A Fiery Return to Westeros

[WARNING: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 1.]

Dracarys!

House of the Dragon, perhaps HBO’s most-anticipated show of the year, has arrived to pose the question: After the polarizing finale that aired in 2019, did we really need more Game of Thrones in our lives? Well, if the series premiere is any indication, the answer is a resounding ‘yes.’

(Credit: HBO)

In many ways, comparing it to Game of Thrones seems unjust because House of the Dragon doesn’t feel like a spinoff. The show’s events are set almost two full centuries before Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) was born, and while there are plenty of Targs here (and, of course, dragons), the characters and stories diverge sharply enough that nothing feels derivative. Aside from a few familiar musical cues and house names, Dragon is doing its own thing in a familiar world—and like the creatures referenced in its title, it soars.

To open the story, there is, as always, a crisis of succession. And not only one. House of the Dragon’s premiere starts and ends with such a problem, solving both in ways that mirror each other. The first occurs in a scene narrated by an older Rhaenyra Targaryen, as Jaehaerys Targaryen names Viserys (Paddy Considine), his eldest male descendent, rather than Rhaneys (Eve Best), his eldest child, heir. After a brief time-jump, we get the second… but there’s a bit more story to discuss first.

As with any first episode, House of the Dragon’s premiere must take the time to introduce us to its major players. And as with any Game of Thrones property, there are plenty of them. We first meet young Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock), Viserys’ daughter, as she soars above King’s Landing on a dragon and undoubtedly gives the audience Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) flashbacks. Rhaenyra, thankfully, does not burn the city, although she has a good deal of Dany’s rebellious spirit and heart. With Rhaenyra we also meet Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey), her close friend and daughter of the hand of the king, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans). Alicent doesn’t do a ton in this episode, but what she does do—without giving source material spoilers—seems significant.

(Credit: HBO)

We also meet Rhaenyra’s mother and Viserys’ wife, Aemma Arryn (Sian Brooke), who is pregnant (with a boy, she’s convinced). That’s very important, because a boy would secure the matter of Targaryen succession. After a string of infant deaths and stillbirths, Rhaenyra is Viserys’ only child, and unfortunately, the realm has little faith in a woman’s ability to sit the Iron Throne. But even though she has no interest in being queen, she’d certainly be a better ruler than the impulsive, arrogant Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), Viserys’ brother and commander of the city watch. He has a penchant for both excess and violence, and he uses both when he parades through the city with his army and butchers criminals on the eve of the king’s tournament.

Tournament, you say? Yep. A good portion of Dragon’s premiere deals with a King’s Landing tournament Viserys is hosting in honor of his wife’s pregnancy, and his soon-to-be-born heir. Cue the Game of Thrones Season 1 flashbacks! And as in that competition, blood is spilled and familiar names are thrown about—Baratheon, to name one. But as Rhaenyra and Alicent watch Daemon lose to young knight Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) of Dorne, the king is drawn from the celebration and given grave (but predictable, if you’ve seen these types of shows) news. His wife is unlikely to survive childbirth, and he must decide whether it’s worth cutting open her womb in hopes of saving the child, or, as he’s told, “leaving it to the gods.” In the end, Viserys tells the physicians to go through with the procedure… and both his wife and his just-born son die, anyway.

It’s a horrible tragedy for the realm, for Viserys, and for young Rhaenyra, who was close with her mother. As she tells Daemon at the queen’s funeral, even if her father needs her to console him, she’ll “never be a son.” Daemon, on the other hand, is significantly less heartbroken by the news; in celebration, he rents out one of the brothels for himself and his gold cloaks, and he laughs about the king’s “heir for a day.”

(Credit: HBO)

Word of this reaches the grieving Viserys, and enraged, he summons his brother before him as he sits the Iron Throne. He orders Daemon to leave King’s Landing and return to his wife, Rhea (for whom Daemon makes no secret of his dislike), making it clear he is no longer heir to the throne. If he isn’t, then who is?

Rhaenyra, that’s who! After his argument with Daemon, Viserys meets with Rhaenyra and asks her what she sees when she looks at the Targaryen dragons. “I suppose I see us,” she says. “Everyone says Targaryens are closer to gods than to men, but they say that because of our dragons. Without them, we’re just like everyone else.” After stressing to her that the Targaryens do not control their dragons (“They’re a power men should not have trifled with”), he tells her he is naming her his heir… and lets her in on a secret that’ll become relevant in 100-ish years about the brewing darkness beyond the wall. He also gives her a dagger, which some fans might recognize as the same that Arya (Maisie Williams) used to kill the Night King.

After that, the matter of succession is settled. Dressed in resplendent royal finery, Rhaenyra stands before representatives from the great houses as they pledge their loyalty to House Targaryen, and to her. But if Alicent’s expression is any indication, she’s not necessarily pleased to find her best friend coming into power—and her father’s insistence that she go “to comfort” the king while wearing one of her late mother’s dresses feels less friendly and more like moving a chess piece in a game of power. And of course, there’s still Daemon to consider, who soars away from King’s Landing atop his dragon with one of the women from the brothel. The succession might be settled, but trouble’s undoubtedly brewing for House Targaryen… and, as Rhaenyra said in the episode’s initial voice-over, “the only thing that can tear apart the house of the dragon is itself.”

House of the Dragon, Sundays, 9/8c, HBO