The Dragon Demands

Everything’s turning up dragons…

I don’t think Dalton Greyjoy would appear on-screen until Season 3

Mayhaps it’s a blessing in disguise that Blood and Cheese killed young Jaehaerys: after all, had the boy lived, he’d have grown up to be a Green.

You sound surprised - we all know how low the Greens are capable of stooping.

Also I hesitate to mention this, but uh... a major new location in King's Landing in Season 2 will be the..."Cock Inn". There's a plaque of a rooster on the front door. That's what the boxes of props for it are labeled.

(sorry if some of this is a repost) Spain Filming Days 1 & 2: Day 1 was a practice run for the horses, no one in full costume, then they filmed the actual scenes in full costume today Day 2. There are two big "procession through the streets of King's Landing" scenes they're filming: One is a funeral procession for Jaehaerys Targaryen. We even have spy photos labeled "JAH funeral". Slight invention from the books - apparently the Greens are hyping up "Rhaenyra is the new Maegor, she had my six year old son killed" etc. It's a big propaganda piece for the Greens to have this big funeral procession. Second is more straightforward and straight from the books: the severed head of the dragon Meleys being carted through the streets after the Battle of Rook's Rest (which was itself retaliation for the death of Jaheaerys). There's a bluescreen dragonhead prop with spikes on it like her head. Notably, it's being accompanied by Crownlander lords who bent the knee during the campaign, or their knights, displaying their heraldry banners: Stokeworth, Rosby, Darklyn of Duskendale, Staunton of Rook's Rest. Interesting as Rosby hasn't appeared in live-action before. These street scenes also prominently display Aegon II's book-accurate personal sigil of a GOLD version of the Targaren sigil, for his dragon Sunfyre. Otto used a GREEN three-headed dragon in Season 1 (mentioned off-screen, "there's a ship flying a three headed green dragon that just arrived"). So this foreshadows that Aegon is going to decide he's not Otto's puppet anymore at some point. Massive leak from reliable sources on Season 2 structure: Reliable sources who did good digging on Season 1 to fine the season outline back then are back at it on Season 2 - not the same leak sources they had to find new ones. People like HotD Greek (aka Realm of Dragons) and HotD Croatia, among others. According to their sources: Geeta Patel is directing the Jaehaerys funeral procession. No big surprise as we saw her cinematographer there. Clare Kilner is directing the Meleys head procession. Andrij Parekh is doing episode 6 but we have no idea as to its contents yet. Moreover, they found out which episodes these are based on their schedules: The Jaehaerys funeral procession is episode THREE, meaning Blood & Cheese are in episode 2. I half-hoped they'd push that back to mid-season. ....Meleys's severed head parade is in episode FIVE (Kilner said she's doing episodes two and five)...meaning Rook's Rest must be episode FOUR...HALFWAY POINT of an 8 episode season? That's...going a bit too fast. What the heck would they be doing in episodes 5, 6, 7, and 8 if Rook's Rest is episode 4? Even if episode 5 is mostly "fallout from the battle of Rook's Rest". Other spy sources said with clarity that the big battle moved to Season 3 is the Battle of the Gullet....but did they move it to the END of Season 3? Or are they indeed pushing it to the start of Season 3 and....having the fall of King's Landing happen OUT OF ORDER in the Season 2 finale? Because we have word that Emma D'Arcy has come to Spain to film King's Landing scenes....not confirmed what the specific scenes are yet....THEN AGAIN, if the fall of KL was happening this season, they would ALSO be large scale external scenes we'd have seen spy photos for. We haven't yet.

Rumor that Lydia Wilson has been cast as Jeyne Arryn. Based on that other actors plus an assistant director are following her on Instagram. Combined with 1 - she’s the right age and appearance, 2 - an actor of her prominence probably isn’t playing a background character https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia_Wilson

That’s what I hope one of the three animated projects is: an anthology covering all sorts of things. Like a high budget version of the Histories & Lore videos.

