The Dance of the Dragons - Part 1

Greeting fellow acolytes. Welcome to another episode of The Westerosi Primer. My name is Liz. If you’re new to this podcast, welcome! I hope you enjoy this journey of all things Westeros. And in this episode, I’ll be talking about The Dance of the Dragons.

Before I start the discussion, there is an important announcement I have to make before I do my usual content disclaimer. As some of you listeners are aware, I’m an American and it is November. So later this month it will be Thanksgiving. Considering a majority of my listeners are also Americans, I’ve decided that I will be skipping a week since most people tend to stop listening to podcasts around holidays.

So November 27 there will be no new episode. This podcast will release again on December 4th. As you imagine I will also be skipping Christmas Day and New Year’s day for the exact same reason. I will however do another reminder closer to Christmas about this. Thank you for your understanding. Now on with the usual disclaimers.

First there will be some potential spoilers for people who have not read any of the books connected to A Song of Ice and Fire. There are definitely spoilers for House of the Dragon in this episode. Some details might be different in the upcoming Seasons 3 & 4 of the show. However I expect the big events I talk about in this episode will be consistent, so you have gotten your one and final warning. So if you’re okay with this, then please continue listening.

Second, the information in this episode comes from the written works of George R. R. Martin and the contributors of A Wiki of Ice and Fire on Westeros.org. Check out the full show notes and other links located on this show’s website: thewesterosiprimer.com With that said, let’s begin!

Presumably you’ve been watching House of the Dragon if you’re listening to this podcast. As we all know, there’s a lot of chaos happening in the show. This war lasted 3 years in the book Fire & Blood. Now based on how Season 2 of the show ended, I suspect that they’re going to make Seasons 3 and 4 correspond to roughly each year of the war though I suspect some parts of AC 130 will be used in Season 4 considering a lot of events happened that year. Season 2 basically corresponds to the events of AC 129.

So for the sake of time, I’ll briefly discuss the events of AC 129 since we saw those events. I’ll only expand and explain the differences along with interesting details missed in the show. I will however spend more time on the events of year AC 130-131 since they are still unknown to you listeners.

As I was working on the script of this episode, I realized it’s too much to cover in one episode. So like with Jaehaerys I, I am splitting the war into two parts. This will allow me to really cover the war and properly discuss the events per the book without cutting out too many important events. We’ll have to wait to see how much of what I discuss in the podcast happens on screen.

One interesting thing to note about the Dance is that this war is based on The Anarchy. The short version is that King Henry I of England was the son of William the Conqueror. He had many children, but unfortunately most of them were illegitimate. He only had three legitimate children. One son died as a baby. The other son died when the ship he was on capsized and he drowned. Only his daughter Matilda was left. However many didn’t like the idea of being ruled by a woman. Out of the other potential claimants, Henry’s nephew Stephen of Blois was the favored candidate. And then the Anarchy erupted between the cousins.

As we saw in the final two episodes of House of the Dragon Season 1, we saw the different reactions to Viserys’s death. The Green faction had control of King’s Landing. Otto was quick to establish Aegon’s rule in defiance of Viserys’s will. Just as we saw in the show, Criston Cole was among the objectors to Rhaenyra being the ruler. And he killed Lord Beesbury, one of the few Rhaenyra supporters there. How he did this was disputed in the book.

Larys Strong also made it clear he was supporting Aegon over Rhaenyra and was part of the Green faction coup. Otto orchestrates a purge of Black faction supporters with some managing to escape including some of the Kingsguard loyal to Rhaenyra and Viserys’s final wish. Otto would offer rewards to capture these “turncloaks.”

Meanwhile Rhaenyra has a miscarriage after hearing about her father’s death. She blames the Greens for the loss of her only daughter, who was named Visenya. Unfortunately this won’t be the only child of hers who dies by the end of it. Daemon places the crown of Jaehaerys I on her head declaring her queen and he would be the Protector of the Realm. If you all have noticed that one of the titles that the King of Westeros has is Protector of the Realm. This is generally considered a militaristic title that basically means they are the commander-in-chief of Westeros’s armies. So it makes more sense Daemon would get this title since Rhaenyra isn’t a warrior.

