Game of Thrones is finally headed to the big screen, and it must include one of the franchise’s major retcons in order to help its story. After years of redefining ideas of what TV could be and shifting the landscape to be more cinematic, it’s now looking to prove itself as a bona fide movie franchise as well with Aegon’s Conquest. Written by Beau Willimon (House of Cards, Andor), it’ll tell the story of how Aegon Targaryen, along with his sister-wives, Rhaenys and Visenya, and three dragons, conquered and unified Westeros, around 300 years before the story of Daenerys Targaryen, Jon Snow, et al.
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The project was originally developed as a TV series by The Batman writer Mattson Tomlin, before Willimon’s movie version was put into development (it’s currently unclear whether anything will still happen with it on the small screen). It’s easy to see why Warner Bros. would choose this as the first Game of Thrones film: it is the Targaryen story, and crucially, it has three massive dragons, including Balerion the Black Dread, the biggest that Westeros has ever seen. It should be an incredible spectacle, and I know I’ll be seated in IMAX on day one, but I still have some reservations that one franchise change could help with.
Aegon’s Conquest Isn’t That Interesting A Story
Aegon’s Conquest defines the 300 years that follow, establishing the Targaryen dynasty and changing Westeros into the Seven Kingdoms we know from the various shows. At the same time, outside of the important lore moments, it’s not actually that interesting a story. The problem is one of too much power: with the exception of Dorne, which used mountainous terrain and guerrilla tactics to hold off the invasion, none of the kingdoms stand a chance against the might of the Targaryen dragons.
The stakes aren’t very high here: we know who wins, and crucially, we know it’s a pretty easy path to victory. Aegon conquers one kingdom after the next, with the kings either bending the knee or paying the ultimate price. A two-and-a-half-hour movie, which this would likely be, would be visually fantastic and epic in scale, but also risk becoming quite repetitive and, well, even a little boring.
Aegon’s Dream Makes The Conquest More Interesting
Another issue with Aegon’s Conquest is that it’s largely a story of ambition and power. These are themes core to A Song of Ice and Fire, Game of Thrones, and the various spinoffs and tie-ins, but they’re not explored as interestingly in this particular story. Again, that’s because the Conquest is successful and the Conqueror largely goes unchecked, and he’s also something of a cipher, so there’s less depth to them here. One change to this is Aegon’s dream, aka his Song of Ice and Fire.
Revealed in House of the Dragon Season 1, Episode 1, Aegon’s dream was a prophecy that foretold of a darkness that would come amid a long, great winter, and bring an end to humanity. Only a Targaryen could unite the realm to fight against it. Or in other words, Aegon foresaw the White Walkers, and that’s what really led him to conquer Westeros (though ambition no doubt played its part as well).
Although House of the Dragon has made several controversial changes to George R.R. Martin’s work, I’ve always really liked this addition. While it wasn’t in any of the books, nor Game of Thrones, it did come directly from him anyway (he even hinted at it as far back as 2018, via YouTube).
In terms of the Conquest specifically, I like how this gives us a greater idea of Aegon’s character and reasoning for coming to Westeros. In particular, rather than a man of ruthless ambition, he’s a figure who is driven by his own divinity. It makes him a twisted sort of saviour within his own story, where he’ll do whatever it takes in order to achieve the goal that he believes will save humanity, and a man burdened by the weight of his own knowledge and destiny. While that doesn’t necessarily mean the movie has to say his actions were right (or wrong), it does at least make him a more complex individual.
Aegon’s Conquest Movie Also Needs Multiple Perspectives
As well as including Aegon’s dream, another change I’d like to see in the Aegon’s Conquest movie is in terms of which viewpoints we witness the conquest from. Mostly, this is told as a piece of history – with various historical accounts in Fire & Blood – something that probably won’t be true of the movie, since we’ll be in the “present” of the action (I assume). That makes Aegon the obvious protagonist, and that itself can help flesh him out and make him more interesting, while also diving more into characters like Vienya, Rhaenys, and Orys Baratheon.
Beyond those, it should also show us more of the conquered. By this, I mean kings such as Torrhen Stark, and what truly motivates him to bend the knee, but also some of the soldiers and smallfolk as well. It’d be great to contrast the nobility’s perspective with that of those who simply see Aegon as this terrifying, unstoppable force, wherein he’s almost like something out of a horror movie, especially given they wouldn’t have seen a dragon before. That’s another way it could make it much richer and more interesting a story, beyond what we’ve been told so far, and give this movie a stronger narrative to go with its remarkable visuals and scale.
Game of Thrones: Aegon’s Conquest does not yet have a release date. Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon are available to stream on HBO Max.
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