An essential recap of everything that happened in 'House of the Dragon' season 2 to prepare for the new season

“The seeds of war are oft planted during times of peace.

So has it been in Westeros.” That’s according to George R.

Martin’s “Fire & Blood,” the fictional history book and source material for “House of the Dragon.” When the series premiered in 2022, it embodied this observation.

The first season of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” prequel laid the groundwork for the disastrous Targaryen civil war, known as the Dance of the Dragons, by exploring the family’s relationships, power struggles, and budding resentments while King Viserys the Peaceful sat on the Iron Throne. “House of the Dragon” season one was dense and fast-paced, spanning multiple decades of the royal family’s lives.

Its successor, however, was a slow burn.

Season two, which aired in 2024, featured slow, painstaking plotlines that unfurled over several episodes — sometimes to the audience’s chagrin.

But those seeds will surely bear fruit as the characters continue to grapple with their demons and hurtle toward their fates.

The series returns for its third and penultimate season on Sunday.

If you need a refresher before returning to Westeros, keep reading for a summary of everything important that happened in our recap of “House of the Dragon” season two.

At the end of season one, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) sends her eldest sons to meet with the major houses of Westeros.

She needs to reaffirm their support after her father died and her half-brother, Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney), took the Iron Throne.

Prince Lucerys Velaryon (Elliot Grihault), aka Luke, flies to Storm’s End to meet with Lord Borros Baratheon — but he’s beaten there by his uncle, Prince Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell), who ends up killing Luke with his dragon, Vhagar.

Prince Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett), aka Jace, flies north to Winterfell.

Season two opens with a monologue from Lord Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor), telling Jace that he intends to support Rhaenyra’s claim to the throne.

He pledges 2,000 men to Rhaenyra’s cause. “I have thousands of greybeards who have already seen too many winters.

I can ready them to march at once,” he tells Jace. “They will fight hard.

Like Northeners.” In season three, viewers will meet Ser Roderick Dustin (Tommy Flanagan), a ferocious knight known as Roddy the Ruin, and his army of Northmen, known as the Winter Wolves.

Jace also brokers the support of Lady Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin), who promises to send 15,000 soldiers in exchange for a dragon to protect the Vale.

Luke is killed by Vhagar in the final moments of the season one finale.

The series picks up immediately in the aftermath of his murder, with Rhaenyra deep in mourning.

She goes searching for Luke’s body, which prevents her from joining her own war council (and sows discontent among her advisors).

When Rhaenyra returns, she declares that she wants Aemond’s head.

Meanwhile, her husband, Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), plots his own brutal revenge.

Going behind Rhaenyra’s back, Daemon hires two mercenaries to sneak into the Red Keep and assassinate Aemond.

One of them is a ratcatcher who knows the layout of the castle.

Aemond tells them his goal is retribution for Luke’s murder: “a son for a son.” The two mercenaries, Blood (Sam C.

Wilson) and Cheese (Mark Stobbart), don’t find Aemond.

Instead, they find Queen Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban) in the nursery with her two toddlers, twins Jaehaerys and Jaehaera Targaryen.

Blood and Cheese ask Helaena to point to her son, the king’s heir.

As they decapitate Jaehaerys in his crib, she carries Jaehaera to safety.

When news of the murder reaches Dragonstone, Rhaenyra is disgusted and denies any involvement.

She says that as a mother, she would never order such a monstrous act.

Aegon’s council spreads word that Rhaenyra is a kinslayer, dubbing her Rhaenyra the Cruel, and many commonfolk turn against her.

When Rhaenyra finds out that Daemon hired the mercenaries, they have an explosive fight, and she shuns him.

Rhaenyra is devastated that she can’t trust her own husband to serve her best interests — and she can sense that he still resents her for being her father’s heir. (Rhaenyra’s father was Daemon’s brother, King Viserys.

Yes, that means Rhaenyra’s husband is also her uncle.

Best not to dwell on it.) Daemon leaves Dragonstone in a fit of rage.

Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), a cunning brothel proprietor known as the “White Worm,” becomes a more prominent presence in “House of the Dragon” season two.

Mysaria is brought to Dragonstone and questioned by Daemon, her former lover.

He promises her freedom in exchange for information: who to hire as an assassin in King’s Landing.

But it’s not Daemon that Mysaria forms a bond with at Dragonstone.

