Hello everyone!
And no, unlike with Game of Thrones, there's no WIP attached to it ... at least not for the era the show's covering.
Which is the best thing possible given we know what happened when the original show ran out of published material and needed to figure things out on its own. I'm not saying it was all horrible, but the steady decline was quite obvious, just the same.
House of the Dragon has no such imminent problem on the horizon because the entirety of the Dance of Dragons is written out and detailed down to the last squire fighting on one side or the other.
This removes a lot of uncertainty and potential problems, as well as, supported with the knowledge that Martin is actually an executive producer on the show and consultant, we all know it's going to be OKAY. Or at least, that's the general consensus.
So without further ado, let's dive right into it, shall we?
Now here's the thing; I covered a lot of Game of Thrones on this channel for years, particularly it's latter seasons, but I don't think I'll be linking those down below. I will, however, link what I have for House of the Dragon instead, because that's the point of this entire blog post, really. And naturally, if you type in 'Game of Thrones', you'll be dropped into the small sea of posts right through the search engine itself.
On with the show!
The book, like The World of Ice and Fire, is interesting because it's written from the perspective of an actual Westerosi character writing the history, like you'd have monks during the Tudor period chronicling what's going on. That in itself gives it a really great feeling, if you ask me, but I will add a warning here so you're not too surprised by the, er, abrupt ending:
the book doesn't cover the ENTIRE Targaryen reign. Unfortunately, Martin hasn't gotten around to writing its sequel yet (everyone and their mother's hoping he will).
This one gives us everything from Aegon the Conqueror down to Aegon III, their greatest achievements, failures, and everything else in between of their sins and triumphs.
Let's do a roll call, shall we?
Aegon I Targaryen - also called the Conqueror and sometimes just the Dragon, Aegon and his sister-wives, Visenya and Rhaenys, conquered the kingdoms on the continent of Westeros and forged them into one single monarchy (literally, he was the one who took all those swords and had the Iron Throne made). He spent a heck of a lot of time on progress, going up and down in his newly-formed land, and he's the one responsible for Harrenhal being the charred ruin it is whenever we see it. People were hella dumb and accidentally turned it into a big oven powered by Balerion, the Black Dread.
Aenys I Targaryen - Aegon's son by his wife Rhaenys, this guy isn't even important enough to warrant a nickname, and his reign was kind of choppy. Unfortunately for him, he just didn't have the charisma and strength of person that his father exuded before him, and he didn't help his cause by giving the ancestral sword Blackfyre to his half-brother, Maegor, admitting he was his better. He aged before his time, the people never really took to him, and he died only five years after taking the Iron Throne.
Maegor I Targaryen - called the Cruel, this was the guy who Aenys gave Blackfyre to, and he was trouble long before Daemon Targaryen started stirring up shit in King's Landing. Aegon's son by Visenya, he was heavily championed by his mother, but never liked, and married a small army of women to assure himself a male successor, which didn't work out the way he might have wanted it to. His reign, like his brother's before him, was plagued by unrest, and he ruled for only six years.
Jaehaerys I Targaryen - now this guy. Called the Conciliator, the Wise, and the Old King, he sat on the iron buttholder for a whooping 55 years (hence one of the nicknames) and probably did the most out of the early Targaryen kings. He defied his regents and married his sister Alysanne, had a gaggle of kids just to make the Targaryen succession even more complicated, spreading them out across the Seven Kingdoms, but he never managed to annex Dorne (this honour falls to a latter king in the dynasty). He and his wife also both worked towards bettering the Seven Kingdoms as a whole, and he's the one who set down most of the laws we see on our screens, got the roads up and made, and generally worked his ass off to get the kingdom in fighting shape.
Also his name is a freaking mouthful.
Viserys I Targaryen - called the Young King, Viserys didn't come to the Iron Throne directly. In fact, he's the king we're watching each week in House of the Dragon at the moment. Because the direct line of succession was confused with females being named heiress presumptive, Jaehaerys decided to take matters out of his hands, called a Great Council, and had the lords of the realm decide a precedent which would haunt the Seven Kingdoms forevermore. They elected Viserys to be their king, and he turned out to be okay, but not great. He wanted to please people, and his indecision often caused his governing body headaches, but none so big or as great as the Dance of Dragons that started after his death.
Aegon II Targaryen - this guy's called the Usurper, and he had the honour of the nickname WAY before Bobby B. See, when his dad died, his older half-sister Rhaenyra was supposed to succeed him, but the then-queen, Alicent Hightower, said nu-uh, mah boy's gonna rule. She staged a coup and crowned her son king, but his reign was NEVER peaceful - see above re: the Dance. Most of the Targaryens were killed off during this conflict, as were their dragons, and Aegon himself ended up paralyzed from the waist down with some other horrible scars. His life wasn't easy, and his death probably - hopefully - gave him some peace in the end.
Aegon III Targaryen - the guy who probably has the most nicknames of the motley crew and the last one in our book, he was called, at various times, the Dragonbane, the Unhappy, the Unlucky, the Broken, the Uncrowned King, or just the King. He had the dubious luck of growing up right in the middle of the Dance, and let me tell you, he saw some horrors. Almost kidnapped, barely escaping with his life after his mother attempted to smuggle him over the Narrow Sea, he witnessed the ruin of a dynasty and his own mother fed to a dragon, then was kept a prisoner for the remainder of the civil war, and for much of his regency afterwards, continuously treated as a sullen boy and not really included in any ruling decisions. Then, once he was actually old enough to rule, he dismissed pretty much all the people who sneered at him from their council seats, and did away with the last of the dragons too, never really loving them or having an affinity for them like his predecessors.
But to be honest, we don't really get to read about it in this book. It ends with the end of his regency and his ascension to the Iron Throne, at which point it abruptly turns to the last page.
Let me tell you though, we're still missing an ARMY of Targaryens before we come to the Mad King.
Daeron the Boy King, Baelor the Blessed, Viserys II, Aegon the Unworthy, Daeron the Good, Aerys I, Maekar I, Aegon the Unlikely and Jaehaerys II still need to come tell us what it was they did good, and what went horribly wrong during their reigns before it all goes to seven hells in a handbasket.
Fingers crossed we end up getting this second chronology of House Targaryen from Martin, or whoever he chooses as his writing successor. Because I want to know!
And I'm pretty sure the people want to know, too. There's the annexation of Dorne, the Blackfyre rebellions, all the building across Westeros, all the dynastic connections. The Targaryens are a house with a rich and vibrant history that's as beautiful as it is absolutely horrendous at times. How DID they fall into total decline, when all was said and done?
We'll just have to wait and see.
Until then, I strongly recommend picking this book up if you want to make heads or tails of how the dragons began their rule in Westeros, and what kind of backstabbing bloodshed is about to start on House of the Dragon soon enough,
Trust me, it is SO worth it! Even just for the hardcover edition book cover.
10/10 recommend.
*image not mine
No comments:
Post a Comment