The dragons, they are a-coming. If Episode 9 of House of the Dragons was all about the “greens”, the season finale, titled ‘The Black Queen’, is going to be about the response of the “blacks” to the coup. We will be spending a lot of time at Dragonstone next episode as Team Rhaenyra draws up plans to challenge the throne.

Rhaenys comes with a warning

The Queen that Never Was has made it to Dragonstone and warns Rhaenyra that the greens are coming for her and her children. We see Rhaenyra looking tearful and shocked, probably because of her father’s death and maybe because she was naive enough to believe Alicent would not either want or be allowed to spare her childhood friend.

The Painted Table was also there in Game of Thrones.

The painted table

A lot of the scenes in the trailer happen around the Painted Table, the same table that we have seen both Stannis Baratheon and Daenerys Targaryen sit around in Game of Thrones. And the table looks absolutely gorgeous. Most of those rallying to support Rhaenyra seem to be urging her to go to war, as Rhaenys’ voice points out. Daemon tells her she can’t bend the knee and we see him snatch his sword Dark Sister. One of the Lords gathered around the table tells her to lay siege to the Red Keep.

But first up, Rhaenyra needs to rally her allies and her sons Jacaerys and Lucerys offer to do so, just as someone put down a piece on Winterfell on the Painted Table.

According to Fire & Blood, Jacaerys goes to the Arryns and the Starks while Lucerys rides to Storm End.

Aemond one-eyed

The shot of Aemond taking off his eyepatch seems incongruous in an episode that is mostly about the Blacks, till you see someone in Targaryen colours running towards a dragon amidst a storm. Vhagar’s silhouette against the castle means that Aemond is at Storm End as an emissary from the Greens just as Lucerys is for the Blacks. We are probably going to see an Aemond vs Lucerys face-off, and it won’t be pretty.

Daemon sings a lullaby

One of the biggest mysteries is the identity of the gigantic dragon we see Daemon crooning to. Logic says it is not Caraxes, since Daemon wouldn’t have to sing gingerly to his own dragon to approach him. The buzz is this could be Vermithor or the Bronze Fury, the third largest dragon in Westeros and riderless since the death of Jaehaerys the Conciliator. Vermithor apparently flies back to Dragonstone and becomes a recluse in the caves. Daemon is probably trying to recruit Vermithor for a rider on Team Rhaenyra.

The Dance of Dragons begins

The final shots of the trailer shows us that the series is finally going to live up to its name. We see quick shots of a roaring Vermithor, dragons taking off from Dragonstone, Vermithor breathing fire and Vhagar snapping at someone during an aerial battle in a storm (and we bet it is Lucerys and his dragon Arrax). The Dance of Dragons is beginning.