Does HBO Know There Are Other Houses Besides the Targaryens? – Armessa Movie News

Earlier this week, it was reported that HBO is supposedly eyeing a second Targaryen-centric prequel as they map out the expansion of the Game of Thrones universe. The new series, which might be introduced by a feature film (that’s a whole other conversation), would be set to follow the life of Aegon I, also known as Aegon the Conqueror, for good reason. Aegon was not the first Targaryen in Westeros, but he is the father of the dynasty as we have come to know them. Before the Red Keep and the Iron Throne ever existed, the Targaryens lived on the volcanic island of Dragonstone for generations after their family fled Valyria after having prophetic dreams of its cataclysmic destruction.

Aegon I had a dream of his own, as revealed in House of the Dragon, which foretold the rise of the Night King and his army of White Walkers conquering Westeros. In order to prepare the nation for this inevitable threat, he and his two sister wives saddled up their dragons (one of whom was Vaghar, who appears in House of the Dragon) and conquered the whole of civilized Westeros, forming the Seven Kingdoms. He then built the Red Keep and forged the Iron Throne from the swords of his fallen enemies. In the grand scheme of things, this didn’t happen long before the events of Game of Thrones, and the potential series would only be set one hundred years before the events of House of the Dragon. While fans are eager for any new content from the franchise, should we really keep going back to the Targaryens? The answer isn’t so simple.

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Do Fans Want to See More of House Targaryen?

Obviously, no one is complaining about the opportunity to see new generations of Targaryens. This has been well documented following the uproar over the series finale, as well as the enormous following of last year’s prequel. While HBO was considering several different spin-offs after the end of Game of Thrones, none of them received the audience attention that a potential Targaryen prequel did. There was even a pilot episode filmed for a Stark-based series set thousands of years before the original series, but following the finale, fans seemed to have little interest in a world with no Targaryens or dragons. That is the heart of the issue: can a spin-off work without dragons?

These awesome creatures are undoubtedly one of the key elements that made the series work so well. There is nothing more exhilarating on screen than watching an enormous lizard descend from the heavens and burn loads of men alive. Game of Thrones did an excellent job of balancing seething political intrigue with out-of-this-world battle sequences that had audiences on the edge of their seats. Dragons are a big part of striking that balance, and it’s hard to imagine a series without them. Imagine rewatching the series with Daenerys’ (Emilia Clarke) storyline edited out. It would be a lot less enjoyable.

So, the question becomes, how do you have dragons without Targaryens? While fans may get tired of seeing the same family on screen in a world with so many possibilities to explore, it’s unlikely they will feel the same way about dragons. So far the two have been a package deal, but there are plenty of storylines to explore that would introduce fresh dynasties, empires and histories. The obvious answer to this would be to set something in Valyria, the Targaryens’ ancestral home of blood magic-practicing dragon warlords. Unfortunately, HBO hasn’t given any indication that they’re interested in exploring this huge reference point.

What Could Go Wrong With More Targaryens?

One of the biggest issues that could crop up with a series following the events of Aegon’s Conquest is the lack of source material. Unlike House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones, Martin has not written extensively about Aegon’s journey to the Iron Throne. This proved to be a massive problem for the flagship series. As it reached Season 6, the show got ahead of where the books had left off, leaving the fate of the characters in the hands of the showrunners. Things quickly went south as they had to chart out a path to the finale without the novels to follow for the first time. Major plot lines and character arcs were abandoned as they retcon-ed their way through the final seasons to a confusing and undeserved end for most of the characters.

Luckily, House of the Dragon is already laid out pretty thoroughly in Fire & Blood, the novel dedicated to the Targaryen civil war (beware of spoilers), so it seems that the series is already mapped out with four seasons planned to wrap up the story at a steady pace. Although Martin has not written extensively about Aegon’s conquest, the main chronology is mapped out, and perhaps with more competent writers, the series could be successful without solid source material to follow. On this note, sooner or later HBO will be forced to go off script if they want to continue expanding the universe and exploring outside of what we’ve seen so far. Lately, the streamer has been much more willing to take the lead from Martin as they move forward, a good choice after icing him out of the decision-making in the last seasons of Game of Thrones.

Whatever direction the franchise goes next, it appears that people are learning from past mistakes and really working to distill the best parts of the worldbuilding. It’s hard to argue that House Targaryen isn’t the most interesting family in Westeros, and with the recent rumors, it seems we will not be saying goodbye to them anytime soon. Still, it is possible to have too much of a good thing, and it would be a shame to see the franchise oversaturated with Targaryen lore in a way that makes them seem commonplace or played out. With the knowledge that they always have the dynasty to fall back on, HBO should take bigger risks breaking new ground in Westeros and beyond. There are plenty of people and places with rich stories to tell, and you can never go wrong with a fresh perspective.