The Dragon Demands

While I'm here on the day after wrap on principle photography, these are the Season 2 cast so far: At Harrenhal: Gayle Rankin - Alys Rivers (officially announced) Simon Russell Beale - Ser Simon Strong (officially announced) Blacks: Tom Taylor - Cregan Stark Tom Lorcan - "Stark Captain" Amanda Collin - Jeyne Arryn Thomas Jackson - Vale sherpa (underage actor I can't share) - Oscar Tully John Paul Hurley - Lord Darry Anna Francolini - Lady Mallister Steven Pacey - Lord Gunthor Darklyn Greens: Freddie Fox - Ser Gwayne Hightower Tom Cawte - Criston Cole's squire Barney Fishwick - Ser Martin Reyne Tok Stephen - Eddard Waters Ralph Davis - Leon Estermont Daniel Fathers - Lord Humfrey Lefford Eddie Eyrie (who played Gerold Hightower in GoT) - a Green commander? Name unknown Bill Best as "Tyroshi pirate" Milos Bindas as "Triarchy pirate" Dragonseeds: Kieran Bew - Hugh Hammer Tom Bennett or Leon Ockenden - Ulf the White Abubakar Salim - Alyn of Hull (officially confirmed) Clinton Liberty - Addam of Hull Robert Rhodes - Silver Denys Pablo LeRocq - "Dragonseed" Smallfolk: Sam C. Wilson - Blood Mark Stobbart - Cheese Scroobius Pip - Jaehaerys' funeral procession herald James Doherty - Cley Sarah Woodard - Lady Serena Tracey-Anne Liles - goodwife Ted Reilly - crofter Dritan Kastrati - Dornish merchant Graeme Dalling - Shipbreaker Bay fisherman Martina Laird - POSSIBLY playing Marilda of Hull UNCONFIRMED: Sara Snow - we're not even sure if she's in the show, but suspect Erica Ford or Rafiella Chapman ANY other Stark bannermen such as Roderick Dustin ANY other Vale vassals, such as Jess Redfort ANY of the Blackwoods (their army is at Harrenhal but we have no actors yet) Nettles - spy photos showed TWO black women among the dragonseeds, couldn't ID the actresses Daeron Targaryen - they said he's in Season 2. We SUSPECT Jack Cunningham-Nuttall. ANY OTHER HIghtowers or Reach vassals who would logically be part of Daeron's storyline. We don't think Johanna Westerling-Lannister or Dalton Greyjoy are on-screen in Season 2. Thus the top 4 "head turners" we're still waiting for, major characters, are Daeron Targaryen, Nettles, Sara Snow, and Jess Redfort. And in particular, we don't even have RUMORS for Nettles or Redfort (well, spy photos of Nettles we couldn't identify). Edit: Ah, Redanian Intelligence just posted a summary article of confirmed castings - including all the ones who we know joined the cast but we don't know who they are playing (also doesn't include the Daeron speculation I put in here). Many of these will probably be minor bannermen etc. https://redanianintelligence.com/2023/09/30/every-new-cast-member-house-of-the-dragon-season-2/

Unsure. May have been test dialogue. Long story short though: even the spy community really doesn't know what end point is being used for episode 8. I doubt it's the fall of KL or the full Battle of the Gullet.

