6 crucial things to remember before House Of The Dragon returns

It's been two years, people! Here's the refresher you need for season 2.

By Saloni Gajjar | June 10, 2024 | 1:00pm

TV Features Borros Baratheon

6 crucial things to remember before House Of The Dragon returns

Clockwise from bottom left: Ewan Mitchell, Elliot Grihault, Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke, Fabian Frankel, and Matt Smith in House Of The Dragon Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

We’re almost back in Westeros. Twenty months after the season-one finale, House Of The Dragon returns on June 16 with eight new episodes. HBO’s Game Of Thrones spinoff isn’t perfect (here’s what we would change), but it strikes a chord with its epic world-building, fascinating characters, and, of course, way more dragons than the original ever had. Based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood novel, HOTD is set two centuries before GOT and depicts the brutal Targaryen dynasty clash that led to war called The Dance of the Dragons.

The show debuted in 2022 and slowly won over audiences, even those scarred from GOT’s final season, including this writer. With season two almost here, this is your refresher on the key storylines to remember so you’re not constantly running to Wikipedia while watching the series.

1. The tragedy of Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower

The most vital takeaway from season one is how the friendship between Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock/Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey/Olivia Cooke) gradually crumbles to bits. At its core, is about the ramifications of their tragic rivalry. Yes, they hate each other, but what else to expect after they were pawns in the game of the men around them at a young age? They were manipulated, pitted against each other by circumstances, and forced to selfishly act in the interest of their children. It starts a war that’ll inevitably end in devastation, but their history is what forms the series’ emotional soul. The best friends grew up together as the kids of King Viserys (Paddy Considine) and his hand, Ser Otto (Rhys Ifans). To secure his family’s legacy, Otto weds his daughter to Viserys after his wife dies during childbirth. It creates an inevitable rift between her and Rhaenyra, further divided when Alicent gives birth to a son. Naturally, it impacts who’ll sit on the throne after Viserys. Will it be Rhaenyra, as he declared, or will Alicent fight to make her firstborn the next king? These questions are the basis of bloodshed and fights, from Alicent almost slicing her former BFF with a knife in front of the family to their sons battling it out in the open sky (more on that in a different slide).All bets are off for the war in season two even if the two women aren’t in the same place, but Rhaenyra and Alicent are still the beating heart. , showrunner Ryan J. Condal even said that during the editing process, they found a way to “connect those characters even if they’re literally islands apart. It adds dimensionality to this story.” As they say, a friend breakup hurts more than anything, right? It also allows D’Arcy and Cooke to deliver one hell of a performance.

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