House of the Dragon season 2, episode 1 is full of important little details, Easter eggs, and foreshadowing of things to come. After almost two years away, the Game of Thrones prequel wasted little time in establishing the stakes for the new season.
There’s political scheming, machinations a-plenty, sordid affairs, and the not-so-small matter of a child being murdered.
10Alyn of Hull Makes His Debut
Among the new characters in House of the Dragon season 2 is Alyn of Hull, a loyal retainer to Corlys Velaryon. Alyn is one of two brothers—the other called Addam, who will also appear in season 2 and hails from Fire & Blood.
Indeed, there are conflicting accounts over their true parentage in the books. According to their mother, they are bastard sons of Laenor Velaryon—considered dubious since he was gay. Other accounts say they are actually Corlys bastards.
Another interesting fact is that Alyn has a bald head in the series, as opposed to classic Valyrian locks in the book.
Finally, there is an explicit reference on Alyn’s part to the loss of Lucerys Velaryon as Corlys’ heir to Driftmark. By the end, Alyn is legitimized and becomes Lord of the Tides in the book.
9Torrhen Stark & Aegon’s Conquest: House Of The Dragon References The King Who Knelt.
Cregan refers to Torrhen Stark when talking about the house’s tradition of sending new recruits to the Night’s Watch and, again, when talking to Jace.
He stood at a very central position in the family tree of the Starks since he was the last King in the North, reigning for almost 300 years until the time of Robb Stark.
Realizing there was no chance to defeat him and his dragons, Torrhen bent the knee to Aegon the Conqueror and became known as the King Who Knelt. That story should be seen in Game of Thrones’ Aegon’s Conquest spinoff if it comes out.
8Cregan Stark’s “Duty Is Sacrifice” Line has a important Game of Thrones Connection
The premiere episode of “House of the Dragon” season 2 gives Cregan some wise words:
“Duty is sacrifice. It is more powerful than everything, including blood. All men of honor must pay its price.”
This quote is a double callback: the first is that the lines echo what Alicent Hightower says to Rhaenyra, in House of the Dragon season 1, episode 7: “Where is duty? Where is sacrifice? It’s trampled under your pretty foot again”.
Even more fittingly, given the location, it also reverses words spoken by Maester Aemon to Jon Snow, which Jon repeated in Game of Thrones’ ending: “Love is the death of duty.” The two men, however, are speaking of the same thing: the cost of duty, the difficulty of it, and make it a lovely way to introduce Cregan and take the viewer back up to the Wall.
7Aemond Says “Words Are Wind”
Words are wind,” Aemond Targaryen says in the season 2 premiere. If anything, this is a very common, classic George R.R. Martin phrase, notwithstanding that its origins seem to come from William Shakespeare’s A Comedy of Errors, which literally means actions speak louder than words.
Citing it, Martin seemed to have grown incredibly fond of this saying when writing A Dance with Dragons; he used it over a dozen times, but he always referred to the spoken word, never the written.
That’s especially appropriate when circling back to House of the Dragon, in which so many words are spoken that give rise to misunderstandings, and vows have been frequently broken. Indeed, words are wind.
6Lord Dalton Greyjoy Is Mentioned: The Ironborn are Here
The proposition that would make Dalton Greyjoy their new master of ships, in aid of defeating the Velaryons, would induct another of Game of Thrones’ Great Houses into the prequel’s story, who had missed season 1. He doesn’t have a massive role in the civil war but will eventually play his part—except he declares for Team Black, not Team Green.
Of all the ironborn, Dalton was a particularly viscous and bloodthirsty one, but incredibly skilled. He became known as the Red Kraken from a battle at age 15 he took revenge in for the death of his uncle, where he came out victorious and slathered in blood.
5“Winter is Coming”
Goosebumps. Sheer Goosebumps.
Of course, it wouldn’t feel right to have the Starks appear and not hear their house words. Cregan states that “Winter is coming,” but is sure to note that it’s not here yet.
It’s still just late Summer in Westeros after all, even though the snow is falling around them at the Wall. All the same, there’s something oddly comforting about hearing a Stark say those words again after several years.
4The White Walkers are Referenced At The Wall
“Death” is what the Wall was built about thousands of years ago, says Cregan to Jacaerys. Yeah, that means the White Walkers in that.
White Walkers are not part of House of the Dragon’s story, but it’s impossible not to imagine them when down there, sitting just past the Wall, in the further parts of the North, right near the edge of the map, in the Lands of Always Winter.
It’s also a reminder of Aegon’s dream from A Song of Ice and Fire, by which their coming had been prophesied and is a key motivating factor (knowingly or not) in the Dance of the Dragons.
3The New House of The Dragons Opening Title Seuquence
Season 2 opens with some new opening credits as the tapestry is weaved using blood, including shots of several major events for the Targaryen family thus far, such as the schism between Blacks and Greens with both Rhaenyra and Aegon ruling the kingdom from their respective thrones.
It would appear that some of the significant events that can be viewed in the current form are as follows:
- Daenys’s dream, after which the Targaryens moved to Dragonstone.
- The Doom of Valyria.
- Several key moments from Aegon’s Conquest:
- Aegon, Visenya & Rhaenys’ landing in Westeros on Balerion, Vhagar and Meraxes
- King Harren the Black and burning of Harrenhal
- Members of houses Stark, Arryn and Tully bending the knee to Aegon.
- The sigil of House Targaryen, Aegon, now rules the Seven Kingdoms.
- Maegor the Cruel dying on the Iron Throne
- It is King Jaehaerys I & Alysanne Targaryen ruling Westeros, and the Great Council of 101 AC.
- Alicent Hightower in her green dress at Rhaenyra & Laenor’s wedding.
- The Greens & the Blacks splitting, with Aegon II and Rhaenyra crowned.
- Aemond Targaryen and Vhagar kill Lucerys Velaryon and Arrax, as seen in House of the Dragon season 1 ending.
2Episode 1 introduces one major family: The Starks.
Specifically, the beginning of this week’s episode finds Jacerys come to the Wall, seen here in all its familiar glory as he asks Cregan Stark for his support in the coming war.
Not only does he pledge his greybeards, but he also warns Jace about a familiar foe on the way.
“Winter is coming,” Cregan tells him, as he says his ancestors built the wall to keep out “death”, or as Thrones fans will know, White Walkers.
1There Were Big Blood & Cheese Clues Earlier In The Episode
House of the Dragon season 2, episode 1’s ending sees Blood and Cheese sneak into the Red Keep and murder Prince Jaehaerys. The Mother of the prophecy is initially narrated as an event from the book, with some changes.
However, though it worked as a crudely funny reference, Cheese’s particular line regarding the knowledge of the Red Keep was better than that of his own c**k, is taken directly from book testimony by Mushroom.
Interestingly, though, there were two clues to Blood and Cheese earlier in the episode. When Aegon is looking to take Jaehaerys to the Small Council, Helaena says that she is afraid of the rats. Aegon and the others are confused, but Helaena does often seem to have prophetic visions of some kind, and so apparently knew something bad involving rats was coming.
She did the same thing in season 1, when she spoke of “the beast beneath the boards,” a reference to Rhaenys, and occurring in the Dragonpit, but it suits Blood and Cheese too.
It laid more groundwork shortly after this by actually showing Cheese laying rat traps in the Red Keep, his dog by his side.
The camera sat on him just long enough to see him but even then few might have predicted just what cruelty he’d inflict later in House of the Dragon season 2’s premiere.
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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