I'm going to re-write a better version of this, but off the top of my head just to immediately clear things up, this is the Season 2 outline so far. We don't know writers only directors. These are the CREDIBLE reports, not clickbait making stuff up for attention. Episode 1 - "A Son for a Son" - Directed by Alan Taylor Rhaenyra flies to the beach of Shipbreaker Bay and finds Luke or Arrax's corpse (this was one of the unreliable narrator moments from the book, what happened to Luke's body; they took a third option) Reactions to Luke's death at Dragonstone. Reactions to Luke's death at King's Landing - Aegon II feasts Aemond at the "Cock's Inn", which we think is in Flea Bottom. The handmaid he assaulted, "Dyana", may or may not be working there, but we know she appears in multiple episodes this season. PRESUMABLY Jace visits the Eyrie and Winterfell around this point, but we've heard no specific leaks about it. Daemon takes Harrenhal. Takes a minor wound or something, and while getting it patched up meets the mysterious Alys Rivers (source: leaked casting video). Final scene is Daemon sneaking into KL on a fishing boat, to set up Blood & Cheese. Episode 2 - Directed by Clare Kilner Blood & Cheese. We don't know if Maelor will exist in the TV show. We SUSPECT that the Battle of the Burning Mill happens in episode 2 or 3, filmed near Penmachno valley in Wales. They DID spend a lot of time setting up the Blackwoods and Brackens in Season 1 (in episodes 4 and 6). ZERO word on casting them. Episode 3 - Directed by Geeta Patel Reactions to Blood & Cheese. Spy footage showed Aemond overseeing the beheadings of several prisoners in a Red Keep courtyard; I think it happens in this episode, as in the book after Blood & Cheese the Greens responded by executing their remaining prisoners who wouldn't bend the knee. Chronologically, Cargyll Bowl should happen around this point, but we've seen no specific leaks. Aegon II fires Otto and replaces him as Hand of the King with Criston Cole (Criston seen wearing Hand of the King necklace of office in episode four). Large invented sequence filmed on the streets of Caceres with many spy photos: the Greens hold a funeral procession throughout the city, with a herald shouting "Behold the work of Rhaenyra the Cruel!" - trying to propagandize this for all its worth. Alicent and a not particularly insane looking Helaena ride in a carriage behind the casket. When they pass through Flea Bottom, however, they are booed and people throw rotten (inedible) food at them, a food riot breaks out. Alicent & Helaena pelted with rotten food so much they have to turn around. Criston Cole and some (new?) Kingsguard ride behind the royal carriage, but riding behind them are three new prominent characters - we think/hope they're not one-shots but lieutenants to major characters: Martin Reyne - from the Westerlands Leon Estermont - From the Stormlands "Eddard Waters" - as he is black, I suspect he is a condensation of Vaemond's sons & the Silent Five Velaryons with Marston Waters (the book actually does mention in passing the Marston is from Driftmark - so maybe he was a Velaryon bastard?) ....A running theory I have is that they're going to use the funeral as an opportunity to introduce all of "Team Green" together in one place for TV viewers, or at least as many as practical. Introducing other Greens we haven't met before. Including, possibly.....Daeron Targaryen and Ormund Hightower? It's just a theory, no evidence. but the roads aren't closed yet as the north of the Reach isn't openly rebelling. The "War of Quills and Ravens" isn't exactly over yet. But this is pure speculation - it would be weird if Alicent never shared a scene with her fourth child. Episode 4 - "A Dance of Dragons" - Directed by Alan Taylor Battle of Rook's Rest. Starts with the aftermath of the Sack of Duskendale, leading in to Rook's Rest as a major action set piece (possibly THE major action set piece of the season). Episode 5 - Directed by Clare Kilner Just as episode 3 was "aftermath of Blood & Cheese", this episode is "aftermath of Rook's Rest". Dragon head paraded through the streets of KL, as in the book (from very obvious Caceres spy photos). Episode 6 - Directed by Andrij Parekh (who won an Emmy for his work on "Succession") We have no f-ing idea what happens in episode 6. Several things we used to think happen in episode 6 were later confirmed to happen in episode 7. Episode 7 - Directed by Loni Peristere In contrast to episode 6, we know quite a bit about what happens in this episode: Daemon is at Harrenhal by this point, standing on the battlements overseeing the troop formations of the various Riverlord Houses. Mentioned by name were Blackwood, Bracken (now that they bent the knee), Strong, Mallister, also for the first time Mooton, Piper, Darry, and even Vance. Oscar Tully rides in to Harrenhal with a delegation of Tully knights. The green young boy meets with Daemon to reluctantly explain to him that Riverrun's armies have to remain neutral until old Lord Grover dies. Notice this means that the main campaign in the Riverlands hasn't even begun yet: the Lannister pincer from the west, and Aemond's KL pincer from the east. Rhaena arrives at the Eyrie, accompanied by a large entourage of knights, dragonkeepers, servants, etc. Jeyne Arryn rides down from the Eyrie with a dozen Arryn knights to meet her at the "waycastle" at base of mountain. No mention of Joff, but others pointed out to me he might have just flown ahead on his dragon (or the actor wasn't mentioned because the dragon is pure CGI). Aegon III accompanies Rhaena to the Eyrie. Sowing of the Dragonseeds (source: major spy photos from Llanddwyn beach). Episode 8 - Directed by Geeta Patel We really don't know much about what happens in episode 8. The running theory was that it either includes the Battle of the Gullet, or ends just as it's starting with the Triarchy fleet on the horizon, saving the actual battle for the Season 3 premiere. I would point out that Geeta Patel doesn't have a prior history of doing big battle sequences. For a while we didn't know if Alan Taylor or Geeta Patel was doing the finale, but now that we know he's doing Rook's Rest...it seems less likely there's a huge battle (but hey, first time for everything). It's possible that the big "action climax" of the season is in fact the Sowing of the Dragonseeds, a very CGI heavy sequence. Then episode 8 is just the aftermath of that. We DO know that in episode 8, Rhaenyra flies to Harrenhal and meets with Simon Strong. How and why are unclear. Unclear chronology: They built a physical set of the top of the Wall, and we saw a dozen Night's Watch rangers riding around in Bourne Wood for a night scene in a snowy forest. A leaked makeup department concept art board prominently labeled "UNDEAD" showed that we will see wights / zombies again in Season 2, implying a major invented storyline for Cregan and Jace. (at least, invented relative to F&B....why DID they call it "the Pact of Ice & Fire"?) They built a set of mostly tents with props labeled things like "Tyrosh chair" etc. Apparently we actually see envoys from the Greens talking to the Triarchy council; is this in Essos or the Stepstones? It could be meant to be Tyrosh itself, as others pointed out to me that F&B states their council was meeting IN Tyrosh at the time. Nice bit of detail. Large sequence of the full army of the Westerlands led by Jason Lannister passing through Golden Tooth, joined by House Lefford, and the invasion of the Riverlands begins (source: very clear spy footage). Is this episode 6? OR, plausibly, it could be the very end of episode 8 - ending on the cliffhanger that their invasion has only just begun. PURE CONJECTURE is that the "B" plot for certain episodes like 5 or PARTICULARLY episode 6 could in fact be Daeron at the Battle of the Honeywine (given they put so much effort into setting up House Caswell last season) but I have seen no evidence of it yet. As of this moment we're not even sure if Sara Snow is in the show, though we do have some candidates we think were cast (either Erica Ford or Raffiela Chapman). Daeron is *probably* Jack Cunningham-Nuttall. Nettles is apparently in the cast as we saw multiple black women at the Sowing of the Dragonseeds but we haven't ID'd any actors. I'm not really sure what the King's Landing Greens are doing in the last few episodes. Five is of course reaction to Rook's Rest, but then what do Alicent or Aemond do? Debate their grand strategy at the small council, culminating in a big scene explaining they'll make a pincers movement?

