possible.
Adding to all of this is the sense of desperation that the pair’s meeting with Daemon seems to have instilled in them. According to showrunner Ryan Condal, the team wanted the set-piece to play out like a “heist gone wrong,” and as the scene stretches on, we can feel their worry set in, making them more reckless, cruel, and hurried in the process. While the show cleverly leaves Daemon’s final words a mystery, the pair’s fear over what Daemon will do to them if they fail is palpable.
“We know who Daemon is; I don’t think he necessarily directly ordered the death of a child,” Condal said in a roundtable. “But he clearly said, If it’s not Aemond, don’t leave the castle empty-handed.”
So when they can’t find their initial target, it makes sense that these two decide to settle for the first royal son they can find. It’s the kind of hurried decision that only these two brutes could make. And, in a scene that’s both grotesque and funny, the two assassins realize that they can’t even tell the two children asleep in their beds apart, and have to riddle their way through Helaena’s answer. The whole thing is a ridiculous farce from two people barely competent enough to pull any of this off.
Image: HBO
All of this builds into the show’s fantastic slippery slope of assumptions. While the audience may know that Aemond’s slaying of Lucerys Velaryon in the skies over Storm’s End was an accidental consequence of not understanding his own dragon’s power, for Daemon, it seems like an act of clear and predetermined aggression. He probably didn’t expect the assassins to come away with the head of a toddler prince, but he thinks letting two assassins loose in the Red Keep with less-than-clear orders is nothing more than a slight escalation.
These are the kind of spiraling, misinformed decisions that House of the Dragon builds its beautiful, flawed, and deeply human history out of. Sure, the show is elevated to the heights of fantasy, but it’s still fundamentally a story of broken, furious, and faulty characters making rash decisions and then dealing with the consequences — those consequences just often happen to involve dragons and war.
All of this is true to Martin’s vision, of course. It’s the same kind of storytelling he employs constantly in A Song of Ice and Fire, but while the original Game of Thrones series frequently had to cut down on the humanness of its story simply by virtue of its massive scale, it’s constantly thrilling to see how effectively House of the Dragon goes the opposite direction, expanding on Martin’s written history in Fire & Blood and turning these quasi-mythical historical figures into flesh-and-blood people and incredible characters, up to and including the lowlife assassins who don’t even need their silly little names.
Midway through the fifth season of Game of Thrones, Aemon Targaryen, the centenarian maester at Castle Black, advises Jon Snow to mature in his new role as Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch.
“Kill the boy, Jon Snow,” Maester Aemon says. “Winter is almost upon us. Kill the boy and let the man be born.” This speech gives the episode its title and sets in motion the series of events that will lead Jon to Hardhome, the site of Thrones’ most spectacular fight scene.
Sunday’s Season 2 premiere of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon twists that stirring sentiment and, in so doing, transforms both its message and the entire story of which it is a part. Queen Helaena Targaryen’s shocked “They killed the boy” is a scarring statement of fact rather than a confident command, the aftermath of trauma rather than the prelude to a glorious battle. It serves as the last line of the episode, fittingly named “A Son for a Son”—leaving viewers to marinate in the nauseating horror they just witnessed for a full week before House of the Dragon’s next episode airs.
Dragon’s Season 2 premiere functions much like Thrones’ pilot episode all the way back in 2011, which mostly introduced viewers to this fictional world and set the scene for further action—only to end with stunning, appalling violence against a child. The difference is that in Thrones, Bran Stark survived his fall out a window and ultimately became king; in Dragon, little Jaehaerys Targaryen, disputed heir to the Iron Throne, most certainly did not survive his beheading at the hands of two hired assassins, which makes this moment—the sort of showstopping scene for which Thrones was revered—even more grotesque.
But first, before the child carnage, Dragon invites viewers back to Westeros with a new intro decked out with Targaryen-themed tapestries and an opening scene set in the familiar, snowy clime of Winterfell and the Wall. As is typical of a season premiere in this franchise, “A Son for a Son” surveys the important players in the realm after the dramatic conclusion of Season 1, when King Viserys died, Aegon II and Rhaenyra received dueling crowns, and the mighty dragon Vhagar, ridden by Aemond One-Eye, killed Lucerys Velaryon and his dragon.
The new season opens with Rhaenyra’s son Jace at the Wall, recruiting military aid—in the form of 2,000 grizzled Northerners—from the Starks. It then zooms through the other key members of Team Black: Rhaenys with her dragon, Meleys the Red Queen; vengeful, fiery Daemon; Corlys with his ships; and Rhaenyra, who’s searching for her dead son’s corpse. The opposing greens are all in King’s Landing, for now: Aegon has taken to sitting the Iron Throne, while Alicent and sworn-to-celibacy Criston Cole have taken to, well, a different sort of sitting.
Civil war is imminent but ostensibly has not yet begun, even though first blood has been drawn. Rhaenyra “needs an army. War is coming,” Jace tells Cregan Stark in the opening scene. Meanwhile, in King’s Landing, Otto Hightower forecasts “eventual fighting,” and Alicent still speaks in conditionals: “If we loose the dragons to war, there will be no calling them back.”
That “if” will surely change to a “when” once all the characters learn what transpired in the darkness of the Red Keep at the end of the episode. Earlier, Rhaenys notes approvingly that Rhaenyra has “not acted on the vengeful impulse that others might have.” But finding Luke’s mangled body on the beach removes that caution; when Rhaenyra returns to Dragonstone, vengeance is the only motive on her mind.
“I want Aemond Targaryen,” Rhaenyra declares, and the episode emphasizes this singular focus by making these her only words across the hour. The rest of Emma D’Arcy’s performance as a grieving mother is delivered through facial expressions and tears, most poignantly in Rhaenyra’s reunion with her eldest son, Jace, who breaks down while imparting news of his successful alliances in the Vale and North.
The ensuing sequence is the most beautiful one of the episode, as director Alan Taylor cuts between Luke’s wordless, emotional funeral and Alicent’s prayers at a sept in King’s Landing. (Not that sept; this prequel takes place before the construction of Cersei Lannister’s future wildfire target.) Alicent lights a candle for her dead mother (presumably; she’s gone unnamed until now), for Viserys, and then—after a contemplative pause—for Luke. Alicent even names him “Lucerys Velaryon,” despite her prominent Season 1 role in fostering doubts about Laenor Velaryon’s legitimacy as Luke’s father.
Alicent still hopes to avoid “wanton” violence, she says. But what comes next, as Aegon carouses with friends in the throne room and Alicent and Criston continue their tryst in her chambers, can’t help but plunge the realm into full-blown war. It’s the manifestation of Rhaenyra’s desire for vengeance—and the on-screen depiction of the most heinous event George R.R. Martin has devised in the whole A Song of Ice and Fire corpus.
Daemon sneaks into King’s Landing, where he enlists a City Watchman and a Red Keep ratcatcher—called Blood and Cheese in the source text—to sneak into the castle to fulfill Rhaenyra’s command. When Cheese asks, “What if we can’t find him?” Daemon grins, and the camera cuts away, but his next instructions seem clear. Once the duo enters the castle, Blood reminds his assassin partner, “‘A son for a son,’ he said.”
Their search for a green son is shot like a horror film, with flickering candlelight; shadowy, abandoned rooms; and the clangor of a thunderstorm echoing from the stones outside. Eventually, Blood and Cheese stumble upon Helaena and her two royal children. The last the camera shows of the assassins is a large hand descending over the tiny face of 6-year-old Jaehaerys Targaryen—“He’ll be king one day,” a proud Aegon declares earlier in the episode—before it pivots to Helaena as she scoops up her daughter, flees the murder scene, and runs downstairs to find Alicent.
