GOT Fans Lit Up Twitter With Iconic House Of The Dragon Premiere Memes

Game of Thrones Sundays are officially back, and more fiery than ever. Three years after HBO’s high fantasy series aired its explosively controversial finale, fans are returning to the world of Westeros in the new prequel series House of the Dragon. Despite being burned in the past, GOT fans flocked to HBO and HBO Max on Sunday, Aug. 21, to watch the dawning of a new (old) Targaryen dynasty. And as every Thrones fan knows, half the fun of watching the series is scrolling through Twitter and laughing at the countless memes that trend each week. To properly ring in the House of the Dragon’s premiere, here are the best memes about the series opener.

Spoiler alert: This post contains spoilers from the first episode of House of the Dragon. If you thought the complex family trees and ever-changing alliances in Game of Thrones were difficult to follow, House of the Dragon is here to simplify things a bit by keeping it all in the family. The prequel series focuses on the inner turmoil of House Targaryen when they ruled Westeros with the might of their dragons 172 years before the events of Game of Thrones.

The series premiere set up all the family drama: King Viserys I has to choose an heir for the Iron Throne, and makes the controversial decision for his daughter Rhaenyra to succeed him as the kingdom’s first-ever queen. The decision particularly raises the eyebrow of the presumed heir, Viserys’ strategic younger brother Daemon, and there’s also Viserys’ cousin Rhaenys, who was passed over as queen when her father instead gave the Iron Throne to Viserys.

Got all that? Yeah, House of the Dragon actually may not be any less confusing than GoT, but honestly, that’s part of the reason fans love it.

Story aside, viewers were just happy to be back in the beautiful, dragon-filled world of Westeros. Fans loved that the new series included the oh-so-familiar score of the OG show, and also shouted out Daenerys in the intro.

And in typical Thrones fashion, everyone quickly chose sides in the Targaryen-versus-Targaryen conflict.

The new show wasted no time giving fans a horrific WTF moment typical of the franchise.

But the main joke was that even after Game of Thrones crushed fans with its finale, the superfans couldn’t resist diving back in for the new show.

And it already looks like there’s an immediate standout. Matt Smith’s ruthless prince Daemon Targeryen is at the center of all the drama, and fans are eating up his chaotic rise to power.

New episodes of House of the Dragon air Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max, so stay off Twitter if you don’t want spoilers... or be sure to have the hashtag pulled up while you watch to laugh along with the rest of the fans.