Why HBO’s House of the Dragon should be an anthology series

HBO’s upcoming House of the Dragon is a Game of Thrones prequel series based on Fire & Blood, George R. R. Martin’s massive Targaryen history book. Only one volume is out now, but when both are released, Fire & Blood will tell the story of 300 years of Targaryen rule in Westeros, with plenty of adaptable content. Although ordered straight-to-series, the show is still very early in development and many of the details remain unclear.

HBO programming president Casey Bloys has said that the network “look[s] forward to exploring the origins of House Targaryen and the earlier days of Westeros.” The origins of the Targaryen dynasty begin with Daenerys’ ancestor, Aegon the Conqueror, although reports indicate that the series will revolve around the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. Martin wrote a lot about this conflict, which takes place 170 years before the events of Game of Thrones, in the first volume of Fire and Blood. He’s also encouraged readers to pick up copies of Dangerous Women and Rogues, two book that contain stories about the Dance.

With all this evidence, many now assume that the show will indeed be about the Dance o the Dragons, but there are lots of other parts of Targaryen history House of the Dragon could cover. So why not cover all of them?

Anthology series present a different set of stories and characters each season. Shows like Twilight Zone, Black Mirror and American Horror Story are formatted this way. You can also look at a show like Roman Empire, a Netflix docuseries that profiles a different period in Roman history each season. For example, the second season of Roman Empire follows the ascent to power of Julius Caesar, who dealt with conspiracies and plots against him until one finally succeeded in bringing him down.

There’s a lot of potential in this format for House of the Dragon. One season, for instance, could follow the triumph of Aegon and his sisters in conquering Westeros, and look at the difficulty of their rule. Another season could deal with the King Aerys Targaryen’s descent into madness and the resulting rebellion, with Rhaegar Targaryen and Ned Stark among the cast of characters. Let’s sketch out how that might look over time:

• Season 1: Aegon and his sisters conquer Westeros, and then deal with the fallout. There might be enough here for more than one season.
• Season 2: Aegon Targaryen’s sons battle for supremacy, with Maegor the Cruel emerging as the central figure.
• Season 3: We make like The Crown and tell a sprawling tale about the long reign of King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne Targaryen.
• Seasons 4 and 5: The Dance of the Dragons is an epic tale that would take at least two seasons to tell right.
• Season 6: We take a long view again to explore the many Blackfyre Rebellions.
• Season 7: Finally, the series wraps up with the story of Robert’s Rebellion, with characters like Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen finally introduced, albeit as babies.

This idea would be a huge gamble for HBO, but it’s not like the network is unfamiliar with the format. True Detective is an anthology show, which each season tackling a different case where the show followed a new detective case each season.

There are, however, risks to taking this route. Beloved characters from one season wouldn’t return for the next, and it may be too much to ask audiences to keep up with time jumps. However, there’s so much content in Fire & Blood, and so much of it is so interesting, that it almost seems a waste not to make full use of it.

What do you think? Is House of the Dragon better off focusing on one event like the Dance of the Dragons, or should it expand to encompass the entirety of Targaryen rule in Westeros?

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