First off, they listed the 17 grown dragons in the season one finale, not the three hatchlings - because they presumably want to show them actually hatching on-screen. For all we know, one or more might have been cut. Yes, Aegon III is going to the Vale with Rhaena - presumably he comes back later with Joff. Running theory is they did this because they can't really do Aegon III clinging to Stormcloud's neck with a small child actor. Fair enough, practical considerations. Yes, we have heard that Daemon and Rhaenyra sneak around to other areas on their dragons - this isn't jetpack Littlefinger, they do have dragons. Daemon personally sneaks in to KL at the end of episode 1 to set up Blood and Cheese, while Rhaenyra flies to Storm's End where she sees Luke's corpse (or maybe Arrax's corpse?) confirming he's gone. I don't consider either of these a big change. Daemon might also fly back and forth from Harrenhal to Dragonstone for the Sowing of the Dragonseeds (i'm less sure on this). ...there are semi-credible rumors that we'll see Rhaenyra sneaking into KL with Marilda of Hull, who is smuggling food supplies in to the smallfolk during the blockade. We DO know that there are food riots by episode 4. Finally, according to credible sources, Rhaenyra herself is at Harrenhal in episode 8, where she meets Simon Strong - why else do you think they cast such a prominent veteran actor as Simon Beale? But that's literally all we can confirm of this; we DO NOT think Rhaenyra takes Harrenhal WITH Daemon - other leaks said they weren't speaking for a bit after Luke died, Daemon's scene with Alys acts as if Rhaenyra is still on Dragonstone. People are making up a LOT of half-truths about this. But I'm grudgingly willing to accept that people can be flying back and forth from Dragonstone to Harrenhal, it's not THAT far for a dragon.

