The second season of House of the Dragon is now off and running. In the first two episodes, the Greens and the Blacks stabbed back and forth at each other using assassins and subterfuge. To get revenge for the death of his step-son Lucerys Velaryon, Daemon Targaryen sent a couple of guys into the Red Keep in an attempt to take out his nephew Aemond Targaryen; instead, they killed the young Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen, King Aegon's heir to the throne. To get revenge for that, Ser Criston Cole sent Ser Arryk Cargyll of the Kingsguard to Dragonstone to try and kill Queen Rhaenyra, but Ser Arryk ended up fighting his twin brother Ser Erryk Cargyll to the death.
The time for knives in the dark is over! In the trailer for this Sundays new episode, both sides are stepping up their games. Watch below:
We're going to break down this trailer shot by shot. We start with a panoramic view of King's Landing, the home base of King Aegon and his Greens:
"Soon they will not even remember what it was that began the war in the first place," Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) tells Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy). "When the desire to kill and burn takes hold, reason is forgotten." In the first season, Rhaenys was often the one giving cool-headed advice to Rhaenyra, who faces pressure to ramp up the war to the point where thousands of people are in danger. Loooks like she's still doing it:
While Rhaenys talks, we see shots of two groups of people wearing different colored clothes confronting each other in an open field. These are members of the Blackwood and Bracken families, two noble houses in the Riverlands.
The Blackwoods and Brackens have a long-standing feud. Now that all the noble houses in the Seven Kingdoms are under pressure to swear allegiance to either Queen Rhaenyra or King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), it's an excuse for that feud to turn violent. In Fire & Blood, the Blackwoods declare for Rhaenyra and the Brackens for Aegon. They fight in the Battle of the Burning Mill, which is the first battle of the war. That's probably what we're looking at here. Or at least, we're looking at the lead-up to it.
The Blackwoods and the Brackens have intermarried over the years, so they share a lot of blood. That doesn't prevent them from fighting, though. Nor did it prevent twin brothers Arryk and Erryk Cargyll (Luke and Elliot Tittensor) from fighting and dying in the last episode. Whatever their differences, it looks like Rhaenyra has them buried in the same grave:
We also see a couple shots of Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), Aegon's new Hand of the King. So long as he's fighting Rhaenyra, he's willing to do just about anything. In the trailer, we see him open a box and look inside. What might he see?
Meanwhile, you'll recall that Rhaenyra's husband Daemon (Matt Smith) left Dragonstone last episode after a nasty spat with his wife. It wasn't clear where he was going, but those who have read George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood know he heads to Harrenhal, where he sets up a military toehold in Rhaenyra's name. Looks like he'll arrive at the castle at night aboard his dragon Caraxes:
In the book, Daemon has no problem taking Harrenhal, even though it's held by House Strong, who are loyal to King Aegon. Bringing a dragon along helps convince anyone thinking of resisting to think twice.
We also get a quick shot of Rhaenyra's son Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett), who's currently grounded on orders from his mother, who fears losing another son. But how long will Rhaenyra be able to keep him off his dragon Vermax? If you had a dragon, wouldn't you want to ride it even if your mom told you no?
The Greens finally go "to war"
Back in King's Landing, King Aegon's Small Council finally decides to get serious about fighting Rhaenyra. "We cannot hide in our castle waiting for war to come to us," we hear Criston Cole say over a shot of the Red Keep, hung with Aegon's green-and-gold dragon banner:
The Small Council is in session. We've got Aegon's brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell)...
...his mother Alicent (Olivia Cooke)...
...and Aegon himself, who is clearly eager to put the hurt on the Blacks after the murder of his young son. "Good. To war, then," he says cheerfully.
Next we get a shot of soldiers marching out the gate of King's Landing. This shot looks like another angle of the first shot that began the trailer. The Green army is on the loose! Most likely they're reading to the castle of Rook's Rest, currently loyal to Rhaenyra, to try and flip it for Aegon. But we won't see how that goes until the fourth episode.
Tensions are running high back on Dragonstone, where we hear Rhaenyra take stock of her problems. "Alicent is in King's Landing. Her son sits my throne."
I like this next shot of Aegon looking at himself in the mirror. Aegon was king for all of a week before his son was brutally killed. You get the idea that he wants to do a good job, and he definitely wants revenge, but he's hopelessly out of his depth. He may be thinking, "What in the hell have I gotten myself into?"
Alicent, as ever, finds comfort in the sept, where she likes to go and light candles for the dead. She has a grandchild to add to the list now:
Back at Harrenhal, Daemon stomps through the extremely moody halls of the castle:
"There has been no word from Prince Daemon," someone says. Again, Daemon is definitely going to Harrenhal, and unless the show breaks from the book in some huge way, he's going to subdue the Riverlords on Rhaenyra's behalf, but apparently he's not talking to Rhaenyra after their fight.
Harrenhal looks awfully dark and spooky, doesn't it? Listening to some of the producers, you'd think it was literally haunted. I'm curious to see what they do with this storyline.
Unleash the dragons
Back with Rhaenyra on Dragonstone, we hear someone I think is her advisor Ser Alfred Broome (Jamie Kenna) argue that they now "must press what advantage we do have." "And what is that?" someone asks. "Dragons," Broome replies.
Yes, we've arrived at the dragon portion of House of the Dragon. Up until now, they haven't actually been used in war against each other, but it looks like that's changing.
But before we get a good look at the beasts, we get this cool shot of Rhaenyra's step-daughters Baela (Bethany Antonia) and Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) together with Rhaenyra and Jace as a dragonkeeper shows them a box of dragon eggs. Dragonstone is a natural breeding ground for dragons.
Here's a good shot of Rhaenyra with her Black Council, including Ser Aflred Broome, Rhaenys Targaryen, her Kingsguard knight Ser Lorent Marbrand (Max Wrottesley), and a bunch of other people:
Next up, we get our first look at Baela Targaryen riding her dragon Moondancer through the sky:
The shots come faster as Rhaenyra warns against the danger of releasing these flying nuclear weapons on each other. "If dragons begin fighting dragons, we invite our own destruction," she says. But folks like Aegon are far too mad to listen to advice like that. Here he is stabbing a table during a Small Council meeting. That's good wood, Aegon! Don't stratch it!
We get a nice shot-reverse-shot of Rheanyrs Targaryen with her husband Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint). They currently hold the title for Most Functional Couple in Westeros, which probably doesn't bode well for them.
We flit back to Harrenhal for a second to watch a guard oblivious to the fact that Daemon is about to take the place from atop his dragon Meraxes. Get behind a wall, random guard!
I am always partial to shots of King Aegon looking angry. Here he pounds back some wine before embarking on his military campaign. You can tell he's going to wear because he's decked out in armor:
And here we have some horses galloping through a forest. There's a big battle scene coming up in the show's fourth episode, but it looks like we'll get a little action this week, too.
Rhaenyra gives us one more icy stare for the road:
Daemon opens some hefty doors, I imagine inside Harrenhal:
And we end with Baela hauling ass through the sky on Moondancer:
This rider's eye view from Moondancer's back is fun:
So the dragons will finally come out to play in House of the Dragon Episode 203. Rhaenys fears that "It will be savage beyond all compare," but as a viewer, I'm pretty eager to see it.
New episodes of House of the Dragon air on Sunday nights on HBO and Max.
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