House of the Dragon has pulled off some pretty significant time jumps in its first season, telling the tale of the Targaryen family as they rule from the Iron Throne and deal with political strife both externally and internally. Between episodes one and seven a total of 14 years pass by, and the jump between episodes seven to eight sees another significant step forward in time for the family.
House of the Dragon has a lot of ground to cover if they are going to even get close to the most famous Targaryen, Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), so drastic jumps do somewhat make sense depending on how close to Game of Thrones the writers of the series plan on getting. Episode one takes place 172 years before the rebellion that kindled the events in Game of Thrones. In this single episode, there is a significant time jump starting with a flashback to the succession of King Jaeherys (Michael Carter) by Prince Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine), before jumping ahead nine years to a similar predicament, where Viserys’ daughter Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) is crowned next in line for the Iron Throne.
The series moves swiftly on, not getting as caught up in the minutia as Game of Thrones did, and jumps six months in episode two and then another three years in episode three. Only a few months pass between episodes three and four, and episode five follows directly on from its predecessor. The next big jump in the show comes after, with 10 years having passed at the beginning of episode six. The show recast the younger actors to reflect this with Rhaenyra, now played by Emma D’Arcy.
They also introduce the many children the characters have had in this time span, weaving an extraordinarily complicated family tree with, in true Targaryen fashion, cousins have married, brothers are betrothed to their sisters, and as we saw at the end of episode seven, uncles wed their nieces after first faking her husband’s death. Though there is no major jump from six to seven, with the events following directly on, the most recent episode, episode eight, sees another large leap forward for the characters, with a total of six years passing by.
Thanks to this time jump yet more new actors are needed, as if the audience needed confusing any further, with the children now young adults, and new children having been born courtesy of Rhaenyra and her uncle/husband Deamon (Matt Smith). We say goodbye to one Viserys and welcome another in the form of his grandchild/nephew, as well as yet another Aegon, and a third baby on the way.
With two more episodes to go, and likely a whole lot of family backstabbing, betrayal, and (incestuous) marriages still to come, the Targaryens likely have a rocky path to face now that their patriarchal figure is finally at peace, leaving the rest of them anything but.