We of course also saw Criston Cole being one of the people searching and encouraging Aegon to claim the throne. Aegon had to be convinced by telling him that Rhaenyra would have him and his family killed to solidify her claim otherwise.

Otto tried making deals to gain more allies for their cause. He was the one who sent letters to the Triarchy who were Daemon’s enemies at the Stepstones, if you recall from the previous episode. Otto was also the one who sent Aemond to Storm’s End. And well we know what happened when Lucerys showed up after his uncle did. Otto’s response to Aemond was “You only lost one eye. How could you be so blind?”

We even saw Criston Cole being chosen as Hand of the King when Aegon was frustrated with Otto. After all, Daemon had already taken over Harrenhal while his army didn’t achieve enough.

Another really major change in the TV show is the death of Jaehaerys, which we know as a “son for a son.” There are some notable differences between the book and the show. The book implies that Daemon actively wanted to target one of Aegon’s boys in exchange for Lucerys. It's implied that Mysaria helped Daemon find Blood and Cheese in the book. The show has the whole thing being a combination of misunderstanding and bumbling actions of hired killers. There’s room for ambiguity in the book because of George’s choice of unreliable narrators. Also he wrote this fictional history book in the tradition of limited knowledge of the historian.

I mentioned in the reaction to House of the Dragon episode 2.01 about how it happened in the show made no sense to me. In the book it said that once Aegon becomes king, Alicent moves out of Maegor’s holdfast, which is where the King and queen typically live in. It’s also the most secure part of the Red Keep. Alicent moved to the Tower of the Hand, which is less security than Maegor’s Holdfast. Blood and Cheese had learned that typically Helaena would bring the children to Alicent’s chambers to say good night to their grandmother.

So Blood and Cheese snuck into Alicent’s chambers, killed one of her attendants and held her hostage. Once Helaena and the children arrived, they killed the guards that accompanied her. They forced her to pick which of her sons should be killed. She made her Sophie’s choice of choosing Maelor who was a small toddler thinking he’s too young to understand. Blood sadistically kills Jaehaerys anyway taunting her and Maelor for his mother choosing him to die.

Another big difference is in the book, Helaena suffers from severe depression from her guilt and the trauma. She refused to eat or to take care of herself. She and her brother Aegon didn’t have a particularly loving relationship with him to begin with, but they had no desire to share a bed with each other again. She also had no desire to look after Aegon when he was injured from Rook’s Rest. Helaena was not a reliable dragon rider so there’s no point in asking her to join in the dragon battling anyway. Her condition got so bad, Jaehaera and Maelor were left in Alicent’s custody since their mother was in no mental condition to look after them.

After the death of young Jaehaerys, Alicent has Larys “interrogate” Blood to find out who was the one who ordered the murder. Larys would also provide a target list of Black faction people for Criston Cole to go after.

We also saw in Season 2 of the tv show, Criston Cole sends Arryk to Dragonstone. The book doesn’t make it clear who Arryk was supposed to kill but it seems more logical for the target to be Rhaenyra. What’s an interesting difference is that there are no indications in the book that Cole and Alicent were having an affair. Though it does make them look like complete hypocrites. But if you listened to my reaction to Season 2 of the TV show, you’re already aware of this.

Briefly mentioned in the show, Rhaenys flew on Meleys to protect the Velaryon ships blockading King’s Landing.

As we know from the episode “The Red Dragon and the Gold,” Criston Cole is leading his army through the Crownlands and part of the Riverlands. He’s trying to force more lords into either recognizing Aegon as the king or die as traitors. He made his way to Rook’s Rest. Lord Staunton is pretty faithful in supporting Rhaenyra. He sends a message for help. Rhaenys answers the plead for aid and of course we saw the battle and know how it ends.

