The ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Entrance Survey

The eve of war is upon us. Who will be the decisive figure in the Dance of the Dragons? How will Queen Rhaenyra and Prince Daemon manage their marriage and military partnership? And is it now fair to describe House of the Dragon as one of the best shows on TV? Our staff has thoughts on all of that, and more, ahead of Sunday’s Season 2 premiere.

1. What are you most hyped for heading into House of the Dragon Season 2?

Miles Surrey: The show sticking to the House Targaryen motto: Fire and Blood.

Kai Grady: (Hopefully) leaving the time jumps behind! House of the Dragon’s debut season, while able to capture a lot of the Game of Thrones debauchery and intensity we’ve come to adore, left a lot to be desired in terms of episodic pace. If memory serves correctly, Season 1 featured four separate time jumps spanning nearly 20 years (!). Let the Dance of Dragons begin in earnest!

One more thing: F— Ser Criston Cole, all my homies hate Ser Criston Cole. I need him to get his comeuppance expeditiously.

Megan Schuster: Say it with me now: DRAGON BATTLES. Yes, we got a brief glimpse of aerial dragon warfare in the Season 1 finale, but pitting Vhagar against preteen competition was hardly a fair fight. This season, though, we might get some strength-on-strength matchups—and hopefully more time with Vermithor.

Khal Davenport: I hope HBO dares to be different and gives us an actual look at how those dragonriders get into their saddles.

Katie Baker: I’m just excited to be back in Westeros, what can I say? I actually feel like I know the place now—it took only eight seasons of Thrones and two watches of the first season of House of the Dragon to get there! (I’m not too proud to admit that it took me multiple seasons to fully understand that, like, Casterly Rock isn’t just the name of some noteworthy stone in King’s Landing.) From the mighty/fallen houses to the lively/corrupt slums, from the Vale to the Wall, I can’t wait to return to this murderous, magical land and watch a different generation of rulers fight over it.

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Austin Gayle: Half-assed internet research—googling “Matthew Needham IMDB”—tells us that Larys Strong is in every episode of Season 2, but he isn’t in any of HBO’s trailers … where is everyone’s favorite slimy, clubfooted Littlefinger spinoff lurking? How much deeper do we get into his deviant plots and schemes? We were only just barely getting our feet wet with Larys in Season 1. HotD needs to fully commit now.

Claire McNear: For all the thrills of Season 1, it largely amounted to setting the stage for the looming civil war. It’s now officially civil war o’clock, and I am ready to see more dragons treat themselves to little dragon snacks.

2. Who’s your pick for the breakout character of the season?

McNear: Does Jacaerys Velaryon have a personality? I’d love to find out!

Grady: Yeah, Prince Jacaerys feels like a shoo-in for a potential breakout in Season 2. I haven’t read Fire & Blood, and I also somehow avoided all of the trailers for this upcoming season, so this is really nothing more than an educated guess. Putting Jace on a path to avenge his little brother feels like an inevitable plot point. But what do I know? Go read what the experts have to say.

Baker: Not so much a breakout character but a breakout marriage: I think the union between the immature, disputed ruler Aegon II and his soothsaying, always-be-embroidering sister-wife, Helaena, will rise to greater prominence this season. They are, after all, the current king and queen! They already have an heir! Aegon sexually assaults handmaidens and watches fanged children fighting in dark, dirty pits; Helaena looks up from her embroidery, stares into the middle distance, and says vague things about spiders. Like—what is that relationship like? (Unlike Cersei and Jaime Lannister, they don’t exactly seem to yearn for each other.) I am guessing we will find out.

Gayle: The master of whisperers, Lord Confessor, and lover of feet—Larys Strong. A decades-long buildup of sneaky links and incest makes HotD a story about inbred children and bad parenting; Larys will avoid that downfall altogether.