Rhaenyra agrees to set Mysaria free, but Mysaria responds to this act of mercy with an act of loyalty.

She asks for a seat on Rhaenyra’s council so that she may advocate for the smallfolk in the coming war.

Thanks to her vast network of spies and informants, Mysaria becomes Rhaenyra’s unofficial mistress of whisperers.

Rhaenyra and Mysaria grow ever closer during Daemon’s self-imposed exile, and later in season two, the women share a kiss.

Aegon is impressed by Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) and his scheme to kill Rhaenyra: send Ser Arryk Cargyll to impersonate his twin brother, Ser Erryk Cargyll, and stage a sneak attack at Dragonstone. (This plan fails, and both brothers die.) Meanwhile, Aegon is frustrated with Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), his inherited Hand of the King, for being overly cautious.

When Otto chastises Aegon for publicly hanging all the Red Keep’s ratcatchers as retribution for the Blood and Cheese murder, the young king snaps.

Aegon spontaneously fires his grandfather, who has served multiple Targaryen kings, and promotes Cole instead, a soldier with no political experience.

Otto, stripped of his power, decides to leave King’s Landing and return to House Hightower’s seat in Oldtown.

We don’t see Otto for the rest of the season — until a brief shot of him in the finale, apparently in prison.

After he’s shunned by Rhaenyra, Daemon flies on Caraxes to Harrenhal, the largest castle in the Riverlands.

He intends to use it as a garrison while he gathers an army.

Daemon enters the castle expecting a fight, but he finds little more than surrender and disrepair.

The castle was partially ruined over a century ago by Aegon the Conqueror, who melted its walls with dragonfire.

Still, Daemon remains at Harrenhal because he can’t bear to face his shortcomings.

As the second son of a king, Daemon has spent his entire life seeking glory and approval — mostly from his older brother — and then stewing in resentment when he doesn’t receive it.

His insecurities and hangups prevent him from truly accepting Rhaenyra, his brother’s chosen heir, as his queen.

In private, Daemon plans to betray his wife and seize the Iron Throne for himself.

Deep down, Daemon knows that he’s not fit to protect the realm, but he needs to do some serious soul-searching to admit it.

He finds that opportunity, however reluctantly, at Harrenhal, which is rich with the magic of the old gods.

Daemon begins hallucinating his loved ones like a series of trippy, weirwood-induced therapy sessions: he sees a young Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), his second wife, Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell), his mother, Alyssa (Emeline Lambert), and his brother, Viserys (Paddy Considine).

Daemon also befriends Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), a wet nurse at the castle who claims to be a witch.

She gives Daemon mysterious potions and urges him to continue his private reckoning.

Daemon’s journey at Harrenhal culminates in a fateful vision in the season two finale.

When he touches the bark of the weirwood tree, Daemon sees himself drowning.

He sees his descendant, Daenerys Targaryen, with her three baby dragons, and he sees the future threat of the White Walkers.

He also sees Rhaenyra sitting on the Iron Throne and his niece, Helaena, who has the gift of prophecy herself. (Many Targaryens are known to have “dragon dreams,” abstract visions that almost always come true, but usually not in the way the dreamers expect.) “It’s all a story,” Helaena tells Daemon. “And you’re but one part in it.

You know your part.” The vision helps Daemon come to terms with his role — not as a ruler in his own right, but as Rhaenyra’s right-hand man.

In his final scenes of season two, he fulfills his promise to rally a host of Rivermen for his queen, and he finally bends the knee.

Rhaenyra still doesn’t quite trust Daemon, and she resents that her supporters look to him for strength.

But it looks like they’re on the path to becoming true partners again.

Having grown up with the Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), Rhaenyra believes she can convince her former friend to prevent all-out war.

She has Mysaria arrange a secret meeting with Alicent at the Sept of Baelor, where they won’t be watched by spies or royal guards.

Rhaenyra tells Alicent she’s keen to avoid bloodshed and hopes to “uncover some path toward peace.” Alicent refuses, largely because she fears Rhaenyra had a hand in the murder of her grandson. (She didn’t.) Alicent also continues to insist that King Viserys changed his mind on his deathbed and chose Aegon to succeed him (instead of his long-standing heir, Rhaenyra).

When Rhaenyra asks to hear the details of that deathbed conversation, Alicent reveals, “He was weary.

It was hard, at times, to understand.

He said he was the prince that was promised to unite the realm.” In that instant, Rhaenyra realizes Alicent’s mix-up.