Cregan is 21 years old when the Dance begins, this actor is 22

I can confirm that Tom Taylor is Cregan Stark. The spy reporters from HouseTheDragon, HotDCroatia, RealmOfTheDragon, and Redaniian Intelligence showed me materials on their private Discord server that I can't discuss in public. But suffice to say that these are the same people that broke that Amanda Collin has been cast as Jeyne Arryn:

Ah, good news, the WGA finally had a breakthrough in strike negotiations with the studios....one week before HotD Season 2 principle photography ends. Well, it's not over yet, but they said they're having lawyers write up the fine details, could take a bit longer: https://variety.com/2023/biz/news/writers-strike-wga-amptp-contract-talks-2-1235733340/

I was previously in error on the info we have about certain scenes, some things I thought were mid-season around episode 4 are actually more like episode 7 or 8 : Daemon surveying the growing river-lord army at Harrenhal Rhaena arriving at the Eyrie I honestly can't tell even from this update if the Battle by the Lakeshore will happen this season, next season, or has been cut entirely (or drastically reduced in scale). I'm leaning towards it was pushed to Season 3 but that's just a guess. The running theory now is that Season 2 finale ends with the BEGINNING of the Battle of the Gullet, which we then see in the Season 3 premiere - but that's just a guess. Interior filming should end this Friday. Scheduled filming, that is. HBO openly said they'd come back for over a month of reshoots based on rewrites....AFTER this WGA strike ends. Whenever that is...

We think Blood and Cheese actually happens in episode 2, so it might be the title of episode 2. Episode 1 will have Daemon say “a son for a son” as he seeks out blood and cheese.

A new thought: it's possible that Jace & Cregan don't, necessarily, see White Walkers or wights or EVEN GO TO THE WALL... ....but that it's a "flashback"...to JAEHAERYS shutting down the Nightfort. Ending the secret baby sacrifices. Stopping First Night (in a season with the Dragonseeds, there's a strong chance they'll introduce First Night in Season 2). Then the camera turns and we see White Walkers and their zombies snarling from the tree-line at night when they realize their sacrifice isn't coming. THEN Cregan just has to TELL Jace, in Winterfell, "yeah the wildlings are getting restless, as if they're spooked by some danger rising beyond the Wall again". We HAVE heard rumors of Jaehaerys flashbacks in Season 2, we just don't have any idea what they are.

Whatever they're doing with the Wall/Night's Watch/White Walkers, it's not a minor thing. ...I can't rule out if it's a flashback, but if it is, it's a HUGE flashback - the amount of resources they're pouring into this, building a physical Wall set and filming on-location with mounted rangers when they could have just done it on the virtual set. Some have suggested it could be a really long flashback to the Night's King, 13th Lord Commander of the Watch. That is intriguing and I can't rule it out. We haven't seen any actors tied to these scenes yet to establish it's happening in the present day. Still....for myself, I won't believe it's a flashback until something suggests that.

EXTERIOR on-location filming wrapped at Bourne Wood on September 1st, but INTERIOR filming at Leavesden Studios will continue through the last week of September. We won't get nearly as many spy photos from interior filming, though.

Intriguing new info from IMDB: we already knew that Maddie Evans, who played the handmaid Dyana that Aegon II assaulted, is returning in Season 2. But she's in maybe 4 out of 8 episodes - that surprised me. It lists that she's in episodes 1, 3, 5, and 6 - "episode 1" might be in error as that's often a placeholder on IMDB corrected later. The only through-line I can think of is that episodes 3 and 5 will feature those extensive street processions through King's Landing, that we saw filmed in Caceres. My running guess was already that she just left to work at a tavern or something in Flea Bottom. Some theorize she's actually in episode 1 and will tell Blood & Cheese the schedule inside the Red Keep. Others, that she's working on the "Cock's Inn" tavern where Aegon will celebrate Aemond's "victory" over Luke in episode 1. Uncertain.

It depends on what exactly the show is going to say I mean...purely as a hypothetical...what if they have someone outright say in Season 2, "We used to use the Nighfort's secret gate to sacrifice First Night babies to the White Walkers to placate them, but Jaehaerys & Alysanne shut that down, and they've been increasingly active and restless ever since"??? Even this COULD be pure fanfiction, based on theories circulating online or even just Condal's own theories....but...it's a pretty well-crafted one that would align with book info. Yes we need to be vigilant to avoid the assumptions we made in early Game of Thrones that "surely, D&D are only doing things GRRM approved of" (dear god, how hyped we got when we first saw the Night King however briefly in Season 4, that this must by definition be a book revelation). We...shall see.... Best case scenario of course is that GRRM outright admits in interviews during Season 2, "this is true in the books", just as he did with Aegon the Conqueror's prophetic dream.

