Game of Thrones created sensational drama, for most part anyway. Its later seasons sure brought down the quality to a level which, well, I would rather not talk about. So I like to think Game of Thrones ended with Season 6. But enough about the famed show, lets talk prequels. And oh boy are they coming.
The first prequel, the official one which is finally in works is ‘House of the Dragon’. This basically revolves around the Targaryen reign over the Seven Kingdoms. It is supposed to have at least 6 times more dragons than Game of Thrones, because well, its the Targaryen Family we are talking about. But what does the plot of House of The Dragon actually have in store of us. Lets explain the lore shall we.
Viserys Targaryen and His Plight
So the season 1 of House of The Dragon is set to stream sometime in 2022. Diving into the story of House of The Dragon from the books of George R. R. Martin, the story revolves around Viserys Targaryen and his lack of Heirs to the throne. Viserys is the ruler of the seven kingdoms and the person who sits on the Iron throne. His queen is the light and shine of Arryn family, Aemma Arryn. However Aemma isn’t fertile to bear any son for Viserys, and so there aren’t any successors to the Iron Throne. This tortures Viserys to the core, and taking advantage of the situation, Daemon Targaryen, his brother, considered himself to be the rightful heir of the iron throne. This wasn’t an issue of Hatred or Falling out because Viserys did love his brother.
But he was unhappy about having Viserys be the successor of the throne and wanted someone who was legitimate and a part of himself. Viserys did try to make amends for not making Daemon the heir by giving him a seat in the small council, and later on, making him the Lord Commander of City Watch. Both of these decisions didn’t sit particularly well with the hand of the king, Otto Hightower. Otto wasn’t fond of Daemon and vice versa was also true. Otto always thought that Daemon was just taking advantage of the fact that Viserys didn’t have any heir so if anything were to happen to Viserys, Daemon would become the first choice for a living male heir to the throne.
Rhaenyra Targaryen is the Rightful Heir to the Throne
Viserys had a long conversation with Otto regarding this Taxing issue and so Otto went on to suggest that he should make his daughter Rhaenyra Targaryen the heir to the Iron Throne. However, the king was still stern in his hope to achieve a son, and what do you know, it happened. Aemma Arryn gave birth to a boy, only, she died during the childbirth and then to add even more grief, her son died the next day. Viserys became all the more sad and infuriated by the whole situation and he couldn’t bare the grief anymore.
So in a flux, he made his daughter Rhaenyra the heir to the throne. And obviously, this didn’t sit well with Daemon Targaryen. His hopes of becoming the next ruler were crushed in an instant. There is also the lore of how he made fun of Viserys’s son’s death, which infuriated the King and made him banish Daemon. However, it had never occurred to Viserys that he can still have a heir with another queen.
The death of Aemma Arryn opened up an opportunity for him to marry another woman and have sons with her. And then he took this plan further and married the beautiful and fertile Alicent Hightower. She was the daughter of Viserys’s hand, Otto Hightower. They married and bred two sons and even a daughter. Daemon, who was now away from the King’s Landing, became very infuriated when he learnt about this entire affair. Viserys Targaryen had three children with Alicent, Aegon, Aemond and Helaena.
Birth of Aegon Targaryen
Now the bonding between Alicent and Rhaenyra were strong before, but as Alicent had children, Rhaenyra started to fear for her position as the next heir. Alicent too wanted her Son to be the heir of the Iron Throne and hence both of them became sworn rivals. It soon turned into a cold war between the two ladies. Viserys however was on the side of Rhaenyra and had changed his mind about wanting a son to be the heir.
He had realized that Rhaenyra would be the perfect fit for the throne and since he had already mentioned all of this in his will, he was sure that Rhaenyra would become the next ruler of the seven kingdoms. But his death changed the balance of things forever. The budding rivalry between Alicent and Rhaenyra became more and more bloody, and it slowly turned into a fire and blood affair.
The Movie Culture Synopsis
There’s an entire lore ahead of this which would take days to explain but we are certain that most of the events in the season 1 would revolve around these politics as Viserys is supposed to be the lead of the show. House of The Dragons has a lot of potential to nail the political charm that fans have come to adore. Lets just hope the writers pay actual attention to detail and take their time exploring the stories and the lore, rather than provide us with botched up mess like Dan and David did with Season 8 of Game of Thrones
Also don’t forget to check our Character Sketch of Tyrion Lannister.
