The world of Ice and Fire just keeps getting bigger. Alongside the other shows already airing or in development such as house of the dragon or the Jon Snow sequel, HBO is now considering a new show set in the Game of Thrones universe that would tell the story of Aegon’s conquest of Westeros, according to a Variety show report. The story serves as a kind of starting point for the world of Westeros that we know, but it’s also a terribly boring idea.
For those who aren’t up to speed (or are already a little overwhelmed by the number of Aegons in this universe), the Aegon Conquest story would be one house of the dragon Prequel – in other words, a prequel to a prequel. It would probably take place about 130 years before most of the events in house of the dragonalmost 300 years before the events of the original game of Thrones Series.
Aegon wasn’t the first Targaryen to settle in Westeros after the fall of Valyria, when the area’s ancient volcano erupted and blanketed the world’s most advanced city in ash and destroyed it, but he was the most ambitious. Along with his two sisters and the three dragons of the trio, he brought all of Westeros under one crown and turned the Seven Kingdoms into one.
The problem with these events as the basis for a show is that they don’t have much room for human drama and political action like HBO does game of Thrones Shows are best. The current version of Aegon’s Conquest is more of an overview than a full story. The events mostly come from fire and bloodthe first part of author George RR Martin’s fictional story about the Targaryen Dynasty, which is also the source material for house of the dragon. Similar to house of the dragon does with The Dance of Dragons, the story could be expanded slightly, but Aegon’s conquest is due more to his military prowess and ferocious dragons than to the cleverness of their political maneuvering.
There’s nothing wrong with game of Thrones or house of the dragon‘s massive battles, but a series so completely fixated on those moments lacks the surprising character moments that made Martin’s world sing on TV. In fact, Aegon’s dominance in Martin’s version of Conquest is so assured that the battles themselves wouldn’t even be that exciting to watch and likely felt lacking after the later seasons house of the dragon gives us some more good kite-on-kite melee combat.
While all of this may be true on paper, house of the dragon HBO has at least earned a small credit. Reclaiming the magic of game of Throneswith its balance of character drama, palace intrigue, and grueling battles it seemed almost impossible, but the end product was an excellent first season.
It’s also important to note that HBO has not greenlit this series and is currently only in talks to produce it. That means there’s no showrunner, writers, cast, or director — just a vague idea at this point. No matter what happens to it, we’ll continue to wait for HBO’s news of what series arrives next in the Game of Thrones universe, be it the second season of house of the dragonthe Dunk and Egg series or even one of the animated series that is said to be in the works.