I made a thread on this that didn’t get approved yet but the short version…maybe they never left. Remember the Black Gate at the Nightfort. At first it seemed that Craster's sacrifices to the Others were tolerated because the Watch was in decline and needed a friendly outpost...but then at the Nighfort we saw there's a secret magical gate through the Wall that will only open for members of the Watch. First Night was very strong in lands close to the Wall and produced a lot of excess bastards. The theory is that this was in fact used to produce a surplus to give as sacrifices to the Others...conducted in secret through the Nighfort's secret gate. Now from HotD, we get the revelation that the Targaryens came to Westeros in the first place to stop the White Walkers...and ended up provoking them. Motivated by a prophetic dream in a closed time loop of Greek tragedy (Hodor). Thus the White Walkers never went FULLY dormant, but at least some scouts were around to accept the sacrifices. The Targaryens put an end to First Night AND the sacrifices (the real reason Nighfort was closed) which angered the White Walkers (the scouts roused all of them) Why didn't they attack immediately after 58 AC when Alysanne banned those? Well....it's possible that their scouts return cyclically, like for a generation every hundred years. When you look at the list of 8 legends Old Nan told Bran about the Night Fort, they all seem to imply that the White Walkers were still active ever since (particularly "the Thing That Came In The Night" heavily implies that child sacrifice happened every 100 years, and lines up with that the Night King allegedly ruled 100 years after the Wall was founded). Thus it's possible that they were simply in a "dormant" phase when the Nightfort was shut down, so their reaction wasn't immediate....combined with the fact that the Targaryens were then at the height of their power, with a large number of dragons, and they're particularly vulnerable to dragon-fire. So why didn't they come back as soon as the last dragon died? Well, the Targaryens still had EGGS, and could potentially hatch them. Several kings since then thought it was entirely possible to restore the dragons....culminating in the Tragedy at Summerhall, when Aegon V's last big attempt to hatch the remaining dragon eggs ended in disaster. That was a mere 40 years ago....and Craster's been sacrificing baby sons to the Others for around that long (though he might have started before Summerhall). Consider that the White Walkers' return wasn't just flipping a switch but took time: the wildlings "stirring" beyond the Wall in reaction to their gradual return took a couple of years prior to AGoT itself, it took time for Mance to unite them all in reaction to that. Hard to say but if the Children of the Forest with greensight are any indication, it's possible the White Walkers know a decent amount of what's going on south of the Wall (if the theory they can touch Bran's and Euron's dreams is true). So Summerhall might have roused them...and PARTICULARLY the fall of the Targaryens in Robert's Rebellion. With no Targaryens or known eggs left IN WESTEROS, they'd have thought the time was right to come back with no dragons, dragon eggs, or even people who knew how to hatch dragon eggs in Westeros anymore....not realizing that the last Targaryen, Daenerys, would survive on a different continent and end up hatching preserved eggs there.

Actually, your grace, there’s spy photos of a big invented subplot at the Wall and a column of mounted Night’s Watch rangers and everything. ***The mere fact that they're putting so much effort into this - building real full sets and location shooting with mounted rangers - when they COULD have just green-screened it on the virtual set....heavily implies that this isn't a short sequence. If it was a cameo in a dream or flashback they'd have used the virtual set. And they can't flash back to both Wights and the Wall with Night's Watch men...like a flashback to the War for the Dawn....because the Wall was only really built AFTER the fighting had ended. ...I wouldn't rule out a flashback to the 13th Lord Commander at the Nightfort, but I doubt it. But no, I'm seeing the glass as half full: maybe GRRM wanted to show the first stirring of the White Walkers back to full activity beyond the Wall?

SPY PHOTOS CONFIRM ON-SCREEN RETURN OF WHITE WALKERS IN HOTD SEASON 2 https://redanianintelligence.com/2023/09/08/house-of-the-dragon-season-2-may-include-the-undead/

The Night's Watch returns This isn't too shocking since we already saw a set for the top of the Wall at Leavesden Studios, but the past few days we saw set dressers filling part of Bourne Wood with fake snow, so we suspected it was either Winterfell or the Wall itself, part of Jace's storyline. But now it looks like we've got amazingly clear footage for a ranging company of the Night's Watch, riding by tourists.

Spy photos indicate we’ll physically see Tyrosh in season 2

FAKE SNOW DRESSING TEAMS HAVE BEEN SPOTTED IN BOURNE WOOD. Probably woods in the North around Winterfell.

