House of the Dragon Episode 6 was a major pivot point in the series, which jumped us forward ten years and showcased how some major characters have been transformed (literally and figuratively) by time and circumstance. In its deeper thematic subtext, “The Princess and the Queen” examined how conflicts and tragedy born in one generation can be carried over to another one – and in doing so, the episode managed to deftly weave in all sorts of ways that the tension of the Targaryen line of succession will eventually bubble over into all-out war!
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During the after-show segment “House of the Dragon: Inside S1 E6” showrunner Miguel Sapochnik and writer Ryan J. Condal outright tease how Episode 6 introduces an entire generation of kids who have the dark fate of war headed their way:
“In the end, episode six is the beginning of the shift where the story stars to become about the children,” Sapochnik explains. It’s not just Viserys and Daemon and Rhaenyra and Alicent. It’s also this new group of kids. It’s Aemond and Aegon and Jace and Luke. It’s multi-generational.”
Condal makes the matter even more clear when he says “Those are the children that are going to essentially fight in this coming war together. There’s a whole bunch of unsaid, unspoken drama within these families. And Viseryes’ deeply seated internal family problems come to boil over later on in the series.”
House of the Dragon’s Major War is Coming: Dance of the Dragons
While a lot of House of the Dragon’s 10 million+ audience may be coming into the series cold or having just watched Game of Thrones before this, there are also just as many fans who know the history of Westeros all too well. Those fans of George R.R. Martin’s written works have been waiting all along to what the House of the Dragon showrunners are only now alluding to: The Dance of the Dragons.
For reasons that will be increasingly obvious, the Targaryen civil war called the Dance of the Dragons is referenced many times in Games of Thrones due to the rise of Daenerys Targaryen. The Dance of the Dragons becomes even more resonant by the end of GoT, when Jon Snow’s true identity as Aegon VI Targaryen was revealed, thereby creating a challenge to Daeny’s claim to the Iron Throne.
As we are now seeing in House of the Dragon, The Dance of the Dragons may actually boil down to two women (Rhaenyra and Alicent) who cannot find ground to peacefully compromise on the line of succession – and all the power that comes with it. And as Episode 6 darkly foreshadows, there will be all kinds of different ways these parental conflicts scar the lives of these Targaryen/Velaryon children…
House of the Dragon streams new episodes Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
