Insight Editions - Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon: Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty

Emma DArcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen.

M ADNESS AND GREATNESS ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN. E VERY TIME A NEW T ARGARYEN IS BORN, THE GODS TOSS THE COIN IN THE AIR AND THE WORLD HOLDS ITS BREATH TO SEE HOW IT WILL LAND. G EORGE R. R. M ARTIN, A S TORM OF S WORDS

Over eight award-winning seasons, HBOs groundbreaking fantasy series Game of Thrones became a worldwide cultural obsession. Adapted by David Benioff and D. B. Weiss from author George R. R. Martins best-selling A Song of Ice and Fire novels, the series explored the conflicts and clashes between a wide array of morally ambiguous charactersfrom flawed heroes capable of acts of villainy to political schemers whose treachery could sometimes be tempered with kindness. Amid a world inhabited by giants and dragons, the sagas complex tapestry of intrigue, betrayal, and desire still felt recognizable and real.

Set 200 years before Game of Thrones, HBOs new series House of the Dragon returns to the world of Martins inventive imagination, revealing how generational conflict helped bring down House Targaryenonce the most formidable family ever to rule the continent of Westeros.

Created by Martin and Ryan J. Condal, executive producer of the television series Colony and an avowed fan of Martins fiction, House of the Dragon is adapted from portions of Martins 2018 book Fire & Blood. This is the Targaryen dynasty at the height of its influence, Condal says. The house never should have fallen but did because of a quest for pride and power.

In Game of Thrones, the once-dominant house was primarily represented by a lone young woman, Daenerys Targaryen, played by Emilia Clarke. The daughter of the deposed Mad King Aerys II Targaryen, Daenerys escaped into exile following his death, and came to embody all the classic traits of her house. She had the striking silver-white hair and violet eyes of her forebears, and she spoke High Valyrian, the language of the ancient civilization of Valyria, where her family once lived as nobles. Introduced hiding from enemies of the Targaryens on Westeross neighboring continent, Essos, the orphaned princess fulfilled the destiny of her bloodline by hatching and commanding three dragons, creatures that had been extinct for nearly 150 years.

Hailed as the Mother of Dragons, Daenerys set out on a quest to restore Targaryen rule, conquering huge swaths of Essos while freeing slaves and earning public support by championing the oppressed. But underlying her compassion was an innate ruthlessness: Through sheer determination and force of will, Daenerys amassed immense armies, earning a reputation as an uncompromising leader capable of terrible retribution.

As Martins fiction makes clear, that thirst for conquest was in her blood: Three centuries earlier, her ancestor, the steely Aegon Targaryen, had left the familys stronghold on the foreboding island of Dragonstone to vanquish and unite the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. Marching with his sister-wives Visenya and Rhaenys and their three dragonsBalerion, Vhagar, and MeraxesAegons forces easily took control; only Dorne resisted invasion and remained an independent state.

Aegon crowned himself king of the Seven Kingdoms and ordered the construction of a towering castle, the Red Keep, in the newly founded capital city of Kings Landing. From hundreds of surrendered swords, the newly minted ruler forged a seat of power dubbed the Iron Throne, which was held for generations by Aegons descendantsmany of whom intermarried to keep the royal bloodline pure, a practice commonplace in Targaryen tradition. Some of these monarchs were beloved, others were feared, but all possessed the notoriously stormy Targaryen temperament.

House of the Dragon opens 112 years after Aegon established his reign, with the throne having passed to Viserys Targaryen, father to Princess Rhaenyra, both of whom become pivotal figures in the ensuing Targaryen civil war. The new series breathes visceral life into that essential chapter in the history of Westeros, when quarrels sparked by hubris and heartbreak devolve into a conflagration that consumes everyone in its path.

I like to think that my fantasies are character driven, Martin says. Character, the human heart in conflict with the self, as William Faulkner said, is the basis of all good stories, whether its a novel or a short story or a television series. The story has its surprises, it has twists, it has characters that weve tried to paint in what, for lack of a better word, is gray. I dont want to write about pure white saintly heroes or evil, monstrous villains, because most human beings are really more complex than that. We all have good in us, we all have evil. The conflict arises out of that. It arises out of love and hate and desire and ambition. Thats true of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon.

Young Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock, center) sits to the left of her first husband, Laenor Velaryon (Theo Nate), at their wedding ceremony. Also pictured (left to right) Lord Lyonel Strong (Gavin Spokes), Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey), King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine), Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), and Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best).

King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) shares family secrets with young Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) in a chamber that displays the skull of his once fearsome dragon, Balerion, the Black Dread.

CHAPTER I ORIGINS

F IRE & B LOOD

O NLY A SELECT FEW SERIES IN THE HISTORY OF TELEVISION CAN LAY CLAIM TO CHANGING THE FACE OF THE MEDIUM, BUT G AME OF T HRONES UNQUESTIONABLY RANKS AMONG THEM . I NITIALLY VIEWED AS AN EXPENSIVE GAMBLE WHEN IT PREMIERED IN A PRIL 2011, THE LAVISH FANTASY SERIES QUICKLY EVOLVED INTO A WORLDWIDE OBSESSION AS IT PUSHED THE BOUNDARIES OF WHAT EPISODIC STORYTELLING MIGHT ACHIEVE. I TS BREATHTAKING VISUALS RIVALED THE MOST SPECTACLE-LADEN FEATURE FILMS, WITH FIRE-BREATHING DRAGONS SOARING THROUGH THE SKIES AND EPIC BATTLES BETWEEN RIVAL ARMIES UNFOLDING ON DESOLATE BATTLEFIELDS .