7 Targaryen Moments the 'GOT' Prequel 'House of the Dragon' Could Cover (PHOTOS)
Aegon’s Conquest
Nearly three centuries before Dany was born, her ancestor Aegon I Targaryen conquered Westeros, subduing six of the Seven Kingdoms with help from his sisters and their dragons. As a symbol of his power, Aegon then forged the Iron Throne from the swords of his enemies.
Maegor’s death
Aegon’s son Maegor was the third Targaryen king to sit on the Iron Throne, and his death is a subject of debate. Queen Elinor, one of the polygamous king’s six wives, found Maegor dead on the Iron Throne, and some suspect he died by cutting his wrists on its blades.
Lucamore’s betrayal
Jaehaerys I Targaryen, Maegor’s nephew, sat on the throne for 55 years — during which time he was shocked to discover that his trusted Kingsguard member Ser Lucamore Strong, later known as Lucamore the Lusty, had broken his oath and married three times and welcomed 16 children. Jaehaerys ordered him “gelded” — i.e. castrated — and sent to the Night’s Watch.
The question of succession
Jaehaerys faced multiple succession issues at the end of his life. After the death of his son Prince Aemon, Jaehaerys passed over Aemon’s only child, Princess Rhaenys, on account of her gender and made Aemon’s younger brother Baelon the Prince of Dragonstone. But then Baelon died after a vicious illness, upending the line of succession all over again.
The Dance of the Dragons
Nearly three decades later, House Targaryen split in two when Aegon II and his half-sister Rhaenyra battled over the right to the throne of their father, Viserys I. By the end of the bloody civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, both monarchs had been killed — one poisoned, the other devoured by a dragon.
The Hour of the Wolf
Cregan Stark, who was Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North long before Ned was, governed in King’s Landing for six days following the death of Aegon II, a week known as the Hour of the Wolf. He had opposed Aegon II in the Dance of the Dragons, but he sought revenge for the monarch’s murder and ended up arresting 22 men.
The downfall of the dragons
Aegon III Targaryen, the next throne occupant, is known as “Aegon the Dragonbane” because the last dragon died under his reign — and because he detested the creatures for killing his mother, Rhaenyra. Even so, he hoped to use dragons to quell his opponents, so he enlisted mages from Essos to hatch dragon eggs. The mages were unsuccessful, and dragons stayed extinct… until, of course, Dany came along a century later.
In the game of Game of Thrones prequels, you win… or you die. And while GOT fans lost one prequel project on October 29, they gained another.
Just hours after news broke that HBO was not moving forward with the spin-off series starring Naomi Watts, the premium cable channel announced that it had given a straight-to-series 10-episode order to House of the Dragon, a House Targaryen story from A Song of Ice and Fire mastermind George R. R. Martin and Colony co-creator Ryan Condal, based on Martin's 2018 book Fire & Blood.
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With that source material in mind, we've rounded up potential plot points for the new series in the gallery above, drawing upon pivotal moments from Targaryen family history. After all, so much happened before Daenerys popped up…
