George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood is an odd book. It’s a prequel of sorts to A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF), but it is written as an in-universe history book by Grand Maester Gyldayn, rather than the POV-based narrative of the main series. This helps it cover a much larger time period, as it details the first 140 or so years of Targaryen rule over Westeros, while skipping most of the dialogue and moment-to-moment scenes that the characters go through. Do not think, though, that the book is just a Wiki page in print format, as it is not nearly as bland or sterile as those. Indeed, the book is a veritable page-turner, and its fictional author makes you both enjoy his occasional remarks and flavorful text, and condemn his obvious biases. This is a good thing, as the book clocks in at around 700 pages in my UK hardcover copy. It’s a lot, and it’s just half of a planned duology. Typical George.

The book can be roughly divided into 4 major “eras”: the conquest of Westeros by king Aegon I Targaryen and his sisters; the miserable reign of his son, Maegor I, and the first blood spilled between Targaryens; the reign of the Old King, Jaehaerys I, which sparked a golden age; and the big Targaryen succession war, the Dance of the Dragons, as well as its aftermath. For context, this follows a period from 0 AC to 136 AC, while the main series starts in 298 AC. Sometimes an entire year spans a chapter, while at others we may go by a decade in just a few pages. Still, there is hardly ever a dull moment, even during the most peaceful and uneventful years of the Targaryen rule.

The Dance of the Dragons (not to be confused with A Dance with Dragons, the fifth book of A Song of Ice and Fire, or ASOIAF) is of particular interest in this day and age, though, as it serves as the basis for the upcoming House of the Dragon HBO show (abbreviated as HOTD, or, as George likes to put it, Hot D), which at the time of writing is debuting this weekend. The Dance, in the book, is a supremely complex affair, and very reminiscent of the main conflict of ASOIAF: there are illegitimate children disguised as legitimate, there is a Varys-like figure pulling strings, there are religious fanatics and rioters, there is incest, and fratricide, and tongue-ripping, and an excessively high death count. Everything and anything that made ASOIAF and the early seasons of Game of Thrones great is present in this story… but this time, everyone has a dragon, too. The dragons add a very interesting element to the war, one similar to nuclear deterrence and mutual annihilation.

The trailers and teasers already make it very clear that they are not cheapening out on the dragons, and that they will do justice to their colourfulness (remember how hard it was to distinguish Rhaegal from Viserion in Game of Thrones?) However, the dragons are hardly the most difficult part of this story to put on screen. Indeed, they pale in comparison to the many characters that are involved in this tale. The many, many characters. The Targaryens are a particularly prolific sort, and the foreign-sounding nature of their names, coupled with the weird family dynamics of brother marrying sister and of people constantly remarrying after the death of a spouse, make it really hard to follow who is who. The show will also have to do most of the heavy-lifting in terms of characterization and the moment-to-moment interactions of these characters, as the book, being written from a historical perspective, naturally skips over these things. There is a lot of freedom here, and they should take this opportunity to really make us care about the characters - there are a great many deaths in the book that fall flat because you can barely remember who that character was, and much less if they had it coming or not.

Given this, what should we expect story-wise, in this first season? Well, we could start by discussing, in a spoiler-friendly fashion, what the Dance is all about. The seeds for the Dance are laid during the reign of king Viserys I Targaryen. It is a peaceful and prosperous time, and Viserys, while not redoubtable, is generally considered to be a good king… but one without a male heir. Given his immense love for his single daughter, Rhaenyra, he proclaims her as his heir, and grooms her to rule the kingdom, just like one would a male heir. He even makes the lords of Westeros take an oath, binding them to respect the ruling.

This should settle the matter of succession, or so people think. However, it all starts to fall apart when Viserys’s wife dies, and he marries Alicent Hightower. A much younger woman, Alicent is capable of giving him multiple sons, the firstborn of which being named Aegon. Naturally, this leads to a decade of dissension in the court, as some think that those male heirs should take precedence over Rhaenyra, a mere woman. And more I shall not say, for one can start to assume where things are going based on this setup.

It is this decade that I think we will see depicted in the first season of HOTD. We know for a fact that there are different timeframes depicted, with different actors portraying the same character depending on the year. I think we will see everything from the appointment of Rhaenyra as the heir, Viserys’s marriage to Alicent, the birth and childhood of their offspring, and will finish the season with the war finally breaking out. It will probably be a slower season than most, with plenty of court intrigue and dialogue-heavy scenes, as we need to establish all the players, including those on the small council and all the small Targaryen and Velaryon spawnlings, as well as develop their personalities beyond the scant descriptions given by the book. This being said, I think we will see a fair deal of action too, as it seems they will show us the war on the Stepstones (which concerns two other major players, Daeron Targaryen and Corlys Velaryon, back when they were considered personae non gratae), and there are promises that we will see a tourney as we have never seen before in live action.

Finally, how many seasons is this going to be? They say it could be around 3 or 4 seasons, and I would lean towards the latter. This first season will set the pace, in a way, but the war itself is so heavy on battles and dragon fights that I don’t think they could fit it all into the 2 remaining seasons without blowing up the budget. Or maybe I am wrong, and the war will break out in the middle of season 1, although I find that unlikely. The question also remains of when should they end the series, as the ending itself in the book is very drawn out and rather anti-climactic. I think there will be some significant shifts in the order of events, particularly towards the end, but we are getting way ahead of ourselves.

Let’s just hope a certain court jester makes an appearance, alongside his enormous member.