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HBO Announces Production Begins on House of the Dragon


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They're just spy photos spreading over Twitter, and in turn being posted to Reddit. Many were posted by the Daily Mail UK.

Reddit/HouseOfTheDragon is full of them: https://www.reddit.com/r/HouseOfTheDragon/

The last two came from a Twitter account of a fellow named Robert Taylor who's in Cornwall.

https://twitter.com/robertselclene?s=21

I just obsessively refresh the hashtag "#HouseOfTheDragon" every few minutes, crossed with checking the Reddit page.

Could the filming now have anything to do with the fact that it's a Bank Holiday this week in the UK?

....random kid?  Yeah for all we know there are a LOT of minor Velaryon cousins in the background of scenes. I've been discouraging people from assuming that EVERY blurry photo of a white-haired young black man must be Laenor. One was pretty clearly Steve Toussaint, on account of his beard. But a child? I suspect it - they usually don't include small children without a reason.

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1 hour ago, The Dragon Demands said:

BIG NEWS. CHILD TARGARYEN SPOTTED AT CORNWALL'S DRIFTMARK SET. A BOY.

Is this Aegon II? Or Aemond?

@Ran

If they are indeed filming Laena's funeral, this would be too young to be Aegon II. So...Aemond?

Looks like little Lucius Malfoy.

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A new spy photo came out of what seems to be Laena's funeral pyre...there's a huge bluescreen rig apparently for a dragon to light the fire.

If you zoom in on the right you can see the Velaryon sigil as it appears on a banner - unfortunately it wasn't a case of miscommunication between the sculptures and flag props teams (as sometimes happened) - it seems to still have a horse's head.  

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/E0LwV5LXsAAX0Iq?format=jpg&name=900x900

Notice, however, if we zoom in on the far left, left of the tent.

There was considerable discussion when yesterday's set of spy photos leaked out, and we saw a white woman on the boat wearing a large double-pointed black hat with gold trim. It clearly wasn't Eve Best (Rhaenys Velaryon).  

A Septa? Septas don't dress that formally.

If you look to the left of the tent in the new image, however, you can just barely make out what seems to be the distinct profile of double-pointed hat lady...and standing next to what...MAY be Corlys Velaryon. I made a side by side image:

https://twitter.com/ADragonDemands/status/1387945209007333377

So I'm thinking on it....there's always a chance this is just a well-dressed background extra from the ...sigh...innumerable minor Velaryon cousins. 

But something about that high quality costume got me thinking.  And now the image that...MAY show her standing prominently next to Corlys at the funeral of his daughter.

So here's a theory:

It's possible that this woman is Corlys's paternal grandmother.

Our running theory is that they want to show the Velaryons as mixed-race, to emphasize that low-ranking Valyrian families below the dragon-lords weren't as obsessed with blood purity (as described in the Pentos chapter of the World book - basically that the Velaryons are like traders from Valyrian-Pentos who moved to the other side of the Narrow Sea).  Regardless of this being a slight change from the books (much like TV-Salladhor) the point is this is what they're doing.  

And in the books...we have no idea who Corlys's mother was, nor his paternal grandmother.

Meanwhile, Corlys is lord of House Velaryon now because his father AND grandfather are dead.

So the simplest solution being the most pragmatic and probable, they probably went with that Corlys's father (Corwyn?) had a child with a Summer Islander woman or something....but if they want to visually, quickly show, "he's a black man with white hair, but he's the product of a mixed race marriage"....they can't show his father, on account of he's dead. 

Thus the only remaining way to quickly establish, visually, "historically, most Velaryons were white, he's the result of a mixed race marriage" ....would be to show Corlys Velaryon's white mother as still being alive.  

Then again she's not platinum blonde, but maybe she was a Massey or something.

(shrug)

It's just a theory.

 

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Assuming they go through the scenes they are shooting roughly in chronological order - which most definitely isn't a given since they are not just doing a pilot, they are shooting an entire season, back to back, unless I'm mistaken - then it would be odd that they would start with Laena Velaryon's funeral.

Laena Velaryon wouldn't die early in the show assuming she is even in the show - which we don't know at this point - since the entire point of her character is to die at a later point in time. Daemon as a widower free to marry Rhaenyra this early in the show would create all kind of problems ... or rather all kind of weirdo diversions from the source material.

Thus my best guess for this funeral - if it is a funeral - would be that this is the funeral of Queen Aemma.

That said - the mystery woman you are wondering about could also be a living Queen Aemma who arguably should be still alive and kicking while Alicent Hightower is not yet married to Viserys I.

One could also think about the funeral of the Old King or the Good Queen, if they were wanting to start with that.

If the funeral were definitely a Velaryon funeral it could also be the funeral of Corlys' mother ... a way to introduce the Velaryons as a Valyrian family of mixed ancestry, possibly even showing the body of Corlys' Summer Islander mother so people understand why there are basically black Targaryens in this show.

Something like that could create a nice parallel to the pilot of GoT ... and establish the differences if it is a funeral pyre and a bunch of gigantic dragons light the fire.

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33 minutes ago, The Dragon Demands said:

First clear image of Laena Velaryon? (well, "clear", wearing a facemask and poncho)

 

That would be my guess. I'd be surprised if they had multiple black characters with white hair on the show ;-).

The funeral of Queen Aemma could also provide the show with the pretext to get the main players together and establish the animosities and conflicts between the various characters at the beginning of the first season. Sort of like Robert's visit to Winterfell does in AGoT.

A meeting between the royal family and the Velaryons at a funeral would be the ideal background to reference/talk about the death of Aemon in 92 AC as well as the Great Council which both would effectively as the Harrenhal/Robert's Rebellion of this era.

