House of the Dragon Teaser Released

[Westeros]

HBO Max has given fans a pleasant surprise with a first look at House of the Dragon, in the form of a Matt Smith-narrated teaser showing a number of scenes and characters from the show, as well as confirming several significant new cast members. See the video below, and the press release about new cast following that.

Blackfyre looks great, we have to say. So, too, does Daemon Targaryen’s tournament armor with the dragon wings on the helm (an idea we used on our game, Blood of Dragons, for Aemon the Dragonknight, grandson of Prince Daemon). And, perhaps the biggest surprise at all, a revised vision of the Iron Throne and its dais to try and bring it more in line with George R.R. Martin’s actual vision of as a monstrous, twisted construction. There’s even a tourney scene featuring Criston Cole (distinguishable by his coat of arms, ten black pellets on red, on his shield) and a knight of House Tarly (possibly the future Lord Alan Tarly, who sides with the blacks?), though the array of banners there are rather curious: Lannister and what looks like Lefford, perhaps Corbray… but also Bolton, Stark, and what might be a take on Manderly (the latter at a southron tourney seems okay to us… but the Boltons and Starks would be incredibly unlikely to appear at a tourney in what appears to be the Reach.)

We plan to screen cap and go in more detail at some of the images and scenes later this evening, for those curious.

The press release follows:

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[The Dragon Demands]

My point by point breakdown of the trailer:

• Shot of Daemon from behind walking down a dark passageway with a torch, no significant detail. 
• Shot from behind of adult-Rhaenyra walking up to Daemon at dawn/dusk on the beach.
• Card: "200 years before the fall of the throne" - thank god, very prominently saying "200 years" and not "300 years" - we only JUST got them to fix that on their official website last week! People just read the back blurb on "Fire & Blood" not realizing it's an anthology.
• Brief shot of a dragon skull (Balerion?) with a lot of funeral candles underneath (no significant detail)
• Closeup shot of the iconic Hand of the King pin on Otto Hightower's tunic (no significant new detail)
• Closeup shot of the hilt of the sword BLACKFYRE in the hand of King Viserys on the Iron Throne (Viserys it out of focus, his eyes off the frame; seeing from his nostrils down, he has shoulder-length hair and some stubble but no beard). Blackfyre itself has a motif of dragon wings with seven finger-bones in them. Within the bounds of what we imagined from book art.
• Shots from two angles of young-Rhaenyra in the throne room. Shot is cropped to shoulder. UNLIKE earlier shots with long hair, Rhaenyra has a big coiled braid in the back of her head...and what seems to be a French Hood style hat. Also large prominent earrings, which NEVER appeared in Game of Thrones.
• This closeup shot of Rhaenyra reveals that NO, we will not be getting purple Valyrian eyes in this show.
• Is this her mother's funeral? Or perhaps her begging her father not to force her into an arranged marriage with Laenor?
• A large number of candles being blown out by the wind.
• Now a forward angle shot of adult-Rhaenyra walking up to Daemon on the beach at dawn-dusk, clearly showing her face and Daemon's face (albeit in low lighting).
• EPIC shot of Daemon in full Targaryen armor, dragon-wing helm and large feathered plume, and clearly holding Dark Sister, fighting in a tourney melee. His opponent is on opposite side and obscured; possibly Criston Cole due to using a flail?
• ALL Targaryen heraldry on-screen uses the four legged dragon design. On shields, on banners...and now, even the LOGO that they run on-screen. Is this intentional? I.e. they're going to retcon an in-universe explanation for the mistake by saying "oh yeah, that was a different art style early on but we updated it by the middle of Viserys's reign"? The dragon sigil on Daemon's shield is also chased with gold along the edges.
• Full focused shot of HOUSE VELARYON as they walk into the Iron Throne room during a feast. Wearing finery chased with a lot of gold. Corlys, and first official look at Eve Best as Rhaenys Velaryon in full costume. Behind them are clear shots of Laenor and Laena (both mixed race, lighter skinned than Corlys). BEHIND them are several other Velaryon cousins, black-skinned and white haired (we saw multiple Velaryon cousins at Driftmark filming).
• Update: due to their prominence in the trailer, HBO just confirmed more Velaryon castings: Savanna Steyn as Laena Velaryon (apparently Young Laena), Will Johnson as Vaemond Velaryon, Corlys's younger brother, and yes, official confirmation that John McMillan is playing Adult Laenor.
• Reverse shot as they enter the throne room, decorated for a grand royal feast, garlands hanging from the ceiling, hall full of people. A table is set before the Iron Throne. King Viserys is sitting with...a queen? Strike that; closeups reveal he's sitting there with Young Rhaenyra. But not Alicent? Two banners flank the throne: at Viserys's right is the Targaryen banner, at his left the Velaryon banner. To his right at the table sits Lyonel Strong (confirmed in closeup). Left side of the table under the Velaryon banner has empty seats, apparently waiting for Corlys and Rhaenys as they walk across the room. Given that this probably isn't just a random feast, this may well be the Rhaenyra/Laenor wedding feast.
• Cut to first look at Mysaria. Not much detail because it's a close headshot. She has earings, a seemingly good quality cloak judging from the collar. Appears to be some years after her Flea Bottom days.
• Shot of...Olivia Cooke's Alicent...wearing same costume as in promo photos, but indoors...holding the Valyrian steel dagger we saw in Game of Thrones, and rushing across the room as if to attack someone with it. Probably after her son lost an eye and she demands they cut out his attacker's eye. I'm not too upset they're re-using the Valyrian steel dagger (there are ONLY 200 of these things in Westeros), but it was annoying how Season 7 desperately tried to connect Arya killing Littlefinger with it as somehow storyline payoff to a nonsensical storyline. So fine, they're re-using a prop, I take no issue with this.
• Two Kingsguard are out of focus in the background...one of his is clearly Harrold Westerling. Even though we thought he'd die of old age BEFORE the shift to the adult version of Alicent? 
• Cut to a tournament joust. Apparently held by the Tarlys because large versions of their banners are prominent. One rider holds a Tarly shield...the other holds a shield with black pellets on scarlet, the sigil of House Cole. So this is Criston Cole jousting with a Tarly? We get a from-behind shot of two women observing from the stands; apparently Rhaenyra and Alicent? (update: Emily Carey confirmed it is indeed her). One on the left has coiled braids and a large fringed white collar.
• Visible heraldry during the joust around the tourney set: Stark, Lannister, Tarly (revealing that unlike Targaryen sigil they are EXACTLY the same), Bolton, Lefford, and an unknown light green on dark green design (possibly House Manderly in bad lighting?) and a dripping red heart that might be from House Corbray (Given that we don't see the top of the sigil).
• ADULT Laenor (John McMillan) fighting another man with a sword in the middle of a castle hall; really fighting, they're not in practice gear. Man is white, with short brown hair. Possibly Qarl Correy? No, that was at a market. Castle interior unclear, whether Dragonstone or Castle Driftmark (both would have similar architecture). Dragon tapestries in background. 
• White haired woman, apparently Young Rhaenyra, approaches the empty Iron Throne...it's the same prop as in Game of Thrones, but they expanded out melted swords from the sides to flank it and make it look a bit more like the book version.

Short list of biggest takeaways:

• Why is Targaryen sigil a four-legged dragon? This prominently?
• First look at most of House Velaryon, including first official photos of Rhaenys, Laenor, Laena, and even Vaemond.
• In a minor change, the Tourney at Maidenpool from the beginning of Viserys's reign seems to have been moved to the Tarlys' seat at Horn Hill - a minor change, the audience is more familiar with them, and the same crowd of lords and knights traveled around to different tourneys over the years during Rhaenyra's courtship. Tarlys are also characters in this prequel era.
• Our first official look at Young Rhaenyra in costume (though we had good spy photos) and briefly Young Alicent (from behind, no detail, also better spy photos); also a brief first look at Mysaria (it's just a headshot, no costume).
• While Olivia Cooke's Alicent is apparently rushing someone with a knife after Aemond gets injured...it seems that Harrold Westerling will live much later in the show than he did in the book.
• Is Laenor fight his death scene? This is in a castle, in the books it was a marketplace.
• The casting updating in the press release describes Vaemond as Corlys's brother....but book-Vaemond isn't Corlys's brother, he's his nephew. Names sometimes repeat in dynasties, but what's going on here?