“They killed the boy,” Helaena says, and the episode ends, dangling over a cliff.
Thrones never shied away from depravity and in fact often took steps to amplify Martin’s most violent scenes on the screen. The first victim of the show’s Red Wedding is Robb Stark’s pregnant wife, who’s stabbed in the belly, whereas in the book, Robb’s wife doesn’t attend the wedding trap at the Twins. (In fact, Martin said a decade ago that book Robb’s wife would appear, still alive, in the Winds of Winter prologue.)
But Dragon actually tones down the horror of this vengeful murder. In Fire & Blood, the source text for Dragon, Blood and Cheese sneak into the castle and kill a maid and a guard; tie up Alicent, who witnesses the atrocity; and corner Helaena and the queen’s children. Crucially, in the book, Aegon II and Helaena have a third child, 2-year-old Maelor, in addition to the twins who appear in the show. Then Cheese asks Helaena which son—Jaehaerys or Maelor—she wants to lose:
“Pick,” [Cheese] said, “or we kill them all.” On her knees, weeping, Helaena named her youngest, Maelor. Perhaps she thought the boy was too young to understand, or perhaps it was because the older boy, Jaehaerys, was King Aegon’s firstborn son and heir, next in line to the Iron Throne. “You hear that, little boy?” Cheese whispered to Maelor. “Your momma wants you dead.” Then he gave Blood a grin, and the hulking swordsman slew Prince Jaehaerys, striking off the boy’s head with a single blow. The queen began to scream.
Dragon didn’t show the killing blow (though the sawing sound and motion were gruesome enough). It also excised the second son and the haunting “Your momma wants you dead” line, replacing it with a confusing aside in which Blood and Cheese can’t determine which of the two sleeping children is the “son” and which is the royal daughter, and they ask Helaena to point out the boy. (Why can’t they check themselves? One even says they could inspect the children’s anatomy before trusting Helaena instead.)
But the sequence is still supremely sickening, even in this tamer form. The meta-storytelling result is a prime example of how Dragon, in its second season, will more closely imitate Thrones at its monocultural peak. And the in-universe narrative result will likely be a stronger push toward war, as the greens seek vengeance for Jaehaerys, just as the blacks sought vengeance for Luke. The wheel of violence spins on, crushing ever more victims.
After Jaehaerys’s death, it’s clearer than ever that Dragon’s showrunners are trying to emphasize how avoidable the disastrous Dance of the Dragons was. This civil war stems from mistakes and misunderstandings, from Alicent’s “too many Aegons” interpretation of Viserys’s dying words to Vhagar’s unsanctioned chomping of Luke—with Aemond shouting in vain, “No, Vhagar, no!”—to, now, the murder of a son that Rhaenyra didn’t want killed.
“If we loose the dragons to war, there will be no calling them back,” Alicent says, hours before learning from her traumatized daughter that her grandson has been killed. But as the Targaryens’ feuding factions commit increasingly abhorrent acts of violence against each other, that warning can encompass more than just the dragons. Once the massive machinery of war starts rumbling, it will be all but impossible to shut down.
Have HotD questions? To appear in Zach’s weekly mailbag, message him @zachkram on Twitter/X or email him at zach.kram@theringer.com.
The golden crown was not supposed to fall off King Viserys Targaryen’s rapidly disintegrating head. But when it did, in the midst of a rehearsal three years ago for the HBO series House of the Dragon,it was like a light bulb turned on. In the emotionally and physically arduous Episode 8 scene, the ailing Viserys, played by Paddy Considine, staggers from the threshold of death’s door toward the cold, hard Iron Throne one last time. And during a run-through of this moment,down came that crown—and in came Matt Smith, who plays the king’s mercurial little brother, Daemon Targaryen.
Smith didn’t miss a beat, according to a bit of HotD lore that’s had a level of canonical dissemination that would please any maester. Daemon retrieved the golden adornment and placed it back on the king’s dome, and absolutely no one on set dared to stop rolling. Later, when Smith and Considine got together with director Geeta Patel to discuss how things went, “They were like, ‘We felt this,’” Patel told Entertainment Weekly in 2022. “‘This felt like the turning point in our relationship.’” When they shot the scene officially, they did so two ways: one in which the crown stays put, as originally planned, and one in which Daemon does his best you dropped this impression—which is what made the final cut.
And for good reason. The result is a steely, moving little salute of a scene, understated yet alive with fraternal and courtly devotion. It is also a callback to an earlier moment in the series when Daemon patches things up with his brother by relinquishing to him some super-meaningful driftwood. (This would absolutely work on me.) Almost no words are spoken during the exchange, yet the visual impact of the hale Daemon aiding and honoring the ghostlike husk of his older brother speaks volumes about recurring House of the Dragon motifs such as mortality and rivalry and family-first loyalty.
And then, less than five minutes later in the episode, we got another memorable, if totally tonally different, Daemon-crowning-someone-in-the-throne-room performance. So to speak.
In that scene, a disagreement over the line of succession for the maritime lands of Driftmark devolves into a passionate airing of grievances from Vaemond Velaryon, Daemon’s cousin’s brother-in-law, and/or Daemon’s daughters’ great-uncle, and so on. (This family tree is more like kudzu.) Vaemond shouts that the sons of Princess Rhaenyra, the heir to the Iron Throne, are “bastards” (fact check: true) and that the princess herself is “a whore.” (Well, now you’ve gone and done it, guy.) It’s enough to make Viserys summon enough dad strength to slowly rise to his feet, draw his blade, and shout: “I’ll have your tongue for that!”
Once again, Daemon is there to assist. It takes only one visceral swipe of his Valyrian steel sword to leave Vaemond resting in pieces right there on the throne room floor, silenced forever. “He can keep his tongue,” Daemon says as jaws hit the ground all around him, figuratively and literally.
In just a few minutes, these two fell swoops give a glimpse into the totality of Daemon Targaryen, from his savage, gruesome methods of showing and earning respect to his occasional flashes of humor and even grace. And they demonstrate why Daemon, for all his many, many problems, is such an electric guy to watch in House of the Dragon.
As Season 2 begins later this week, we know there will once again be crowns and bastards and killing, because this is Westeros, and there always are. We know that Daemon will loom large, both within the universe of the show and in real-world conversation. But what we don’t yet know—and what we may never learn—is what Daemon is truly thinking and wanting and feeling. When it comes to him, those sorts of things have never been black-and-white.
In the aftermath of Episode 8 last season, some of the minds behind House of the Dragon suddenly found themselves busy describing all of the people Daemon Targaryen is not. “He ain’t Paul Rudd,” one of the show’s writer-producers, Sara Hess, told The Hollywood Reporter, adding that the character had “become ‘Internet Boyfriend’” in a way that baffled her. Clare Kilner, a director, chimed in that Daemon is not “particularly a good father or a good brother,” either. “He’s not Ned Stark,” showrunner Ryan Condal told TheNew York Times as part of a minor rant about how it confused him to see so many viewers stan Daemon.
“I see Daemon as having heroic aspects to him, and I understand why people would,” Condal said. “I mean, he’s incredibly charismatic, he’s handsome, he looks great in that wig, he rides a dragon, he has a cool sword. I totally get it. But if you’re looking for Han Solo, who’s always going to do the right thing in the end, you’re in the wrong franchise, folks.”
Not Paul Rudd, Ned Stark, or Han Solo—OK, so then who is he? In 2018, when the author and general mastermind of Westeros, George R.R. Martin, was making the rounds to promote Fire & Blood—the book that House of the Dragon is based on—he was asked in a virtual Q&A to name his favorite person in the ancient, silver-haired, tight-knit Targaryen family.
