Every episode of House of the Dragon season 1, ranked worst to best

6. “Heirs of the Dragon” (Episode 1)

House of the Dragon came out of the gates swinging with its season premiere, “Heirs of the Dragon.” From its opening prologue at the Great Council of 101 AC to Rhaenyra swooping into King’s Landing on her dragon Syrax, it immediately let viewers know we were back in Westeros and should prepare for an epic journey.

This episode is just an all-around solid hour of television, with a razor sharp script that covers a lot of ground without overwhelming us with the sheer enormity of getting to know lots of new characters.

Of course, there was one thing that everyone was talking about after the season premiere, and that was the horrific forced C-section death of Aemma Arryn. Given the choice to let his wife and unborn son die together, or to put her through an excruciating demise in order to try to save the child, King Viserys chooses the latter. It’s an awful moment that previews the kind of high-stakes drama that lay ahead, and it’s executed in an absolutely stunning way. Even having seen it multiple times, it is one of the hardest scenes of the entire season to watch…which it should be.

The episode cross-cuts the birth scene with a joust, which is easily the best onscreen depiction of such an event on either House of the Dragon or Game of Thrones. Those sporting events are a huge part of George R.R. Martin’s worldbuilding, and “Heirs of the Dragon” depicted this one with a level of fidelity it had not previously received.

All in all, “Heirs of the Dragon” is about as solid an opening for the series as we could have hoped for. But it was only a taste of the craziness to come.