House of the Dragon Season 1 Recap: Everything to Know Before Starting Season 2

FIRE AND BLOOD

House of the Dragon takes place nearly two centuries before the events of Game of Thrones. The first season covers about 20-30 years, and it centers around the Targaryen dynasty and its bloody politicking over the Iron Throne.

At this point in Westeros, the Targaryens are at the peak of their power. They’re a royal family of silver-haired dragon-riders who conquered the continent about a century ago. But after decades of peace, their main threat has become… themselves. 

Season 1 kicks off with a council of Westerosi lords assisting the sickly King Jaehaerys Targaryen in selecting a new heir after the tragic death of his son. Though Jaehaerys’s granddaughter Rhaenys has the stronger claim to succession, misogyny wins the day and Jaehaerys’s grandson Viserys becomes king. (Read a full recap.)

KING VISERYS THE PEACEFUL

Nine years later, Viserys faces a similar dilemma. His wife Alyssa has been unable to birth a son, leaving their daughter Rhaenyra as his only heir, again an issue for Westerosi lords. But the next eligible heir would be Viserys’s chaotic, violent brother Daemon.

After Alyssa dies in childbirth and her newborn son shortly after, Viserys desperately names Rhaenyra as heir and forces the Westerosi lords to swear fealty. He also warns Rhaenyra of a secret prophecy — the Song of Ice and Fire — passed on by Aegon the Conqueror, the first Targaryen king of Westeros. It portends untold death and suffering that can only be prevented by a Targaryen on the Iron Throne. (Read a full recap and our post-premiere musings here.)

A GROWING HOUSE

Much of the rest of Season 1 focuses on the budding tensions between Rhaenyra and her childhood friend Alicent Hightower, daughter of Otto Hightower, Hand of the King. Otto craftily orchestrates a marriage between Viserys and the much younger Alicent, which deeply upsets the Velaryons, the longtime, ancestral allies of the Targaryens.

Viserys was supposed to marry Laena Velaryon, daughter of the aforementioned Rhaenys and Corlys Velaryon, Lord of Driftmark, thus strengthening both families as war began breaking out in Corlys’ territory. Instead, Viserys spurns Corlys by marrying Alicent. (Read a full Episode 2 recap, hear Paddy Considine and Olivia Cooke discuss the development between their characters, and see what Eve Best and Steve Toussaint had to say about the king’s spurning of little Laena.)

Meanwhile, Rhaenyra has a very messed-up evening at a brothel with her uncle, Daemon, who gets very close to having sex with his niece before rejecting her. (Read a full Episode 4 recap.) Once back at the Red Keep, she pressures Ser Criston Cole — a lowborn Dornishman member of the Kingsguard — into breaking his oath of chastity with her. Cole wants to restore his honor and marry her, but she refuses and instead offers him an ongoing sexual affair. This enrages Cole and creates a permanent rift between them. (Hear Fabian Frankel, who plays Ser Criston, talk about his “ballsy” character here.)

Eventually, Rhaenyra reluctantly marries Laenor Velaryon as a chance at peace between the two families. (Read a full Episode 5 recap.) And after Daemon murders his wife in the Vale (R.I.P., Lady Rhea!) he marries Laena Velaryon.

SINS OF THE MOTHER

Ten years later, Rhaenyra has had three sons with Laenor, but the boys share no resemblance to their supposed father. It’s an open secret that they’re actually the children of Ser Harwin Strong, eldest son of Lyonel Strong, who replaced Otto as Hand of the King after Viserys tired of his manipulations. (More on that in the Episode 6 recap.) Harwin’s younger brother, Larys, has become a close confidant of Alicent’s and even has his own father and brother murdered by fire at their castle in Harrenhal, though not with Alicent’s approval.

