House of the Dragon, HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel, is finally here

Editor’s note, June 17, 2024: This story was published in 2022 as part of our coverage of the first season of House of the Dragon; you can read a recap of season one here.

House of the Dragon, the long-awaited prequel to Game of Thrones, is finally here, and you know what that means: It’s time for a refresher course on the Targaryens — the family that ruled for three centuries over all of Westeros. Thanks to one talented fanartist, we have a gorgeous family tree to help you figure out what’s happening and who’s who.

Editor’s note, June 17, 2024: This piece explains the backstory of the Greens and Blacks in the split of House Targaryen. It was published in 2022 as part of our coverage of the first season of House of the Dragon. For a more general rundown of the Game of Thrones prequel, check out this refresher.

So far, House of the Dragon has taught us that among the Targaryens, family is always political and sex is always political. In this week’s episode, “We Light the Way,” we learned that fashion is also always political.

Editor’s note, June 17, 2024: This story was first published in 2016 and updated following the season seven finale of Game of Thrones. Click here to read about how the Targaryen family tree relates to HBO’s prequel series House of the Dragon, and get caught up for its second season here. Also, Maryon is no longer active on DeviantART, but you can follow her on Instagram, where she has shared excerpts from the tree.

In Game of Thrones’ season seven finale, Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen finally consummated their slow-burning passion — even though the season six finale’s confirmation of the “R + L = J” equation surrounding Jon’s parentage renders their love an incestuous one between aunt and nephew.

This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon episode 10, “The Black Queen.”

So at last it comes to this: House of the Dragon’s gradual procession toward conflict finally results in open civil war with the season finale. “The Black Queen” sees Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) learning about her father’s death and then having to make the decision to fight for the throne while battling through a horrible premature labor triggered by her shock at the news. Yet, like Alicent before her, her wishes about whether to head directly into violence are completely overridden by all of the men around her.

We’re back in Westeros this week for yet another episode of Succession With Dragons, this time with no dragons but plenty of face-slicing, missing eyes, and epic misunderstandings.

Note: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon, episode eight, “Lord of the Tides.”

All season long on House of the Dragon, we’ve watched the adults of the Targaryen clan slowly circle into two factions — the Greens, led by Alicent, and what will eventually become the Blacks, led by Rhaenyra. We only just met their children properly in the previous episode, halfway through the season — but in this episode, “Driftmark,” the younger generation abruptly takes center stage.

This episode gives us a pivotal moment in our build-up to what already feels like an inevitable civil war — and one twist involving a fake-out and a surprising fate for one minor character. But it also gives us a major shift from focusing on Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke) to focusing on their children, the ones who will inevitably have to carry out the conflict they’ve each so far skirted around. “Driftmark” shows us a court that’s become so completely entrenched in its own in-fighting, distrust, and paranoia that a single spark could ignite the powder keg.

Prior to the debut of House of the Dragon, co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik told the Hollywood Reporter that the season would feature a number of childbirth scenes — all of which the creative team approached like “battles.”

By the time we reach episode six, “The Princess and the Queen,” said princess and said queen have each given birth at least three times. According to the show’s logic, then, Rhaenyra and Alicent are both war veterans.

House of the Dragon’s fourth episode dives headlong into the quagmire of sexual politics that thus far have haunted the series but remained largely offscreen and subtextual. “King of the Narrow Sea” yanks Rhaenyra out into the gritty city, and yanks all of us into a confrontation with age and consent issues, power dynamics, and, of course, incest.

In short, a whole lot of sex gets had, but it’s difficult to call much of it fully consensual. If the show thus far has been Succession with dragons, we might say this episode was a touch Euphoria and a touch, er, Game of Thrones.

House of the Dragon understands perhaps even better than its predecessor that the pleasures of a good family drama come not from the explosive moments but from watching small slights and hurts deepen into unshakeable rifts over time, until the explosive moments are cathartic. Thus the show’s third episode, “Second of His Name,” spends most of its time treating the Targaryen clan less like the royal family of Westeros and more like a clan of squabbling Kardashians.

Note: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon, “Second of His Name.”

Throughout “The Rogue Prince,” the second episode of House of the Dragon, the writers are showing us their hand — and it’s not the one holding the dragon egg.

Note: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon, “The Rogue Prince.”

Won’t someone think of the dragons?

Note: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon, “The Rogue Prince.”

The creators of House of the Dragon, HBO’s highly anticipated new Game of Thrones prequel, raised plenty of eyebrows and sowed plenty of confusion when they tried to prepare viewers for how the show would deal with, well, women.

In an interview in July with the Hollywood Reporter, showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik warned that while the show would step back from the graphic onscreen depictions of rape that frequently alienated many fans of its predecessor, it would continue to depict other forms of brutalization against women. In particular, Sapochnik mentioned, childbirth and its inherent brutality would be a major focus of the show’s first season.

The first official Game of Thrones spinoff series is finally happening: House of the Dragon, a story exploring the rise of the Targaryen dynasty and set 300 years before the events of Thrones, will receive an initial 10-episode run at HBO. The prequel is the first of HBO’s original five pitched spinoffs to make it through to a confirmed series order.

The show doesn’t have a premiere date, but HBO president Casey Bloys told TV Line in January that a 2022 launch date seemed likely.

HBO’s forthcoming Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon, will explore the complicated dynasty of the Targaryens, the once-mighty clan whose dragons propelled their rise to power — but whose love of fire helped stoke their eventual ruin.

The new 10-episode series will take place approximately 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones and will follow the events surrounding Aegon I Targaryen’s conquest of the Seven Kingdoms. Don’t know who Aegon I is? Not to worry: This ultimate Targaryen family tree — created by a fan of both Game of Thrones and the novel series they’re based on, George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire — will help prep you for the history lesson to come.