The first episode of House of the Dragon is finally here and there are so many questions we need answers to. The episode ended by opening up quite a few avenues and also hinted at some major problems that our new heir, Rhaenyra is about to face.
Episode 1 ended with King Viserys naming Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen as his heir, naming her to become the first ever Queen to sit on the Iron Throne. While the ending is pretty straightforward and self-explanatory, I think it had quite a few important implications.
Throughout the episode, we see King Viserys I Targaryen worried about who will succeed him, as he has no male heir. His only child, Rhaenyra is a girl and no woman has ever sat on the Iron Throne. The only other heir Viserys has is his brother, Daemon Targaryen.
Daemon is depicted as ruthless and dark, with not much love or concern for his brother. After Viserys hears about his brother celebrating the death of his wife and newborn child, he decides to name a new heir and asks Daemon to leave King’s Landing.
The episode ends with two significant moments: King Viserys naming his daughter, Princess Rhaenyra as his new heir and Daemon Targaryen flying off King’s Landing on a dragon after Viserys asks him to leave.
As we saw in the episode, most of Viserys’ subjects remained unwilling towards naming Rhaenyra the heir simply because she was a woman. The ending implies that the way to the Iron Throne will not be easy for Rhaenyra in any way.
She will very likely face opposition from her uncle, Daemon Targaryen. Although he left at the end of the episode, he will surely return when time comes. Rhaenys Targaryen, Viserys’ sister and Rhaenyra’s aunt who lost the throne to his brother 7 years ago will also not be pleased with the King’s decision.
Rhaenys already has a male heir and was denied the throne for being a woman. She will surely not take it nicely if her niece gets to have the throne despite being a woman, when she was denied the same for her gender.
Rhaenyra will also face opposition from the various lords of Westeros, who will have their problems with a Queen ruling over them. If you ask me, I am waiting for a Lannister.
So, the ending of episode 1 sets us up for an interesting journey through succession politics, only with lots of dragons. The episode also hints at a lot of sex and violence, just like Game of Thrones. Also, we can expect incest since Targaryens were known for that stuff and we saw how Daemon looked at Rhaenyra in the episode.
Let’s see what is in store for us in subsequent episodes. So far, so good.
About House Of The Dragon
House of the Dragon is the prequel series to HBO’s blockbuster Game of Thrones based on George R. R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood.
Set three hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon will show Westeros under the Targaryen family’s rule before the dragons went extinct. It will follow the Dance of the Dragons, the Targaryen civil war between siblings Aegon II and Rhaenyra, who fought for the throne after the death of their father, Viserys I.
Directed by Ryan Condall and Miguel Sapochnik, the show stars Paddy Considine as Viserys I Targaryen, Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen, Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen, Tom Glynn-Craney as Aegon II Targaryen, Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, Steve Toussaint as Corlys Velaryon, Eve Best as Rhaenys Velaryon, Sonoya Mizuno as Mysaria, Fabien Frankel as Criston Cole, and Graham McTavish.
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