The Dance of the Dragons - Part 2

Greetings 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 rest of the Dance of the Dragons.

As a reminder, I will be releasing the next episode on December 4th. Next Thursday is Thanksgiving Day so I suspect that next Wednesday there won’t be too many people interested in listening to podcasts. People in the US will likely be busy traveling or doing things related to the holiday. Sorry to those of you who are not American or are living outside of the United States. I hope you understand.

Before I start the discussion, there are a couple of things to note. 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 may also be potential spoilers for House of the Dragon and other future shows adapted by Max in the future. 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!

While the First battle of Tumbleton was happening, we had things happening on Dragonstone. If you guys listened to the previous episode, I had mentioned that Aegon was moved to Dragonstone. A knight named Ser Marston Waters was with him as his bodyguard. It seemed that while Aegon was on the island, he was able to persuade some of the people there to switch allegiances to him instead of Rhaenyra. Chief among them was Ser Alfred Broome. We actually met this character in House of the Dragon. He was the gruff, disgruntled man who Rhaenyra sent to Harrenhal to find out what Daemon was up to.

By this point in time, he’s particularly disgruntled with Rhaenyra. He was actually a knight who served house Targaryen since King Jaehaerys’s time. In fact by this point, he was the most senior knight on Dragonstone. He was particularly angry that another knight was chosen to be the castellan of Dragonstone instead of him. Aegon was able to promise him rewards for service in exchange for betraying Rhaenyra.

Very quickly, Aegon was able to overtake the castle. Baela Targaryen mounted her dragon Moondancer to fight against Aegon on Sunfyre. Both riders were forced to the ground. Aegon had to jump off Sunfyre and wound up breaking his legs. Baela survived the crash with burns, but sadly Moondancer dies. Alfred Broome tries to kill Baela, but Ser Marston saves her. Baela would become a prisoner and hostage against Corlys Velaryon for the rest of the war. Marston Waters would be named a member of the Kingsguard for his merciful treatment of Baela.

After the First battle of Tumbleton, Mysaria informs Rhaenyra that Daemon was having an affair with Nettles. Nettles had at that point been Daemon’s companion for a few months. They were staying with Lord Mooton using his castle as a home base while they were patrolling the Riveralands. There were rumors sprouting about them. I’m honestly going to be curious how this is changed in the show because it looks like Nettles has been merged with Rhaena. I know the Targaryens practice incest, but Daemon isn’t about to have an affair with his own daughter. This is despite the weird Freudian dream he had in season 2 of the show.

Rhaenyra orders Nettles to be killed, which Lord Mooton disobeys. Nettles flies off with Sheepstealer and we don’t know what ever happens to them. There have been indications she and the dragon fled to the Vale, but what truly happens to them is a mystery. Daemon heads off to the Gods Eye to fight Aemond.

Of course this is the part where I have to talk about one of the battles that I think a lot of us book readers want to see. If you thought Rook’s Rest was an exciting one, the Battle of the Gods’ Eye has to be House of the Dragon’s version of the Battle of the Bastards. Depending on the pacing of the show this could be in Season 3. Though I suspect they might want to hold this off for Season 4 to make it a more dramatic final season for the show.

Nettles and Daemon had been searching for Aemond through the Riverlands, but eventually they arrive at Harrenhal. Aemond returns and knows there’s no avoiding a battle with his formidable uncle. You’d think that with Vhagar, it’s an easy victory. However let’s not forget that Daemon has been fighting more battles than Aemond. Vhagar is a powerful dragon, but she’s also really old. Caraxes is a more agile dragon, which is why Rhaenys actually had a decent chance against Vhagar and Aemond if only Aegon and Sunfyre hadn’t been in the picture.

I’m not all that great at describing battles. Frankly they’re more exciting when you’re watching them than having someone attempt to narrate it. Let’s just say that it involves the two dragons grappling with each other similar to what we saw with Meleys and Sunfyre. Daemon actually had his chains loosened before the battle. Towards the end while the dragons are grappling, he actually jumps off Caraxes’ back. He uses Dark Sister to stab Aemond through his blinded eye.