“I’m notorious for my love of gray characters,” Martin responded, “and one of the grayest characters in the entire story of Westeros is Daemon Targaryen, the Rogue Prince.”
Murderous and magnetic, Daemon loves to party, though you rarely see him belly laugh. He rides a dragon nicknamed “Blood Wyrm,” carries a sword called “Dark Sister,” was knighted as a teenager, and is not above pulling stunts like absconding with a dragon egg and holding it hostage for a while. In Fire & Blood, one passage reads:
Over the centuries, House Targaryen has produced both great men and monsters. Prince Daemon was both. In his day there was not a man so admired, so beloved, and so reviled in all Westeros. He was made of light and darkness in equal parts. To some he was a hero, to others the blackest of villains.
Throughout Season 1 of House of the Dragon, we see all of these dualities at play. Daemon is, first and foremost, an unquestionably brave defender of the realm, fighting doggedly in all sorts of miserable locales—it has to smell foul in that Crabfeeder cave!—to help shore up and maintain his family’s material interests and its powerful name. And, in his own way, he’s also a worthy guardian of his brother—that is, when he’s not annoying or insulting Viserys to the point of getting exiled. (Hey, who among us hasn’t gotten kicked off a sibling’s turf at some point?) Daemon routinely seeks to protect the king from enemies, from allies (“I will speak of my brother as I wish,” he tells Corlys “the Sea Snake” Velaryon near the beginning of the show; “You will not”), and even from the king himself. “You’re weak, Viserys,” Daemon explains in the pilot episode. And he does have a point.
Like it or not, throughout much of the first season, Daemon is what peak performance in Westeros looks like. He has an aura that enables him to pull off both badass suits of armor and sketchy hooded cloaks. His glower is unrivaled; his bars are exquisite. He rules at lurking off to the side of places, smirking and observing like he’s Jared Catalano leaning up against a locker. He is a man of the people who sure does seem committed to ensuring that the Flea Bottom economy is always strong. Whatta guy, right?
But that’s only the half of it, the good half. There’s also the part of Daemon whose civic engagement in Flea Bottom involves, you know, bringing his teenaged niece Rhaenyra to a brothel where he seduces and then abandons her. Daemon is a dark dude who mocks his brother’s dead son, riles up a bunch of sadistic gold-cloaked vigilantes, ignores his own children, and pummels some poor, innocent courier for simply delivering a message. He is a boy who breaks his favorite toys—and all the other toys, for good measure.
Daemon does appear to genuinely live his values. It’s just that his values revolve around the Targaryen supremacist idea that, as a man possessing the blood of the dragon, he has not just the right but the duty to act like a fantastical, uncaged, fire-breathing monster whenever he wants, no matter whom it hurts.
I had thought it was pretty unkind that he referred to his first wife, Rhea Royce, as “the Bronze Bitch,” but that turned out to be nothing compared to the time he showed up unannounced in the Vale dressed like Evil Kermit just to bludgeon her to death with that divorce rock. And I’ll admit that—despite witnessing all of these behaviors, and despite having been informed that, in the books, Daemon is actually even more of a nightmare—I had still assumed that Rhaenyra, Daemon’s proud wife, stubborn niece, and High Valyrian–speaking buddy, would be spared from his icy-hot wrath. I was very, very wrong.
Of all the harrowing scenes in House of the Dragon’s Season 1 finale—Rhaenyra’s miscarriage, the dragons at war in the skies—it’s the moment when Daemon reaches out and grabs Rhaenyra by her throat that felt hardest to watch. “I think he has a sense of duty to his family, weirdly,” Smith once told the Los Angeles Times about Daemon. “I think he’d lie on his sword for his brother or Rhaenyra.” And yet. By the end of the first season, Viserys is dead, and Rhaenyra is being threatened by Daemon’s own hand. Without some sort of renewed gravitational force in his life, the Rogue Prince may risk spiraling out—and away into his own limitless darkness.
When Smith was cast as Daemon, he already had experience playing roles whose reputations far preceded his own. “Dr. Who?!” was a common early reaction to his 2009 selection, at the age of 26, as the eleventh Doctor in that storied, high-pressure franchise. When the ambitious historical drama The Crown debuted in 2016, Smith spent the first two seasons defining and refining a portrait of a young Prince Philip in all his prickly, handsome, second-banana glory—a performance that also helped Smith establish himself in the zeitgeist. (According to Smith, the real Prince Harry once shook his hand at a polo match and called him “granddad.”)
As a teenager, Smith had looked down on acting as “girly” and focused his time and energy on playing high-level soccer until a back injury forced him out of the game. Now, all these years later, he plays at being some of the world’s most well-known men—including ones who could not be less like Smith in real life.
In interviews, Smith exhibits a personality that’s so affable and cheeky and non-Daemon that I almost find myself needing to stop watching so as to not ruin House of the Dragon’smoody vibe. He has said that Daemon is probably a Scorpio, that Daemon would make a great vampire, and that Caraxes, Rhaenyra, and “a good night out on the town” are what keep his character grounded.
He has talked about how he slipped a disc in his neck and got a cut on his head during the filming of the show’s first season. And Jimmy Fallon asked him who would win in a fight: Daemon or Jon Snow? “Come on,” was Smith’s response. “Mate, I have a dragon. Listen, I have a lot of respect for Jon Snow. Jon Snow is a bad boy, don’t get me wrong. … But don’t get it twisted: I would fuck those brothers up.”
For all his merry whimsy, though, Smith is also quite comfortable harnessing the unsavory side of Daemon and the world in which he lives. Ever since he accepted the role, he has been all in—like really all in, willing to not only perform Daemon with unsettling aplomb on-screen, but also publicly make peace with the character’s often violent existence. “He’s got a weird moral compass—perverse and strange,” Smith told the Los Angeles Times about Daemon in 2022. “But nevertheless, there is a set of laws that he’s guided by.” During one press conference last week, Smith remarked, “I admire his conviction, his mistakes, and his actions. He’s like, ‘Fuck them all, man, this is how I’m gonna roll!’”
So, how might Daemon be rolling when Season 2 begins this week? One profile of Smith in Varietydescribes a “much weaker” character whose ostensibly shady attempts to look out for himself wind up drawing scrutiny and sowing distrust—especially with Rhaenyra. Interviewed on a CBS morning show recently, Smith hinted that audiences may notice Daemon vibrating at a rather different frequency from last season. “Softer, lazier, fatter, slower,” is how Smith described Daemon’s upcoming arc, sounding a bit like a Daft Punk fan designing a wine mom T-shirt. (Who can mock that up as a new house sigil?)
As for why Daemon might be rounding into his goblin era? “He’s sort of haunted by his demons, really, by ghosts, by apparitions,” Smith told CBS. “The weight of all the bad deeds that he’s done really comes home to roost, so to speak.” This is interesting to contemplate, considering that in the Season 1 finale—as he grips Rhaenyra by her throat—Daemon straight up scoffs at all things spectral.
When Rhaenyra tries to tell him about the Song of Ice and Fire that Viserys had impressed upon her before his death, Daemon is exasperated—and, in his grief, jealous that Viserys never mentioned it to him. “My brother was a slave to his omens and portents,” Daemon snaps. “Anything to make his feckless reign appear to have purpose.”
Viserys may have focused on the fantastical, but Daemon? He prefers things that are real, man.“Dreams didn’t make us kings,” he tells his wife. “Dragons did.” He has a point, but those king-making dragons taketh just as much as they giveth. In Season 1’s closing scene, Daemon has to deliver the news to Rhaenyra that her sweet son Lucerys and his dragon, Arrax, have both been mortally torn asunder in midair by another flying beast.