“What are children but a weakness? A folly? A futility? Through them, you imagine you cheat the great darkness of its victory. You will persist forever, in some form or another. As if they will keep you from the dust. But for them, you surrender what you should not. You may know what is the right thing to be done, but love stays the hand. Love is a downfall.” —Larys Strong

Surrey: Lady Mysaria and Larys Strong. Time and again, Game of Thrones proved that the characters operating in the shadows can wield more power and influence than anyone sitting on the throne. Plus, both characters have unforgettable quirks: Larys is the Quentin Tarantino of Westeros; Mysaria has the most WTF accent in the realm. For good and bad, these two make for can’t-miss television.

Schuster: I’m not sure if he would fully count as a breakout character considering he was a part of some major plot points in Season 1, but I’m ready for the Aemond-aissance. I have a feeling that, after the Lucerys killing (accidental as it may have been), we’ll see a fully unleashed Aemond—one who could give even Daemon a run for his money in the Dastardly Deeds Department.

Davenport: Queen Rhaenyra. At a time of war, she sits in a position many wouldn’t have expected her to be in, and she wants what she feels is rightly hers. Rhaenyra’s time to shine is now, and Season 2 has set up the perfect stage for her to display her suitability for the Iron Throne.

3. The promotional materials tell us, “All must choose,” but most viewers are clearly siding with Team Black. Give us your best defense of Team Green.

Grady:

Surrey: Uhhhhh, Helaena seems really nice?

Baker: Hmm, well, I guess they are justified in being annoyed that Rhaenyra is clearly gaslighting the Seven Kingdoms about the provenance of her first three sons. And I guess the greens did technically get the short end of the stick, if you’re into that whole patrilineal monarchy thing. And sure, it’s a bummer about Aemond’s peeper. I dunno, my heart isn’t really in this, because what I mostly want to know is: Who is the RFK Jr. of Westeros?? I will be submitting this inquiry to the maester immediately.

Schuster: I’m not sure I can defend Team Green as a whole, but I can absolutely understand the motivations of the team’s central character, Alicent Hightower. From a young age, Alicent is manipulated by her father, Otto. Otto sends Alicent to King Viserys on a supposed mission of comfort after Viserys’s wife dies, playing on the memory of Alicent’s dead mother and how terrible and alone Alicent felt after her mother’s passing. Then, once she and the king have bonded over their respective traumas, Otto marries Alicent to the decades-older man and effectively ends her friendship with the one person she was truly close with, Rhaenyra.

As a result Alicent is largely isolated within the castle walls, basically trusting only her father and Viserys. So she focuses on raising her family and trying to secure their lineage. She and Rhaenyra aren’t close anymore, so she worries that if Rhaenyra does end up becoming queen, Rhaenyra will kill her children in order to eliminate rival claims to the throne. Rather than accepting that fate, Alicent meddles and alludes to the fact that Rhaenyra’s kids are bastards and generally tries to sow seeds of discord to get Aegon onto the Iron Throne. In the end, her misinterpretation of Viserys’s dying words gives her the final sense of righteousness necessary to crown her son. And now here we are.

We can certainly quibble about the morality of Alicent’s actions—spoiler alert: They sucked! But her motivations first and foremost have always been to protect her family. And at the end of the day, that’s not all bad.

McNear: Alicent genuinely believes that Viserys gave her instructions from his deathbed to install their son and not Rhaenyra on the Iron Throne. She’s wrong, of course—he was sedated on milk of the poppy and confusedly referenced the prophecy he shared with Rhaenyra upon naming her his heir, in effect reinforcing his desire for his daughter to take the throne—but Alicent really does think that she and, by extension, her sons are in the right.

Gayle: I can’t make every response about the guy I really like only because he has a foot fetish, so I’ll pitch you on something else: Vhagar. She’s the biggest, baddest dragon in the world. In a Dance of the Dragons, what else is there to really say? I want to see the all-time greats win.

4. Finish this sentence: “In Season 2, Rhaenyra and Daemon will …”

Gayle: … soak in a ton of screen time arguing over war tactics before they ultimately betray each other in epic fashion. Whoever sticks the figurative (or real?!) dagger in the other’s back first will come out of the Dance of the Dragons on top.