Some might question why Rhaenys continued the fight despite the odds. I imagine that it’s important to show lords like Staunton that if you’re going to swear fealty to Rhaenyra, the dragon riders will come to your aid. On top of that Rhaenys likely figured she has a chance against Vhagar and Sunfyre. Sunfyre is a young dragon and Aegon isn’t much of a rider. Vhagar is large and powerful, but she’s old and slower due to her age. Meleys is a younger by comparison dragon, but not as young as Sunfyre. Also Rhaenys claimed Meleys as a 13 year old, so by this time she’d been riding this dragon for 42 years. They have the balance of experience and power.

I also mentioned in Episode 1.15 in my discussion of this particular episode, the book mentions how those closest to the dragon fight didn’t survive. So no one truly knows what really happened only that Vhagar got to fly another day. These writing decisions in the show made me genuinely wonder how much of this was George’s insider info and how much was the writing staff’s. The book states that Aemond and Aegon were supposed to be in the battle. So this is where the unreliable narrator and narrator with limited information comes into play. The TV show writers included some really interesting decisions that does make me wonder which parts were George’s input of what really happened and what they chose to do.

In the show, Corlys was of course angry and filled with grief that his wife died. Not mentioned in the show was that he was angry Rhaenyra refused to allow Jace or Joffrey to accompany her.

I’m going to briefly talk about the “Red Sowing” or “The Sowing of the Seeds” as it’s been called in Fire & Blood. I had talked about it when I did the episode discussion back in episode 1.18 of the podcast. However one interesting to note is that I talked in episode 1.19 how they made a notable change in the show. The mystery dragon in the Vale is a dragon only known as Sheepstealer and it looks like Rhaena will claim this dragon. However in the book, a random woman named Nettles claimed it. This is a notable difference between the book and show. For the purposes of discussing the rest of the Dance, I will be referring to Sheepstealer’s rider as being Nettles rather than Rhaena. In the book, Rhaena ended up with a dragon egg that hatched for her and it was named Morning.

So now at this point I’m going to get into major spoilers. This is where I’m talking about events that will be depicted in some fashion in seasons 3 and 4 of House of the Dragon. With this final warning let’s get on with it.

Based on some of the scenes we see in the final two episodes of House of the Dragon Season 2, I think we’re going to be seeing some of the battles that happen in AC 130 in season 3. Possibly we won’t see the actual battles per se, but there’s definitely the setup for the Battle of the Red Fork, the Battle of Acorn Hall, and Battle by the Lakeshore. There’s also the Battle of the Gullet, which is a more subtle setup.

So as we saw, Rhaenyra’s younger sons were going to be sent off to Essos for their own safety. The difference between the book and the TV show is that Rhaena tries to claim a dragon in the tv show. However in the book, one of the three eggs actually hatches for her finally. I mentioned this in episode 1.19, which was my reaction to the Season 2 finale episode. So we see that Joffrey stays behind in the Vale to act as the official Black faction protector. Meanwhile Rhaena, little Aegon, and Viserys were supposed to head off to Essos. Though again in the book Rhaena stayed in the Vale as a ward to Lady Jeyne.

There were a few ships sent along as escort for the two youngest boys. However if you recall in the season 2 finale, Tyland Lannister had been sent to get an alliance with the Triarchy. Well there was a point to that whole thing because just as the boys were heading off, their little armada is confronted by ships from the Triarchy.

The escort ships were either sank or captured along with the ship the boys were on. At that time, young Aegon’s dragon Stormcloud was only just big enough to carry him since he is a 10 year old boy at this time. Unfortunately 8 year old, Viserys didn’t have a dragon of his own and only had the eggs. Also Stormcloud wasn’t large enough to carry both boys so unfortunately Aegon was forced to leave his brother behind. They tried to fly off to Dragonstone while being shot at. What happened to Viserys? Well that’s going to have to be for another episode.

