Season 1 of House of the Dragon lays the seeds of the Dance of the Dragons. This war of succession between the Greens and the Blacks will last several years.
So. Season 1 of House of the Dragon is finished. All the ingredients needed to sustainably divide the kingdom have been brought together: two factions have now been formed (the Greens and the Blacks), two people claim to be legitimate to succeed King Viserys and there have already been deaths on both sides. ‘other. The Dance of the Dragons is now unstoppable.
The Dance of the Dragons is a poetic formula that designates a civil war that marked Westeros around the year 130 after the Conquest – which marks the arrival of Aegon the Conqueror and his people on the continent, after having fled Essos. This war is caused by a problem of succession between the daughter of Viserys, resulting from a first union, and his son, born from a second marriage.
The sequel contains spoilers.
Officially, Viserys had designated his daughter Rhaenyra (leader of the blacks) as his heiress. Unfortunately for her, Westeros is a conservative kingdom: a woman has never reigned over the Iron Throne and some fear a rebellion of the lords if this succession takes place. Hence the efforts of the other camp, the Greens, to put Aegon II, the son of Alicent, the widow of Viserys, in power.
A three-year-long civil war
But how long will this conflict last? Those who have read Fire and Blood or read online encyclopedias in their entirety already know the answer: This feud in the Targaryen dynasty lasts exactly three years. It begins in the year 129, shortly after the death of Viserys, and ends in the year 131.
The seeds of discord had long been planted, but the spark that ignited everything was death: very soon, each side crowned someone: Rhaenyra for the Blacks, Aegon II for the Greens. All this is shown in season 1 of the series. We also see what can be described as a point of no return, with the death of Lucerys Velaryon, one of Rhaenyra’s sons.
The death of Lucerys Velaryon was of course awaited by the readers (we knew it would happen), but we probably did not imagine that it would happen so soon – it nevertheless constitutes an excellent casus belli and a formidable way to end these first ten episodes. For several episodes, we saw the tragedy looming on the screen.
It is during this Dance of the Dragons that there will be an epic battle between Daemon (uncle and husband of Rhaenyra) and Aemond, son of Alicent (the leader of the Greens), which caused the death of Lucerys. Daemon will say about it ” An eye for an eye, son for son. Lucerys will be avenged “. Lucerys blinded Aemond during a childish quarrel, which remained a heavy dispute.
Of course, the Dance of the Dragons will give rise to many battles and dramatic moments, such as the King’s Landing uprising and the sack of Dragonpit. As you can imagine: there will be a lot of deaths, including dragons, during this period of major instability. We are in the world of George RR Martin, after all.
We’ll leave it up to you to find out who will die and who will survive in future seasons of House of the Dragon, and how the war will end and who will take control of the kingdom. What we can say is that the last conflict of the Dance of the Dragons is named… the battle of the Royal Road. Quite a symbol, given the circumstances.
Season 2 of House of the Dragon should not arrive before 2024, because, in addition to the shooting, there is all the post-production to ensure (editing, audio mixing, special effects, calibration, etc.). Stages that it will be very difficult for HBO to squeeze into a single year for a broadcast at the end of 2023. However, the filming of season 2 will not begin before March.