That beast would be Vhagar—theoh lawd he comin’–sized dragon that Aemond Targaryen claimed as a child, losing an eye in the process. “Do not mourn me, mother,” a wounded Aemond says to the understandably horrified Queen Alicent after he’s been stitched up in Episode 7. “It was a fair exchange. I may have lost an eye, but I gained a dragon.” This is some real Targaryen math through and through, which explains why it sounds so much like Daemon logic as well.
That brings us to maybe the biggest open question about Daemon heading into this new season: How will he handle the rise of Aemond, a possibly more sinister, potentially less humane version of himself? Even their names suggest an ouroboric relationship between these silver-coiffed, secondborn royal sons: You can’t spell one without the other, and maybe you can’t delete one without erasing the other, too. Aemond may not have intended to kill Lucerys, but if he’s anything like Daemon—and he is—there’s a good chance that, far from apologizing or repenting, he’ll dig in and double down and do what is needed to make those dragons dance.
“Prince Daemon had been the wonder and the terror of his age,” reads one of George R.R. Martin’s lines about the Rogue Prince. As House of the Dragon unfolds, not only can you see the scope of what this means, but you can also watch the other characters as they start to see and process what Daemon is capable of, too. When Rhaenyra looks at her husband in the finale, not so much with anger or fear but with pity,it opens up a new world of possibilities for their relationship going forward.
For a split second, this scanned to me as a sweet moment, a mentor passing the torch to the next generation. And then I snapped to and remembered that this is Westeros, and these people are bad news and great liars and unrepentant sinners, and Aemond’s look of wonder is because he is striving to be a young terror himself.
Whether he is validating his brother’s reign or vivisecting his rival, Daemon’s motivations throughout the first season of House of the Dragon feel straightforward: He wants to consolidate and preserve his family’s dragon bloodline, and thus the source of his family’s power, whatever the optics or costs. But as Season 2 approaches and those costs keep piling up, will his motivations or his methods start changing?
For now, the answer to that remains murky, which feels right. Daemon is, after all, one of the grayest guys that this realm has ever seen. That much has always been clear.
After nearly two years, we’re finally returning to Westeros for Season 2 of House of the Dragon. And if, in that long layoff, you’ve forgotten exactly where things stand in the brewing civil war between Team Green and Team Black, we’re here to help. Welcome to our House of the Dragon cheat sheet.
This resource, culled largely from George R.R. Martin’s 2018 Targaryen history, Fire & Blood, will get you up to speed on who is who, what is what, and where is where around 132 AC—when Season 1 of HotD concluded (for reference, Game of Thrones starts in 298 AC). Heads up: This will contain major spoilers for Season 1 (if you’re looking for a cheat sheet entering that season, we have one for you), but it won’t spoil anything from the book.
As a refresher: Season 1 ends when Aemond One-Eye Targaryen and his dragon, Vhagar, killed (somewhat accidentally) Lucerys Velaryon and his dragon, Arrax. That event happened roughly alongside the dueling coronations of Aegon Targaryen and Rhaenyra Targaryen—and put Westeros on a path to war. Here are the people, places, things, and dragons you need to know as we enter Season 2:
People
Team Black
Queen Rhaenyra’s faction is called the Blacks because Rhaenyra appeared in a black gown at the tourney feast to celebrate Viserys and Alicent’s wedding (though in the show, it’s because she just tends to wear black). Currently, most members of the Blacks reside on Dragonstone—the traditional seat for a Targaryen heir.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen: The late King Viserys I’s firstborn child, known in her youth as the Realm’s Delight. Viserys named Rhaenyra his heir when she was a teenager, in part because he wanted to disinherit his brother, Daemon. Despite eventually fathering male heirs with his second wife, Queen Alicent Hightower, Viserys never disinherited Rhaenyra—but her ascent to the throne was always going to be difficult. Rhaenyra married Laenor Velaryon as a teenager and produced three sons by him (at least officially, more on that in a minute), then married her uncle Daemon after Laenor’s death (which was fake, more on that too) and birthed two more sons. Rhaenyra rides Syrax, a formidable dragon of fighting size.
Daemon Targaryen: Rhaenyra’s uncle-husband. Daemon can be a bit of a hothead but is a very capable warrior, having fought in the War for the Stepstones early in Season 1. He was previously married to Laena Velaryon and has two daughters—Rhaena and Baela—through her. He rides the dragon Caraxes.
Jacaerys Velaryon: Rhaenyra’s oldest son through Laenor Velaryon, though his biological father is the late Harwin Strong. Called Jace. He is now a teenager and is Rhaenyra’s heir. At the conclusion of Season 1, he was sent on his dragon, Vermax, to treat with Lady Jeyne Arryn in an attempt to bring the Vale to Rhaenyra’s side. He was to continue north to Winterfell to curry favor with the Starks.
Joffrey Velaryon: The youngest of the Laenor/Strong boys. Joffrey is just old enough (11) to ride his dragon, Tyraxes, in the books—but not old enough for his mother to allow him to leave Dragonstone. The series may have aged him down somewhat—it’s implied that he’s only 6 years old at the end of Season 1.
Aegon the Younger Targaryen: The eldest child of Rhaenyra and Daemon. Called “the Younger” to differentiate him from his cousin and half-uncle Aegon II Targaryen. He’s currently a toddler.
Viserys Targaryen: The second child of Rhaenyra and Daemon’s union. Named after his grandfather, King Viserys I. He’s also a toddler.
Rhaenys Targaryen: The cousin of King Viserys I, known as the Queen Who Never Was. Her claim to the throne was rejected at the Great Council of 101 AC, when the lords of Westeros chose Viserys over her, reinforcing a precedent that the succession must pass through a male line. She is married to Corlys Velaryon, with whom she had two children, Laenor and Laena (both deceased or thought to be deceased). She rides Meleys, the fastest dragon in the realm.
Corlys Velaryon: Called the Sea Snake for his many adventures on the water. He is the head of House Velaryon, the Master of Driftmark, and the husband of Rhaenys Targaryen. He is one of the richest, most powerful, and most ambitious figures in Westeros, and he dreams of one day seeing one of his descendants ascend the Iron Throne. His naval power allows the Blacks to consider a blockade of King’s Landing.
Baela Targaryen: The eldest daughter of Daemon and Laena Velaryon. A teenager, Baela rides the dragon Moondancer.
Rhaena Targaryen: The younger daughter of Daemon and Laena Velaryon. The egg placed in Rhaena’s cradle when she was a baby never hatched; she thought she might inherit Vhagar after her mother, Laena, died, but Aemond claimed the ancient dragon before she had a chance to. As a result, Rhaena is currently not a dragonrider.
Bartimos Celtigar: Lord of House Celtigar, a smaller house sworn to House Velaryon (and one of only three houses with Valyrian descent, alongside the Velaryons and Targaryens). He attends the Black Council in Season 1 and shifts the conversation from talk of men and ships to talk of dragons.
Grand Maester Gerardys: Rhaenyra’s household maester and thus the maester at Dragonstone when she is crowned.
Erryk Cargyll: Twin of Arryk Cargyll. Previously in Viserys’s Kingsguard, he disagrees with his brother over whether Aegon is fit to rule and ultimately decides to defect to Rhaenyra’s side. He helps Rhaenys Targaryen flee King’s Landing during Aegon’s coronation. He also steals Viserys’s crown and delivers it to Rhaenyra. He is now part of Rhaenyra’s Queensguard.
Steffon Darklyn: Member of Rhaenyra’s Queensguard. Previously in Viserys’s Kingsguard. (In the book, it is Steffon, not Erryk, who steals Viserys’s crown for Rhaenyra.) He is the lord commander of Rhaenyra’s Queensguard in Fire & Blood, but it is unclear whether he has that title in the show.
