The war has officially started House of the Dragon season 2. And just like the second season of Game of Thronesthat means Westerosi geography will play a much bigger role in the show and our ability to understand it. In fact, the Greens’ war council in this season’s third episode is likely just a taste of the important wartime tactical discussions to come.
The series has never been shy about piling on details and letting viewers piece things together, but with war looming, it’s extra important to keep track of exactly what people are fighting over. So to prepare you for the Targaryen Civil War, here’s a quick rundown of what everyone was talking about in Episode 3 and why fighting over the Riverlands is so damn important for both sides.
(Ed. remark: This story contains spoilers for House of the Dragon season 2, through episode 3.)
The first key to understanding the importance of the Riverlands in the Dance of Dragons is to understand its geographical place in the story. Here’s a map in case you need a refresher:
Graphic: Austen Goslin | Image source: Tear through A Wiki of ice and fire
As we can see, unlike the battles in season 2 between the Lannisters in King’s Landing and the Starks in Winterfell in Game of Thronesthere is no distance between them at all House of the Dragon‘s two Targaryen factions. In fact, there’s only Blackwater Bay on one side and the Riverlands on the other. And the Riverlands practically surround the small islands of Dragonstone and Driftmark, where Rhaenyra and her allies currently reside.
Another important facet to understanding the Riverlands is understanding the Tullys. House Tully are the lords of Riverrun and have traditionally been the stabilizing force in the region. However, as Jason Lannister notes in the small council meeting of King’s Landing, the Tullys are currently led by Grover Tully, an old man unable to hold his own house together, let alone the rest of the Riverlands as they move towards open war. . This means that the region is almost entirely up for grabs and in very open conflict – as we see at the beginning of the episode with the Blackwoods and the Brackens.
This power vacuum is precisely what drives Ser Criston Cole, the newly promoted Hand of the King, to the conclusion that he must forcibly take a small team into the Riverlands in order to align the various castles and their lords under the crown . To conclude his plan, Criston says he will take Harrenhal, putting the region completely under King Aegon’s control.
Daemon, on the other hand, simply flies straight to Harrenhal, deciding that he and his dragon Caraxes were probably enough to take the castle by surrender. When he arrives, he discovers that he was entirely right, and perhaps wasting his time. The dark, dank corridors of Harrenhal are as ravaged as they have been since the death of Harren the Black, and the castle doesn’t seem to offer much fighting power at all.
Harrenhal’s general lack of power means Criston is on his way to an essentially worthless prize, but the allies he picks up along the way are what really matters here. As you can see if you look back at the map, controlling the Riverlands for the Greens would essentially mean cutting off the Blacks’ stronghold in Dragonstone from the rest of Westeros. Sure, they can reach allies by sea, but the only nearby port for Rhaenyra is Rook’s Rest – which could be another potential Riverlands prize for Criston to win. But without those few towns in the region, Blacks would be quarantined on their small islands and struggle to survive for long.
If this all sounds pretty bad for the Blacks, that’s because technically it is. Their side has the strongest navy, and so Ser Corlys Velaryon blocks the entrance to Blackwater Bay, effectively preventing any charges from entering King’s Landing. But that is their only real strength. If Daemon can somehow gather an army at Harrenhal, or turn his massive dragon on Criston’s forces, then their fortunes could certainly change.
But wars are very complicated affairs, both in real life and in the world of Game of Thrones, and very few wars ever go exactly according to either side’s plan. So as dire as things seem, there will likely be a few twists and turns in the near future to keep the conflict close.