Not much earth-shattering news came out in the past week, though we got nice spy photos of scenes we already know are in Season 2 from the filming down at Bourne Wood in Surrey: https://redanianintelligence.com/2023/08/16/criston-cole-gwayne-hightower-filming-house-of-the-dragon-season-2/ VERY good spy photos of the Lannister army arriving at Golden Tooth and being greeted by riders from House Lefford. Leads to the question of whether the Battle of Red Fork will happen this season, or more probably, they'll end the season on the cliffhanger that "oh no, the main Westerlands army just invaded the Riverlands, the war is entering a bigger phase now, not just consolidating local vassals" but leave it for Season 3? Increasingly good spy photos of the Battle of Rook's Rest, showing what's blatantly a dragon crash site, director Alan Taylor himself (confirming what we already heard from other leaks that he's directing episode 4, which this is in), and very clear shots of heraldry - from Crownlands Houses that bent the knee to the Hightowers and joined their army such as Rosby and Darklyn. Also one or two not very revealing spy photos of Fabien Frankel (Criston Cole), Freddie Fox (Gwayne Hightower), and...Eddie Eyrie? Eyre played Gerold Hightower in Game of Thrones and we suspect he's Ormund Hightower in HotD (but can't confirm that).....this leans against the hypothesis that he's Ormund. What would he do, fight Rook's Rest only to race back to Oldtown? Maybe he's a different Hightower, though.

According to Redanian Intelligence, HotD Season 2 just cast actress Abigail Thorn in an unknown role. While she is an actor, Thorn also runs the YouTube channel "Philosophy Tube Live". Abigal Thorn came out two years ago as a Transgender Woman: Moreover, just two days ago she made a post on Twitter showing off extensive weight-training she'd been doing for months for an upcoming TV role....so apparently, this is a physically intensive role: My suspicion is that Abigail Thorn has been cast as a Jogos Nhai mercenary from the Triarchy. This has actually been a suggestion floating around for years: "how would a Trans character ever be included?" Well, without breaking the lore, yeah, the Jogos Nhai simply have different concepts of gender, like many real life cultures: Basically, Dragon Age already did something similar. .....ON THE OTHER HAND, some are theorizing that Thorn has been cast as Sabitha Vypren. On the basis that last year Thorn actually played a lesbian warrior in another project. https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/sep/22/the-prince-review-southwark-playhouse ON YET THE OTHER HAND, others have pointed out to be on Reddit that Thorn might be weight training for her upcoming role in Star Wars: Acolyte, so that might be irrelevant to her role on HotD.

I wouldn't mind hyping up the Wall and the Starks in the trailers; I mean, we didn't really get to see the Starks in Season 1, this is their big introduction in this prequel era. Who else would people really get hyped for who hasn't appeared yet? We know the Arryns and Tullys are in Season 2 but they're not as much of a draw...

...I've been thinking on this a lot: Dare we hope that House of the Dragon will try to explain why the White Walkers are returning specifically now, after 8,000 years of dormancy? Or maybe not specifically "why", but that you'd JUST start seeing them becoming active again....I didn't think of this, but the theory is, what if they quickly introduced some sort of "proto-Craster" wildlings? I doubt Craster was the only wildling to supply them with infant sons, or even the first. Who knows how far back they started slowly stirring in the farthest north? ....I'd be okay with it so long as GRRM is okay with it. I mean....I think we can tell the difference between "gratuitous fanservice" and "an honest attempt to tie the lore together". I.e. If Season 1 just showed "hey, that Valyrian steel dagger Arya killed the Night King with used to belong to the Targaryen kings", that would be fanservice on its own, but "revelation that Aegon the Conqueror actually forged the Iron Throne after a prophetic dream of the White Walkers' return"...is actually "adding to the lore". ....If they DO briefly appear or cameo or something, it can't just be... "checking off a box" but "adding to the lore".

Ah, new spy photos from Redanian Intelligence from filming in Bourne Wood, Surrey, of the LANNISTER army: https://redanianintelligence.com/2023/08/07/house-of-the-dragon-films-lannister-scenes-for-season-2/ Nothing very specific, just that you see a column of Lannister cavalry riding up to meet two riders bearing Lefford heraldry. They must be massing to enter the Riverlands - I think we'll see the opening Battle of Red Fork by the end of the season. But on a general level it's interesting how they're handling Lannister armor: it's actually trying to look like an earlier version of the Lannister armor seen in Game of Thrones (and they're made by the SAME armorer, Simon Brindle!)....but more...realistic? Less fancy. Because if you think about it season one barely featured Houses with familiar distinctive designs for soldiers like Starks and Lannisters, the Hightower and Velaryon armor is very different.