Baker: … drape themselves in cloaks and take a field trip to Flea Bottom. You know, for old times’ sake!

Schuster: … be at each other’s throats—literally and figuratively. We already saw one such instance last season at Dragonstone, and it seems the more power Rhaenyra gains, the more resentful Daemon becomes. Yes, he’ll still defend her against Aegon and Co., whom he sees as usurpers to the Iron Throne, but just wait for the first time he doesn’t get what he wants—or the first time Rhaenyra realizes she may have to distance herself from her husband-uncle in order to truly rule.

McNear: … hopefully stop having kids. Give a girl—particularly one whose mother died in childbirth and who just had a very gnarly (and tragic) labor of her own—a break!

Grady: … kill two of Alicent’s children (dealer’s choice), wipe out most of Team Green, and regain control of the Iron Throne. All just to ultimately turn on each other, sparking more war and bloodshed across the realm.

Davenport: … figure out a way to quell a civil war (or die trying). How they go about it is what will make it interesting. Hell, during the first trailer, Rhaenyra outright asks Daemon if he accepts her as his queen and ruler. With all this talk about how unity is the only way forward, this is one pair that has to get on the same page.

5. Dragon recruitment—and/or combat—is almost a certainty in this season. What’s your big dragon-related prediction for Season 2?

Surrey: There will be more dragon battles, only this time, it won’t be as lopsided as when Vhagar chomped down on poor Arrax and Luke.

Gayle: I mean, all of the foreshadowing with the Daemon-Vermithor scenes has to mean Big Verm’ will get involved. If Team Black manages to add him to the roster, Vermithor could tip the scales in the Dance of the Dragons.

Grady: We’ll get a loot train–esque set piece starring none other than our favorite flying chonk, Vhagar. HotD showrunner Ryan Condal and Co. gave us just enough last season to grasp Vhagar’s might; it’s only a matter of time before they let her loose on the rest of Westeros.

Schuster: Instead of a prediction, I’ll make a pleading request to the show’s creators: Give us some dragon battle strategy! Who are the Kyle Shanahans and Bill Belichicks of the dragon wars? Who’s dialing up the cutting-edge flank sweep that will take Westeros by storm? I want a Coach of the Year, an innovative mind to teach me how to take down Vhagar in the open field and live to tell the tale. Let’s do this!

Baker: As far as I’m aware, dragons are bonded to their riders till death, yes? But when it comes to Laenor Velaryon, who sneaked away for the good of the realm (and his social life), what is “dead” may not have actually died. So I’m waiting to see whether the behavior of Laenor’s dragon, Seasmoke, will wind up tipping someone off—Rhaenys?—that Leanor still lives.

Davenport: Yeah, word on the street is that Seasmoke was spotted during a trailer for this season of House of the Dragon. There’s gotta be a good reason why Seasmoke has made his return, right?

McNear: Hear me out: We know that dragons are likely to be the deciding factor in the, uh, Dance of the Dragons. We’ve even seen Daemon sneaking around dragon lairs and snatching freshly laid eggs. It’s time for House of the Dragon to embrace its sultry Game of Thrones roots and show us—I apologize—dragons making more dragons.

6. At this moment in time, where does House of the Dragon sit on your personal ranking of the Best Shows on Television?

Schuster: Solidly top five. Since we’ve seen only one season so far, I’ll need to watch more before it moves any higher. But after rewatching Season 1 in preparation for this weekend’s premiere, I’ll acknowledge that it’s even better than I remembered. And without massive time jumps, nearly separate casts, and a lot of necessary exposition, Season 2 could take it up another notch.

McNear: It hasn’t yet broken through to the level of, say, early-seasons Game of Thrones, when my friends and I would gather every Sunday night to watch the new episode live in riveted silence. But I think now that we’re past Season 1’s war setup and on to Season 2’s (presumably) outright war, things will get spicy.