What I can't figure out is why did they give the older actor the younger one's name? I wish they'd announced Alys Rivers separately a few days ago so we could just enjoy that controversy-free. We'll have Alys for...a while. Who knows how many chapters it will take in Fire & Blood Volume 2 to cover the remaining 20 years of Aegon III's reign. We assume "well I guess not much happened" but that's what we said about Jaehaerys before Fire & Blood gave us all those new chapters.

why must we be tormented with doubt and hope? I wish they'd just tell us what changes they're doing in advance and be done with it. Softens the blow.

Unless of course...they cast Salim with an eye towards him being more age-appropriate for Regency-era Alyn Velaryon? And they'll just have him "play down" for a scene or two this year, before coming back in 3 years?

Can a mod please lock this thread and redirect to the official news post thread on the same announcement.

Well on the other hand....there are prominent rumors, even being entertained by Redanian Intelligence, that actor Clinton Liberty has been cast as Addam Velaryon: https://redanianintelligence.com/2023/04/12/house-of-the-dragon-season-2-adds-cheese-and-more-casting-news/

We don't need to resort to extreme measures, Colonel Green.

I’m really worried about this “Alyn” announcement

God help us all.

So suddenly a politically respected and powerful black man must face accusations of impropriety? That’s Green talk. seriously though…has Addam been cut?

Abubakar Salim is 30 years old and he’s playing “Alyn of Hull”? What’s going on?

https://www.google.cl/amp/s/variety.com/2023/tv/news/house-of-the-dragon-alys-rivers-season-2-1235592500/amp/

The problem with adding material to season one isn’t so much that it ruins a strong stopping point; if the end of THR is the end of episode 3 it’s an arc ending - not unlike what Andor is planning with its second season; miniarcs of three episodes (across 12 episodes). So it’s possible they’ll round out the season by going to Oldtown then Dorne, then the outbreak of the Great Spring Sickness…and even earlier in the season, padding out with flashbacks to the First Blackfyre Rebellion. But no…there is a potential problem with that - not the argument about a strong endpoint, but what would be left to do in Season Two? All of these potential additions were technically introduced as flashbacks in the second novella, which is otherwise a relatively thin story even compared to the events of the first novella: “Dunk gets involved in a water dispute between minor lords during a drought”? So maybe it’s better if all that gets saved for season 2?

I don't consider it "unfaithful" if in ADDITION to the text, they decide to show on-screen some other events that were happening in this time period. Fleshing it out more. I mean, after introducing all the Targaryens at the tournament, then actually follow some of them back to King's Landing, to see the outbreak of the Great Spring Sickness through their eyes.

Two years from now, we’ll have three live action Daerons. and 3 to 4 Aegons

I think a better cliffhanger to end the season on is the outbreak of the Great Spring Sickness…but they could do that in all of five minutes at the end of the last episode. then season two could back up a bit the first two episodes as basically long flashbacks showing “this is what they were doing in Dorne at the time”

Ah, new update confirms “Sworn Sword” is season 2. Six episodes in season one…will it all just be on the tournament? He mentions their Dorne adventure…but for season one or two?

A thought occurs.... it might not be this way, but we can't rule it out either....what if they actually intend to do ALL THREE of the currently printed novellas as "Season 1", make it about 9 episodes long? And they're just collectively calling "it "The Hedge Knight"? With 12 planned novellas in total, that would equal a 4 season TV show. Add in a few things that happened off-screen - I'm still surprised at the things that the second novella retroactively said happened in the gap since the first one. Like, you know, a DEVASTATING PLAGUE, plus Dunk & Egg visiting Maester Aemon in Oldtown, and their misadventures in Dorne with Mad Lady Vaith. ....then again, Martin stated that Season 1 "is based on the first novella". Perhaps...he was speaking loosely? I don't know. Wait, let's parse this out....as Zionius said, going by the graphic novel issues, a reasonably faithful adaptation of "The Hedge Knight" would take about 3 TV episodes to make, right? Maybe "Season 1" will be rounded out with that other stuff - they're not beholden to 10 episodes. So an episode on visiting Oldtown, another one on visiting Dorne, then an episode or TWO on the Great Spring Sickness (give or take) from the perspective of other characters....yeah I can see this filling the 6 to 7 episode region, maybe 8. They wouldn't be long episodes. I'm not worried about "padding" Season 1. I'm worried about Season 2.