Both riders and their severely injured dragons fall into the Gods Eye. It would be years later that Aemond’s body was recovered from the bottom of the lake. Dark Sister was still embedded in his skull. The sword would get a new owner, who I’ll talk about in a later episode. For context, Daemon was 49 years old. Aemond was 20 years old.

Turning back to King’s Landing again, I have to give a little more context about Rhaenyra’s rule to help all of you make some sense of what I’m going to be talking about for the next several minutes of this episode. As I had mentioned in the previous episode, Tyland Lannister refused to reveal where he had diverted a bulk of the treasury. This is a major problem considering Rhaenyra doesn’t have enough money in her war chest. What’s the most typical way nobles tend to get more money? Tax everything possible.

Rhaenyra had chosen Lord Bartimos Celtigar as her Master of Coin. He’s a loyalist and a member of her original council on Dragonstone. In fact we’ve seen the character in House of the Dragon even if we don’t necessarily know his name on screen. He’s also a pretty wealthy noble, so presumably he has some knowledge of managing money. Like I said, he’s a typical noble who does the sort of things nobles do to quickly get money. He’s the one who proposes a ton of taxes on the already struggling citizens of the capital. One such tax was actually taxing shop owners for keeping the doors of their stores open.

Rhaenyra and her Small Council hadn’t really done that well managing the city at this point. It got to the point where people were starting to refer to her as “Maegor with teats.” It’s pretty unfortunate that even decades after all this, Rhaenyra would still be referred this way. Regardless of how any of us might think of her, that’s an unnecessarily misogynistic thing to call her.

Anyways, during this time there was a man only known as The Shepherd in King’s Landing. He was what I’d describe as the Westerosi equivalent of a street preacher. Some suspect he might have been a Poor Fellow in the Faith preaching to the poorest citizens of the capital. For a while now he’s been arguing that dragons were demons and Targaryens were the “spawn of the godless Valyria.” I’d be curious to see if this character makes an appearance in Season 3 or 4 of the tv show.

A few days after the battle over the Gods’ Eye, Helaena jumps from the tower window. Larys had remained in King’s Landing. A rumor spreads that Rhaenyra ordered her sister’s death. Larys was a pretty good suspect for this and I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what happens in the TV show. It’s hard to say why Helaena ultimately does this. I’ll be curious to see how this gets explained in the show.

People were already angry at Rhaenyra and her administration. The rumors soon start spreading that Helaena’s death was murder and done on Rhaenyra’s orders. The idea of a poor innocent, grieving young mother being murdered just made people fed up with the corruption. There’s speculation about whether this rumor was spread by the Shepherd or perhaps Larys Strong. I could easily believe Larys came up with it. I’m not 100% convinced the Shepherd is conniving enough to think of it himself.

Pretty soon mobs of citizens began looting, burning, and assaulting others for the next few days. Lord Celtigar’s manor was broken into and his staff either abandoned him or didn’t bother trying to help him. He was captured by the mob where he was tortured in public before he was killed. The Goldcloaks tried to gain control, but were majorly outnumbered and were killed. Mobs basically had control of different parts of the city.

The mobs splintered into groups with unofficial leaders in charge and becoming “kings” in the city. The Shepherd had his followers. Another “king” was a boy named Gaemon. Gaemon was a four year old, who was the son of a prostitute. He had pale hair and the brothel he was raised in claimed he was the bastard son of Aegon II. The various prostitutes at the brothel offered sex to anyone willing to back the claim this kid was the king.

Adding to the chaos is a hedge knight known as Ser Perkin the Flea. Ser Perkin decides to declare his squire Trystane as the new king by claiming that he’s the bastard son of Viserys I. He’d readily knight anyone willing to back up his claim. The Shepherd decides to lead his mob to the Dragonpit to kill the “demons” terrorizing the people for too long.