Gunthor Darklyn: Head of House Darklyn. His exact relationship to Steffon is unclear. In the books, he sits on the Black Council.
Lorent Marbrand: Member of Rhaenyra’s Queensguard. Previously in Viserys’s Kingsguard.
Elinda Massey: Handmaiden to Rhaenyra.
Alfred Broome: The most senior knight on Dragonstone, he joined the island’s garrison during the reign of King Jaehaerys. Fire & Blood describes him as having a “sullen disposition and sour manner.”
Team Green
When Oldtown calls its banners to war, the Hightower shines a green beacon. Hence the name for Queen Alicent’s faction: the Greens. They currently hold King’s Landing.
King Aegon II Targaryen: The firstborn child of Alicent and Viserys I Targaryen. Married to his sister, Helaena, with whom he has three children: Jaehaerys, Jaehaera, and Maelor. It’s also implied that he’s fathered a number of bastards in King’s Landing who can be spotted by their silver hair. In Episode 8, he rapes one of his family’s handmaidens. Aegon is a drunk and a layabout—he initially doesn’t want to be crowned king and would prefer a life away from politics. But per the trailers for Season 2, he seems to enjoy the power the Iron Throne provides. Rider of Sunfyre, a formidable golden-scaled dragon.
Alicent Hightower: Now that Viserys has died, Alicent is the dowager queen in King’s Landing. She is the mother of Aegon II, Helaena, Aemond, and Daeron. In her youth, she was a great friend to Rhaenyra—but now they are bitter enemies competing for the throne. She is the daughter of Otto Hightower. Alicent misinterpreted a conversation she had with Viserys I on his deathbed, leading her to believe that the king wanted to name Aegon heir instead of Rhaenyra. She puts her son on the throne in an urgent, frantic plot mere hours after Viserys passes. Alicent is deeply religious and has the Red Keep redecorated, removing the heraldry of the Targaryens in favor of symbols of the Faith of the Seven. Unlike many others on her side, she’s uncomfortable with violence and treachery—though she still engages in both. She once says, “I have to believe that in the end, honor and decency will prevail.”
Otto Hightower: Father of Alicent and Hand of the King to Jaehaerys, Viserys, and now Aegon II, his grandson. Daemon once says that Otto is “a second son who stands to inherit nothing he doesn’t seize for himself.” Daemon also calls him “a cunt.” Otto is deeply ambitious and, by the time of Viserys’s death, has been scheming to put Aegon II on the throne for years.
Helaena Targaryen: Sister-wife to Aegon II. Helaena is a dreamer, blessed (or cursed) with prophetic visions, such as when she comments that Aemond will have to “close an eye” to gain a dragon shortly before he loses his eye after mounting Vhagar. Helaena is considered a bit odd and eccentric but seems to have a kinder heart than most of her siblings and connects with her nephews, while her brothers see them only as rivals. Helaena rides Dreamfyre, a 100-year-old dragon, but she rarely takes to the skies and is no warrior. She is the mother of Jaehaerys, Jaehaera, and Maelor.
Aemond Targaryen: Known as Aemond One-Eye after Lucerys Velaryon cut out one of his eyes when Aemond claimed Vhagar. As he ages, Aemond becomes strong and intimidating, once beating Criston Cole in a sparring session in the training yard. He loves to torment his nephews. He somewhat accidentally kills Lucerys and Lucerys’s dragon, Arrax, when the two encounter each other at Storm’s End at the end of Season 1. This makes Aemond a kinslayer—and pushes Westeros toward war.
Daeron Targaryen: The youngest child of Viserys and Alicent. Aged 15, he has not been seen on-screen because he is in Oldtown, serving as cupbearer to Ormund Hightower, his mother’s cousin. Daeron rides Tessarion, who is said to be of fighting size.
Jaehaerys Targaryen: Eldest son of Aegon II and Helaena, and Aegon’s heir. In the books, it is said that Jaehaerys was born with “six fingers on his left hand, and six toes upon each foot.” He’s bonded to the dragon Shrykos, but both Jaehaerys and his dragon are far too young and small to be of any use in a war. Jaehaerys is just a toddler at the opening of Season 2.
Jaehaera Targaryen: Daughter of Aegon II and Helaena, and twin to Jaehaerys. Like her brother, Jaehaera is bonded to a dragon—Morghul—but is many years away from flying.
Maelor Targaryen: Infant son of Aegon II and Helaena.
Criston Cole: Lord Commander of Aegon II’s Kingsguard. Ser Criston is the sworn shield—and secret lover—of Rhaenyra in the princess’s youth, but the two have a falling-out when she rejects his offer to run away to Essos together. He later confesses his transgression to Queen Alicent and becomes her close ally from that point on. He kills Joffrey Lonmouth—Laenor Velaryon’s secret lover—at Rhaenyra and Laenor’s wedding. He also kills—somewhat accidentally—Lord Lyman Beesbury at the small council meeting after Viserys’s death. And when Lord Commander Harrold Westerling resigns his post in the aftermath, Criston ascends to the position. He then helps Aemond track down his brother Aegon, fighting Arryk Cargyll to ensure Aegon is delivered to Alicent, not Otto. At Aegon’s coronation, it is Criston who places the crown on his head.
Tyland Lannister: Younger twin of Jason Lannister. Served Viserys as master of ships, and later as master of coin. Has long schemed with Otto Hightower to place Aegon on the throne once Viserys dies. Currently Aegon II’s master of coin.
Jason Lannister: Older twin of Tyland Lannister and the head of House Lannister. Courts Rhaenyra in the princess’s youth but comes off as arrogant and vain, and she rejects him. As in Game of Thrones, the House of the Dragon Lannisters are one of the wealthiest and most powerful houses in the realm.
Larys Strong: Head of House Strong following the deaths of his father, Lyonel, and older brother, Harwin, which he arranged. Called the Clubfoot because one of his feet was malformed at birth. Served Viserys as master of whisperers and Lord Confessor, roles he retains under Aegon II. A longtime ally of Alicent, he brings the queen information in exchange for … you remember.
Jasper Wylde: Called Ironrod for his unbending attitude. Master of laws toward the end of Viserys’s reign, a post he retains under Aegon II.
Grand Maester Orwyle: Grand maester under Viserys, and now Aegon II. Prefers less traditional methods of healing (in treating King Viserys’s illness, Orwyle wants to try an herbal medicine he’s prepared, but then–Grand Maester Mellos prefers leeches).
Borros Baratheon: Lord of House Baratheon. He makes a marriage pact with the Greens, matching one of his daughters with Aemond Targaryen. Rhaenyra and the Blacks make no such offer—her sons are already betrothed—and so lose Borros’s support, despite Borros’s father’s oath to support Rhaenyra decades earlier. Borros is boisterous and rough around the edges. He’s illiterate.
Rickard Thorne: Knight in Aegon II’s Kingsguard. Also served under Viserys.
Oscar Tully: Great-grandson of Grover Tully, the current Lord of Riverrun. Son of Elmo Tully and younger brother of Kermit Tully. Yep, these are their actual names. This character has been cast, so expect to see the young knight on-screen in Season 2.
Arryk Cargyll: Twin of Erryk Cargyll. Previously in Viserys’s Kingsguard, and now in Aegon II’s. He disagreed with his brother on whether Aegon II would be fit to rule and ultimately stays loyal to the Greens.
Talya: Handmaiden for Alicent and spy for Mysaria, the sex worker turned spymaster who was once Daemon’s paramour and is now known as “the White Worm.”
