Mere hours after the premiere of the latest House of the Dragon episode, HBO dropped a trailer for this coming Sunday’s, and it is set up to be quite a bloody affair. The upcoming episode, which airs on September 18, shows King Viserys talking to his feisty and unruly daughter, Rhaenyra, about a wedding. Over the past few episodes, we’ve come to learn about how the heir to the throne carries some resentment over his father’s longing for a male heir to the throne. It’s also why she’s quick to shut down any potential suitors for fear that she’ll be nothing more than a way to further her father’s cause. But, most recently, a come-of-age Rhaenyra has started to mature. It appears that Episode 5 will see Rhaenyra finally get wed to someone. Unfortunately, since this is a wedding in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, these events are very rarely joyous. In Rhaenyra’s case, the failing health of her father, Viserys, means that she’s bound to take the throne sooner or later, which also means that her children will succeed her. Hence, the start of the rebellion that would later become known as the “Dance of the Dragons.” As Rhaenyra appears to accept her future as someone’s wife and the realm’s queen, Viserys proclaims, “I hope to herald in a second age of Dragons.” From there on, all hell breaks out as the trailer shows Viserys’ declining health and the war for the Iron Throne finally starting. As the trailer comes to a close, we see Otto Hightower, the former Hand of the King, telling his daughter, the queen Alicent, to prepare her son, Aegon, to rule. Set around 200 years before Game of Thrones begins, House of the Dragon will take us on a journey through the slow and fiery descent of the House Targaryen. After four episodes of Milly Alcock and Emily Carey in their roles as Rhaenyra and Alicent, respectively, we should see the next one end with the expected time jump as Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke take over as the older versions of the aforementioned characters. House of the Dragon has done a masterful job at adapting the source material. It surely must help that George R.R. Martin is there to oversee the entire thing. The first season of House of the Dragon will end on October 23 with its tenth episode.