In the Red Keep, Rhaenyra and her entourage of loyalists were forced to watch the chaos. Thirteen year old Joffrey Velaryon tried to convince his mother they needed to get to the Dragonpit and get their dragons. Rhaenyra refused to allow him to leave the Red Keep out of fear of what would happen to him if he left. This is especially when everyone was needed to defend the Red Keep and Aegon’s Hill from the rabble. Joffrey ran off and tried to fly on Syrax, who was actually in a stable in the Red Keep. Unfortunately, claimed dragons don’t like anyone who isn’t their rider to be on their back. Which is why Syrax didn’t want the boy on her back and when they were up in the air, she manages to shake the poor boy off. He fell hundreds of feet onto the ground and died. The poor kid’s body was manhandled by the mobs who stole his valuables.

Meanwhile at the Dragonpit, The Shepherd and his mob struggled but were able to enter. What ensues is a chaotic battle between the mob and the dragons. I think the best way to picture it is imagine what we saw with the Red Sowing except with 4 dragons and thousands of angry peasants. The chaos at the Dragonpit eventually ends when Dreamfyre crashes through the roof. The collapsing roof not only crushes the dragon but also any of the mob who didn’t already burn to death or die from the other dragons. Anyone else who managed to survive the collapse fled. Meanwhile Syrax had been flying around riderless after dropping Joffrey. She hears the chaos at the pit and hurries over. She proceeds to attack survivors and anyone else nearby. Eventually the dragon also dies that night.

It becomes clear that Rhaenyra can’t stay in King’s Landing as the streets are controlled by angry mobs. It’s a matter of time before they head to the Red Keep and there are no dragons left in the capital. They manage to escape the city and head to Dragonstone. If you can’t guess what happens next, you probably didn’t pay attention to what I talked about at the beginning of the episode. A number of Rhaenyra’s followers managed to leave the city, but not everyone does.

Mysaria doesn’t make it out. She gets caught. She is told she will be allowed to leave if she could survive being whipped through the streets until reaching one of the gates out of the city. She dies from her injuries. I don’t know if they’ll actually go this far in the show, but I imagine Mysaria will possibly die in the worst way.

Unfortunately for Rhaenyra, she can’t directly leave King’s Landing from the port. Her group has to travel through the Crownlands to find another port. At this time, the Crownland houses weren’t interested in helping her. Houses Stokeworth and Rosby only allowed her hospitality for one night each. This is in retaliation for her takeover of King’s Landing months earlier. The two houses initially supported her, but Criston Cole attacked them and they were forced to swear fealty to Aegon. Rhaenyra returns and refuses to accept their fealty and orders the previous lords to be executed.

Rhaenyra’s situation is so bleak and with so little support left, she was forced to sell her own crown to pay for a ship to bring her back to Dragonstone. Among her entourage were members of House Manderly, who had been sent to aid their chosen queen. Houses Stark and Arryn still kept their support for Rhaenyra, but their armies were still too far from her to aid her. The Manderly brothers offered to escort her to White Harbor to perhaps regroup and offer her safety. Another suggestion of her heading to the Vale was proposed. However Rhaenyra wanted to return to Dragonstone so her group split up.

Unsurprisingly, Rhaenyra and her only surviving child Aegon the Younger arrive with their Queensguard on Dragonstone. They’re greeted by Ser Alfred Broome and then they realize he betrayed them when she’s greeted by her half brother who was waiting for her. Rhaenyra is forcefully separated from her son and Aegon orders Sunfyre to burn Rhaenyra and then it eats her. Her poor son watches his mother die with no one else protesting her death. She died at the age of 33.

Alfred Broome argued that the younger Aegon should also be killed, but surprisingly Aegon II keeps the boy alive. He does however threaten Alyn Velaryon with killing Baela if he fails to swear loyalty to him.

Meanwhile back in Tumbleton, the Green faction still has control of the city. During this entire time, they haven’t moved. Lords were getting tired of dealing with Ulf and Hugh. As I mentioned in the previous episode, the two dragon riders were demanding above their station and beyond what they were owed. They were also pain in the asses to deal with. Ulf was mostly a drunk and a sexual assaulter. Hugh was a violent tyrant who frankly is as much a Maegor as anyone claiming Targaryen ancestry could be.

