The following article contains major spoilers for season one, and light spoilers for season two of House of the Dragon . Okay, right, deep breath. Previously on House of the Dragon : owing to a terminal case of Ye Olde Lurgy, season one MVP Paddy Considine 's King Viserys I decomposed to death in the season's penultimate episode, leaving his wife and kids to squabble over his crown, putting an end to decades of Targaryen-led peace across the realm.
Rhaenyra ( Emma D'Arcy ) insisted that she was chosen as heir, which did happen, but alas ex-bestie Alicent (Olivia Cooke) disagreed, arguing she and Viserys' son Aegon II ( Tom Glynn-Carney ) had rightful claim to the throne. So he's coronated, war beckons, and then Rhaenyra's son Lucerys is killed by his uncle's dragon, upping the stakes for a civil conflict that was already nigh-on inevitable. It's all kicking off in Westeros.
By Patrick Sproull The first handful of episodes in season two, then — we were given the first four episodes to screen ahead of the series' premiere on 17 June — represent the calm before the storm, or perhaps the poisoned canapés before the dance of dragons. At first Rhaenyra is conspicuously absent, deeply mourning over the loss of her son, trauma compounded by the stress-induced stillbirth of her daughter-dragon-alien-thing ; D'Arcy spends much of the first episode emoting into the middle-distance on the coast like a Romantic poet, and as with everything else they do on House of the Dragon , they'.
