The Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon was recently announced alongside the launch of HBO Max. The series is set to follow the Targaryen family, 300 years before the events of the main TV show that HBO has become so famous for.
The show is set to revisit the Dance of the Dragons that has been alluded to and talked about in the show and books. There’s been spin-off material that’s further investigated this civil war, but it’s unknown whether this will be taken into account when the showrunners produce the latest Westeros series. We’re therefore asking 10 questions that we want answering in the prequel House of the Dragon.
10 HOW MANY DRAGONS WERE THERE?
If the series titled the House of the Dragons then we’re definitely going to be seeing some dragons. The budget for the series is huge and so we can assume that a significant portion of that will be going on the CGI for these fictional creatures.
We know that Westeros was heavily populated by Dragons but we’re not sure how many there actually were. Very few could actually ride and control these beasts, but how many dragons did House Targaryen really have? Also, how many non-Targaryen’s could actually ride a dragon? We’ve only seen Jon Snow, Dany and the Night King mount the beast.
9 WHO CHOSE TO CHANGE THE DRAGONS?
The dragons originally died out because of the way they were bred and looked after. The creatures were kept inside like dogs and certain characteristics were bred out of them. What was left were dragons that were getting smaller and weaker over the years.
We want to know when this started and whether it was a conscious effort from the Targaryens to control the dragons further. Perhaps this was a plot from an outside source to take the dragons off the table however, manipulating events to benefit them in the long run.
8 DID THEY TRY TO STOP THEM FROM DYING OUT?
We’d also love to know how much effort was put into protecting these creatures. The dragons really were the main weapon of the Targaryens and secured their power for so long. As they realised that the dragons were becoming just too weak, were there efforts to stop this?
We can imagine that the house would mourn the loss of their pets and perhaps sought to understand why they had allowed this to happen. But was this something that they actually couldn’t control and instead it was a state of natural evolution they were really trying to slow?
7 WHY DO THE TARGARYENS GO MAD?
There’s always been an assumption that the Targaryens are genetically always going to go mad at some point. The mad king emerged from the Dance of the Dragons and it appears this civil war was also based, in part, on the madness of this family.
It’s been suggested that this happens because of the inbreeding of the family. However, other royal families have also used the same methods to secure a strong family line and they are not known for the same madness. Having said that, Joffrey was just as cruel and mad, as well as being a result of incest.
6 HOW MANY TARGARYENS ARE ACTUALLY MAD?
We’ve spoken about the madness that is present in the family, but how many members of House Targaryen are actually mad? A civil war, the likes of which had songs and stories written about it, doesn’t start with sane heads in command.
It’s very possible that the members of the family responsible for the creation of this awful war were, in fact, both mad themselves. We’d love to know if the kingdom was ruled in a really erratic way during this time period, or whether there were others who managed to right the ship slightly.
5 WAS ANYONE PULLING THE STRINGS?
Manipulation is one of the biggest games to play when fighting for the throne. During this huge battle it’s likely there were a number of players that just weren’t being fair. We can imagine that house Targaryen was actually quite easy to manipulate during this time.
Much like Littlefinger, it’s likely that someone was pulling the strings. There has to be some genius in the shadows watching the chaos unfold. If this is the case then we’d love to know who it really was, as this individual has probably been ignored by history.
4 WHICH MAJOR HOUSES WERE HEAVILY INVOLVED?
This is set during an era where many of the major houses still exist. While some are not quite as mighty as they are today, or perhaps are cut off from the rest of the world, there are still some pretty big players on the board.
We really want to know which major houses involved themselves in this conflict. We know the Starks usually try to avoid something like this, but perhaps they were more linked to the conflicts than we realize! What of houses like the Tyrells or Lannisters who are so famous 300 years later?
3 HOW SIMILAR IS WESTEROS?
Speaking of the other houses, we’d also like to know what state Westeros is actually in. Geographically speaking the landscape will be the same, but the physical structures, as well as the political geography, will not be.
We hope we get an opening sequence similar to that of Game of Thrones which helps to explain exactly what Westeros looks like in this time period. The kingdom is in a constant state of flux so it will be useful to get some kind of context before jumping into the story.
2 WHICH SIDE SHOULD WE ROOT FOR?
Every story has a hero and a villain but who exactly should we be rooting for? It’s easy to look back on the history of Westeros from an objective perspective. We have no strong opinions on which side should have actually won but it’s useful for fans of the show to know.
The show is bound to tell this story from one side and allow us the option to root for someone. It’s difficult to tell which point of view they will show us the conflict though, as it cannot be from the eventual winner as both sides essentially lost during the battle.
1 DID THE WHITE WALKERS SURFACE?
The White Walkers are said to be alive and well for over 8000 years. This means that during this time period they are very much active beyond the wall. However, was this known to the rest of the kingdom, or was it only really the Night’s Watch fighting them off?
There’s every possibility that there was a rise that was never reported and that the whites had been defeated once before. The series could completely ignore all of this though as to not conflict with Game of Thrones much later on.