The whole situation only deepens the animosity between Alicent and Rhaenyra, as it’s clear that the Hightowers intend to place Aegon, Alicent’s eldest son, on the Iron Throne upon Viserys’s death. Alicent is more hesitant about this scheme than her father, who returns as Hand upon Lyonel’s death. But she also fears that Rhaenyra has every reason to murder Aegon and her other children out of self-preservation, especially when Laenor suspiciously dies* not long after the death of Laena. Now widowed, Rhaenyra and Daemon marry, against Viserys’s wishes. (Read a full Episode 7 recap.)

Alicent and Rhaenyra’s sons are also growing hostile toward one another, with Aemond (Alicent’s second son) stealing the late Rhaena’s dragon, Vhagar (the largest dragon in the world), who was intended to be passed down to her daughter. Aemond fights with Rhaenyra’s two oldest sons Jace and Luke over the incident, and Luke slices Aemond’s left eye with a knife.

*But actually sneaks away to Pentos with his lover, Ser Quarl.

PRELUDE TO WAR

Six more years pass and Viserys is in his final days due to leprosy. Rhaenyra and Daemon have now had two sons of their own, and Alicent’s son Aegon and daughter Helaena (who seems to have prophetic powers) have married and have a son and daughter. Aemond, meanwhile, has become a fearsome warrior thanks to his training with Criston. At this point, it’s clear that Alicent and Rhaenyra want to reconcile, but it’s too late. Their sons are poisoned against one another. 

After Corlys suffers a life-threatening injury, his brother Vaemond fears that Luke will inherit Driftmark, despite not having any Velaryon blood. To solve this issue without exposing Luke as the illegitimate son of Harwin, Rhaenyra proposes that both Luke and Jace marry Rhaena and Baela (Daemon’s Velaryon daughters). Vaemond refuses this arrangement and calls Jace and Luke bastards to Viserys’s face, so Daemon beheads him. (More on that here.)

THE GREENS AND THE BLACKS

On Viserys’s deathbed, he describes the Aegon prophecy to Alicent, and she mistakenly assumes he wants to name Aegon as heir over Rhaenyra, when he was really referring to Aegon the Conqueror. This misunderstanding is more than enough for Alicent to go along with Otto and much of the rest of the small council’s attempted coup, though she and her father deeply disagree on how to make it happen. Alicent wants to give Rhaenyra a chance at peace, while Otto wants to assassinate her. (Read a full Episode 8 recap.)

Ultimately, Alicent beats her father at his own game. She orders the death of Mysaria, the White Worm and Daemon’s old lover, who assisted Otto in finding Aegon before Alicent could. Alicent also names Criston as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard (the previous one, Ser Harrold Westerling, defected after refusing to murder Rhaenyra). Finally, Aegon is crowned king, first reluctantly but then relishing the position once praised by the smallfolk. Aemond, however, shows resentment over his brother’s coronation.

FIRST BLOOD

Rhaenys escapes King’s Landing with her dragon, and Ser Erryk Cargyll of the Kingsguard leaves as well to join Rhaenyra’s side, while his identical twin, Ser Arryk, stays behind to support Aegon. Rhaenys and Erryk inform Rhaenyra of the situation, and the Velaryons pledge fealty to the “Blacks,” a reference to the Targaryen sigil, while the Aegon faction is noted as the “Greens” as reference to the Hightowers. (Read a full Episode 9 recap here.)

Rhaenyra still wants to avoid bloodshed, but Daemon pushes her to shore up alliances just in case. Jace convinces her to send him to Winterfell and Luke to Storm’s End to remind these lords of their oaths to Rhaenyra. But when Luke arrives to petition Borros Baratheon, he finds that Aemond has beat him to it with a marriage proposal to Borros’s daughter.

Luke initially avoids confrontation, but Aemond chases him with Vhagar and inadvertently causes Luke’s death, ensuring all-out war. (Read a full finale recap, hear what Emma D’Arcy and showrunner Ryan Condal have to say about Rhaenyra’s terrible loss at the end of Season 1, then see how the Greens and Blacks match up for the big war ahead.)

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