We don’t have a crystal ball, but we do have the book from George RR Martin’s Fire and Blood, so we can get a pretty good glimpse into the future of the rest of House Of The Dragon season. The titles of episodes 8 to 10 help enormously and, for example, allow conclusions to be drawn about questions such as: When will King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine), who is obviously seriously ill, die?
This of course contains spoilers, so be warned. However, we will avoid spoilers for the future civil war “Dance of the Dragons” that will be covered in the following seasons and focus on the events of Season 1!
» “Fire and Blood” – the book at Amazon*
The eighth episode of “House Of The Dragon” is supposed to be one hour and eight minutes long and of course we already know the most about it, after all a trailer was already released for it. In it we see that between episode 7 and episode 8 the next big leap in time happened. About six years have passed and that means that the children of Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), Alicent (Olivia Cooke), Daemon (Matt Smith) and Co. have grown and are being played by new actors. You can find out more here:
But what about the episode title “Lord of the Tides”? This refers of course to Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), the master of Driftmark, who is also called Lord of the Tides. And he’s not doing well in episode 8, as can be seen in the trailer – Corlys is badly injured in the fight for the stepping stones. We don’t want to spoil exactly how Corlys will continue, at least according to the book, but in any case Corlys’ injury raises the serious question: Who will be his heir? Because his children Laena and Laenor are both (officially) dead. A large part of episode 8 should revolve around the question of inheritance.
The ninth episode of “House Of The Dragon” is supposed to be 58 minutes long and this is where the preparation for said civil war really begins. This is fought out between two parties – the “Green” on the side of Queen Alicent, who wants to see her son Aegon on the throne, and the “Black” on the side of Princess Rhaenyra, the official heiress to the throne of King Viserys, but as a woman many consider her unfit for the position.
The “Green Council” referred to in the episode title denotes Queen Alicent’s closest trusts, who support her and her son Aegon’s claim to the throne. So in episode 9, we should see this group come together – and it’s very likely that they do, um to advise on what to do after the death of King Viserys. Because in the book template the king dies while Rhaenyra is staying on Drachenstein. And while Rhaenyra still doesn’t know about her father’s death, the Greens hatch a plan to quickly crown Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) as the new king in her absence and thus establish facts…
Belong to the Green Council In addition to Alicent himself, of course, her father Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), Alicent’s bodyguard Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), the scheming Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), Cersei’s and Jaime’s ancestor Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall), Lord Japer Wylde (Paul Kennedy) and Grand Maester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan).
The final episode of the first season “Game Of Thrones: House Of The Dragon” is said to be 59 minutes long and, as the title suggests, follows directly from episode 9. Because with a few days delay, the news of Viserys’ death naturally also reaches Rhaenyra and her husband Daemon. And that Aegon was crowned king in King’s Landing is of course wrong in the eyes of this party – and Rhaenyra calls herself the “Black Queen”. She is definitely entitled to this title, after all she remained the heir to the throne appointed by the king until his death.
So now in the season finale there is definitely a king and a queen facing each other – but only one of them can sit on the Iron Throne and rule over the Seven Kingdoms. But both parties have supporters, and most importantly, both parties have dragons. A civil war over the question of rulership breaks out and will spell the beginning of the end for House Targaryen.
Thus become all ten episodes of the first season”House Of The Dragon‘ is used to tell the history of this civil war – and then we get to see the actual ‘Dance Of The Dragons’ from Season 2 onwards.
Episode 8 of “House Of The Dragon” comes to Sky and WOW (formerly Sky Ticket) on October 10, 2022, episode 9 on October 17 and episode 10 on October 24.
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