These lords form a conspiracy later known as The Caltrops to kill the two riders and then try to claim the dragons. Not sure how they think that works since at that point there’s no hard evidence that just anyone can claim one. There’s a heavy suggestion Valyrian ancestry is needed to even have a possible chance. However before they can enact their plan, the second battle of Tumbleton begins.

As I had also mentioned in the previous episode, Addam had been warned he would be arrested and managed to escape King’s Landing. Rather than merely running away, he was a man of honor and decided to prove his worth by claiming Tumbleton from the Betrayers and the Greens. He actually flew to the Riverlands and spoke with a number of Black faction loyalists. He wanted to gather an army to take Tumbleton. He’s a pretty charismatic young man and was able to gather a decent sized army of Rivermen to join him.

Literally the same morning the conspirators were going to deal with Ulf and Hugh, Addam’s army launched a surprise attack. Ulf was drunk as usual and was asleep during the whole thing. Hugh tries to get to Vermithor, but he was ambushed by one of the Caltrops members. During the chaos, 16 year old Daeron was somehow killed but it’s not really clear how he died, but he died. Interestingly his body was never properly identified given the chaos, but that’s a detail for another episode.

The now riderless Tessarion is also flying around attacking and Addam goes to confront the dragon. Vermithor gets into the mix since he’s also now riderless. Well I imagine all of you listening to this podcast have watched the battle of Rook’s Rest. Though unlike that battle all three dragons would be dead at the end of it along with Addam. You have to give the man credit. What he did in this battle would ultimately save King’s Landing from an assault by the barely controlled Green army.

The remains of the Black faction didn’t have the ability to do a siege so they ultimately left Tumbleton. However they did come out for the better because they only lost around 100 or so men in the battle while the Greens lost over a thousand. The sneak attack and having a dragon with a rider in control probably did the trick. What remained of the Green faction had to go back south because they were decimated and couldn’t go to King’s Landing like they were supposed to. As for the Black faction Rivermen? Well since the HIghtowers weren’t heading to King’s Landing, perhaps they should.

As a side note, after the battle was lost Ulf found out Hugh died and he missed the battle. He declares he’ll make a claim for the throne now. The Caltrops had enough of this drunk and his ridiculous demands so they decide to end him for good. One of the Caltrops brings out some wine and proposes a toast. Ulf was suspicious about the drink and proposed someone drink it first. Ser Hobert Hightower does and Ulf drinks it. Both men would soon die afterwards since yes the wine was poisoned. These guys hated him so much one was prepared to die to make sure he dies too.

Speaking of King’s Landing let’s go back there now. After the chaotic riots and Rhaenyra fled, you have different factions controlling the city. The Shepherd and what remained of his mob control the Dragonpit and the surrounding area. The Shepherd was still preaching to his faithful, but a large number of his group left since he was a religious zealot and most of them weren’t. Followers of Gaemon, Aegon’s alleged bastard, had control of an area on Visenya’s hill.

Meanwhile Ser Perkin and his squire the alleged King Trystane actually took over the mostly abandoned Red Keep. Trystane becomes the king on the Iron Throne. The people that Rhaenyra had imprisoned in the black cells were released, including Alicent, Corlys Velaryon, and other remaining members of Aegon’s Small Council.

Larys emerges from the shadows claiming to be backing this king. Of course he’s only doing this so he can be in a position to get rid of this Pretender for Aegon to retake the throne. Meanwhile Perkin is essentially acting as the Hand and profiting on the situation for himself. Eventually Corlys swore fealty to Aegon if he spares Baela, which Aegon finally agrees to do. Alyn allowed Aegon to return to King’s Landing.

At this point, Borros Baratheon and his army arrives outside the city. Larys was able to finagle his way into speaking to Borros where he makes it clear he’s going to help them enter the city and restore Aegon. Eventually Perkin and his followers were given pardons in exchange for siding with Aegon. In exchange they have to agree to surrender Trystane.

