What to remember before 'House of the Dragon' Season 3
What to remember before 'House of the Dragon' Season 3
Kelly Lawler and Bryan Alexander, USA TODAYSat, June 20, 2026 at 1:00 PM UTC
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Get your dragons and your blonde wigs ready, because HBO's "House of the Dragon" is back.
The glitzy "Game of Thrones" spinoff and prequel premieres its third season Sunday, June 21 (9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on HBO and streaming on Max), but we haven't spent any time in Westeros with the feuding Targaryen clans since August 2024, and Season 1 first aired in 2022.
So, we totally understand if you've forgotten a few salient details in the intervening years, particularly for a show with characters named Rhaenyra, Rhaenys and Rhaena.
The new Season 3 episodes pick up as open warfare explodes between half-siblings Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) and Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) and their supporters and dragons. But there was a lot of backstory that got us to the point of scorched earth, flying dragons and an epic, bloody sea battle.
Emma D'Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen in "House of the Dragon" Season 2.
Here's everything you should remember before the new season of "House of the Dragon." Don't worry, we've simplified things quite a bit.
Old King Viserys named Rhaenyra his heir, but nobody cared
Season 1 of "House" was one big table-setting affair, getting all the pieces on the chessboard in place so the violence and incest could begin in earnest in Season 2. Set two centuries before the events of "Thrones," "Dragon" picks up in the reign of good King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine), who has a daughter but no sons and worries about his succession when his wife dies in childbirth.
Viserys names his then-teenage daughter Rhaenyra (played by Milly Alcock in the first half of Season 1) as his heir, the first time a woman has been in the official line of succession.
It's complicated enough before Viserys remarries his daughter's teen bestie (awkward), Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey in the young version). The new couple has kids (a.k.a. potential heirs), including the sons Viserys always wanted − Aegon, Aemond, and Daeron Targaryen.
Alicent's father is the Hand of the King, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), who spends years maneuvering to make sure his grandson inherits the Iron Throne. Meanwhile, Rhaenyra has a bunch of illegitimate sons − Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey − with a lover outside her phony marriage, and helps her husband-in-name fake his death. She's then free to marry her slightly insane uncle Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith). But incest is cool for Targaryens, as "Game of Thrones" proves, so don't sweat it.
The Greens vs. the Blacks
When a truly decrepit Viserys dies, factions break out immediately in conflict. Supporters of Rhaenyra's claim to the throne are known as Team Black. Those who support her half-brother, Aegon, even though he's kind of a tool, are The Greens.
Leading Aegon's team: Scheming mom Alicent (played as an adult by Olivia Cooke), his psychopathic brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), his clairvoyant wife/sister Helaena (Phia Saban), hot-headed kingsguard Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), squirrely spy Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), mousey Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) and the whole Hightower clan.
Rhaneyra has the sea-faring House Velaryon family on her side, including her old in-laws Corlys (Steve Toussaint) and wife Rhaenys (Eve Best) and Daemon's daughters by their daughter (I know, I know) − Lady Baela (Bethany Antonia) and Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell). Her son Jace (Henry Collett) may be a very obvious bastard child, but he's still on her team, too.
She's also guided by Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), a former madame and information broker acting as Rhaenyra's spymaster (and sometimes lover).
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Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and his mom Alicent (Olivia Cooke) in "House of the Dragon" Season 2.A son for a son
Aemond has a particular hatred for Rhaenyra's sons after a childhood brawl cost him an eye. He kills one, Luke, at the end of Season 1. Rhaenyra is devastated. Daemon dispatches some unsavory, not overly bright fellows to break into the castle at King's Landing to kill Aemond. Unfortunately, instead of killing a grown man with an eye patch, they kill the toddler son of Aegon. It's a crime of brutality, which turns public opinion against Rhaenyra.
The war begins in earnest after that, with the Greens taking a surprise victory at the Battle of Rook's Rest, where Rhaenys is killed. Aemond tries to sneakily kill his kingly big brother, Aegon (because now that Aegon's son is dead, Aemond is his heir).
The attack only maims Aegon, who is left bedridden and unable to walk on his own. Aemond assumes control of King's Landing as Prince Regent.
Meanwhile, Daemon, angered that his wife/niece is mad at him for orchestrating the brutal murder of a child, goes to the cursed castle of Harrenhal to claim it for their side — or perhaps to claim it for himself. He spends a lot of time there having spooky dreams and being dogged by witchy Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin).
Eventually, after settling some local disputes and eating some crow, Daemon walks away with an army of men from the Riverlands, now supporting his Queen wife/niece, and returns to her.
Dragons without riders
Rhaenyra and co. have another big problem besides a lack of troops: Lack of dragons. Aemond's dragon Vhagar is the biggest, oldest and most powerful beast around. If dragons are nukes, Vhagar is an H-bomb while everyone else still has lesser A-bombs.
But there are two big dragons living in the basement of Dragonstone without any riders to control them. If only Rhaenyra could find some Targaryens to take up their saddles (dragons will only deign to be ridden by the "blood of Old Valyria," where the Targaryens and Velaryons came from originally).
She eventually recruits three Targaryen and Velaryons bastard sons to ride the dragons. Meanwhile, her stepdaughter/cousin Rhaena, who has never been able to claim a dragon, is sent to the Vale to watch over the youngest little Targaryens in Rhaenyra's brood. There she discovers a feral dragon living it up, eating flocks of sheep.
Season 2 ends with Rhaena staring down the thing she's always wanted more than anything in her life: Her own dragon, Sheepstealer.
Dragons are required for war in "House of the Dragon" Season 2.The troops are ready for war
At the end of Season 2, Westeros is on the verge of battle. The Greens have an army led by Ser Criston and Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) on one side, and another coming led by another Hightower brother. They sent Tyland over the Narrow Sea to recruit the armada of the Triarchy, an alliance of three cities in Essos with which Corlys has battled before.
Corlys has his own armada sailing for Rhaenyra. Daemon has a force in the Riverlands for her, too. There are dragons on both sides, but Rhaneyra has the most. Aegon still reigns in name at King's Landing with Aemond pulling the levers of power.
In the Season 2 finale, Alicent secretly travels to Dragonstone to meet with Rhaenyra, proposing a path to peace that would require sacrificing her own son Aegon and effectively conceding the Iron Throne to her longtime rival and former BFF.
Yet in Season 3, the war is set to begin in earnest.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'House of the Dragon' recap – What to remember before Season 3
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
