House of the Dragon Episode 1: Ending Explained! What Is The Meaning of Song Of Ice And Fire?
Game of Thrones fans had their prize this Sunday with the world premiere of the new HBO series House of the Dragon and prequel to the production created by George RR Martin. House of the Dragon is the new story of Westeros and that came with everything in its first episode. 172 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen, the protagonist of Game of Thrones and brought to the screen by Emilia Clarke, is the moment in which the events of the series are developed and focused on the Targaryen family, thanks to the power to control the dragons they are the kings of Westeros and the Seven Kingdoms. Attention! Below are spoilers for the first chapter of House of the Dragon. If you haven’t seen it yet and don’t want to find out, don’t keep reading.
House of the Dragon Episode 1: Summary
The plot of House of the Dragon is set almost two centuries before the events seen in Game of Thrones: a good 172 years before Daenerys was born and her father, the Mad King, was assassinated by Jamie Lannister. When dragons still ruled the skies and their masters, the Targaryens, were in absolute control of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. But even if we are talking about very earlier times and we can therefore find ourselves disoriented during so many families we do not know, of one thing we can be certain: that iron throne forged by over a thousand swords is and will always be the ambition of many and the cause of wars and intrigues within the Red Fortress as well as elsewhere. And it is precisely from the proclamation of the new King Viserys Targaryen (a convincing Paddy Considine) preferred, as a man, to his cousin Rhaenys Velaryon that the problems begin: at the same time as the coronation alliances, feuds and vendettas are born that will last decades and will have repercussions on the entire continent.
All for a throne made of swords. In its essence, therefore, the plot may seem the same as in the original series; the substantial difference, however, lies in the fact that in Game of Thrones it was precisely the sudden lack of a King that caused the beginning of the “game of thrones” between multiple enemy families and very different from each other, while here it all begins with the settlement of new monarch who in reality does nothing but consolidate the absolute supremacy of the Targaryens. Unlike GOT, here there is no rooting for one family or another, all the intrigues (or almost) are at court in King’s Landing, just as (almost) all the fights are internal. As a result, the narrative is much less fragmented, with a few “jumps” from one part of Westeros to another and not as many “points of view” as we were used to.
House of the Dragon Episode 1 Ending Explained: The Meaning of Song Of Ice And Fire?
More than 170 years before the events of Game of Thrones, the plot takes place in King’s Landing, where King Viserys Targaryen rules the 7 Kingdoms and awaits his first son, who is thought to be his heir. But Viserys has a daughter, Rhaenyra, who is not a candidate because she is a woman, which has never happened in history. At a young age, her interests are enjoying life and flying dragons, rather than having a princess’s responsibilities.
The other candidate for the succession is Daemon, brother of the king and played by actor Matt Smith, but who is a ruffian and as Lord Commander of the Royal Guard, he takes advantage of his position to kill and go above the law. But everything gets complicated when Viserys’s wife is going to give birth and the delivery has problems. The king must decide if he saves his wife or the son who is on the way. Pressured to have an heir, he decides to save the little boy and sacrifice his beloved.
Things do not go well and not only his wife dies, but after a few hours also his son whom he had baptized Baelon. Given this, the Hand of the King and the Council recommend he decide to choose an heir. Nobody is convinced of his brother Daemon for his cruelty, and although at first Viserys defends him, the fact that on the day of the death of his son and wife Daemon he is celebrating his future as king and heir is that he decides against everything prognosis choose Rhaenyra.
The Targaryen princess is chosen as the heir in a ceremony attended by the other families, while Daemon must go away from King’s Landing. The series in its first chapter already showed the essence of Game of Thrones, where not only the landscapes of an ancient age stood out, but also the problems between families that have the Iron Throne again in dispute.
Although it is only the first episode, it causes a lot of expectation about how the plot will unfold within the Targeryan House, which was far away in Game of Thrones since only Daenerys was alive. The preview of the next chapters shows how this conflict between Daemon and Rhaenyra will develop, although they will not be the only ones who want to keep the Throne. In addition, a jump in time is already announced in which the younger actors will give way to other protagonists, especially in the roles of Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), daughter of the Hand of the King.
Song of Ice And Fire
At the end of episode 1, we see that the new heiress will be a woman. Finally, the king has chosen to put his only daughter as the future queen of Westeros. Rhaenyra is the heiress, while Daemon is sent away from the throne so that he doesn’t interfere with the crown’s plans. But it will not be the only thing we discover in this chapter. But again House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones connect their story. The king entrusts his daughter with a secret that has been kept from generation to generation and passed from king to heir since Aegon himself: The Song of Ice and Fire.
When their ancestors conquered Westeros and unified the seven kingdoms, they were not only moved by the ambition to reign but also to prevent the fall of human beings due to the threat that approached them from the North, the one that came from winter (Winter is coming). He tells her how the only way to defeat this darkness is for all of humanity to come together to fight for their survival. Do you know the white walkers? Do you know the king of the night? And it is that another of the great talents of the Targaryens is to predict the future through dreams. Dreams that we have already seen come true with the arrival of the White Walkers. But that is part of another story and another time.