Alicent is not lying; she truly believes that Viserys changed his mind.

But Alicent doesn’t know about the Azor Ahai prophecy, which is passed down from each Targaryen king to his heir.

The prophecy says a Prince That Was Promised will be reborn under a bleeding star to save the realm from darkness.

In “Game of Thrones,” it becomes clear that the darkness refers to the White Walkers.

The prophesier, Aegon the Conqueror, called his dream the Song of Ice and Fire.

He believed a Targaryen would need to be in charge when the darkness came, to unite the kingdoms against a common foe.

Rhaenyra tells Alicent that she misunderstood Viserys’ words, that he was referring to Aegon the Conqueror, not her teenage son with the same name.

But blood has already been shed, and Alicent isn’t ready to admit that she made a mistake.

She tells Rhaenyra to leave King’s Landing.

In episode four, “The Red Dragon and the Gold,” Aemond and Cole set a trap by marching on Rook’s Rest, a small castle in the Crownlands.

Rook’s Rest is controlled by House Staunton, Rhaenyra’s loyal supporters, so they expect her to fly to the castle’s aid — or send someone else to fly in her stead.

Meanwhile, Aemond will wait with Vhagar in the shadows to launch a sneak attack.

Indeed, Rhaenyra’s council knows that Cole is daring them to respond.

But they want to send a dragon anyway.

Rhaenyra offers to meet Cole’s army — as does her son, Jace — but Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) insists on riding Meleys to Rook’s Rest instead.

It makes sense, as Meleys is the largest dragon at Rhaenyra’s command and no stranger to battle.

Feeling disempowered by his brother, Aegon drunkenly decides to join the fight on his own dragon.

Aegon and Sunfyre are easily overpowered by Rhaenys and Meleys — but not even the dragon known as the “Red Queen” can overpower Vhagar.

Aemond’s sneak attack kills Rhaenys and her dragon, crippling Team Rhaenyra’s firepower.

This may seem like an insignificant detail, but the decision to parade a severed dragon head before the commonfolk bodes very ill for the crown (and speaks to Cole’s lack of savvy).

House Targaryen’s claim to power is predicated on the belief that dragons are gods, and Targaryens are uniquely bonded to dragons.

When Cole carts Meleys’ decapitated head through the streets of King’s Landing, ostensibly to celebrate his victory in battle, he’s actually sabotaging his own king.

If dragons are no longer sacred and respected, then neither is the Targaryen dynasty — especially in times when the commonfolk are hungry and suffering.

This shift is signaled by the blacksmith Hugh Hammer.

As he looks upon the procession, he describes the dragon’s head as “meat.” Mysaria also tells Rhaenyra that the commonfolk see the corpse as an “ill omen,” not a prize of war. “Do not underestimate your subjects,” she advises. “To the discontented, rumors are feed.” Aemond resents his older brother for being weak and careless, but still becoming king by birthright — much like Daemon long resented Viserys.

Aemond didn’t arrange the Rook’s Rest attack to unseat Aegon, but when he saw an opportunity, he took it.

While attacking Rhaenys with dragonflame, Aemond also burns Aegon.

The combined force of both Meleys and Vhagar is too much for Aegon’s dragon, Sunfyre, who plummets from the sky and crash-lands in the nearby forest.

Aegon survives the fall, but he’s permanently injured.

Burn scars cover half his body, and he’s bedridden for the rest of the season.

He even says the fight made him impotent — ironic, since Aegon’s manhood was the entire reason he was installed on the Iron Throne instead of Rhaenyra.

The aftermath of Rook’s Rest is “pure rock bottom” for the young king, actor Tom Glynn-Carney told Business Insider. “Even though his physicality has changed now, I don’t particularly think for him, in terms of how unpredictable and how volatile he is — I don’t think that’s going to change at all,” Glynn-Carney said. “If anything, there will be more.” Alicent seems to know that Aemond had a hand in Aegon’s injuries.

She’s embarrassed by her sons, horrified by what they’ve become.

When Alicent reunites with her brother, Ser Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox), she asks about her third son, Prince Daeron Targaryen.

Viewers have yet to meet Daeron because he was sent to Oldtown as a young boy.

Gwayne, who was also raised in Oldtown, tells Alicent that 16-year-old Daeron is reliable, clever, and kind.

The revelation brings tears to her eyes.

