The show’s first season aired on HBO from August to October 2022. The second season is expected to focus on the Targaryen civil war — a massive faceoff between two sides of the family, the “Greens” and the “Blacks” — that will redefine the seven realms of Westeros for decades to come, according to the lore.
How did we get here? With lots of deaths. War, dragons, sword fights and an over-dramatic ceremony or two killed a lot of characters along the way. Honestly, going through them is probably the simplest way to get refreshed on this show.
The first deaths: Criminals and knights
“House of the Dragon” was off to a bloody start when Daemon (Matt Smith), leader of the City Watch and potential heir to the Iron Throne, led his golden-caped soldiers to the city streets to execute all criminals, who had been running amok under the watch of King Viserys (Paddy Considine). Many were beheaded on the streets (one appeared to lose his backside in the massacre). It was a show of force for Daemon, who sought to show his strength as a potential heir.
In the first episode, Queen Aemma, the wife of King Viserys, died during childbirth after the king chose to save their baby over his spouse. The child, named Baelon, passed away shortly after birth.
With the death of his new son, Viserys named his daughter Rhaenyra as heir to the throne and sent Daemon away from King’s Landing. The king then married Lady Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke and Emily Carey), the daughter of his counsel Otto Hightower, the Hand of the King.
Lord Corlys’s men (eaten by crabs)
The second episode of “House of the Dragon” opened with a shot of Corlys’s men being ripped apart and eaten by … crabs. This was done by Prince Craghas Drahar, known as the “Crab Feeder,” who fed his victims to … oh, you get it.
Drahar united three of the “Free Cities” (which lie across the Narrow Sea from Westeros) into an alliance called the Triarchy, a pest to King Viserys during his reign.
The man crushed by a dragon (after getting eaten by crabs)
Oh, this poor fellow. A soldier, who had been defeated by Drahar, had his hands nailed to a wooden pike as he shouted at the Crab Feeder. As a crab began to pick away the man’s body, a dragon descended from the skies and squashed him. Yikes.
That guy, that guy and that guy (burned by dragon fire)
A number of soldiers fighting Drahar were burned alive by Daemon, who came riding in on a dragon to face off with the Crab Feeder. These men got absolutely torched by dragon fire.
As Daemon fought against Drahar’s army in the Stepstones, a messenger arrived from King Viserys, promising troops to aid Daemon’s cause. Daemon took his helmet and beat the messenger bloody. It’s unclear if the messenger died in the assault. But c’mon.
The Crab Feeder’s guards, army and people
Daemon made a stand against Drahar’s forces by appearing to sacrifice himself and surrender. But instead of turning himself over, he used a hidden knife to slay Drahar’s guards and soldiers, slicing them apart while mostly avoiding descending arrows.
Just as it appeared Drahar’s soldiers would slaughter Daemon, dragons came soaring out of the sky and burned much of the army alive.
Drahar retreated to his cave amid the assault. Daemon followed him into the cave and then returned to the battlefield with the war leader’s upper body and head, having sliced him in half. Messy!
Jerrel Bracken (probably)
A young man seeking Rhaenyra’s hand in marriage named Jerrel found himself on the wrong side of a duel. He taunted young boy Willem Blackwood, who posed as a suitor for Rhaenyra’s hand (despite his young age). Willem and Jerrel then engaged in a sword fight, which Willem won by stabbing Jerrel in the gut. Though we didn’t see his death, he was seen coughing up blood. Point taken.
Daemon made a play for his niece Rhaenyra’s hand by, um, spending time with her in a brothel and then telling the king (a.k.a. his brother and her father) about it. When Daemon was subsequently exiled to the Vale, he was greeted by his lawful wife, Lady Rhea. She insulted him upon his return, after which he knocked her off a horse and appeared ready to kill her with a rock. The motive? To inherit her fortune and potentially take a new wife.
However, we didn’t actually see Lady Rhea die. Usually, you can’t count on someone being dead on television until you see a body. Just sayin’.
It took some time, but Rhaenyra was finally betrothed to Laenor Velaryon, despite having a brief affair with her uncle and a separate fling with the knight Criston Cole. But Laenor and Rhaenyra agreed to marry so they could keep their secret romances alive (Rhaenyra with Criston, Laenor with his partner, Joffrey).
During a ceremony to celebrate the upcoming wedding, Cole went crazy on Lonmouth, beating his face relentlessly on the ceremony’s dance floor. Criston then became the protector of Lady Alicent, the wife of King Viserys.