One interesting fact is that the characters of Ser Perkin and Trystane refer to an incident during the War of the Roses. Not to make this too complicated, but during the War of the Roses we had the infamous King Richard III, who had his nephews Edward V and his younger brother Richard, the Duke of York, imprisoned. The boys disappeared and were presumed dead. Later Richard III would die in Bosworth Field and lose to Henry Tudor aka Henry VII. During his reign, a young man would appear claiming he is the missing Richard the Duke of York. This is a big problem because if this kid really was Richard, he’d have a claim on the throne with his brother Edward still missing and assumed dead. I won’t get any further than that since this isn’t a history podcast. Though you guys are free to look into this yourself! It’s a really interesting story.

Larys would agree to marry one of Borros’s daughters and so would Aegon. Alicent wanted to have Corlys executed for originally backing Rhaenyra. However Larys pointed out that at that time, Aegon was still on Dragonstone and the Velaryon navy was surrounding the island. Therefore he should be spared until the war is over and then they could eliminate Corlys is Larys’ suggestion.

The Baratheon army also went to the other hills to disperse the mobs and arrest the Shepherd and Gaemon along with his followers. Once Aegon returned, the fates of the three Pretenders were to be decided.

Gaemon is a four year old child and obviously had no ability to think for himself much less claim he should be king. Therefore he was spared and was actually declared a ward of the Crown. Gaemon’s mother was subjected to torture and made a confession that she lied about her son’s parentage and that his father was a Lyseni sailor. If you guys didn’t listen to episode 1.11 where I talked about the different important places in Essos, I did mention that Lys had many citizens of Valyrian ancestry. Which means many people there had the silvery blond hair the Targaryens do. While the boy lived, his mother and some of the other backers were hanged.

Trystane was still a squire and only requested that he be knighted before he died. Aegon agreed to that and had him knighted. Alfred Broome executed him with Blackfyre. I will say I do feel somewhat sorry for this kid. He’s a 16-year-old manipulated by the opportunistic knight he served. I doubt the kid wanted to be a king in the first place. The Shepherd being a religious zealot refused to repent and actually cursed Aegon when he was brought to the throne room. Aegon ordered the Shepherd’s tongue removed with hot pincers. He then ordered the Shepherd and his followers to die by fire. So they were tied up, covered in pitch, and burned alive.

Despite the fact Rhaenyra is already dead, the Black faction was still prepared to fight. Instead of fighting for the now dead Rhaenyra, they were fighting for the claim of her only surviving child, Aegon the younger. A lot of the Black faction forces left are the Northmen, Valemen, and Rivermen at this point. As we know, the Green faction is almost non-existent. It’s mostly the Stormlanders that came with Borros Baratheon, some of the Crownlanders who swore to Aegon, and the Hightower allies in the Reach. However as we saw with Tumbleton much of the Reachmen supporting Aegon scattered and wound up moving back south. This is what we have left to fight in the final battle of the Dance.

Next we talk about the Battle of the Kingsroad. As I mentioned earlier, the Rivermen who fought in the second battle of Tumbleton decided to head to King’s Landing. They may as well to be honest because it’s clear they’ve crushed Aegon’s Reach supporters so they should confront Aegon next. The only army left to defend Aegon is Lord Baratheon’s. Despite being the larger force, Baratheon’s army is mostly inexperienced or untrained peasant levies. Meanwhile the Rivermen were survivors of a few battles already so they have the experience to make up the numbers.

The battle was pretty chaotic. In the days before the battle, it had been raining a lot which meant the field was a muddy mess. The peasant levies basically ran away. The Crownlander forces wound up not really fighting and the knights from Duskendale actually changed sides and attacked the Stormlanders. The victorious Rivermen would later be met up with Cregan Stark and his army. They all headed off to King’s Landing.

There’s another Council meeting. Tyland Lannister suggests executing Aegon the Younger, which Corlys protests against. Aegon II is persuaded not to execute Corlys at the risk of making enemies of Alyn Velaryon. Aegon honestly was oblivious and in denial that he was losing the war. He has no army left to defend him. There are no dragons left either. He’s more fixated on his future marriage to Cassandra Baratheon more than anything. He refuses to abdicate and take the black as the Black faction armies are heading to the capital.