Humfrey Lefford: Head of House Lefford, which is sworn to the Lannisters. Commander in the Lannister army.
Gwayne Hightower: Younger brother to Alicent. Seen at the tourney in Episode 1—but never without his helmet. The series cast an actor to play him in Season 2, ensuring we’ll see more of this character (including his face).
Eustace: Priest in King’s Landing.
The Royal Family Tree
Got all that? To help keep it straight, here’s the Targaryen family tree as it stands entering Season 2.
Free Agent Characters
As HBO’s marketing has reminded us this season, when civil war comes to Westeros, everyone must choose a side. But the loyalties of these characters are not yet completely clear.
Mysaria: Called the White Worm. Former sex worker who now runs a spy ring in King’s Landing. Former partner of Daemon. She informs Otto of Daemon and Rhaenyra’s Flea Bottom escapade early in Season 1. She kidnaps Aegon when Viserys is near death and uses the information on his location to negotiate with Otto over the closing of the child fighting pits (she also gets a healthy bag of gold out of it). Mysaria is protective of smallfolk—but her exact motivations and goals are not entirely clear.
Jeyne Arryn: Head of House Arryn. Rhaenyra’s mother was Aemma Arryn (exact relation to Jeyne is unknown), and thus Rhaenyra believes Jeyne will side with the Blacks in the coming war. Jacaerys Velaryon is on his way to the Eyrie to treat with Lady Jeyne.
Cregan Stark: Head of House Stark. His father, Rickon Stark, swore an oath of fealty to Rhaenyra when Viserys named her his heir. As a member of the Black Council remarks in the finale of Season 1, “There has never lived a Stark who forgot an oath.” Jacaerys is to continue to Winterfell to meet Lord Cregan after he finishes in the Vale.
Harrold Westerling: Former Lord Commander of Viserys’s Kingsguard. Last seen resigning his post when the Greens put their plan to crown Aegon II into motion. In the books, Harrold is long dead by the time the civil war breaks out, so it is unclear what the show has planned for him.
Simon Strong: Castellan of Harrenhal and great-uncle to Larys.
Orwyle, Eustace, and Mushroom: The three authors whose accounts constitute the only primary sources from Viserys’s reign and the ensuing civil war, which is known as the Dance of the Dragons. Martin’s Fire & Blood is written in the voice of Archmaester Gyldayn, who lived during the time of King Robert Baratheon and was writing a history for the king. As such, there is no definitive account of the events of House of the Dragon—everything we know comes from sources who had their own biases and blind spots. In some cases, these sources directly contradict one another.
Deceased Season 1 Characters
It wouldn’t be Westeros without some bloodshed. Here are the important characters who died in Season 1 but are worth remembering as we stare down Season 2.
Jaehaerys I Targaryen: The Old King who preceded Viserys. Because he had no living sons at the time of his death, a Great Council was called to resolve his succession. The result—that Viserys would be named Jaehaerys’s heir—reinforced a precedent that succession in Westeros must go through a male line.
Aemma Arryn: Rhaenyra’s mother. Died in childbirth. Because her mother was an Arryn, Rhaenyra expects the Vale—now ruled by Jeyne Arryn—to side with the Blacks.
Craghas Drahar: The Crabfeeder. The leader of the Triarchy forces that Daemon and Corlys defeated in the war for the Stepstones.
Rhea Royce: Daemon’s first wife. Bludgeoned to death by Daemon, though the death was made to look like a horse-riding accident.
Joffrey Lonmouth: Lover of Laenor Velaryon. Killed by Ser Criston Cole at Rhaenyra and Laenor’s wedding.
Laena Velaryon: Daughter of Rhaenys and Corlys, wife to Daemon. Mother of Baela and Rhaena. Lived in Pentos with Daemon for years while the latter was in exile. Loved to ride her dragon, Vhagar, alongside Daemon’s Caraxes. Had Vhagar light her ablaze when childbirth complications made it clear she wouldn’t survive her third pregnancy.
Harwin Strong: Rhaenyra’s lover and the biological father of her first three sons. Killed on the orders of Larys Strong, Harwin’s brother.
Lyonel Strong: Father of Harwin and Larys and formerly the master of laws and Hand of the King to Viserys. Killed along with Harwin on Larys’s orders. With both Harwin and Lyonel dead, Larys becomes the Lord of House Strong.
Laenor Velaryon: Son of Rhaenys and Corlys, husband to Rhaenyra. Officially the father of Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey—though their biological father is Harwin Strong. Laenor is technically alive—he fakes his death late in Season 1 with the blessing of Rhaenyra to gain freedom from his life at her side—but it is highly unlikely we’ll ever see him again in the series. He has escaped to Essos and left his life in Westeros behind.Formerly the rider of Seasmoke.
Vaemond Velaryon: Younger brother of Corlys Velaryon. Killed by Daemon when he questions the parentage of Rhaenyra’s sons and challenges their standing to inherit Driftmark.
King Viserys I Targaryen: Husband of Alicent. Father of Rhaenyra, Aegon II, Helaena, Aemond, and Daeron. Died of a prolonged illness.
Lyman Beesbury: Master of coin for Viserys. Killed by Criston Cole when he questions the Green Council’s plan to coronate Aegon. His death marks the first casualty in the Dance of the Dragons.
Lucerys Velaryon: Rhaenyra’s second-oldest son through Laenor Velaryon, though his biological father is the late Harwin Strong. Called Luke. In their youth, Lucerys and Aemond Targaryen get into a fight that ends when Lucerys knifes out Aemond’s eye. At the end of Season 1, Lucerys rides his dragon, Arrax, to Storm’s End to ask for Borros Baratheon’s support, but Aemond beats him there. Aemond chases Lucerys from Storm’s End on his dragon, Vhagar, and ends up killing Lucerys and Arrax. The death of Lucerys makes it impossible for the two sides to avoid war. Lucerys was also the heir to Driftmark, and his death leaves the succession of House Velaryon once again in question.
Dragons
Men and ships are important, but true power in this war lies in dragons. There are 19 named, known dragons at this point in Westerosi history. Here’s what to know about each:
Team Black
Syrax: The yellow she-dragon ridden by Rhaenyra. Of fighting size, but with no experience.
Caraxes: Called the Blood Wyrm. The huge, fierce red dragon ridden in battle by Daemon.
Meleys: Called the Red Queen. The scarlet-and-pink she-dragon ridden by Rhaenys. Probably still the swiftest dragon in Westeros, though she has begun to slow in her old age.
Vermax: The young dragon ridden by Jacaerys. As of the end of Season 1, Vermax and Jace are en route to the Eyrie, with plans to continue north to Winterfell. Vermax is a teenager—capable of combat but nowhere as formidable as some of Westeros’s older, more experienced dragons.
Tyraxes: The young dragon of Joffrey. In the books, Tyraxes is old enough for Joffrey to ride—but the show appears to have aged the character down a touch, so the dragon may still be grounded.
Moondancer: The young dragon of Baela Targaryen. In the books, Moondancer is just too young for Baela to ride at the beginning of the war.
Stormcloud: The hatchling that has bonded with Aegon the Younger. Far too small to be ridden.
Team Green
Vhagar: The massive, ferocious, bronze-and-green-blue she-dragon that was ridden by Queen Visenya during Aegon’s Conquest. Vhagar is the oldest, largest, and fiercest dragon in Westeros. She is the mount of Aemond Targaryen. Last seen killing Arrax and Lucerys.
Sunfyre: The glittering, gold-scaled dragon ridden by Aegon II. Said to be the most beautiful creature ever seen in Westeros. Of fighting size, but without experience.