Young Aegon managed to get back to Dragonstone and let everyone know what happened. However his poor dragon dies from his injuries. The young prince would never ride another dragon. He would always feel guilty leaving his little brother behind, but there’s nothing he could have done. Just the same I feel bad for him.

So what is the Gullet? The Gullet is an area of water near Dragonstone. And that’s where the battle happens. So some of the Triarchy’s ships appear in the Gullet and they try to attack Dragonstone. The battle commences.

There were actually a lot of dragons and their riders participating in the battle including Jacaerys, Nettles, Ulf, Hugh, and Addam. Spicetown was the main city in Driftmark and was sacked during this battle. The city would never be rebuilt after this. Ultimately the Triarchy fleet was forced to leave. However Jacaerys actually dies during this battle. His dragon Vermax may have been injured, which forced the dragon to fly low and crash into the sea. Jacaerys was able to jump off his dragon, but he was shot by arrows and died. He died aged 15. So we’ll be saying farewell to Harry Collett possibly in Season 3.

Aemond and Criston hatch another plan. They more or less succeeded dealing with Rhaenys and Meleys. Another major concern is Daemon and Harrenhal. We kept seeing this brought up multiple times in Season 2. So they lead an army heading to Harrenhal to confront Daemon and gain control of the castle. However by this point Daemon is aware of this. So he actually leaves Harrenhal and avoids the notice of the Greens. Where was he going? Well I’ll get to that in a bit.

Once Aemond gains control of the loosely defended Harrenhal, he has most of the household killed. Alys Rivers is one of the few who was spared. In the book she becomes Aemond’s lover, which will be interesting to see if this is included in the show in season 3.

While Aemond and Criston Cole were occupied with capturing Harrenhal, Daemon met up with Rhaenyra and her forces from Dragonstone heading to King’s Landing. Without Aemond and Vhagar to challenge them, the Greens wouldn’t be able to hold the city. Much of the City Watch were loyal to their former commander Daemon, so they allowed the Black faction forces to enter the city.

What happens next is Pretty much the same as we saw in the Season 2 finale episode. Larys helped Aegon escape King’s Landing while Rhaenyra takes over the city. However not shown in the TV show, Larys also arranged for Maelor and Jaehaera to be taken out of King’s Landing. He arranged for two of the Kingsguard to accompany the children. Maelor was sent to Oldtown for protection with the Hightowers. Jaehaera was sent to Storm’s End. Aegon was ironically sent to Dragonstone because Larys was certain Rhaenyra would never think her brother would be hiding there of all places. So basically the rival siblings just swapped castles.

Meanwhile we also had seen in Season 2 that Jason Lannister was leading a force of Westermen eastward. They would head into the Riverlands where many of the houses there wound up siding with Rhaenyra. They would reach the Red Fork. If you didn’t listen to my past episode about the Riverlands, I discussed the Red Fork and other major rivers in episode 1.09.

As the Westermen arrived at the Red Fork, they attack some of the Rivermen there and this is of course the Battle of the Red Fork. While this was a victory for the Westermen, Jason Lannister dies here. The surviving troops head to Acorn Hall for another battle. I won’t really talk too much about this battle because it’s not a major battle. It does however weaken the Westerlander army even though they won.

The Westerlander army arrives next at Longshore Lake. At this battle they not only faced Rivermen, but some of the forces Cregan Stark sent south to join in the battle. The previously victorious Westermen were destroyed. There were many consequences to this battle.

One consequence is that while the Westerlander army is away, Lord Dalton Greyjoy takes advantage of the situation and starts raiding the Westerlands. Aemond at Harrenhal receives word about this huge defeat. He’d spend his time having an epic fit and burning the Riverlands in anger. Aemond was particularly angry and killing off everyone at Harrenhal. For whatever reason he believed Larys helped Rhaenyra so he punished the household in retaliation.

Cole would head south to try and meetup with the Hightower forces. However Cole is constantly attacked by the surviving forces from the Longshore battle. And then we get the infamous Butcher’s Ball.