Although she didn’t have a hand in his upbringing, it’s a relief that perhaps one of her children could still make her proud.

In the season two finale, we see that Daeron and his dragon Tessarion are marching with the Hightower army, led by Alicent’s cousin, Lord Ormund Hightower (James Norton).

In episode five, “Regent,” Jace proposes a plan to recruit more dragonriders by mining other noble houses for Targaryen ancestry: “There are those of our line who never ruled, those who married into other noble houses, their children born with other names.” Rhaenyra initially dismisses the idea.

House Targaryen is said to be “the blood of the dragon,” descended from the dragonlords of Old Valyria.

She says their distant relatives won’t have enough Valyrian blood, and that dragons will only accept true dragonlords as riders, “so say the histories.” Jace scoffs at this: “Valyrian histories, written to gild us in glory.” Perhaps the requirements for claiming a dragon are not nearly as strict as they’ve been led to believe.

Jace’s theory is validated in episode six, “Smallfolk,” but not in the way he expects.

Addam of Hull is pursued by Laenor Velaryon’s former dragon, Seasmoke, who bends his neck to the low-born shipwright.

Addam is revealed to be Laenor’s half-brother, the illegitimate son of Lord Corlys Velaryon — not technically of Targaryen descent, but a family descended from Old Valyria.

With Mysaria’s encouragement, Rhaenyra decides to widen her search beyond high-born families, seeking the “misbegotten offspring” of past Targaryens.

These people are known as “dragonseeds,” often fathered in the brothels of King’s Landing. “Let us raise an army of bastards,” Rhaenyra declares.

Jace, however, is against the new plan.

Since his own parentage has always been questioned (many suspect he was fathered by Ser Harwin Strong, not Rhaenyra’s husband at the time, Laenor), Jace fears that elevating bastards to dragonriders may threaten his own claim to the throne — especially since he doesn’t have the typical physical qualities of a Targaryen. “What if one of your baseborn, silver-haired dragonriders decides he wants to rule the Seven Kingdoms?” Jace asks his mother.

Still, Rhaenyra decides to go ahead with the Red Sowing.

Two low-born men succeed, both hailing from King’s Landing: Ulf the White claims Silverwing, while Hugh Hammer claims Vermithor.

Corlys spends much of season two reeling from two losses: his named heir, Luke, and his beloved wife, Rhaenys.

Team Rhaenyra brings him back into the fold by naming him Hand of the Queen, though it takes a little prodding from his granddaughter, Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia).

When Corlys initially refuses Rhaenyra’s offer, Baela scolds him for dishonoring her grandmother’s memory.

Rhaenys was a Targaryen princess, Baela reminds him, not just a wife — and she wanted to see Rhaenyra ascend the Iron Throne. (Baela herself is engaged to Jace, Rhaenyra’s heir, so she has a personal investment in the queen’s cause.) Corlys is impressed by Baela’s spirit and offers to name her the heir of Driftmark, the seat of House Velaryon.

Baela declines: “I am blood and fire,” she tells Corlys. “Driftmark must pass to salt and sea.” Corlys had so far been reluctant to acknowledge Addam and Alyn of Hull as his sons, partially out of shame for cheating on Rhaenys.

Throughout season two, however, Corlys develops respect and admiration for Alyn.

The boys grew up in a shipyard, and Alyn in particular is a talented seafarer; the father-son similarities are hard to ignore.

Corlys even appoints Alyn as his first mate.

However, Alyn is even more reluctant to acknowledge Corlys as his father.

While Corlys raised his trueborn children in a castle, Addam and Alyn were left to grow up fatherless, penniless, and nameless.

Alyn says Corlys only wants to make amends now because Laenor and Laena are dead.

In the season two finale, still on rocky terms, Corlys and Alyn sail toward the Gullet to join the rest of the Velaryon fleet.

Rhaenyra sends her thirdborn son, Prince Joffrey Velaryon, to ward with Lady Arryn in the Vale.

She also sends her two toddler sons, Prince Aegon III Targaryen and Prince Viserys II Targaryen, to join him. (Joffrey’s father is officially Laenor, while Aegon III and Viserys II were born to Daemon.) Rhaenyra’s aim is to keep her youngest children out of harm’s way until the war is over.

She entreats Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell), who is not yet a dragonrider, to accompany them. “I need you to be the mother to them that I cannot,” Rhaenyra tells her niece.

