{"id":106198,"date":"2022-10-24T04:04:23","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T04:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/house-of-the-dragons-greens-blacks-war-and-dance-of-the-dragons-explained\/"},"modified":"2022-10-24T04:04:23","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T04:04:23","slug":"house-of-the-dragons-greens-blacks-war-and-dance-of-the-dragons-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/house-of-the-dragons-greens-blacks-war-and-dance-of-the-dragons-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"House of the Dragon’s Greens-Blacks war and Dance of the Dragons, explained"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You’ve probably noticed a drastic uptick in the kind of fantasy jargon that House of the Dragon<\/em> <\/em>fans like to throw around over the last couple of weeks. From the Greens to the Blacks, to the Dance of the Dragons itself, it can be pretty easy to lose the run of things. Fortunately, all you really need to know at this point is who’s batting for which team. <\/p>\n

Now that the Dance of the Dragons has kicked off in earnest, we’re about to see several seasons’ worth of fire and blood. But what’s actually in store for House of the Dragon <\/em>season 2 and beyond? Here’s what we know (with minimal spoilers) between what’s been said about the Dance of the Dragons by the series creators, and George RR Martin’s Fire & Blood<\/em>which, in a fun twist, has only proved somewhat reliable in anticipating the historical plotting of the adaptation.<\/p>\n

What is the Dance of the Dragons?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

By episode 10, Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) has successfully launched a coup d’\u00e9tat to install Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) as Lord of the Seven Kingdoms ahead of his half-sister, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy). Naturally, this is n’t going to go down well with the Realm’s Delight (Rhaenyra’s nickname) or the many nobles who swore fealty to her over a decade ago. There will be consequences. <\/p>\n

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Photo: Ollie Upton\/HBO<\/cite><\/p>\n

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For the uninitiated, the Dance of the Dragons is the civil war between belligerent Targaryen factions vying for control of the Realm, which results in death, betrayal, and the near-extinction of dragons themselves. As Archmaester Gyldayn writes in Fire & Blood<\/em>it probably would have been more accurate to call it \u201cThe Dying of Dragons.\u201d <\/p>\n

It’s important to note that there are multiple different accounts of the Dance within the fiction of George RR Martin. For example, Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan), the Grand Maester currently serving under Aegon, wrote his version of the story, while other accounts come from Grand Maester Munkun, Septon Eustace, and the fool Mushroom, whose \u201chistory\u201d reeks of embellishment yet wins the prize for \u201cMost Entertaining.\u201d All of these chronicles have their own unique biases, meaning that none of them \u2014 not even the aforementioned Fire & Blood<\/em>which is the official source material for House of the Dragon <\/em>\u2014 can be fully trusted. <\/p>\n

(This is even referenced in-universe in A Dance With Dragons<\/em>, the fifth novel in GRRM’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. Here, Tyrion explicitly states that one of the chroniclers, Munkun \u2014 who purported to write the \u201ctrue telling\u201d of the Dance \u2014 was wrong in that he confused Urrax with Rhaeynra’s dragon, Syrax. As we can all recall, he drinks and he knows things.)<\/p>\n

Weirdly enough, the discrepancies between these accounts are what ultimately afford House of the Dragon <\/em>a worthwhile premise, in that they allow HBO to carve out its own true version of what actually happened by drawing inspiration from all of them. And now, after nine episodes of buildup, we’re finally at the point where the Dance begins. <\/p>\n

If you want a clear indication of what exactly started the Dance, most people agree that the first casualty was Lyman Beesbury, the master of coin who vouched for Rhaenyra when Otto announced his plan to have Aegon usurp her. This is a rare instance in which all of the contradictory accounts are in agreement with one another, although they offer different perspectives for how he died in the book. Somehow, Ser Criston Cole makes even Mushroom’s version, in which Lord Beesbury is flung from a window, seem tame in comparison to his second skull-shattering in one season. Remember how you all liked him? <\/p>\n

Anyway, that’s how the Dance commenced. Once Aegon was crowned king (with a new crown no less, in that King Viserys’ was stolen to bring to Rhaenyra in Dragonstone), there was no going back. And now, the Greens and the Blacks are at war. <\/p>\n

But who’s on which side?<\/p>\n

Who is Team Green?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/p>\n\"Alicent<\/p>\n

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The term \u201cGreen\u201d is derived from the color of a dress Queen Alicent Hightower wore to a tourney in 111 AC (Rhaenyra wore black to this event, which is similarly where \u201cBlack\u201d comes from). House of the Dragon <\/em>has been referencing this conflict for several weeks, with Larys drawing attention to Alicent’s attire as early as episode 5: \u201cGreen is the color the Hightower burns when they call their banners to war.\u201d The show has relied on visual cues like this ever since, to the extent that you can generally tell who’s fighting for who by looking at the color of their clothes (obviously, black is a fairly standard color for noble attire, but it’s definitely a reliable tell for green).<\/p>\n

So who’s on Team Green, aka Team Alicent? Here are her main allies right now:<\/p>\n