Who Wins the Dance of the Dragons in Fire & Blood? The End of the Civil War

The Dance of the Dragons doesn’t produce a clean winner. It produces a graveyard. By the time the smoke clears over King’s Landing, the Targaryen dynasty has torched itself nearly to the root and the question of who actually “won” turns out to be far messier than a simple tally of survivors.

Adapted from George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, HBO’s House of the Dragon has spent three seasons pulling apart a single royal family until it collapses under its own ambition. The war between the Blacks and the Greens, the two factions squabbling over the Iron Throne roughly 200 years before Daenerys Targaryen was born, reaches its bloody conclusion in House of the Dragon season 3, whose finale aired on Aug. 7 on HBO Max.

So who wins the Dance of the Dragons in Fire & Blood? Here’s the honest answer, along with a look at who lives, who dies, and who is left holding a throne nobody should envy.

Warning: Fire & Blood and Game of Thrones franchise spoilers ahead.

Why Are the Blacks and Greens Fighting the Dance of the Dragons?

The whole catastrophe traces back to a broken promise. Before his death, King Viserys I (Paddy Considine) named his eldest child, Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy), as his successor. That should have settled things. It didn’t.

When Viserys died in season 1, his second wife, Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), joined forces with her father and Hand of the King, Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), to challenge Rhaenyra’s claim. Their argument: Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney), Viserys’ eldest son, was the rightful heir to the Iron Throne. The Greens rushed to crown Aegon. The Blacks rallied behind Rhaenyra. And the Blacks vs Greens civil war was born.

The stated reasoning was tidy; many Greens simply believed the throne should pass to a male heir. Alicent’s motives ran deeper, tangled up in a mix of personal, familial, and political convictions. She also seized on a rumor to sharpen her case, arguing that Rhaenyra’s sons were illegitimate. They were widely believed to have been fathered by Ser Harwin Strong (Ryan Corr) rather than her husband, Ser Laenor Velaryon (Theo Nate). In Alicent’s eyes, her own children with Viserys were the only legitimate heirs and therefore held the stronger claim.

Two claims. One throne. No compromise. The result was inevitable.

Who Wins the Dance of the Dragons?

Here’s the twist that keeps fans arguing: Aegon outlived Rhaenyra, but Rhaenyra’s son ultimately claimed the Iron Throne.

That split outcome is why there’s no easy verdict. You could make the case that the Greens won, since Aegon was the last claimant left standing between the two rivals. But the Blacks got the final word because it was Rhaenyra’s heir, not Alicent’s, who ended up on the throne. If victory means blood on the throne rather than blood spilled, the Blacks edge it out.

Getting there cost the Blacks dearly. Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best), Viserys’ cousin, dies in a dragon battle against Aegon and his brother, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), at Rook’s Rest. Later, Aemond and his dragon, Vhagar, are killed during a duel with Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) above the Gods Eye. Daemon dies in the same battle, a mutual destruction that removes two of the war’s most fearsome players in a single stroke.

The end of Rhaenyra and Aegon’s civil war is grim even by Fire & Blood standards. After fleeing King’s Landing, Rhaenyra and her youngest son, Aegon the Younger, the child she shares with Daemon are betrayed on Dragonstone and handed over to Aegon. He has his dragon Sunfyre burn and devour Rhaenyra while her son is forced to watch.

Aegon then returns to King’s Landing with Aegon the Younger as his hostage. His support is dwindling and his forces are spent, yet he refuses to surrender. It doesn’t matter. Before he can secure his rule, Aegon is poisoned. With both Rhaenyra and Aegon dead, the throne falls to the boy who watched his mother die.

Which Targaryens Survive the Conflict?

The casualty list is staggering, and it isn’t just people. Nearly every known dragon dies across the various battles, gutting the very thing that made House Targaryen untouchable.

The dragon losses stack up fast:

• Meleys, Rhaenys’ dragon, is defeated during the duel with Aegon and Aemond.
• Caraxes and Vhagar, ridden by Daemon and Aemond, fall in the duel that kills both riders.
• Sunfyre dies from its injuries after devouring Rhaenyra.
• Five more dragons, including Rhaenyra’s mount Syrax, are killed when a mob of King’s Landing smallfolk storms the Dragonpit.

That last detail matters. The dragons weren’t only lost in glorious aerial combat they were also butchered by their own frightened subjects. With so many dragons, Targaryens, and heirs gone, the dynasty is left teetering on the edge of collapse.

So who’s actually left standing? On the Black side, Rhaenyra and Daemon’s son Aegon the Younger survives his captivity, and their younger son, Viserys II, lives as well. Daemon’s daughters with Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell) Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia) and Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell) also make it through.

The Greens fare far worse in bloodline terms. Alicent’s entire line of children and grandchildren perishes during the Dance of the Dragons. Alicent herself survives, but she’s confined to her chambers for the rest of her life, spending her remaining years consumed by grief. Living, in her case, may be the harsher sentence.

Who Ascends to the Throne After the Dance of the Dragons?

The war ends with a ten-year-old on the Iron Throne. Aegon the Younger inherits the crown in the wake of his parents’ deaths, with a council of advisors ruling in his stead until he comes of age.

It’s a bitter inheritance. Traumatized by the war, the near-total loss of his family, and the memory of his mother’s violent execution, Aegon becomes known as “Aegon the Unlucky.”

The nickname fits. His entire reign is defined by the grinding, thankless task of rebuilding a kingdom the Dance of the Dragons left in ruins.

Aegon rules until he dies of consumption at 36. He leaves behind three daughters and two sons, but the Targaryen crown doesn’t pass smoothly even then. After both of Aegon’s sons perish, it’s his brother Viserys II who ascends to the throne closing the loop on a generation defined by loss.

The Real Winner of the Dance of the Dragons

Ask who wins the Dance of the Dragons in Fire & Blood and the truthful answer is: almost no one. The Greens lost their entire bloodline. The Blacks lost Rhaenyra, Daemon, and most of their dragons. Both factions bled out their strongest fighters and their most dangerous beasts, and the crown ended up on the head of a grieving child who never wanted it.

If you’re watching purely for a scoreboard, the Blacks technically prevail, Aegon the Younger and later Viserys II carry Rhaenyra’s line onto the throne. But George R.R. Martin’s story argues something sharper: the Dance of the Dragons wasn’t a war anyone survived intact. It was the moment House Targaryen began dismantling the myth of its own invincibility, dragon by dragon.

Want to see how it all plays out on screen? Revisit House of the Dragon season 3 on HBO Max, then dig into Fire & Blood to compare the page with the adaptation. The differences are half the fun.