We’ve had teasers, but at long last the official trailer for the Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon is here.
King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) is the fifth king of the Seven Kingdoms with two potential heirs: his daughter Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and his brother, Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith). While these dragons may be pitted against each other, there are other winged creatures that have their eye on the Iron Throne. The House of Hightower presents Lady Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) to the king and with that, Westeros is changed forever.
House of Dragon will be ten episodes long and while it is not 100% clear from the teaser, we know that the series will be going either linearly in time or flashing back and forth between adult Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and young Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock).
I’ve broken down who the players are for this upcoming season and getting into it much deeper would be spoilers for those people that didn’t read the A Song of Ice and Fire wiki for fun. What is important is that this series is clearly carrying on the narrative thread connected to Daenerys Targaryen.
Among the many threads that were brought up in the last season of Game of Thrones, one was that with Jon Snow actually being the son of Rhaegar Targaryen, so he would be seen as first in the line of Targaryen succession over Dany. Because, as Varys put it “he’s a man, which makes him more appealing.” In the books there is also another potential male clamant to the throne who could take Dany’s place.
What makes the Civil War among the Targaryens so interesting is that the same inbreeding and male primogeniture that led to their power is also what led to weak rulers. The trauma of the Dance of the Dragons is what leads directly to the loss of dragons, their magic, and the massive loss of life at the Tragedy of Summerhall, that gives us the Mad King.
It is a folly of male ego and monarchy.
Plus dragons.
I am excited to see that by making Lord Corlys Velaryon a Black man (Steve Toussaint) we will be getting a more diverse image of the Targaryens. Of course it is disappointing to see that the actor has already had to deal with racist backlash, but that was to be expected.
We will see what happens when dragons fight, when family dramas has a devastating impact on Westeros, and the reason why the Targaryens fell. Will you be tuning in when the show premiers on HBO Max on August 21st, 2022?
(image: HBO)
