Game of Thrones’ prequel is back, and season 2 picks up right where HotD season 1 left off. Here’s how much time has passed so far on HBO’s show and what you need to know.
House of the Dragon season 1 did a lot: It set the scene for a Targaryen civil war, followed the waning glory days of a peacetime king, fit in the story of a quick war before it got to the main event, and even traced the dissolution of several relationships (all while forging new ones). It jumped in time with calculated abandon, with a 10-year jump between episode 5 and 6. Given all that was packed into the first season, it would be easy to forget details here and there. Remember how important that green dress was to the shifting allegiances? Remember the Crabfeeder?!
It’s possible you’re saying, “Oh shit, I really don’t.” Fret not; that makes sense! House of the Dragon’s time jumps make George R.R. Martin’s “history” of Westeros from the book Fire & Blood come alive with equal significance. Knowing that every week, viewers would catapult ahead by a few months, or even years, meant episodes could just deliver the good stuff. Game of Thrones found epic scale in the map (which it often had to cut corners to fully chart); House of the Dragon finds that same scope in time. Plus, HBO anticipated this. It prepared an easy-to-digest recap video you can watch to remember the finer points of season 1 ahead of the second-season premiere (as you can see above).
But if you need a little more of a timeline about where — and, more importantly, when — all this is taking place, we’ve got a handy guide for you. With Rhaenyra (now Emma D’Arcy) and her story charting a few decades’ worth of Westeros history, it can be handy to remember how long all these players have been circling each other, or even just how much younger her brother/rival Aegon (now played by Tom Glynn-Carney) is than her. Episode 1, ‘The Heirs of the Dragon’ cold open
Martin documents time in his A Song of Ice and Fire texts using a B.C./A.D. equivalent called “AC,” an abbreviation for “After the Conquest.” In 1 AC, Aegon I Targaryen was crowned king after conquesting his way through Westeros.
House of the Dragon opens in 101 AC, 197 years before the events of Game of Thrones’ first season. We get one major scene in this time period: King Jaehaerys I Targaryen announcing that, after his son Baelon kicked the bucket, his new heir would not be the genealogical choice of his eldest grandchild, Princess Rhaenys, but his eldest grandson, Prince Viserys.
