Upon its much-anticipated release last year, House of the Dragon quickly established itself as an unequivocal smash hit. In the weeks following its debut on HBO, the series broke viewing records with a fresh-faced story that takes place about 200 years before the original Game of Thrones. It’s also just as bloody, twisted, and violent as its predecessor.
The main lynchpin of the narrative involves a bloody civil war between the Targaryens to figure out who will sit on the Iron Throne. This conflict is known as the Dance of the Dragons, and it’s a story with a lot of death and destruction. Although, when it comes to the narrative of Game of Thrones, that should hardly come as a major surprise.
Nevertheless, the bloody conflict claimed countless lives on both sides and also saw the extinction of dragons. So, who won the Dance of the Dragons? Well, the answer is actually quite complicated. There is a technical winner, of course, but so many people died on both sides that potentially everyone lost. So, let’s dive in and explore some context as to what exactly went down.
Who are the main players in the Dance of the Dragons? (Greens Vs. Blacks)
Some key figures in the Dance of the Dragons are Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, her father King Viserys I, her former childhood friend (and stepmother) Queen Alicent Hightower, and Prince Daemon Targaryen, who is King Viserys’ brother.
The Targaryens split into two groups for the Dance of the Dragons – the Greens and the Blacks, named for the different colored dresses Alicent and Rhaenyra wore during a tournament in Hightower. For context, Queen Alicent wore green and Rhaenyra wore Black.
The Blacks
Queen Rhaenyra (we’ll get to that in a second) and her husband Prince Daemon Targaryen are the leaders of the Black faction. They have both the strength of the Velaryon fleet and a number of dragons behind them as well.
Rhaenyra’s children Lucerys, Jacaerys, and baby Joffrey are also included, as well as Daemon’s twin girls Baela and Rhaena from his previous wife Laena Velaryon. Elder Velaryons Corlys and Rhaena, who are the twin’s grandparents, are also in the Blacks.
The Blacks also have six dragons: Syrax, Caraxes, Vermax, Arrax, Meleys, Moondancer, and Seasmoke.
The Greens
Alicent and her children Helaena, Aegon II, and Aemon are the nuclei of the Greens. They fight to keep Aegon II as the king. The argument is that Aegon II is the true heir since he’s the king’s firstborn son. A number of the lords of Westeros also support this and are on the side of the Greens.
Other allies of the Greens include Alicent’s father Ser Otto Hightower (the new Hand of the King), Ser Criston Cole, and Ser Larys Strong (who killed his own brother and father to become Lord of Harrenhal).
The Greens have three main dragons: Sunfyre, Dreamfyre, and Vhagar. While they have fewer dragons, Vhagar is huge – double the size of the Black’s largest dragon Caraxes. Since they’re in Kings Landing, they also have access to the Dragonpit and the wild dragons that live there.
Unaffiliated with either side (so far)
Some people have yet to pick a side in the war. Master of Ships Ser Tyland Lannister and Grand Maester Mellos fall into this camp. There are a number of houses that could go either way like House Wylde, House Arryn, House Greyjoy, and House Stark.
How did the Dance of the Dragons begin?
House of the Dragon begins in a moment of prosperity. King Viserys I Targaryen has ascended the throne and ruled Westeros. He’s the successor of the universally loved King Jaehaerys I. Things are generally peaceful, but because that would make for a pretty boring show, things go off the rails fairly quickly.
When Viserys first wife passed away the King named his only child, Princess Rhaenyra, as his heir. This is unusual because women aren’t supposed to be included in succession lines. This would be the end of it if not for Queen Alicent, who marries Viserys and becomes his second wife.
Queen Alicent has four children, one of which is a boy named Aegon II – a purported male heir. See how this gets complicated? When Viserys dies, his last words are a reference to a prophecy about “the Prince who was promised” that doesn’t come to fruition until Game of Thrones.
As he lay in the throes of death, Viserys thinks he’s talking to his daughter Princess Rhaenyra when he’s actually talking to his wife. He mouths that “Prince Aegon” is the prince of prophecy (he means Jon Snow), but his wife understandably thinks he means their son Aegon II. This is the spark that starts the war.