I would say the Butcher’s Ball is a battle I imagine they will definitely show in some fashion in Season 3 of the show. I’d frankly be surprised and disappointed if they don’t depict this battle. By this point, Cole’s forces are weakened due to constant harassment, supply shortfalls, and some of his men deserting. They reach the Gods Eye when they’re confronted by a huge army of Black faction forces. Cole offered to surrender if his men would be spared. The other side refused so Cole chose to fight. As you can imagine it was a complete slaughter that included Cole dying at the end of it. And this is why it’s pretty much guaranteed we’ll be seeing this battle.

Another battle that we got a hint of in the Season 2 finale is the Battle of the Honeywine. If you guys recall, we got a brief sequence where a unit of soldiers wearing Hightower uniform are on the march. Flying above them is a previously unknown dragon, which book readers could easily guess is Daeron on Tessarion. These Hightower soldiers are heading off to the Honeywine.

It’s pretty interesting that you’d think the Reach would side with the Green faction. However surprisingly the Reach was pretty split. In fact there seemed to be a large number of houses who sided with Rhaenyra, which meant the Hightowers and their allies had to actually fight their way to get to King’s Landing. The Hightowers were actually losing given the harassment attacks by the Black faction forces in the Reach. The Hightowers wanted a dragon with them. However Sunfyre was out of the picture and Aemond considered Daemon the bigger threat so he went to the Riverlands.

Daeron rode on his dragon for their first battle and was able to burn the enemy. Many commanders were killed or captured and had to surrender. While this was a victory for the Greens, this kind of screwed them over. Because the Hightower army was bogged down in the Reach, they couldn’t rally to aid the Westermen in their other battles that I just mentioned earlier. However the Hightowers did end up fighting the first battle of Tumbleton.

So because Maelor is not a character in the show, I suspect we don’t be seeing this in the show. Not unless the writing team decide to make this Jaehaera’s fate instead. So I’m going to get into another tragic situation that happens to Aegon’s other son. Maelor like I said was supposed to head to Oldtown and find protection with House Hightower. Along the way, his kingsguard protector would have to travel through Black faction territory to get to Oldtown. This isn’t too surprising given what I just said a couple of minutes ago about the Hightower troops trying to reach King’s Landing.

To make the long story short, Ser Rickard Thorne had claimed he was traveling with his son. He wound up at a pretty disreputable inn in Bitterbridge, which is a town in the Reach. The ruling house at Bitterbridge is House Caswell, which declared for Rhaenyra. Being a typical greedy innkeep much like the Thenardiers in Les Miserables, he wanted to find any extra money the traveler had. That’s when they discovered a dragon egg that Maelor was given among the belongings. Realizing they were discovered the knight and the toddler prince try to escape.

They were soon surrounded by a mob and the knight was killed. The prince was now a hostage. The mob debated whether to ransom the prince to the Hightowers or to Rhaenyra for the reward money. It’s unclear how this happens, but the mob winds up killing the prince. By the time Lady Caswell’s knights arrived, the boy was already dead. Lady Caswell’s knights immediately arrested everyone in the mob. Lady Caswell isn’t stupid and knows she’ll be held responsible for the prince’s death even though she never gave any orders for the boy to die. So she has the entire mob hanged for it. Given what they did, I can’t honestly blame her. I think it’s a fair punishment given they basically are bringing the wrath of dragons upon their whole town.

Maelor’s remains were sent to King’s Landing and his egg was sent to the approaching Hightower army. Lady Caswell tried surrendering in a bid to save the town since she killed the offenders. However Prince Daeron is too pissed off that his poor nephew was murdered and orders the town to be sacked. He burns down the town starting with the inn where this mess started. Many townspeople that tried to flee were killed by Hightower soldiers. Lady Caswell was also hanged, but her children were spared and were sent to Oldtown as hostages.

