Who’s Who in ‘House of the Dragon’? Here’s a Refresher

It has been almost two years because the shadow of dragons’ wings final darkened our screens. When “House of the Dragon,” HBO’s hit “Game of Thrones” prequel primarily based on the e-book “Fire and Blood” by George R.R. Martin, returns this weekend, its sprawling solid of characters will probably be prepping for conflict, the edges distinguished by the colour of the banners they fly.

The Blacks are led by Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy). Named inheritor by her father, King Viserys, years earlier, she has seen her declare to the Iron Throne of Westeros usurped by her youthful half brother Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney); he and his backers, together with his mom, Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), are generally known as the Greens. Now these two ladies will decide the destiny of what stays very a lot a patriarchal world.

Whether you wish to decide a staff or just brush up forward of the Season 2 premiere, airing Sunday on HBO, here’s a primer on the key gamers from either side of the nice dragon divide.

Team Black

Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy)

Long the one baby of the late King Viserys Targaryen, Rhaenyra was proclaimed inheritor by the king in defiance of centuries of custom that held that solely males might rule. She was wonderful with this, having little use for custom herself. But Viserys’s marriage to Rhaenyra’s childhood pal Alicent Hightower and the following start of Aegon created a rift throughout the royal household. After studying of her father’s loss of life and Aegon’s crowning within the capital metropolis, King’s Landing, Rhaenyra launched her rival reign from House Targaryen’s ancestral island house, Dragonstone.

The mercurial Daemon is Rhaenyra’s uncle, second husband and king-consort. He can also be the rationale she was named inheritor within the first place: Viserys feared what he would possibly do with the ability of the crown if he inherited it. Bonded with the sinuous purple dragon Caraxes, he’s essentially the most skilled and harmful dragon-riding warrior within the realm. His devotion to Rhaenyra’s trigger, nevertheless, may give approach to insubordination and abusive habits.

Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint)

The head of a proud home that, just like the royal household, traces its lineage again to the misplaced empire of Valyria, the person they name the Sea Snake is the best sailor, explorer and admiral within the historical past of the Seven Kingdoms. He has allied with Rhaenyra and Daemon regardless of a standard notion that they’re guilty, straight or not directly, for the deaths of his personal youngsters: their former spouses, Laenor (believed murdered) and Laena (who died in childbirth). Corlys’s highly effective fleet rivals the dragons in its significance to the approaching conflict.

Rhaenys is named the Queen Who Never Was, having been handed over as inheritor to the Iron Throne for her youthful male cousin, Viserys. Since then she has emerged as an equal associate to her husband, Lord Corlys. Though unwilling to ignite the conflict herself by burning Rhaenyra’s rivals throughout her dragon-borne escape — from King’s Landing, she has since taken the would-be queen’s aspect.

Prince Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett)

The official story is that Jacaerys, Lucerys and Joffrey are Rhaenyra’s sons by her dead husband, Ser Laenor Velaryon. In reality, Laenor — who’s secretly alive and nicely together with his boyfriend someplace — shouldn’t be the organic father of any of them, a reasonably apparent truth that’s the reason for a lot of the animus towards Rhaenyra among the many sprawling royal household. (Unlike their father, Laenor, whose hair is Valyrian white-blonde, the brothers have the darkish hair of their true organic father, Ser Harwin Strong, who was killed later in an act of arson orchestrated by his personal brother, Larys.) Nevertheless, Jace is now an inheritor to the Iron Throne by way of his mom, and he has flown loyally to the North to win over House Stark.

Lady Baela and Lady Rhaena Targaryen (Bethany Antonia and Phoebe Campbell)

Baela and her youthful sister, Rhaena, are the daughters of Daemon and his first spouse, Laena Velaryon, who later died throughout one of many first season’s horrible start scenes. Baela, who has a dragon, and Rhaena, who doesn’t, have been betrothed to Jacaerys and his youthful brother, Lucerys, with a purpose to unite additional the 2 nice Valyrian homes. Luke’s loss of life within the skies above the citadel of Storm’s End, within the Season 1 finale, thwarted half of that plan.