Surrey: It’s not even on the list? House of the Dragon is merely fine, but it merits a lot of attention because it’s a prequel to one of the buzziest dramas of all time. (It would be great if HBO funneled some of HotD’s considerable resources to supporting far superior shows such as the recently canceled Tokyo Vice.) Until proved otherwise, HotD is the Tim Tebow of prestige TV.

Gayle: It’s in the top spot! I’m not a Star Wars fan, sadly, so The Acolyte isn’t for me. (My dad said Star Wars was for losers when I got tickets from a friend for Revenge of the Sith on my 9th birthday, so my interest ended there.) I like The Boys, but HotD plays all of the Thrones hits I need for it to beat out what is objectively a loaded June TV release calendar.

Davenport: Lower than it does for most of my coworkers, I’d imagine. House of the Dragon does what it needs to do for the masses, but there are too many dope TV shows that have already come out or are returning; House of the Dragon ends up toward the bottom of the heap—for me!

Grady: We’re in the midst of an absolutely STACKED month for the small screen, and HotD finds itself right in the heart of June’s television avalanche. The Boys just released its Season 4 premiere, and The Acolyte just aired its third episode. Jake Gyllenhaal is deep in his bag over on Apple TV+’s Presumed Innocent. Oh, and Clipped is certainly a show that exists as well. There’s a lot out there, and HotD is returning to quite the competitive TV landscape. I’m still bending the knee for HotD, at least until The Bear reopens for business.

Baker: I have no idea how to quantifiably compare, like, Larry David and Caraxes in an apples-to-apples way, although come to think of it, they both kind of have the same disposition? So instead I’ll say that House of the Dragon has elements of all the shows I was or am most excited to see in 2024. Like Industry, it has backstabbing, commerce, and a lot of fucked-up mentor-mentee relationships. Like Hacks, it demonstrates how easy it is for even independently minded people to slip into the role of a yes-man to a powerful despot. (And also, it has fun little outfits and jokes.) Like The Boys, it features magical, dangerous powers and reliable gore. And, yes, like Curb, it explores the grave consequences of bucking societal precedents. Some people find themselves members of a house divided—while some people get yelled at for declining the house tour.

7. If there’s one thing that worries you about the new season of House of the Dragon, what is it?

Grady: The prospect of more time jumps and Criston Cole making it through this season in one piece.

Gayle: Fewer time jumps and more battles would be a massive win, but that still doesn’t fully compensate for the tangled state of family affairs and situationships that can make things hard to follow. That includes Larys and his information–for–feet pics exchanges, too. Did I mention him already?

Surrey: That the show doesn’t have anyone who can hold a candle to the best characters from Thrones (i.e., Tyrion Lannister, Arya Stark, and my biological father, Ser Davos Seaworth). It’s hard to get too invested in the Targaryen civil war when there are so few characters worth caring about.

Schuster: A “softer, lazier, fatter, slower” Daemon?? Say it ain’t so, Matt Smith!

Baker: I stan a feckless king, which is why I miss Viserys so much already! There are many reasons for this, but chief among them is that his interactions with both Rhaenyra and Daemon were some of my favorite scenes in the whole first season. He had a way of keeping them (loosely) tethered, and without him around, there’s no predicting the lengths to which they might go.

McNear: While it’s tempting to think of the coming war as just Alicent’s family versus Rhaenyra’s family, they’re in fact fighting for the whole of the Seven Kingdoms, which necessarily means quite a bit of maneuvering among Westeros’s many noble houses. George R.R. Martin is not a person inclined toward small plots, and there are a lot of characters with key roles to play in the Dance of the Dragons—which is infinitely more manageable on the page than it would (or will) be on-screen. House of the Dragon will doubtlessly trim down the source text, but I’m worried that the show might not be able to avoid getting bogged down in Martin’s meta-tale.

Davenport: That Team Black will lose this civil war and that cowardly fool Aegon will sit pretty atop the Iron Throne. That’s the last thing I want to see.