Dreamfyre: The century-old, pale-blue-and-silver she-dragon ridden by Helaena Targaryen. Dreamfyre has never been much of a fighter, and Helaena doesn’t have much interest in riding her—it is said that she goes up into the sky only rarely.
Tessarion: The cobalt-and-copper dragon ridden by Daeron Targaryen. We haven’t seen Daeron or Tessarion in the show—both are presumably in Oldtown, where Daeron serves as cupbearer to Ormund Hightower.
Shrykos: The hatchling she-dragon bonded with Jaehaerys Targaryen.
Morghul: The hatchling dragon bonded with Jaehaera Targaryen.
Unclaimed
Vermithor: Called the Bronze Fury. The bronze dragon ridden by King Jaehaerys I until his death. Vermithor is roughly 100 years old—and presumably one of the largest dragons in the realm. He resides somewhere on the Dragonmont, a volcano that lies on the island of Dragonstone. This is the dragon we see Daemon singing to toward the end of Season 1.
Silverwing: The roughly 100-year-old she-dragon formerly ridden by Alysanne Targaryen, King Jaehaerys’s sister-wife. Silverwing is presumably large, but inexperienced. She resides somewhere on the Dragonmont.
Seasmoke: The slender and nimble silver dragon that was formerly the mount of Laenor Velaryon. Resides on Driftmark.
The Cannibal: A wild dragon that lives on Dragonstone and is known to feast on other dragons and their eggs. Coal black, large, and angry as hell, the Cannibal is rumored to be one of the oldest dragons in Westeros.
Sheepstealer: A wild dragon that lives on Dragonstone and frequently hunts for sheep.
Grey Ghost: A wild dragon that lives on Dragonstone and is rarely spotted. Known to feed on fish.
Places
While Season 1 of House of the Dragon had a much smaller scope than Game of Thrones, Season 2 is expected to expand the series’ geography. These are the most important places to know.
King’s Landing: The capital of the Seven Kingdoms, located on the eastern coast of the continent. It is a short distance from the islands of Driftmark and Dragonstone and was the location where Aegon the Conqueror first landed on the Westerosi mainland as he began his invasion. King’s Landing is the most populous city in the Seven Kingdoms. It is under the control of the Greens.
The Red Keep: The castle in King’s Landing that serves as the home of the current ruler of Westeros and the location of the Iron Throne. The Red Keep contains numerous secret passages and underground connections, and no one knows where they all lead. It’s often said that in the Red Keep, “the very walls have ears.”
Maegor’s Holdfast: The fort at the center of the Red Keep, which lies behind massive walls and a dry moat.
The Dragonpit: The massive stone home built for the royal dragons of House Targaryen. The Dragonpit lies on a hill on the side of King’s Landing opposite the Red Keep. In Game of Thrones, the Dragonpit is in ruins—but in House of the Dragon, it is alive with purpose as not only the holding pen for the many dragons in the city, but also a key outpost for the city’s defense. One dragonrider resides at the pit at all times in the event that a dragon needs to be roused quickly for combat. It is the site of Aegon II’s coronation in Episode 9 of House of the Dragon.
Flea Bottom: The foul, seedy underbelly of King’s Landing. A hub of lawlessness and filth—but a good place for residents looking for a cheap winesink or a discreet whorehouse.
Blackwater Bay: The body of water that sits around King’s Landing, Dragonstone, and Driftmark.
Dragonstone: The gloomy island home of House Targaryen before Aegon the Conqueror launched his invasion of Westeros and established a new seat (both figuratively and literally) at King’s Landing. It is also where the heir to the current ruler typically resides. This is where Daenerys planned her own invasion of Westeros in Season 7 of Game of Thrones. It is currently controlled by the Blacks.
Driftmark: A fertile island between Dragonstone and King’s Landing. It is the seat of House Velaryon.
High Tide: The castle on Driftmark that was constructed by Corlys Velaryon to serve as the seat of his house. Corlys had grown tired of the damp and musty halls of Castle Driftmark and constructed High Tide out of magnificent pale stone as a symbol of the power of House Velaryon.
Harrenhal: The largest castle in Westeros, which Aegon the Conqueror melted into a somber pile of stone and metal during his invasion. However, Harrenhal remains an important castle, with fertile land surrounding it and a central location just northwest of King’s Landing. House Strong currently holds Harrenhal. At the end of Season 1, when the Blacks are planning for war, Daemon notes that Harrenhal would be the perfect “place to gather, a toehold, large enough to house a sizable host.” Widely believed to be cursed because of the many tragedies that have occurred there.
Oldtown: A large, ancient city that lies on the western shore of Westeros. It is home to the Citadel, the headquarters of the Maesters, as well as the Starry Sept, the seat of the Faith of the Seven. That makes it the center of both knowledge and religion in Westeros. It is also a hub of trade and arguably the wealthiest city in the Seven Kingdoms. Oldtown is ruled by House Hightower.
The Hightower: A massive castle and lighthouse that sits just outside Oldtown and serves as the seat of House Hightower. When House Hightower calls its banners to war, the Hightower shines a green beacon—which is where the Greens get their name.
Dorne: The southernmost region of Westeros, populated by the Rhoynar, who are distinct from the Andals and First Men that make up most of the citizens of Westeros. Dorne was the only kingdom of Westeros that Aegon the Conqueror failed to bring into his realm, and it remains an independent kingdom all the way through the reign of Viserys. Criston Cole is from an area called the Dornish Marches.
The Free Cities: A group of nine city-states in Essos, the continent east of Westeros. They are important trade partners for Westeros, though they are also frequently in conflict with the crown or with one another. A handful of the free cities not-so-secretly funded Craghas Crabfeeder’s pirates in the war for the Stepstones in Season 1.
Valyria: A ruined city in Essos that was once the home to the Targaryens and many other dragon-riding families known as dragonlords. Valyria controlled a large empire known as the Valyrian Freehold until the Doom, a mysterious cataclysmic event that wiped out the city and its inhabitants roughly a century before Aegon’s Conquest. The Targaryens escaped the Doom thanks to prophetic dreams that foretold the destruction, and thus they became the only dragon-riding family in the known world.
The Narrow Sea: The sea to the east of Westeros that separates the continent from Essos.
The Stepstones: A series of islands in the Narrow Sea south of King’s Landing that are well positioned to control important shipping lanes between Westeros and Essos. Daemon Targaryen and Corlys Velaryon travel there in Season 1 to wrest control of the islands away from the Triarchy.
The Eyrie: An ancient mountain castle that is the seat of House Arryn and the center of power in the Vale.
Storm’s End: A large, stout castle that is the seat of House Baratheon and the center of power in the Stormlands.
Winterfell: An ancient, huge castle that is the seat of House Stark and the center of power in the North.
Casterly Rock: A towering castle that is the seat of House Lannister and the center of power in the Westerlands.
Riverrun: A small but well-defended castle that is the seat of House Tully and the center of power in the Riverlands.
Things
Objects can be important symbols of power, prestige, or history in Westeros. Here are some of the most important ones.
Blackfyre: The Valyrian steel sword of Aegon the Conqueror that is typically wielded by Targaryen kings. It is in the hands of Aegon II—a symbol that helps prove his legitimacy to many.
The Crown of Aegon the Conqueror: Aegon I wore a Valyrian steel crown embedded with a red stone. It’s the crown Aegon II uses for his coronation—another physical symbol the Greens use to project Aegon’s legitimacy.
The Crown of Viserys I Targaryen: Rhaenyra dons the same crown her father wore, which was also the crown of Jaehaerys I Targaryen—the Old King. Her crown signals continuity as well as her place as her father’s chosen heir.