Aegon and Viserys

Rhaenyra has two different residing youngsters, every by Daemon: Aegon and Viserys. (A 3rd, Visenya, a daughter, died at start.)

A former slave and prostitute turned spymaster generally known as the White Worm, the foreign-born Mysaria was as soon as Daemon’s lover. His reckless disregard for her security, nevertheless, drove her right into a transactional alliance with the king’s hand, Otto Hightower. This partnership was forcibly severed when brokers engaged on behalf of Queen Alicent burned down her home, hoping to weaken Otto’s grip on energy. Mysaria’s present standing is unknown, although Mizuno has been confirmed for the solid of Season 2.

Team Green

Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke)

Although miscommunication and wishful considering finally drove Alicent to assist maneuver her son Aegon onto the Iron Throne, her success was the end result of years of planning that started when Alicent was a toddler. Her father, Otto, had positioned her as a alternative for the grieving king’s dead spouse, regardless of Alicent’s friendship with Viserys’s daughter and inheritor, Rhaenyra.

King Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney)

Traditionally, there would have been no query that Viserys’s eldest son, Aegon, ought to succeed his father as king. But Viserys’s particular association for Rhaenyra modified the equation — or let Aegon off the hook, as he might need put till just lately. A shirker, a wastrel, a rapist and a frequenter of preventing pits the place youngsters battle, Aegon was reluctant to take the crown. But he appeared fairly comfy as soon as his mom and grandfather gave it to him. Aegon now sits the Iron Throne and bears the crown, sword and identify of his conquering ancestor, Aegon I — three symbols of legitimacy his half sister can’t match.

Three kings in a row have relied on the service of Otto Hightower as Hand, having made him one of the influential figures in Westeros for a few years. It was his scheming that united Alicent with Viserys and put Aegon on the throne. Otto’s older brother is the Lord of Oldtown, the religious and mental capital of the Seven Kingdoms and maybe the richest metropolis within the realm.

Prince Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell)

Years in the past, Aegon’s youthful brother, Aemond, received right into a scuffle with Lucerys Velaryon over management of Vhagar, the oldest and largest residing dragon. Aemond misplaced an eye fixed however gained the dragon — a good commerce, he finally concluded, as a result of the beast made him essentially the most harmful warlord in Westeros. Aemond’s disastrous try to play rooster with Luke and his a lot smaller dragon goaded Vhagar into killing the boy and his dragon, putting the primary actual blow within the Dance of the Dragons.

Queen Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban)

Alicent and Viserys’s solely daughter is reduce from a distinct material than her headstrong brothers. A quiet younger girl drawn extra to arthropods than to folks, together with her brother-husband, Aegon, she seems to have the reward of prophecy. But not even she appears to know her personal cryptic utterances as such.

Jaehaerys, Jaehaera and Daeron

Aegon and Helaena have twin youngsters, a boy and inheritor named Jaehaerys and a lady named Jaehaera. Daeron, the final of Alicent and Viserys’s youngsters, is the twins’ youngest uncle, heretofore unseen on the present.

Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham)

Called the Clubfoot with the attribute insensitivity of Westerosi tradition, Larys serves as Queen Alicent’s unofficial intelligence chief, a service for which she pays by gratifying his sexual fetishism. In furtherance of Alicent’s trigger, Larys had his personal father and brother assassinated — the latter of whom, Ser Harwin Strong, was the organic father of Rhaenyra’s first three youngsters. In so doing, Larys inherited the big however cursed stronghold of Harrenhal.

Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel)

Cole was Rhaenyra’s lover in Season 1 till she entered a political marriage with Laenor Velaryon. Since each Rhaenyra and Laenor had exterior relationships already, Rhaenyra recommended to Cole that he stay her boyfriend on the aspect. He wasn’t into it, to place it mildly, and has since develop into her most fanatical foe. Newly minted by Alicent as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, he drew first blood within the Targaryen civil conflict by killing Rhaenyra’s sole loyalist on the small council after which inserting the crown on Aegon II’s head, incomes himself the nickname Kingmaker.