After the way House of the Dragon Season 1 ended, it was inevitable that Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) was going to want revenge for the death of her son. But even Rhaenyra couldn’t have predicted the form that revenge would take during the Season 2 premiere. Thanks to a callous act on Rhaenyra’s behalf, the Targaryen civil war is only going to be more intense, as seen in the new House of the Dragon Season 2 trailer.
Warning: the following contains spoilers from the Season 2 premiere of House of the Dragon. If you haven’t seen the episode or don’t want to know what’s coming up, stop reading now.
Rhaenyra’s husband and uncle, Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), took it upon himself to avenge his stepson/nephew by paying a rat catcher and a guard to sneak into the palace and assassinate his other nephew, Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell). When they can’t find Aemond, the assassins settle for killing Jaehaerys, the young son of King Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney).
If the trailer is any indication, King Aegon will be nearly mad with grief over the murder of his heir. The season premiere went out of its way to establish that Aegon’s love for Jaehaerys was real. And if Daemon was expecting to win points with his wife through this action, then he has to be disappointed by her angry words when she tells him that he has weakened her claim to the throne.
Most of the scenes from the trailer are cut so quickly that it’s hard get any story details from them. But it seems clear that Daemon and Aemond may meet in battle at some point this season, since both are focused on the Riverlands as a strategic focal point of the war. It also appears that Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) will keep up her illicit affair with Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel).
House of the Dragon Season 2 will continue on Sunday, June 23 on HBO and Max.
