“History does not remember blood. It remembers names.” That’s the legacy-defining message behind the ominous new trailer for HBO’s upcoming Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon. But history does remember blood. It remembers fire and blood. And this latest look at the spinoff show sets the stage for the war that saw much of both. In an epic tragedy that featured dragons fighting each other both on the land and in the sky.
Two hundred years before Daenerys Targaryen tried to reclaim her family’s Iron Throne, her ancestors fought a battle over who sat on it. Known as “The Dance of the Dragons,” that civil war rocked not only House Targaryen but all of the Seven Kingdoms.
This newest trailer for House of the Dragon focuses on the early days that set the stage for that familial conflict. This promo is our best look yet at the younger versions of the war’s two most important figures, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and her step-mother Queen Alicent Hightower. King Viserys made the realm’s lords swear to uphold Rhaenyra from his first marriage as his heir. But Alicent’s faction fought to install her son Aegon as King following her husband’s death.
While Viserys’ brother, the notorious Rogue Prince Daemon Targaryen, speaks of legacy in this trailer, the only real legacy of this war is that led to countless deaths. That included the eventual death of all dragons. (At least until Daenerys two centuries later.) And history remembers when fire and blood turned on themselves.
The network also remembered the war’s other major players, both in this trailer and with a series of new House of the Dragon character posters. You can see all the posters, here.
House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood. It stars Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans. It begins to create its own legacy when the 10-episode first season debuts on HBO on Sunday August 21.