Lady Laena, the younger sister of Laenor, had married Daemon sometime after her brother’s wedding. They relocated to Pentos and had twin daughters, Baela and Rhaena. They were set to have a third child, but Laena had complications during childbirth. Instead of suffering a similar fate as Queen Aemma, Laena traveled outside and ordered a dragon to burn her alive.
To help his close confidante Queen Alicent, Larys Strong set fire to Harrenhal, one of the biggest castles in Westeros. The fire killed his brother Harwin and his father, Lyonel. Larys had heard Alicent’s concerns about Rhaenyra’s affair with Harwin and her concern that Lyonel had become Hand of the King over her own father, Otto Hightower. Lyonel’s death allowed Otto to return to the post.
Daemon returned to King’s Landing following his wife’s death and met up with Rhaenyra again, where the two engaged in more acts. They then agreed to marry each other, but Rhaenyra’s husband, Laenor, needed to die first so they could be married lawfully as a political alliance. So Daemon asked for a knight named Ser Qarl to kill someone quickly with witnesses. Daemon traveled up a staircase and snapped the neck of a man. More on that in the next death!
Daemon’s request brought Qarl to Laenor’s father’s chambers, where he challenged Laenor to a sword duel. When Laenor’s family and security arrived at the chamber, they spotted a burned body on the floor and immediately mourned their dead son. It was revealed later that Laenor escaped in a boat with Qarl, fleeing the kingdom alive and faking his death to allow Rhaenyra to marry Daemon.
As the health of King Viserys takes a turn for the worse, many began to wonder who would take the throne. Vaemond, brother of Corlys, made a case for the throne given that his brother, who was missing, was married to Rhaenys (who was denied the throne over Viserys decades before, giving her the nickname the “Queen Who Never Was”).
But when Vaemond realized the king wasn’t going to disinherit his grandchildren and name a new heir, he became angry and insulted Rhaenyra’s sons. Daemon slashed Vaemond’s head clean off in response. Gruesome.
The death of King Viserys
This is one of the key moments in “House of the Dragon,” and it fuels a number of meaningful deaths in the show. After spending the entire season ill with leprosy, the king finally passed away in his bed, freeing up the throne.
On his deathbed, Viserys foggily explained that the “Prince That Was Promised” and the “Song of Ice and Fire” prophecies (which later play out in the “Game of Thrones” story) to his wife Alicent, suggesting that she must be the one to make sure the prophecies come true (and that a Targaryen sits on the Iron Throne when the dreaded winter comes). She took this to mean that her son, Aegon, should wear the crown over Rhaenyra and her children, whose lineage had long been disputed by Alicent due to their brown hair and hardly Targaryen features.
When Viserys died, Alicent shared the conversation with her father, Otto. To her surprise, Otto and Tyland Lannister had already started planning out a scenario where Aegon took the Iron Throne over Rhaenyra, who had long been promised the crown. To shore up her son’s ascension, Alicent offered peaceful terms to Rhaenyra so that she would bend the knee, despite her council’s advice to kill both Rhaenyra and Daemon to shore up her son’s claim.
Lyman Beesbury, by way of head smashing
Cue another death. When Lyman Beesbury, a Quiet Council member involved with the succession discussions, protested the plan to seat Aegon on the throne, he was killed when his head was smashed against a plate.
(It’s unclear if Harrold Westerling, lord commander of the crown’s military who also abstained from supporting Aegon, dies after he was dragged away to face “king’s justice,” also known as an execution, but the writing is on the wall.)
The dudes trampled by dragons
When Aegon was finally anointed king, more deaths followed. Rhaenys rode her dragon into the ceremony to show off what her dragons could do and trampled some onlookers. One random citizen was tripped by the dragon, and another man was swatted away. It’s unclear how many people died in the attack, but we’re guessing a few random didn’t make it.
After learning of her father’s death, Rhaenyra went into stressed-induced labor. The baby, named Visenya, was stillborn.
All the turmoil of the first season led to the devastating death of Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys.
Lucerys, known as Luke, flew down to Storm’s End to deliver a message for his mother, who sought an alliance with their leaders. But he was chased away by his devilish uncle Aemond and his dragon.
After barely surviving flight through a thunderstorm, Luke emerged into the open daylight atop his dragon — only for Aemond’s dragon to cut through the storm clouds and gobble up Luke and his dragon, putting a bloody stamp on the show’s first season.
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