The younger generation of House of the Dragon previews a family at war

Like Game of Thrones before it, House of the Dragon is an ensemble show. You have Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), former childhood friends turned bitter enemies now engaged in a war neither of them wants but neither of them can stop. You have Rhaenyra's husband and uncle Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith). And the lot of them have kids who will play a much bigger role in the upcoming second season.

It's time for the youth to occupy the house of the dragon. Showrunner Ryan Condal said as much talking to Den of Geek: “‘The kids,’ as I say—Alicent and Rhaenyra’s children—take center stage in this conflict. We put a lot of focus on them and their stories because it really does become about them."

We met these kids halfway through the first season of House of the Dragon, but it wasn't until Episode 8, after an eight year time jump, that we met them as they'll appear for the rest of the series. Let's meet the youth:

Jacaerys Velaryon, aka Jace

Jace (Harry Collett) is Rhaenyra's oldest son, sired by her lover Harwin Strong but officially the son of Rhaenyra's first husband Laenor Velaryon. Jace seems to be aware of his true parentage, and is eager to prove himself a genuine Targaryen warrior. He rides the dragon Vermax.

Jace is especially invested in the war after the season 1 finale, when his little brother Lucerys Velaryon (Elliot Grihault) was killed by their uncle Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell), a crossing-the-Rubicon moment that killed any hope of deescalation between these two rival branches of the Targaryen family. “From Jace’s point of view, it’s Jace’s war now,” Collett said. “Because he’s lost his little brother over it. He is one of the characters that actually wants to be in the war.”

At the end of the first season, Rhaenyra sent Jace north to try and win the allegiance of the Vale and the North, the latter of which is currently ruled by Lord Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor). This means we get to visit Winterfell and even the Wall again, as Jace tries to charm this potential ally. “Seeing The Wall in person was quite surreal,” Collett said. “I think the fans are going to absolutely love seeing Jace in Winterfell with Cregan.”

Baela and Rhaena Targaryen

Then there are Daemon's daughters with his previous wife Laena Velaryon, now stepdaughters of Rhaenyra's. We saw these two together as kids, but shortly after that they were split up. “There’s a little bit of tension because of their separate upbringings,” said actor Phoebe Campbell. “Baela was raised with grandma and grandpa [Corlys Velaryon and Rhaenys Targaryen], and I was raised with stepmom and my half siblings. Rhaena feels quite a lot of resentment there.”

That's a bit different from what happens between Baela and Rhaena in the show's source material, Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin, but then again, there seem to be a lot of changes when it comes to the sisters, who sit out most of the conflict in the book.

Actor Bethany Antonia also weighed in on what we can expect for her character Baela: “For Baela, this war has created such a frantic sense of urgency and family loyalty. She’s had to grow up a lot quicker than anticipated.”

King Aegon II Targaryen

Although Rhaenyra and Alicent are usually put forward as representing the two sides of this war, the conflict is more directly between Rhaenyra and her younger half-brother Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), both of whom think they have a claim to the Iron Throne following the death of their father King Viserys I (Paddy Considine). Currently, King Aegon sits the throne, but Queen Rhaenyra is going to do everything in her power to change that.

Ryan Condal is quick to point out that neither side of this conflict — whether Rhaenrya's Blacks or Aegon's Greens — is in the right or the wrong; the point of the show is that both sides destroy themselves fighting a pyrrhic war. “There are heroes and monsters that wear green and heroes and monsters that wear black in equal measure,” he said.

However, a lot of the fan base has already decided to back Team Black, and is quick to disparage the characters on the Green side of things. They do, to be fair, seem quite a bit messier, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. “All these people choosing Team Black are driving me insane,” Glynn-Carney said. “Just stop being so boring! You need a bit of spice in your life. You need some danger. You need some betrayal. You need some vileness.”

Aegon has already done some spicy, dangerous, vile things, and his season 2 journey should be something to watch. “He takes pride in the fact that he’s upset the applecart,” Glynn-Carney said. “But he’s also at a point now where he really believes he should be king. Dad was just having a senile moment when he said Rhaenyra should be his heir. I think he fully believes that.”

Aemond Targaryen

Aegon's younger brother Aemond may be more chaotic, even as he thinks of himself as a far more serious person than the king. “Although Aemond is the second son, he very much thinks that he should have been the first,” said actor Ewan Mitchell. “Aegon squandered his inheritance while Aemond lived with the maesters, trained with Ser Criston Cole, and became the baddest man in the Red Keep yard.”

Aemond is a very intense person; remember that he killed his own nephew at the end of the first season, partly as payback for Lucerys slashing out Aemond's eye during a scruffle when they were kids. “One of the first things we talked about in the development stages of Aemond was the legend of the Cyclops in Greek mythology,” Mitchell said. “How he traded one of his eyes to Hades in order to see the day he would die. What would that do to a person to possess that extreme degree of self-certainty and belief? It’s scary, you know. Aemond scares me.”

Helaena Targaryen

Finally, there's Aegon's little sister Helaena (Phia Saban), who is also his wife and queen. If these Targaryens would stop marrying each other, that would be great. But then they also wouldn't be Targaryens. Maybe war was inevitable.

In Fire & Blood, Helaena is a friendly person with a sunny disposition. She's still the gentlest and sweetest of the younger charactes on House of the Dragon, but Condal and co. have also given her the curse of foresight. She's a little odd now, always having visions that come true in unexpected, unwanted ways. “It’s complicated for Helaena because she’s got this kind of Cassandra-like aspect to her. The curse is that no one will ever believe her,” Saban said.

Helaena is also at the center of a particularly brutal scene known among fans as the Blood and Cheese incident. I'll spare you the spoilery details here, but best bring a tissue box...or maybe a barf bag. “I remember reading it and just thinking wow, ‘George kind of outdid himself in his own George-ness’ in terms of finding the awful depths of certain characters,” Condal said of the moment.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what the younger generation of characters brings to the story. They're now fighting wars started by their parents' generation, continuing a cycle that's essential to what the show is trying to say. “There are plenty of examples of generational conflict going on in the world,” Condal said, pointing to The Troubles in Northern Ireland as an example. “As you go on through the generations, it just gets worse and more entrenched. Because you don’t break bread with them. You don’t have a community with them. You don’t run into each other at the hardware store.”

House of the Dragon season 2 premieres on HBO and Max on Sunday, June 16.

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