Just days before the premiere of Season 3 of House of the Dragon on HBO, here’s a recap of Season 2 of the Game of Thrones prequel series.
After A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which will get a season 2, the universe of Game of Thrones imagined by George R.R. Martin will continue to expand with the third season of House of the Dragon, which Ecran Large eagerly awaits like the messiah. This series, led among others by Emma D’Arcy (Rhaenyra), Matt Smith (Daemon), Olivia Cooke (Alicent), Tom Glynn-Carney (Aegon) and Ewan Mitchell (Aemond), focuses on the Dance of the Dragons, a brutal fraternal succession war that led to the extinction of dragons and the fall of House Targaryen about 200 years before the events of the main series.
Season 3 of the series will premiere starting June 22 on HBO Max. It’s therefore the perfect moment to refresh your memory. For reference, we had also done a complete recap of Season 1 of House of the Dragon.
Eye for an Eye
The death of Lucerys (accidentally killed at the end of Season 1 by Aemond) set off a chain reaction in Season 2 of House of the Dragon. Without consulting Rhaenyra, Daemon paid two men nicknamed Blood and Cheese to infiltrate the Red Keep and kill Aemond in retaliation.
But the two assassins couldn’t find the prince, and instead targeted the sole male heir of Aegon and his sister-wife Heleana, on Daemon’s orders (“a son for a son”). The very young Jaehaerys was thus beheaded in his bed, before his horrified mother. On the one hand, this act tarnished the reputations of Rhaenyra and her supporters, but also that of Aegon, who did not hesitate to condemn innocents purely for vengeance.
After the violent murder of little Jaehaerys, Aemond and Criston Cole (who would soon become the new Hand of King Aegon) conspired together to assassinate Rhaenyra, but their plan failed, notably thanks to Mysaria. The former slave and Daemon’s mistress was freed by the Queen of the Blacks and chose to stay by her side, the two becoming very, very close. Moreover, the spy still seeks vengeance against the Hightowers, who burned her brothel in Season 1.
ROOK’S REST
The first dragon-on-dragon battle between the Blacks and the Greens takes place at Rook’s Rest, where the army led by Criston Cole decimates Rhaenyra’s supporters, who then beg him for help. At her own request, Princess Rhaenys arrives with her dragon Meleys, but is ambushed by Aemond and Vhagar, who lie in wait. Frustrated at being sidelined from the battlefield, Aegon also goes there unannounced with his dragon Sunfire. He crosses paths with Vhagar as it attacks Meleys and Rhaenyra; both are killed by the strike.
The Greens win the battle, but the losses are heavy, starting with Aegon who emerges deeply maimed (and impotent). While he lies in a coma, his dragon, in its death throes, perishes off-screen. This episode marks a turning point, as the Small Council refuses to name Alicent as regent and instead elects Aemond, simply because of his gender. The latter goes so far as to eject his mother from the Council and attempts to reinstall Otto as Hand, but Otto leaves King’s Landing. Since then, Alicent’s father has been kept prisoner, by unknown people and in an unknown place.
On the Green side, in response to its defeat at Rook’s Rest, Rhaenyra decides to seek new dragonriders from the Dragon Seeds (a fancy way of referring to the many Targaryen bastards). She finds three: Addam, Ulf, and Hugh, who ride Sea Smoke, Silver Wing, and Vermithor respectively. Her ranks are thus greatly expanded compared to the Greens, who can count only on Aemond and Vhagar, with Heleana refusing to ride Sunfire.
Additionally, Rhaenyra has sent Rhaena and her younger sons (Joffrey and Viserys) to the Vale to stay with their cousin, Jeyne Arryn, taking dragon eggs along (including the three Daenerys eggs from Game of Thrones). Dissatisfied with her role as Lady and substitute mother, unlike her twin sister who is a dragonrider, Daemon and Laena’s daughter sets off alone in search of a wild dragon, which she eventually locates, not knowing whether she will be able to tame it. If she can, it will be another ace for the Blacks.
Alicent’s Risky Plan
Meanwhile, after a first secret meeting with Rhaenyra didn’t go very well, Alicent finally realized she had misread Viserys’s last words and thus had usurped the throne. She heads to Dragonstone to meet her former friend (and daughter-in-law), but she’s told it’s too late to stop the bloodshed. Alicent, who now longs for freedom, suggests taking advantage of Criston Cole’s army’s departure for the Conflant (where Aemond is already) to slip into King’s Landing and sit on the throne, in exchange for her survival, and for Heleana’s and Jaehaera’s safety.
The former queen has promised to open doors and order the guards to lay down their arms to avoid bloodshed, while reluctantly agreeing to sacrifice Aegon for peace. The catch is she doesn’t yet know that Aegon has left King’s Landing with Lord Larys, fearing his brother may finish the job to claim the crown. Aemond himself is troubled by Heleana’s prophetic words predicting his imminent death.
The other stake concerns Rhaenyra’s two youngest sons. While they are escorted by a fleet heading to Pentos, they are expected to cross paths with the Triarchy, the alliance of the Free Cities of Essos that has aligned with the Greens after Tyland Lannister’s diplomatic journey to break Corlys’s maritime blockade in the Narrow Sea. Conflicts are therefore inevitable and imminent.