As soon as they can, Alicent and the Westeros lords put Aegon II on the Rhaenyra’s throne, and Otto supports this as he believes a woman shouldn’t be on the throne, ever. He believed that if Rhaenyra became queen there would be a huge war and the Seven Kingdoms would break apart.
The princess was in Dragonstone giving birth while all this happened, so she wasn’t there to physically claim the throne. When she finds out about the coup, she gives birth to a stillborn girl and quickly has a coronation of her own. It is her husband Daemon who crowns her.
How did the Dance of the Dragons play out?
When the Dance of the Dragons begins, Rhaenyra has an advantage with a better army and lots of Dragons. She takes King’s Landing and the people welcome her back, having never taken to Aegon II and Aemond.
Things go well for the new Queen, at first. A number of lords and ladies pledge their allegiance to her and she even hunts down the people who helped Aegon II escape. As is the case with all Game of Thrones-related narratives, things get bad quickly.
Before Queen Rhaenyra took King’s Landing, the Greens made sure to get rid of all the gold. This meant that the Queen didn’t have any money and was forced to raise taxes. Unsurprisingly, this turns the town folk against her. They start calling her King Maegor with teats – a reference to an earlier leader whom the townsfolk hated.
Also, there were some defections, and this made the Queen paranoid. She believed that Addam Velaryon, the son of the Hand, was going to betray her. Addam got wind of this and escaped with the help of Corlys, which led to his imprisonment and alienated her most powerful all – the Velaryons.
Things came to a head when Helaena Targaryen, a prisoner of the Blacks, killed herself. The townspeople loved Halaena and rioted when they heard the news because they thought she was murdered. The people stormed King’s Landing and the Dragonpit in retaliation.
This led to the death of four dragons (they were chained and couldn’t escape). Rhaenyra’s personal dragon Syrax was also murdered, although he went down in a fight. Also, all of Rhaenyra’s children died with the exception of Aegon III.
Because she was broke, she had no choice but to sell her crown in exchange for passage to Dragonstone. She makes it there but is double-crossed by Ser Alfred Broome. Broome takes the Queen to Aegon II.
He has her killed by Dragon, more specifically, she is fed to Sunfyre. This meant that Aegon was now the King and he put forth a decree that Rhaenyra was never a queen and only a princess.
What happened to Aegon II before Rhaenyra took King’s Landing?
Aegon II was anxious to ascend to the throne even as Otto and others were trying to convince the other houses that he was a legitimate king. This fissure led to the strengthening of the Blacks.
During his reign, he was cruel and impulsive. For example, His son Jaehaerys was killed by enemies posing as ratcatchers, so he had all the ratcatchers killed, which turned the townsfolk against him.
He also took away Otto’s title as Hand to the King and gave it Ser Criston Cole, even though Otto was actively trying to strengthen the Greens. They get a boost when a trap is then set for Princess Rhaenys (Queen Rhaenyra’s daughter) on the battlefield, and she is killed and so is her dragon Meleys.
Aegon was mortally wounded during the battle and was unable to even physically stand up, so Aemond took over rule as Prince Regent. Then came the big battle Aemond and his dragon Vhagar fought with Daemon and his dragon Caraxes. All of them died.
Before Rhaenyra took King’s Landing, Larys Strong snuck out Aegon II and his children. Alicent then quickly arranged a marriage between Aegon II and Cassandra Baratheon in the midst of the Black armies fighting for the King’s landing.
Aegon II was more worried about his new marriage than he was about the war, and he was poisoned. No one knows who poisoned him but a lot of men were murdered in suspicion. After he died Corlys and Aegon III went out to meet the armies and Aegon III was crowned the new king.
Who won the Dance of the Dragons?
There are two ways to look at this. One is that King Aegon II won because he killed Queen Rhaenyra and fed her to a dragon. However, when Aegon II died Queen Rhaenyra’s son Aegon III was put on the throne, so she kind of won.
Honestly, everyone lost due to the massive amounts of death and destruction, which included killing all the dragons.
The first season of House of the Dragon is currently available to stream on Max.
