Unleashing the Dragon: The Riveting Saga of House Targaryen

In this golden age of dramatic storytelling juxtaposed with visual splendour, House of the Dragon, HBO’s prequel to Game of Thrones, promised to offer an epic of epic tales, transporting us 200 years back to the intricate family drama of House Targaryen. Its first season spanned the highs and lows of a Targaryen dynasty that boasted legendary dragons, with scenes that ricocheted between fantasy and espionage. Join us in a spoiler-filled rogue tour of the season’s biggest shocks.

THE BIRTH OF A ROGUE HEIR

The power plays and dragonfire diplomacy of House of the Dragon get off to an early rousing start, establishing itself as a world which makes for rogue drama. As soon as we are introduced to King Viserys I and his world of dragons and intrigue, his unprecedented decision to name his daughter Rhaenyra as his heir shapes the dynastic conflict at the centre of Targaryen power. It also kicks off an open secret of tension and ambition. Rhaenyra’s mother, Aemma Arryn, had died giving birth to her. It is her younger brother, Aegon II, who should have been Viserys’s heir, according to long-standing tradition. Yet when Aemma died on the operating table, the risk-averse Viserys suffered an attack of conscience and decided to rule through his daughter instead.

RISE OF THE ROGUE PRINCE

Episode 2 introduces another rogue figure: his brother, Daemon Targaryen. Daemon is introduced by mercilessly slaughtering a gang of murderers preying on the weak – a kind of moral imprimatur for the horror he is about to wreak. As both a villain and a hero, he is the one character, in an ensemble show, who is granted the emotional complexity to be both. It is this kind of moral ambivalence that is irresistibly rogue.

FORBIDDEN DESIRES AND RIVALRIES

The rouge undercurrents swell in the series with the kiss between Rhaenyra and Daemon in ‘Second of His Name’, whose taboo eruption across the Seven Kingdoms, and the rogue flame of passion crackling in the midst of political turmoil, is one of the most well-staged episodes. The theme of desire versus duty continues to repeat throughout the season.

A ROGUE PLAN REVEALED

Only by the time ‘King of the Narrow Sea’ rolls around do we see the turbulent core of Targaryen lore and desire laid bare. The scandalous nature of Viserys’s suggested marriage shades too far into the rogue to be handled comfortably, too quickly suggesting allegiances up for grabs and loyalties bent or severed, to play nicely with the rest of Targaryen tradition.

THE ASCENSION OF ROGUE AMBITIONS

It is only as we follow Alicent’s machinations to assure her son’s place as heir, as they unfold in the book We Light the Way, that we come to appreciate the complexity of her plotting from the depths of her well-hidden ambitions. A deeply divisive move in the Targaryen house, ambition shows itself capable of transforming allies into enemies.

TIME JUMPS AND RENEWED RIVALRIES

Jumping ahead, ‘The Princess and the Queen’, in which we meet the fully formed adult versions of Rhaenyra and Alicent, and make their personal and political rivalry rogue central is a masterclass in delivering the jeopardy of both political and emotional double-crosses. It’s the series’ most dramatic moment so far.

UNBINDING THE ROGUE TIES

Driftmark, and what happens after it, then, is representative of how rogue House of the Dragon is: a test of familial bonds and loyalties. Because of Rhaenyra and Daemon’s closeness and their threesome intimacy, their covenant as both allies and lovers lends insight to the show’s ability to weave its rogue romance in with its epic arc.

A ROGUE WAR BREWS

The end game in the season, including ‘The Lord of the Tides’, ‘The Green Council’ and ‘The Black Queen’, is a masterclass in rogue strategy and hard truths. As house dividings and civil war loom, rogue mastery on both the parts of Rhaenyra and Alicent foreshadows the future conflict and drama.

THE ESSENCE OF ROGUE

Fundamentally, rogue is a defining characteristic of characters and stories that surprise us, that they do things differently or find different ways to transgress, to confound or to merge divergent moral codes. The DSAL adage is that our rogue characters and narratives are ‘unpredictable and entertaining’, and in House of the Dragon the rogue imagination is not an elaborating layer of some kind, an overlay of the narrative. The rogue spirit runs through the veins of the Targaryen story like the jittery pulse of an adrenalin rush. It runs from the corner-cutting of one monarch to the conspiracy of an ally turned nemesis. It is what’s surprising and thrilling about the whole.

Now, right on the cusp of a new season, we face the tsunami of ambition, betrayal and power that is also a rogue wave, brimming with scales of fire that will hilariously burn their way into the gnarly underbelly of House Targaryen. The end is of course the next season, but we don’t know for sure as yet as the rogue heart of the dragon continues its relentless pumping in order to unleash another blaze of fire on Westeros.