‘Game of Thrones’, ‘House of the Dragon’
The one that started it all, long-form television at least, is back with a prequel.
House of the Dragon, set about 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, tips many hats to its hectically successful heir
starting with drawing a line between the unfolding events and the lovely Princess Daenerys Targaryen.
There is the kindly king Viserys (Paddy Considine), who worries about not having a son to inherit the Iron throne
Princess Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), the firstborn, is accomplished, the realm’s delight, and would have been the perfect heir but for her gender.
Viserys’ younger brother, Daemon (a glorious teeth-gnashing Matt Smith), is battle-hardened and ambitious.
He is the heir presumptive, but has the throw of the coin fallen on the wrong side? His closest ally and lover is the dancer Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno).
Starting with the crowning of Viserys, The Heirs of the Dragon has Viserys convincing his councillors that the child his queen, Aemma (Sian Brooke), is carrying is a boy.
Aemma tells her daughter, Rhaenyra, who would rather be fighting battles on her dragon Syrax, that for women, the battlefield is the childbed.
Her words are prescient considering the difficult birth.