Of course Larys turned around and informed Corlys of the plans to eventually kill him so Corlys would agree to back Larys’s other schemes. Larys would also arrange for the captured Baela to be sent away so she wouldn’t be a hostage used against her grandfather. Why? There was soon a conspiracy against Aegon because of the situation they were currently in.

Aegon’s only real response to the news an army was coming to confront him is to have his nephew mutilated. He wanted to send young Aegon’s ear to the army so they’d know what will happen next. Alfred Broome is given the order to cut off Aegon’s ear. We shouldn’t be too surprised to hear he was willing to go do what the king wanted.

Ser Perkin joined in the conspiracy, which isn’t too surprising given his self-interested nature. He and his little gang of followers blocked the way to Maegor’s Holdfast. When Alfred Broome shows up to cut off Aegon’s ear, Perkin has him shoved off the drawbridge and the man is impaled by spikes.

After the Small council meeting, Aegon went into a litter to go to the Red Keep’s sept. When the litter arrived he would be found dead. Aegon was an alcoholic and definitely needed to drink with his various injuries. So most people figured his wine was poisoned. He was 24 years old. So the question of course is who did it?

As the Black faction army arrived at the gates of King’s Landing, Corlys Velaryon and young Aegon were there to greet them. Corlys informs the head of the army that Aegon II was dead. Similar to what happened with Maegor and Jaehaerys, Aegon the younger would be known as Aegon III.

Cregan Stark had intended to continue the war against Aegon II’s allies in the name of Aegon III. However Corlys indicated that peace terms had been sent to the Three Widows. The three widows were the widows of Lords Hightower, Baratheon, and Lannister. Ultimately the women agreed to the terms and the war would officially be over. Cregan however was determined to get things done so he decided that even though Aegon II was the enemy, his death was suspect and likely murder. He basically muscled his way into running the court with no other Hand currently there and the new king is a literal child.

As acting Hand, Cregan had many people arrested on suspected regicide. It was pretty clear that many people were involved or otherwise looked the other way while Aegon was poisoned. Most of the suspects were sentenced to death. A majority chose to take the Black though Larys and Ser Gyles of the Kingsguard chose death. Aegon insisted on pardoning Corlys Velaryon after his half-sisters Baela and Rhaena talked to him. As a reminder for anyone who forgot, the twins are Aegon’s older sisters since they had the same father. Cregan had to obey the wish of the king even though if he is a child. After all, it’s not honorable to defy the wishes of a king even if he is a 10 year old.

Cregan carried out the executions and then resigned his place as Hand after just one day in office. He heads back north along with a bride, Lady Alysanne Blackwood. Cregan declined to be one of King Aegon’s regents since that would mean he’d need to stay in the South for an extended period of time. Much of his forces of Northmen actually stayed in the South. Winter was coming as it always does and they would be surplus people if they returned home. Many actually wound up marrying in the South since there were many widows and women without other men to marry.

Meanwhile Prince Aegon would officially be crowned King Aegon III and he would marry his cousin Jaehaera. This would be the best way to end the conflict between the two sides of House Targaryen.

It’s still crazy to me that this is how the war ends with the near death of House Targaryen. The future of the house would depend on literal children. Incidentally, the real life Anarchy that I mentioned at the beginning of the previous episode had a similar though less grisly ending. Mathilda might have lost the throne to Stephen. However ultimately the king after Stephen died was not his younger son, but Henry II Mathilda’s son.

I have no doubt that what we will be seeing in Seasons 3 & 4 of the TV show will be wild and even more chaotic. That is if they more or less stick with the events I literally was talking about in this episode and even the last one. It’s also been really fascinating to see how some of the characters are similar or different in the show from the book. I have to acknowledge that in this episode and the previous episode I didn’t talk enough about the characters.

However I feel that in order to properly dissect some of these characters I’d need to do separate episodes about them. Also we are watching them on screen so I think we’re getting some decent depictions of them in House of the Dragon. But yeah if you have an opinion about the Dance, you can reach out via the website.

And that just about covers the 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 I’ll talk about the very traumatized Aegon III.