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I doubt it's Aemma because we saw a sarcophagus with a Velaryon sigil on it.

New photo just leaked....of a tall but young looking Targaryen male, white skin and shoulder-length platinum blonde hair. Probably not show-Laenor as he will be mixed-race.

I think it's either our first look at TV-Aegon II, or POSSIBLY a Young Daemon for a flashback scene....but Young Daemon would mostly be in King's Landing.  This might be Aegon II, rolling with the idea that the earlier child was Aemond:

Of course, we also have to factor in that there are the innumerable "minor Velaryon cousins" (shudder)...what will become the Silent Five.

 

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I'm not sure we can jump from a sarcophagus with a Velaryon sigil to the conclusion that the funeral - if the whole smoke thing indicating a massive fire lighted by dragons was a funeral - would be the sarcophagus person.

I think it is even a stretch that they would put the ashes from a pyre into a sarcophagus and not simply an urn or something like that.

If the whole thing is a royal funeral then the event should take place on Dragonstone rather than Driftmark, since - according to FaB - Dragonstone is the burial ground of the Targaryens ... and that could include their royal Velaryon cousins.

Sarcophagi of Velaryon women could be a way to establish that the Targaryens are descended from them - say, they could show Valaena Velaryon or Alyssa Velaryon in the Targaryen crypts to establish how closely the Velaryons and Targaryens are related despite the fact that the present-day Velaryons looks somewhat different.

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On 4/30/2021 at 11:56 AM, The Dragon Demands said:

 

It's possible that this woman is Corlys's paternal grandmother.

Our running theory is that they want to show the Velaryons as mixed-race, to emphasize that low-ranking Valyrian families below the dragon-lords weren't as obsessed with blood purity (as described in the Pentos chapter of the World book - basically that the Velaryons are like traders from Valyrian-Pentos who moved to the other side of the Narrow Sea).  Regardless of this being a slight change from the books (much like TV-Salladhor) the point is this is what they're doing.  

And in the books...we have no idea who Corlys's mother was, nor his paternal grandmother.

Meanwhile, Corlys is lord of House Velaryon now because his father AND grandfather are dead.

So the simplest solution being the most pragmatic and probable, they probably went with that Corlys's father (Corwyn?) had a child with a Summer Islander woman or something....but if they want to visually, quickly show, "he's a black man with white hair, but he's the product of a mixed race marriage"....they can't show his father, on account of he's dead. 

Thus the only remaining way to quickly establish, visually, "historically, most Velaryons were white, he's the result of a mixed race marriage" ....would be to show Corlys Velaryon's white mother as still being alive.  

Then again she's not platinum blonde, but maybe she was a Massey or something.

(shrug)

It's just a theory.

 

Ah, exactly what I sprinted all the way back into the Westeros basement for. I was proper confused when I saw the casting for Corlys. Seems legit :)

Question: how is everyone feeling about this new project. Who’s got anxiety?

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10 hours ago, Solaris said:

Question: how is everyone feeling about this new project. Who’s got anxiety?

About HotD? None. I don't think I'm going to watch it. I'd love to, but these people put a horse's head on a seahorse. And made a dragon with four legs. 

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I made a collage of the photos from the background Velaryon household servants etc. They've got these new and different, heavily braided wigs - one big central wig running along the top of the head, front to back.  To evoke a horse's mane? like a "seahorse"?
 

https://twitter.com/ADragonDemands/status/1388917827860566031

 

 

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7 hours ago, Jaenara Belarys said:

About HotD? None. I don't think I'm going to watch it. I'd love to, but these people put a horse's head on a seahorse. And made a dragon with four legs. 

I don’t think I will watch it either, I never watched season 8 deliberately and then I saw how badly everyone was responding to it and got the lowdown on plot lines and resolved to never watch it. I have not been able to bring myself to even rewatch earlier seasons because of it.

I’ve read and watched about all the things that are available on this production and I’m anxious that we will get more of the same that 8 gave us. I thought that those creative decisions were weird too, a foreshadowing of random decisions to come perhaps?

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6 hours ago, The Dragon Demands said:

I made a collage of the photos from the background Velaryon household servants etc. They've got these new and different, heavily braided wigs - one big central wig running along the top of the head, front to back.  To evoke a horse's mane? like a "seahorse"?
 

https://twitter.com/ADragonDemands/status/1388917827860566031

 

 

Probably, I suppose it maybe of of some difficulty to come up with costume differences. Didn’t someone in a post somewhere point out how the targs seem to have not changed fashion in a few hundred years? When commenting on Rhaeneys and Daemon on the beach?

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Reddit figured out from an Instagram post that Director of Photography Fabian Wagner will return for House of the Dragon. @Ran

https://www.instagram.com/p/COYOcAxBg7U/?igshid=u0fplq29bxz5

I think this is good news. He was Miguel Sapochnik's trusted assistant, and one of the few people who actually gave a damn about the suffering of the cast and crew during filming on Season 8.

A lot of people keep blasting Wagner for the screen darkness in the Long Night battle episode....when EVERY interview and commentary has made it clear this wasn't like...what, some sort of accident? - EVERY behind the scenes source made it shockingly clear that:

1 - Benioff and Weiss WANTED the screen to be this dark. There's concept art and everything.

2 - The department heads were BEGGING them not to have it this dark, for MONTHS. The VFX commentary from the Bluray particularly shows just how much they were fighting with D&D "no one can see anything, we're wasting millions of dollars on CGI no one will ever see".

And yet people still blame Wagner as some sort of knee-jerk reaction.

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