With the second season of HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon currently in production and no news coming out of the set about new faces joining the cast or whether or not they’re giving all the screen time they can to Aemond Targaryen my beloved, I have of course started a massive rewatch of the entire first season of the show. What else can you do when the hyperfixation doesn’t seem to want to let go but new content is almost a year away?
I’ve also been diving back into the pages Fire & Blood, the in-universe history text that details the reign of House Targaryen and serves as the main source of material for House of the Dragon—which has helped me compile a comprehensive list of all the main events that go down during the Dance of the Dragons and that we should reasonably expect to see in the show.
And from there, I proceeded to go down a rabbit hole of dividing said events into seasons—either four, as George R.R. Martin has said multiple times would be the optimal number to cover all the beats of the Dance, or three, as seems somewhat more likely based on where the studio is heading. Do I have any screenwriting experience? No. But have I watched TV shows pretty much since I was born? Yes, so let’s go.
Spoilers ahead for the majority of events covered in Fire & Blood, of course, so proceed at your own discretion!
George R.R. Martin’s four-season plan for House of the Dragon
While I would love nothing more than for season 2 of House of the Dragon to start with Aemond returning to the Red Keep and telling his family what exactly happened at Storm’s End—because there are few tropes I love more than “character willingly locks himself into the narrative role people have decided for them”—realistically, a better opening sequence would be one where we follow Jacaerys’s trip North. That way, we would be immediately introduced to the current members of House Stark, including Cregan Stark, the Lord of Winterfell and one of the key players of the Dance, and we’d also return to one of Game of Thrones’ most beloved families.
The season then would cover the first proper beats of the Dance of the Dragons. Technically, the blacks taking Harrenhal should have happened before the death of Lucerys above Storm’s End, but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem showing us Daemon and Caraxes landing in and taking possession of the biggest castle on the continent. From there, Daemon gives the order for what most readers know as Blood and Cheese—a truly horrific act of violence and retaliation for Luke’s death that is guaranteed to make everyone extremely uncomfortable.
Then, there’s the usual ravaging that happens in the Riverlands whenever a war descends upon Westeros, some political beats that have to be shown—like Criston Cole becoming Hand of the King in Otto Hightower’s place. Others can maybe be cut, like the duel in which the Cargyll twins fight against each other, ultimately losing both their lives, and then it’s time for the first proper dragon battle of the Dance.
After the Battle of Rook’s Nest, which could be an excellent halfway point of the season, I think there would still be time to introduce Aemond’s regency and the Sowing on Dragonstone before finishing the whole thing off with a bang—the Battles of the Gullet and of the Honeywine. I’m debating whether or not the taking of King’s Landing by the blacks should be the start of the second season or the beginning of the third, but that’s where I would cut it off.
The third season would pick back up from the blacks in possession of King’s Landing and Aemond burning up some more of the Riverlands—and meeting a certain witch at Harrenhal. We need to see Daeron fighting his way up from the Reach for the greens and the Winter Wolves descending from the North, with the first real bloodshed of the season being the Fishfeed. That bloodshed immediately gets doubled with the Butcher’s Ball, as well as the death of Prince Maelor—if they decide to show it, which I doubt—and the first Battle of Tumbleton as a midway point of the season.
It’s also important to show a certain golden dragon and injured royal rider arrive secretly at a semi-deserted Dragonstone, with Baela Targaryen getting her time to shine with her dragon Moondancer.
Everything in the second half of season three should lead to two major events. One is the Battle Above the God’s Eye—if they decide to keep with the book’s timeline instead of pushing it back so they can keep two fan-favorite characters in the show longer—and the other is the Storming of the Dragonpit in King’s Landing. Just like season two ended with a seeming triumph for the blacks, season three should be the opposite, with Rhaenyra watching from the Red Keep as the smallfolk kill most of the dragons and the last of her and Harwin’s sons falling to his death.
Season four brings the whole bloody tragedy of the Dance to an end, going beyond the end of its two main protagonists to show how the entire thing results in nothing at all except death and destruction. The season would open either with the Second Battle of Tumbleton or with Rhaenyra fleeing King’s Landing, leaving it to the smallfolk to make her way to Dragonstone with whom she believes is her last living child, little Prince Aegon.
At Dragonstone, Rhaenyra is of course met with her half-brother Aegon and with her end between the jaws of his dragon Sunfyre. The death of Rhaenyra would mark one of the climaxes of the story and also the midway point of the season, with the remaining episodes dedicated to showing the end of the Dance and the careful restoration of peace. So, everything from Aegon returning to King’s Landing to his poisoning, the Hour of the Wolf, the engagement and wedding of young King Aegon III and Princess Jaehaera Targaryen as well as their coronation, and the forming of the council of regents.
The very first scene of House of the Dragon was the Great Council of 101, which sowed the seeds of the Dance, with Rhaenyra’s narration telling us that the only thing that could bring down the Targaryens were the Targaryens themselves. So it would be a very poignant thematic circle to have the show close on the coronation of a traumatized child, now forever deadly afraid of dragons after seeing his mother getting eaten in front of him, as the realm tries to piece itself back together, the evidence that the House of the Dragon did indeed destroy itself and would never again return to that level of splendor and power.
And the three seasons the network might want more
Of course, this is all assuming that the showrunners decide not to leave out anything from the major beats of the whole Dance of the Dragons storyline. Then again, considering that three seasons might be more likely than four and that there needs to be time for character introspection and evolution—because otherwise, it all becomes a list of items that need to be ticked off, as we painfully learned during the final seasons of Game of Thrones—some things probably will have to be left out.
So let’s go back to season two. If it’s to be the second to last season of the entire show, then it should probably end somewhere around the Battle Above the Gods Eye, just in terms of the sheer amount of stuff that happens before it and then after it. This would leave a third and final season to cover the sack of King’s Landing, the passing of both Rhaenyra and Aegon and ultimately the resolution of the Dance with Aegon III—which I think is still important to include, even just in a scene where the surviving Lords discuss what to do rather than a full out coronation scene.
In this scenario, there are some events that will most definitely remain on the cutting room floor—no Fishfeed, for starters, and certainly no Maelor. The whole chase between Aemond and Daemon in the Riverlands will be cut much shorter—because to be honest, it’s kind of ridiculous that they just fly around without managing to find two of the largest dragons currently alive for as long as they do. There will also probably be less time to dedicate to all the fighting Daeron does in the South—even though both Battles of Tumbleton are pretty essential, in my opinion—and the whole smallfolk rebellion in King’s Landing could probably be reduced to one episode rather than have it brewing for a while before it explodes in the Storming.
And then maybe just a mention of the Hour of the Wolf and the resolution of the Dance being engaging Aegon to Jaehaera and crowning him with a council of regents to rule the realm until he becomes of age rather than a whole sequence of scenes that could have made up even an entire final episode.
Of course, the release of season 2 of House of the Dragon might prove me completely wrong. Whatever the case, we’re sure to have some very interesting things ahead of us as we follow the characters we’ve come to know and love—or hate—deep into the Dance of the Dragons.
(featured image: HBO)
