The first season of HBO's Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon spanned decades as it caught us up with the various members of House Targaryen. Set around 180 years before the original series, House of the Dragon is a winding tale that depicts a brutal civl war known as the Dance of the Dragons, where rival branches of the Targaryen family tore the realm asunder over who should sit the Iron Throne.
From an adaptation perspective, part of what makes House of the Dragon so interesting is its unusual source material. The show is based on Fire & Blood, a "fake history" novel by George R.R. Martin which recounts the first 150 years of House Targaryen's rule over Westeros. The last third or so of that book is about the Dance of the Dragons; the rest is about all the Targaryens who came before. Unlike a normal novel, Fire & Blood is told from the point of view of a maester who is sifting through various first-hand accounts and historical records. Sometimes these accounts conflict, and they almost always reflect the biases of the person who recorded them. Often they paint in broad strokes, recounting events with something of a bird's eye view, since no one who lived during the time is around to actually tell our intrepid maester the details.
As such, House of the Dragon has a lot of room to fill in the blanks. Season 1 did this in spades, from the fate of Laenor Velaryon to the reasoning behind Alicent Hightower's power play to crown her son Aegon at the Green Council. The series covered a lot of ground by utilizing numerous time jumps, dipping in and out of events to highlight the most important bits of history for the story. Yet despite the years that passed during House of the Dragon season 1, it only dramatized a small amount of Fire & Blood — less than 100 pages, which is roughly the same amount as Game of Thrones often covered in a single episode or two.
With season 2 upon us, we're going to do our best to predict exactly how much of Fire & Blood we'll see in the season ahead. There will be MAJOR SPOILERS for Fire & Blood below, so proceed with caution.
How many pages of Fire & Blood did House of the Dragon season 1 cover?
Let's start with House of the Dragon season 1 to establish a baseline. For our purposes, we'll be referring to the trade paperback version of Fire & Blood; the exact page count will vary if you have a different edition.
House of the Dragon season 1 kicks off with the Great Council of 101 AC, where old King Jaehaerys assembles the lords of Westeros to elect his successor, since he outlived all of his sons. It's there that Viserys Targaryen is named heir to the Iron Throne, which is how the television series kicks off.
The Great Council of 101 AC starts on page 345 of Fire & Blood, during a chapter called "Heirs of the Dragon—A Question of Succession." From there, the story moves swiftly along, detailing how Viserys takes over for Jaehaerys, how Alicent Hightower becomes entrenched in the Red Keep, and how enmity grows between her and Viserys' chosen heir, his daughter Rhaenyra. House of the Dragon season 1 ends around 20 years later, with Viserys' son Aemond Targaryen killing his nephew Lucerys Velaryon and kicking off a civil war between two rival branches of the Targaryen family. In time, this war will become known as the Dance of the Dragons.
Luke's death happens on page 422, in the middle of a chapter called "The Dying of the Dragons—A Son for a Son." Incidentally, "A Son for a Son" is the title of the season 2 premiere; we expect that it will cover the remainder of the chapter, including a horrific event perpetrated by two mercenaries known as Blood and Cheese.
This means that overall, House of the Dragon season 1 covers roughly 77 pages of Fire & Blood, or around two-and-a-half chapters. The vast majority of that material is in the "Question of Succession" chapter, which covers the entire reign of King Viserys I Targaryen and ends with his death. House of the Dragon season 1 is mostly drawn from that one long chapter up until its final two episodes, which draw from the following two chapters, "The Blacks and the Greens" and "A Son for a Son."
How many pages of Fire & Blood will House of the Dragon season 2 cover?
That brings us to House of the Dragon season 2. While we know that the Blood and Cheese incident is coming right near the beginning of the season, the "A Son for a Son" chapter also covers Jacaerys Velaryon's journey to Winterfell and the Eyrie, as well as Daemon Targaryen's capture of Harrenhal. Those events happen at the same time as Luke's death, but are discussed first in Fire & Blood, before the focus shifts to the clash between Arrax and Vhagar over Storm's End.
Daemon's journey to Harrenhal starts on page 412, right at the beginning of the chapter. That's the earliest material we know for sure will be included in House of the Dragon season 2, so we're going to begin our page count there.
We don't know for certain where House of the Dragon season 2 will end, but my best guess is that it will either be with a naval battle called the Battle of the Gullet, or with Rhaenyra Targaryen taking King's Landing back from the Greens. These events happen only a few pages apart in the book, though weeks pass in between in real time. Between the Gullet and Rhaenyra's victory in King's Landing, there a number of other smaller events — such as an attempt on the life of King Aegon's dragon Sunfyre and his younger brother Aemond leading an army to Harrenhal — which could easily fit into either season 2 or 3, depending on how the show's overall narrative shakes out.
As such, I think the safest guess for where House of the Dragon season 2 could end is on page 460 of Fire & Blood, just after Rhaenyra takes King's Landing. I'm inclined to think we won't get quite that far, but due to the way the novel weaves together disparate events in the aftermath of the Gullet, I think it's a little hard to predict exactly which ones will be held back for season 3 until we see some of the new episodes. At the very least, there's little chance House of the Dragon season 2 will go beyond Rhaenyra's capture of King's Landing, which makes it a safe bookend for our purposes.
That means that overall, we can expect that House of the Dragon season 2 will cover less than 50 pages of Fire & Blood. Even less, if we exclude the five or so pages in there that cover Luke's death which were depicted in season 1. That works out to roughly two chapters: the leftover material from "The Dying of the Dragons—A Son for a Son" like Jace's trip to Winterfell and Blood and Cheese; and "The Dying of the Dragons—The Red Dragon and the Gold," which depicts the start of the war, huge events like the Battles at Rook's Rest and the Gullet, and ends with Rhaenyra taking King's Landing.
We'll have a better idea of exactly how much of Fire & Blood we'll see onscreen this season when House of the Dragon season 2 premieres on June 16 on HBO and Max.
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