While all of this is happening, Rhaenyra quickly took over and started ruling King’s Landing. Many people in the Red Keep were arrested. Alicent and Helaena were placed under house arrest. Otto was one of the first people that was executed for treason under Rhaenyra’s orders. So I imagine we’ll be saying farewell to Rhys Ifans next season. Tyland Lannister already hid some of the Crown’s treasury ahead of time and he was tortured to reveal where the money went. He refused. There will be some consequences I’ll talk about in the next episode.

Rhaenyra would also feel comfortable enough to summon her two remaining sons, Joffrey and Aegon, to King’s Landing. With Jace’s death, Joffrey would now become the Prince of Dragonstone.

Rhaenyra had been trying to locate where the different members of the Hightower Targaryens had fled.

Once she was in King’s Landing, Mysaria becomes Rhaenyra’s unofficial Mistress of Whispers, but she’s never at the Small Council meetings. Daemon had suggested they should get rid of houses Baratheon and Lannister for siding with Aegon. Then they could reward Ulf and Hugh by making them lords of Casterly Rock and Storm’s End. However Rhaenyra refused this idea though she did give them knighthoods and promised them lordships elsewhere.

The consequences of Maelor’s death reaches King’s Landing. Some claim that Rhaenyra was shocked and mourned the tragic death of an innocent child. I’d like to believe that as a grieving mother, she’d probably be upset about a 3-year-old being killed. It shouldn’t matter that this kid was Aegon’s son or a potential threat to her right to the throne. The boy is still her nephew.

However there’s plenty of debated speculation as to how Rhaenyra reacted in the book. Some claim what I just said that she was upset about Maelor. Another source claimed she smiled and just had the remains cremated per Targaryen tradition. Even though Maelor isn’t in the show, I think if he was the show might put something in between those two scenarios like it tends to do. There’s some speculation that Larys is responsible for some of the rumors, which honestly fits his behavior.

There were also rumors that Mysaria had Maelor’s fate told to Helaena, which exacerbates her poor mental health. I’m not sure but it’s possible. I have doubts that Helaena would have been in the dark about her other son’s death. Someone would have told her at some point. It’s said Dreamfyre could sense her rider’s emotions and was behaving wildly in the dragon pit. This death plus other problems with Rhaenyra’s rule would just create a dangerous atmosphere in King’s Landing.

I have a sneaking suspicion that this next battle might be how they end Season 3. There’s a couple of other battles I’ll talk about in the next episode there are also possibilities. However I think this is a good season ender.

Tumbleton is one of the final major cities before heading to King’s Landing. Black faction soldiers along with Ulf and Hugh were sent to stop the advance of the Hightower forces. However by this point, the two bastard dragon riders clearly got their egos inflated with the fact they could ride dragons. Ulf wants to claim Highgarden for himself. Meanwhile Hugh has ambitions to be king himself. They decide to switch sides and wind up helping the Hightowers take over Tumbleton. They would be known as the Two Betrayers.

I won’t get into the gory details about what happened to the town because of the victorious Green faction. Ormund Hightower actually died during this battle so his army was leaderless and became little more than a rowdy mob doing whatever they want. Despite the victory, the Hightower forces just occupy the city and don’t actually proceed to King’s Landing. In fact some desert so their forces decreased. There are consequences to this poor management that will bite them in the next episode.

Ulf and Hugh’s actions caused paranoia and suspicion towards the remaining Dragonseeds, Nettles and Addam. Rhaenyra orders their arrest despite Corlys’s reasoning. He helps Addam escape with an early warning. Of course Rhaenyra is angry about this and has Corlys arrested. This in turn would cause House Velaryon’s navy to turn against her. And there are consequences to this.

And that is the first half of Dance of the Dragons. If you’re interested in finding out more for yourself, feel free to go to the full show notes where I will have links. Though be aware if you do any of this research there will be spoilers to the novels, House of the Dragon, and Max’s future adaptations.

Thank you for listening and tune in to the next episode where we’ll talk about the conclusion to the Dance.