Every Major Event That Occurred During House Of The Dragon's 10-Year Time Jump

This post contains major spoilers for the latest episode of "House of the Dragon."

We knew the "House of the Dragon" time jump was coming, but did that make it sting any less? Definitely not. It was still jarring to see the show's talented young leads, Milly Alcock and Emily Carey, suddenly replaced by the (also-talented!) duo of Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke just after we'd gotten used to them. Since the battlefield-heavy "Game of Thrones" disoriented viewers with a surprise beheading near the end of its first season, it makes sense that the court-set drama "House of the Dragon" would throw us off kilter with something as surprisingly painful as the passage of time instead.

So what exactly has everyone in Westeros been up to during the time jump? While plenty of intrigue took place on screen this episode, from the disturbing self-immolation of Laena (Nanna Blondell) to the tentative proposed union between Rhaenera and Alicent's children, it's also worth unpacking everything that happened off-screen. Here's a quick rundown of everything that went down during the decade-long "House of the Dragon" interlude.

I know King Viserys (Paddy Considine) has done some really questionable stuff (see: signing off on that C-section in episode one), but he seems to be the only person keeping the realm from full-blown civil war, so it's great to see that he's still kicking after collapsing ahead of his daughter's wedding. Despite that seemingly dire moment and his progressive wasting disease (in George R.R. Martin's book he has gout, but he has a different affliction here), Viserys is still impressively alive when the show picks back up ten years later.

In fact, he's also still making major decisions for Westeros, waving away Alicent's attempts to get Rhaenera's kids declared as bastards in a way that indicates he doesn't really care about their legitimacy. Say what you will about this guy, but he has big Mr. Saperstein from "Parks and Recreation" energy, and is almost always ready to declare that his daughter has never done anything wrong, ever, in her life.

When we catch up with Rhaenera (D'Arcy) for the first time since her extremely dramatic wedding, she's in the middle of giving birth to what we later learn is her third child. This show is obviously in large part about the powerlessness of women forced to give birth, and while Rhaenera survives the experience that killed her own mother, the point is driven home by a brutal scene that sees her walk across the palace moments later to avoid being separated from her newborn.

We soon learn that this isn't her first go-round, and that the princess also has two other sons, Jacaerys and Lucerys. The newest baby is named Joffrey (after her husband's late lover) and bears little resemblance to her partner Ser Laenor (John Macmillan), who we've already learned is gay. Instead, all three sons seem to have actually been fathered by Ser Harwin (Ryan Corr), a knight whose own father is the Hand of the King, Lyonel Strong.

These kids will be next in line for the throne after Rhaenera, since King Viserys declared her his heir, but it's a tenuous claim that relies on his word, and Queen Alicent has growing kids of her own now who could eventually challenge it.

Meanwhile, a rift that split wide open like poor Ser Joffrey's head is still going strong, as Rhaenera's sort-of-ex Ser Criston (Fabien Frankel) has planted himself firmly on Alicent's side of the family feud. Rhaenera and Criston have the kind of complicated history that only a "Game of Thrones" show could provide: she made him sleep with her after getting really turned on by her uncle, then turned him down when he asked her to run away. In turn, he freaked out at her wedding feast and killed her husband's boyfriend.

The last time we saw Ser Criston, Alicent was stopping him from killing himself, and apparently that was just the gesture the knight of the Kingsguard needed to make him loyal to her forever. Now, a decade later, he's clearly an Alicent simp and a Rhaenera hater, and is pretty antagonistic toward Rhaenera's not-so-secret baby daddy as well. As one of the series' most unstable wild cards, it's probably significant that he's still driven by his grudge against the girl who turned him down so many years later.

While "House of the Dragon" has mostly kept the action outside of King's Landing on the fringes up until this point, there have definitely been some sociopoliticial developments in the intervening years between episodes. Although Daemon (Matt Smith) held the Triarchy forces at bay a few episodes earlier, they've apparently once again attempted to take over the Stepstones — a series of islands between Essos and Westeros. The antagonistic prince spent the 10 years offscreen having two kids, but he's given the chance to get back in the action this episode when the Prince of Pentos offers him a title if he helps out against the Triarchy.

The Triarchy, a powerful alliance between three Essos cities, will be worth keeping an eye on as the series unfolds. Also known as the Kingdom of the Three Daughters, the coalition of cities that was once headed up by the pirate Crabfeeder (Daniel Scott-Smith) is essential to Westerosi trade. "War is afoot again in the Stepstones," Laenor tells Rhaenyra, itching to join the battle. While it's hard to predict how the timeline of the new series will move, this war will no doubt play into the future of Westeros and the ongoing cold war between its princess and its queen.