For weeks now, we’ve been following along as HBO has filmed a major battle scene for the second season of House of the Dragon: the Battle at Rook’s Rest. Armies will fight on the ground, dragons will fight in the air…it’s gonna be a scorcher.
Briefly, this battle begins when Lord Commander of the Kingsguard Criston Cole marches an army to the Castle of Rook’s Rest, which is a ways outside King’s Landing. Criston is there on behalf of King Aegon II Targaryen. The lord of Rook’s Rest, Lord Staunton, is loyal to Rhaenyra Targaryen, who is fighting her half-brother Aegon for control of the Iron Throne. So there’s an issue.
Lord Staunton appeals to Rhaenyra for assistance. Rhaenyra sends out one of her dragonriders to help fight the greens…but the greens have dragons, too…
“A Dance of Dragons” will be one of the tentpole episodes of House of the Dragon season 2
We’ve seen director Alan Taylor on set for this battle. Taylor, who directed some key episodes of Game of Thrones back in the day, is directing Episodes 1 and 4 of House of the Dragon season 2, so that very likely means that the Battle of Rook’s Rest will take place in Episode 4; there are a few other things that need to happen before the show gets to that point, so it can’t be in Episode 1.
Now, reliable fansite Redanian Intelligence claims that they have discovered the title of that episode: “A Dance of Dragons.“
Simple and effective. The war between Aegon and Rhaenyra itself is called “The Dance of the Dragons,” but Game of Thrones already used that for an episode title years back (it’s the one where Daenerys rides Drogon for the first time) and I guess they didn’t want to retread old ground.
Also, the fifth book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series is called A Dance With Dragons, so they’re running out of permutations. Might I also suggest “With Dance The Dragons” and “Dragons Dancing Boogie Woogie Woogie”?
In any case, “A Dance of Dragons” should be one of the barn-burner episodes of House of the Dragon season 2, which is set to premiere on HBO and Max sometime in 2024.
