House of the Dragon : The series that will bring us back to Westeros now

The world invented by the fervent imagination of GRRMartin, creator of Game of Thrones, returns. Here are the fundamentals to fully enjoy watching the House of the Dragon, from 22 August

Well, it’s time to go back to Westeros , flying strictly on the back of a dragon.

And these mythological beings, so important for the Targaryen family protagonist of House of The Dragon , will be at the center of the prequel – highly anticipated, it should be said – of Game of Thrones .

After saying goodbye to the main series with no little dismay (there are those who still have to recover from the GOT ending ) and having welcomed with great joy the news of the collateral projects related to the Martin saga, including a sequel on Jon Snow in which Kit Harington will once again wear the shoes of her most famous alter ego, now it’s time to enjoy the first of the satellite series: it will debut on August 22 exclusively on Sky and streamed on NOW and then it will go on every Monday, for ten weeks, on Sky Atlantic, both in the original subtitled version that airs simultaneously in the USA, and in Italian (from 29 August).

Which GRR Martin book is House of the Dragon inspired by?

A Fuoco e Sangue , a novel released in 2018 (in Italy it is published by Mondadori) born as a rib of the Chronicles of ice and fire , which instead inspired Game of Thrones.

Martin was once again involved in the television project as co-creator and executive producer: this, for fans of one of the most popular fantasy authors of the last twenty years, is a guarantee of quality.

The plot of House of the Dragon

Those who are not fasting the events of Westeros and the intrigues of power to conquer the most coveted throne (that of Swords, of course) will find in the Game of Thrones prequel the atmospheres, the narrative patterns and some of the characters mentioned by the protagonists of GOT in the course of the 8 seasons aired until 2018.

It is useless, however, to expect the return of Daenerys Targaryen, Arya Stark or Tyrion Lannister : at the time of the facts narrated in House of the Dragon , they were not yet born, because the events they leave 172 years before the birth of the mother of the Dragons in House of the Dragon.

The series starts from the event that more than all the others defined the destiny of Westeros, or the so-called Dance of the Dragons in House of the Dragon.

The bloody struggle for power begins when King Viserys I (Paddy Considine) attempts to name his daughter, Princess Rhaenyra (played by Milly Alcock as a young girl and Emma D’Arcy as an adult) his heir, sparking dissent at court.

The decision gives rise to a bloody civil war between the kingdom’s conservatives, who don’t want a woman on the throne, and push for the crowning of Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), an unparalleled but impulsive and unreliable warrior.

What should we expect from the Game of Thrones prequel?

At the London premiere on August 15, the first episode of the series was aired in the presence of the actors of the cast, and the reviews are not bad at all.

Of course, a completely different show is to be expected from Game Of Thrones , which at one point had strayed from its literary counterpart, angering the purists of the Martin saga not a little for some narrative choices not exactly happy.

Instead , House of the Dragon seems more aware, more wise in bringing us back to that cruel and terrible world that is Westeros, without falling into the trap of Game of Thrones , thanks to the author’s hand in writing the script.