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It has been nearly two years since the skies over Westeros last carried dragonfire, and the wait closes on June 21, when House of the Dragon returns to HBO with a 72-minute opener that takes you straight into the Battle of the Gullet. Eight episodes will carry the war through to its finale on August 9.
So before Rhaenyra Targaryen, Alicent Hightower, Daemon Targaryen, Aemond Targaryen and Aegon II Targaryen resume their fight for the Iron Throne, here is the full refresher on how the realm arrived at the edge of civil war.
King Viserys I Targaryen, played with weary authority by Paddy Considine, opens the series ruling a kingdom uneasy with the idea of a woman on the throne. When his wife Aemma Arryn dies during a brutal childbirth alongside their infant son, Viserys is left without a male heir and forced to confront a succession crisis he is not prepared to accept.
Next in line to the crown is his younger brother Daemon (Matt Smith); but he's... a character, and Viserys names his teenage daughter Rhaenyra (played in these early episodes by Milly Alcock) as his successor. It marks the first time a woman has stood at the front of the line of succession, a decision that flatters Rhaenyra's ambition but unsettles the realm's old guard.
Rhaenyra's best friend, also a teenager, Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey before Olivia Cooke takes over the role), is manipulated by her father Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), the Hand of the King, to become Viserys's second wife. The marriage produces several children, including the sons Viserys always wanted, Aegon, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and Daeron, along with a daughter, Helaena (Phia Saban). Aegon, the eldest, is pushed by Alicent towards being the king (against her former best friend/step-daughter Rhaenyra), but it's Aemond who wants the crown with all his heart and soul (if he has any).
As an adult, Rhaenyra, now played by Emma D'Arcy, marries Ser Laenor Velaryon in a political union while secretly raising three sons, Jacaerys, Lucerys and Joffrey. They're bastards, fathered by her sworn protector, Ser Harwin Strong, but Viserys doesn't want to acknowledge that. When the arrangement grows untenable, Rhaenyra and Laenor stage his death so he can leave King's Landing with his lover, freeing her to marry the man she has wanted all along: her uncle, Daemon Targaryen. How very Targaryen of them.
Viserys's death triggers the big fracture. At Aegon's coronation, Viserys's sister Rhaenys (Eve Best) gate-crashes with her dragon to give a warning, and flies to Rhaenyra in Dragonstone to deliver the news.
Those loyal to Rhaenyra's claim rally as Team Black, while those backing her half-brother Aegon become known as the Greens. Alicent leads the Green faction alongside Aemond, Helaena, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), the calculating Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) and Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall). Rhaenyra's side draws on House Velaryon, led by Corlys (Steve Toussaint) and his wife Rhaenys, Daemon's daughters Baela and Rhaena, spymaster and Rhaenyra's confidante/lover Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), and her eldest son Jacaerys (Harry Collett).
Aemond had lost an eye to Lucerys years earlier in a childhood altercation. Now, as the rider of the largest dragon in the realm, Vhagar, he accidentally kills his nephew during a violent storm near Storm's End, the first deadly clash between dragons in the war. Rhaenyra is left grieving and with a miscarriage. The war is here.
Determined to answer violence with violence, Daemon hires two men, a ratcatcher known as Cheese and a former City Watch guard known as Blood, to infiltrate the Red Keep and kill Aemond in retaliation. The pair instead find their way into Queen Helaena's chambers and murder her young son, Jaehaerys, a ridiculous blunder that traumatises Helaena and hardens Aegon's appetite for revenge.
In response, Criston Cole sends Kingsguard member Ser Arryk Cargyll to assassinate Rhaenyra at Dragonstone. Arryk's identical twin, Ser Erryk Cargyll, serves on Rhaenyra's side, and his resemblance allows Arryk to slip close enough to Rhaenyra before he is caught. The brothers fight to the death, and both bodies are left on the floor of Rhaenyra's own chamber.
Aegon's hunger for immediate vengeance after his son's murder puts him at odds with Otto Hightower, who prefers to use the killing as propaganda against Rhaenyra rather than launch a hasty counterattack. The disagreement costs Otto his position. Aegon dismisses him as Hand of the King and replaces him with Criston Cole.
With his marriage to Rhaenyra strained over his role in Jaehaerys's death, Daemon departs Dragonstone for the cursed castle of Harrenhal to raise an army from the Riverlands. Here, Daemon gets those "prince that was promised" visions that every Targ gets, and frequently encounters the witch Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), who seems to know far more about him than a stranger should.
Rhaenyra sneaks into King's Landing for a secret negotiation with Alicent in an attempt to halt the war before it fully rages on. During the exchange, Rhaenyra realises Alicent misheard Viserys's dying words: he was invoking Aegon the Conqueror and an old prophecy (the one that Daemon just saw), not naming his own son as heir. The revelation arrives too late to matter: Aegon already wears the crown, and his son Jaehaerys is dead.
The war reaches its first major dragon battle when Aegon, frustrated at being sidelined by Criston Cole and Aemond, flies Sunfyre into combat without consulting anyone. He squares off against Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys, only for Aemond to arrive on Vhagar and turn on both combatants into crisp. Rhaenys and Meleys are killed in the assault, and Aegon survives but suffers severe burns that leave him disfigured and unable to rule.
With Aegon incapacitated, Aemond installs himself as Prince Regent. He's colder than his brother and far less patient with his mother, pushing Alicent out of the Green Council's inner circle almost immediately.
Grieving the loss of Rhaenys, Corlys grows closer to a sailor named Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim), eventually revealing that Alyn and his brother Addam (Clinton Liberty) are his illegitimate sons who were raised without acknowledgement. By season's end, Corlys names Alyn his heir.
Meanwhile, facing a shortage of riders, Rhaenyra's camp looks into the many Targaryen bastards for anyone strong enough to claim Dragonstone's riderless dragons. Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty) claims Seasmoke, Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) claims Vermithor, and Ulf (Tom Bennett) claims Silverwing. Meanwhile, in the Vale, Daemon's daughter, Rhaena, who has never been able to claim a dragon, stumbles upon a wild one of her own: Sheepstealer. You'd like to remember this for later.
In the finale, Alicent travels secretly to Dragonstone and offers Rhaenyra a route to take King's Landing peacefully, even agreeing to sacrifice Aegon if it spares Helaena and her remaining children. The gesture arrives too late on a separate front: Larys Strong has already smuggled Aegon out of the capital, warning him that he faces death whether the Greens win the war or lose it.
By the close of Season 2, the conflict has outgrown both King's Landing and Dragonstone. Northern armies move south to support Rhaenyra, while Tyland Lannister secures the naval power of the Triarchy by striking a deal with the commander Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn), giving the Greens a way to contest Corlys's blockade at sea. One family's dispute over succession has become a full-scale war for all the realm, and the opening engagement, the Battle of the Gullet, is where Season 3 picks up.