‘When dragons flew to war, everything burned’.

Those are the words of Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) during the meeting of her Black Council in the ‘Black Queen’ episode, the finale of season one of the House of the Dragon. Those words seem prophetic, heralding what will certainly be a savage civil war (Dance of the Dragons) during the upcoming second season.

The finale was short on action though, with not much bloodshed, but dominated by two cataclysmic events that will shape the arc of the Black Queen that Rhaenyra will become.

The first event is triggered by the arrival of Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best), who arrives to tell the news of the death of King Viserys, and the treachery of Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and the Greens who have installed her half-brother, Aegon the Younger (Tom Glynn-Carney) as the new king. She dishes the news but conveniently leaves out the part where she could have torched the entire Hightower clan alive.

“It was not my war to begin,” she protests weakly.

The combination of the news triggers the premature stillbirth of Rhaenyra’s sixth child. The HOD seems to have a morbid fascination with bloody, gruelling childbirths, but this premature birth was especially graphic and brutal, with Rhaenyra expelling the baby from her womb like some sick pantomime of a bowel movement. At the least the showrunners spared us a dead child with a dragon’s tail – as told in George R Martin’s book – which would have been especially hard to forget just before Halloween.

Game of Thrones pushed boundaries when it came to on-screen sex and violence, but HOD seems to be short on the sex and violence – thus far. These repeated gruesome childbirths seem to be some sort of advocacy for more liberal application of Plan B tea to rid women of male domination and this nasty yoke of producing heirs to carry on the family name.

At the baby’s funeral, Ser Erryk (Elliott Tittensor) shows up bearing Viserys’ golden crown and bends the knee. Daemon crowns his queen in a tender moment, and then they’re off to plan their war. There is a gorgeous shot of the black glowing Painted Table that illuminates the full lay of the land of Westeros. The War Council trots out the sombre news that Rhaenyra hasn’t enough troops to make her army “an instrument of conquest”. Daemon (Matt Smith) suggests that they have more dragons, 13, to the Greens’ four, however, Rhaenyra informs him that their own dragons are not battle-hardened.

Before they can have a big argument, Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) shows up with terms and a message from Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower for Rhaenyra alone. The Black Queen then repeats her neat little move from episode two, when she lands her dragon Syrax directly on the walled walk lining the causeway of Dragonstone, cutting off their retreat to their ship. She then walks through the Greens’ men and past Ser Otto before joining Daemon. The two sides exchange ‘unpleasantries’ before Otto hands Rhaenyra a token, a page ripped from a book Alicent and Rhaenyra once read as children. Ser Otto, remarkably, leaves with his head intact even though Daemon is quick to disregard any offer from that “drunken usurper c*** of a king”.

Returning to Dragonstone, Rhaenyra reveals her concern about using dragons to burn the entire realm and the deadly cost of pursuing the Iron Throne come what may, revealing restraint as she is considering the terms given to her to avoid war. An argument is brewing between her and Daemon and she orders that the room be cleared. She shares the prophecy of the Song of Ice and Fire, but he grabs her throat and begins choking her – no, not in some kinky sex act – but in anger, belittling Viserys and noting that dreams did not make the Targaryens kings, dragons did.

Rhaenyra appears more shocked that Viserys did not tell Daemon about Aegon the Conqueror’s dream than the fact that he had his right hand wrapped around her throat. Or maybe she was just turned on in the moment. Who knows with these nutty Targaryens? Daemon then storms off with his sword Dark Sister.

Meanwhile, the Sea Snake has returned, almost fully recovered. Finally admitting the Velaryon weakness of ambition, Corlys admits his pursuit of the Iron Throne has cost them too much and he seems tired of the Black Queen and her machinations and power plays for the Iron Throne, blaming her for being complicit in the ‘death’ of his son. He seems prepared to retreat to Driftmark and avoid the gathering clouds of a deadly civil war, until his wife, Rhaenys, points out that their grandchildren, legitimate or not, will be first on the chopping block if the Green Council wins.

Corlys throws his full weight behind Rhaenyra – not just with his fleet, but with the newly liberated Stepstones, which will allow the Blacks to bottleneck the Narrow Sea and blockade King’s Landing, cutting off sea-borne travel and trade, thereby forcing their surrender. This scene sets the stage for the struggle for control of the Narrow Sea which could dominate the second season with swashbuckling dragon fights and burning ships. We can hardly wait.

They quickly hatch a plan: Jacaerys volunteers himself and Lucerys to deliver messages to potential allies because dragons fly faster than ravens. Jacaerys is dispatched to visit Rhaenyra’s cousin Lady Jeyne Arryn at the Eyrie in the Vale before visiting Lord Cregan Stark at Winterfell, while Lucerys will visit Lord Borros Baratheon (Roger Evans) at Storm’s End. Rhaenyra agrees.

Meanwhile, Daemon goes dragon-shopping for one of the wild dragons that nest at Dragonstone, singing a haunting song that bewitches it to his cause.

Then comes the second cataclysmic event that cements the character arc of the Black Queen: the death of her beloved son.

When Lucerys arrives at a rain-battered Storm’s End, the mere sight of Vhagar in the courtyard should be enough to tell him the game is up. However, he soldiers on ‘strongly’ into the court of Lord Borros, only to be stung by Borros’ barbs and insults and stony stares from his one-eyed uncle, Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell). Things quickly grow heated and Aemond comically demands the boy pluck out his own eye and hurls ‘Lord Strong’ bastard insults at him. Aemond plans to take out Lucerys’ eye and make a gift of it to his mother. Aemond then removes his eye patch to reveal a blinged-out, bedazzled blue sapphire eye. Lucerys refuses to fight him. Aemond eggs him on and draws his sword but Lord Barros orders that there will be no bloodshed in his castle and tells his men to escort Lucerys back to his dragon. Aemond pursues.

Viewers will recall that on the night of Laena Velaryon’s funeral in “Driftmark”, when Aemond claimed Vhagar for himself, there was a violent brawl with his Velaryon cousins and nephews, during which Lucerys lashed out with a knife, causing Aemond to lose his left eye. On that night, his mother Alicent was so ticked off, she tried to take one of Lucerys’ eyes for revenge. Now, it’s time for Aemond to resurrect years-old beef and even the score.

What follows next is like a ghastly Jurassic Park-like hunt. Lucerys and Arrax do evasive manoeuvres to avoid Vhagar, but the game of hide and seek ends when a brave lance of fire from Luke’s dragon Arrax provokes the she-bitch Vhagar, who flies into a rage, and eventually she makes a ‘Meal Deal’ of Arrax with one gigantic chomp. Green Council – 1, Black Council – 0.

The dark clouds gathering on Rhaenyra’s face and the defiant set of her jaw in the closing seconds shows that the arc of the Black Queen is complete. She wants blood.

Let the real bloodshed begin in earnest.