War has officially arrived in House of the Dragon season 2. And much like the second season of Game of Thrones, that means Westerosi geography is about to 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 probably just a preview of the important wartime tactical discussions to come.
The series has never been shy about piling on the details and leaving viewers to piece things together, but with war looming, it’s extra important to keep track of exactly what people are fighting over. So to help get you ready for the Targaryen civil war, here’s a quick explanation of what everyone was talking about in episode 3, and why fighting over the Riverlands is so damn important to both sides.
[Ed. note: This story contains spoilers for House of the Dragon season 2, up to episode 3.]
The first key to understanding the importance of the Riverlands in the Dance of Dragons is understanding its geographic place in the story. Here’s a map in case you need a refresher:
Graphic: Austen Goslin | Source image: Tear via A Wiki of Ice and Fire
As we can see, unlike with the season 2 battles between the Lannisters in King’s Landing and the Starks in Winterfell in Game of Thrones, there isn’t much distance at all between House of the Dragon’s two Targaryen factions. In fact, all that lies between them is 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 are traditionally the stabilizing force in the region. However, as Jason Lannister points out in the King’s Landing small council meeting, the Tullys are led at this moment by Grover Tully, an old man incapable of holding his own house together, let alone the rest of the Riverlands as they progress toward open war. This means 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 exactly what leads Ser Criston Cole, the newly promoted Hand of the King, to the conclusion that he should embark with a small team to the Riverlands by force, bringing the different castles and their lords in line under the crown. To cap off his plan, Criston says that he’ll take Harrenhal, rendering the region completely in King Aegon’s control.
Daemon, on the other hand, simply flies straight to Harrenhal, deciding that he and his dragon Caraxes were likely enough to take the castle by surrender. When he arrives, he learns that he was both entirely right and maybe wasting his time. The dark, damp corridors of Harrenhal are just as ruined as they’ve been since the death of Harren the Black, and the castle doesn’t seem to offer much martial strength at all.
Harrenhal’s general lack of strength means that Criston is marching toward 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 the Blacks’ stronghold at Dragonstone off from the rest of Westeros. Sure, they can reach allies by sea, but the only port nearby for Rhaenyra is at Rook’s Rest — which could be another potential Riverlands prize for Criston to win. But without those few cities in the region, the Blacks would be quarantined to their tiny islands and hard-pressed to survive for long.
If all this is sounding rather dire for the Blacks, that’s because technically it is. Their side has the strongest navy, which is why Ser Corlys Velaryon is running a blockade at the entrance to Blackwater Bay, effectively stopping shipments from entering King’s Landing. But that’s their only real strength. Of course, if Daemon is able to somehow muster an army at Harrenhal, or bring his massive dragon to bear on Criston’s force, their fortunes could certainly start to shift.
But wars are very complicated things, both in real life and in the world of Game of Thrones, and very few of them ever go exactly according to either side’s plan. So, no matter how dire things may seem, there are likely to be a few twists in the near future to keep the conflict close.
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