Dark Sister: The Valyrian steel sword wielded by Queen Visenya Targaryen during Aegon’s Conquest. King Jaehaerys I gave the sword to Daemon Targaryen, who currently possesses it.
The catspaw dragonbone dagger: The dagger that Game of Thrones fans called the catspaw dagger returns in House of the Dragon, and in Season 1 Viserys revealed that Aegon the Conqueror had the Song of Ice and Fire—Aegon’s prophetic dream about an icy apocalypse coming to Westeros—embedded in the steel. The dagger is currently in the possession of Aegon II, who is unaware of the prophecy. In Game of Thrones, this dagger is used in the attempt on Bran’s life in Season 1. Arya ultimately kills the Night King with it.
The Painted Table: The long table on Dragonstone that is carved to depict the continent of Westeros. It’s where Aegon the Conqueror planned his invasion of the continent and where Rhaenyra holds her first war council at the end of Season 1. It’s also where Daenerys plans her invasion of Westeros in Game of Thrones.
The Iron Throne: The seat of power in Westeros. The throne was forged from the melted blades of Aegon the Conqueror’s enemies, forming a twisted, intimidating seat that does not allow a king to “sit easy.” Some blades are still sharp enough to cut the throne’s occupant—a sign that the king (or queen) may be unprepared to hold power. The throne cut Viserys throughout his reign, possibly contributing to his illness.
Rhaenyra’s Valyrian steel necklace: Back in the first episode of Season 1, Daemon gave Rhaenyra a Valyrian steel necklace that she wears through much of the season. It’s a symbol of their relationship—and of Targaryen power.
Firefly brooch: Larys has his own sigil—a firefly—that decorates his cane. It is also sometimes seen as a brooch worn by those in his service. It’s something to watch for in Season 2.
Miscellaneous
Here are some phrases that viewers will likely hear during the series.
Valyrian steel: Ancient steel that was forged in the Valyrian freehold, before the fall of Valyria. It is widely believed that Valyrian steel was forged using blood magic and/or fire magic, but the exact technique has been lost. As a result, no new Valyrian steel weapons can be made, though the blacksmiths in Westeros can rework existing Valyrian steel. Valyrian steel weapons are far superior to any others—they hold a razor-sharp edge and are exceptionally strong and lightweight. Noble houses in possession of Valyrian steel weapons pass them down for generations.
Dragon dreams: Prophetic dreams experienced by some Targaryens, including Daenerys and Maester Aemon. It was a prophetic dream of Daenys the Dreamer’s that prompted the Targaryen family to leave Valyria 12 years before the Doom destroyed the city and all the remaining dragonlords. Viserys reveals in Season 1 that Aegon the Conqueror also had such dreams—and that he saw the Long Night and a Prince That Was Promised who would stand against an icy apocalypse that would come to Westeros. Viserys says that this is why Aegon conquered Westeros in the first place. But as with all prophecies in Martin’s writing, there is a question of whether the future is set in stone or whether the characters’ own desire to change their future ultimately leads to self-fulfilling (and often self-destructive) behavior.
The City Watch: The standing army of King’s Landing, which is tasked with maintaining order and defending the Iron Throne. Daemon Targaryen commands the Watch shortly after Viserys is crowned king, and he gives the Watch its signature gold cloaks.
Lord of the Tides: The title traditionally given to the head of House Velaryon.
War for the Stepstones: A war fought between Westeros (led by Daemon Targaryen and Corlys Velaryon) and the alliance of Free Cities known as the Triarchy (led by Craghas Crabfeeder) for control of an important series of islands in the south of the Narrow Sea. Daemon and Corlys win this war early in Season 1.
The Great Council of 101 AC: A council of all the lords of Westeros held after the death of Baelon Targaryen, King Jaehaerys’s son and heir to the Iron Throne. The council was called to pick a successor for Jaehaerys, who did not attend the council but agreed to abide by any decision made by the lords. The main claimants to the throne were Viserys, Jaehaerys’s grandson through Baelon; Rhaenys, Jaehaerys’s granddaughter through Aemon (Baelon’s older brother, who had died years prior); and—in the books only—Laenor Velaryon, Rhaenys’s son. Despite the influence of Corlys Velaryon, Viserys won the vote by a rumored margin of 20-1. And the council’s reasoning was, in part, that it wanted the throne to pass solely through a male line of descendants. Picking Viserys also ensured that the throne stayed in the hands of a Targaryen, rather than a Velaryon.
The Prince or Princess of Dragonstone: The title given to the heir apparent of the Iron Throne. The heir also typically resides on Dragonstone and rules over the island.
Kingsguard or Queensguard: The order of knights sworn to protect the king or queen and the royal family. There are typically seven such knights, who are prohibited from inheriting land, holding titles, taking wives, or starting families. They wear white and are commonly called white cloaks.
Small council: The group of seven trusted advisers who aid the king.
Hand of the King: The king’s second-in-command and the only person authorized to make decisions in the king’s name. However, this is not considered a glamorous position. The smallfolk across Westeros say that “the king eats, and the hand takes the shit.”
Dragonseeds: Bastard children of House Targaryen. Especially common on Dragonstone, where many smallfolk claim that the blood of the dragon runs through their veins. A key question that has not yet been answered in Westeros: Can dragonseeds become dragonriders?
“Readvent of Calamity” is a quest you’ll pick up in Dragon’s Dogma 2the first time you return to Melve. It involves driving off a diseased drake (which is a dragon as opposed to the Dragon), helping out Ulrika, the leader of Melve, and then finding her when she has to leave town.
Our Dragon’s Dogma 2 will show you how to start “Readvent of Calamity,” the steps you’ll have to follow to complete it, and where to find Ulrika.
How to start ‘Readvent of Calamity’ in Dragon’s Dogma 2
Image: Capcom via Polygon
Once you complete at least one of Captain Brant’s quests (but before you complete “Feast of Deception”) and then head back to Melve (like for the “Oxcart Courier” quest), you’ll find the town under attack by a diseased dragon (or drake — the game is inconsistent on the name). After you deal a bit of damage by attacking the blisters on Puss the Magic Dragon, you’ll drive it off.
When to visit Melve ‘from time to time’ in Dragon’s Dogma 2
After the fight, you’ll get a quick cutscene where you talk to Ulrika, Lennart, and Sigurd. And then you’ll get an unhelpfully vague objective to “visit Melve from time to time.”
You need to wait a day or three before you can continue the quest. Head out of town and take care of other quests for a bit. You can always fast travel to Melve quickly from Vernworth by using the oxcart.
Graphic: Jeffrey Parkin/Polygon | Sources: Capcom via Polygon
On your subsequent visit, check in with Ulrika at the large house in Melve. Inside, you’ll witness Ulrika and a government goon named Martin having an argument. The next day, you’ll learn that Ulrika has chosen to flee the village instead of cause problems for everyone.
Where to find Ulrika in ‘Readvent of Calamity’
Your next objective will be to figure out where Ulrika fled to. And you won’t have any clues. The short answer here is that Ulrika has fled to Havre Village.
Graphic: Jeffrey Parkin/Polygon | Sources: Capcom via Polygon
The longer answer is that she won’t (might not?) actually appear there until you complete a couple other quests.
First, you’ll have to have completed “Monster Culling” for Captain Brant (which you probably already have). After that, you should poke around Harve Village to take on and complete “Scaly Invaders” which ultimately just has you driving out some saurians a few days in a row.
Image: Capcom via Polygon
After that, Ulrika will appear right at the town’s main crossroad. Talk to her, and she’ll send you back to Lennart in Melve. Report back to him in Melve’s big house, and you’ll get a reward of 4,500 gold and a Ring of Grit.
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