Joffrey and Aegon III both have dragons, but they’re too small to ride, which Lady Arryn takes as an insult.

She pledged her support to Rhaenyra in exchange for a dragon to protect the Vale — not a hatchling bonded to a toddler.

As a result, she refuses to send her army to fight for Rhaenyra’s cause.

Eventually, it’s arranged to send the children across the narrow sea, to be sheltered in the free city of Pentos.

Again, Rhaena is meant to escort them.

Rhaena is offended that her aunt-slash-stepmother would send her away to babysit; she feels overlooked by her family members because she has never claimed a dragon.

When Rhaenyra’s kids are sent away from the Vale at the end of season two, Rhaena abandons her party and runs into the wilderness.

She follows burn marks in the grass until she finds Sheepstealer, a wild dragon without a rider.

After Aegon and Sunfyre are burned by Vhagar, the king’s army is left with only three dragonriders: Aemond, their younger brother Daeron, and their sister Helaena.

Unfortunately, Helaena isn’t much of a dragonrider and even less of a warrior.

Meanwhile, Rhaenyra has recruited three new dragonriders, dwarfing her enemy’s count.

Aemond recognizes that he’s outnumbered and begs Helaena for help.

Her dragon, Dreamfyre, is large and ancient.

They could stand a chance against Rhaenyra and Daemon together.

She’s had dragon dreams about the war, and she seems to know how it’ll end. “Aegon will be king again.

He sits on a wooden throne,” she tells her brother. “And you, you’ll be dead.

You are swallowed up in the God’s Eye, and you are never seen again.” Tyland Lannister, the master of ships, and Jason Lannister, the Lord of Casterly Rock (both played by Jefferson Hall), have been dispatched to rally armies for Aegon.

Tyland has traveled to Essos to meet with the Triarchy, a powerful armada from the free cities, led by Admiral Lohar (Abigail Thorn).

He hopes to form an alliance with the Triarchy and use their warships to sail against the Velaryon fleet, breaking Rhaenyra’s blockade.

Lohar agrees to help, but in exchange, she demands control of the Stepstones, a chain of islands in the narrow sea.

In the season two finale, we see Tyland, Lohar, and the rest of the Triarchy sailing toward the Gullet.

Meanwhile, Tyland’s twin brother Jason is marching with the armies of the Westerlands to face Daemon’s army at Harrenhal.

After her secret meeting with Rhaenyra at the Sept, Alicent gradually comes to terms with the breadth of her mistake.

She previously thought she could steer the kingdom toward peace and justice, but she is disregarded by her sons and their advisors, sidelined for much the same reason they won’t accept a queen.

By undermining Rhaenyra’s claim to the throne, Alicent inadvertently sealed her own fate.

At the same time, it’s increasingly clear that neither of Alicent’s eldest sons is fit to rule — Aegon is irresponsible, incompetent, and now maimed beyond recognition, while Aemond is violent and cruel — and Alicent’s only daughter, Helaena, is miserable since becoming queen.

Alicent eventually decides to double-cross her family and secretly travels to Dragonstone.

In the season two finale, she promises to open the gates of King’s Landing in three days’ time for Rhaenyra to take the throne.

She also promises that Aemond will be far away with Vhagar, leaving the castle undefended, and agrees to let Rhaenyra execute Aegon as a usurper.

In exchange, Alicent wants to go free with Helaena and Helaena’s daughter, Jaehaera, “with no ambition greater than to walk where I please and to breathe the open air.” Their conversation seems to heal some of their grudges, and the old friends come to an understanding.

Alicent even tells Rhaenyra they could run away together, but Rhaenyra replies, “My part is here, whether I will or no.

It was decided for me long ago.” Rhaenyra seems to trust Alicent, and Alicent seems sincere in her plan for surrender — but in the dowager queen’s absence from King’s Landing, more secret plans are already in motion.

Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), the master of whisperers, can already sense the winds changing.

He arranges to sneak Aegon out of the Red Keep, and the two men escape the city in a merchant cart.

It’s unclear who Larys is actually loyal to, but he definitely doesn’t want to be executed by Rhaenyra as a traitor if she takes the throne.

When and if Rhaenyra returns to King’s Landing, she expects to find Aegon easy prey, as Alicent promised.

Instead, she’ll find no king from whom to seize the throne — and as long as Aegon is alive, her claim will be contested.