[Daeron the Daring]

2 hours ago, The Dragon Demands said:

Card: "200 years before the fall of the throne" - thank god, very prominently saying "200 years" and not "300 years" - we only JUST got them to fix that on their official website last week! People just read the back blurb on "Fire & Blood" not realizing it's an anthology.

Honestly, it is annoying how these people didn't order someone around themselves who is a lore expert. It's not that big of a deal, nor is the 4-legged dragon on the sigil, but it writes the developers down to us, who know it's wrong. 

[Ran]

3 hours ago, The Dragon Demands said:

Dragon tapestries in background. 

It's not a dragon, it's a prowed ship. It could be a dragon-headed prow, or a wolf-headed one (Ice Wolf?), or a snake-headed (Sea Snake?)... or even a swan prow. The latter is interesting if it's supposed to be a depiction of Velaryon history implying close ties to the Summer Isles, I suppose.

 

[The Dragon Demands]

1 hour ago, Daeron the Daring said:

Honestly, it is annoying how these people didn't order someone around themselves who is a lore expert. It's not that big of a deal, nor is the 4-legged dragon on the sigil, but it writes the developers down to us, who know it's wrong. 

I was more annoyed when they accidentally replaced the HotD plot description with the description for some French vampire movie. I had to drop director Greg Yaitanes a line over Instagram to get that fixed.

[Lord Varys]

They are seriously reusing the Valyrian steel dagger from GoT for this?

[The Bard of Banefort]

3 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

They are seriously reusing the Valyrian steel dagger from GoT for this?

Arguably the worst mystery of the books too. Didn’t the show change it so that Jaime sent the dagger? That was dumb. 

[Daeron the Daring]

7 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

They are seriously reusing the Valyrian steel dagger from GoT for this?

I tought I was hallucinating at first.

They sell it as an easter egg, people love that these days. 

[Daeron the Daring]

4 minutes ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Arguably the worst mystery of the books too. Didn’t the show change it so that Jaime sent the dagger? That was dumb. 

We better forget about it once again, if that's true. 

[The Dragon Demands]

14 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

They are seriously reusing the Valyrian steel dagger from GoT for this?

On the one hand, you can say "oh yeah, there's only 200 Valyrian steel blades, they come FROM the Valyrian families like them, so it makes sense we'd see it as a cameo".....but I get the sinking feeling that the morons in the hype fandom will start making MORE fan theories about it, as they did in the hype for seeing it in Season 7 trailers.

problem is, this is a prequel - they can't make crap hype theories with the false promise of what WILL happen, because we know what will happen. It's just a dagger. 

Most of you didn't subject yourselves to listening through the showrunner interviews & blu ray commentaries for season 7 - it's hard to understate just how much they thought bringing it back in season 7 was a stroke of utter genius, "look at us, we tied it all together!" ....even as the steps leading up to Littlefinger's death were logically incoherent. Genuinely incoherent, but "hey, we remembered that dagger! So doesn't it FEEL planned out?!"  the utter self congratulation they had, even Cogman.

But even that pales in comparison to JUST HOW MANY crazy fan theories were circulating around youtube and reddit. I mean the sheer volume of them. It was a cottage industry unto itself, but when you try to point out real "analysis" like "that plot point made no sense, why didn't Sansa tell Jon about the Vale army" - they told you to shut up.

I don't think the HBO marketing people understand or are willing to accept, for that matter, that the Night King isn't popular anymore.

[LadyTargaryen1]

18 minutes ago, Lord Varys said:

They are seriously reusing the Valyrian steel dagger from GoT for this?

Why wouldn’t they? Valyrian steel is a finite resource besides the cats paw dagger was in the possession of the royal family. Not a stretch to say it belonged to the Targaryens 

[Ran]

The same dagger being so prominent is okay by me. I mean, where did Littlefinger acquire it in the first place? We don't know. For all we know, it was a reward Robert gave him from the treasury for boosting revenue in his first year in KL or whatever.

(FWIW, we even had the idea of doing something like that on our roleplaying game -- the future catspaw's dagger was a prize at a tournament, and is now in the hands of a knight of House Connington. How it goes from there to Littlefinger by the time of the books? Who knows, doesn't matter for game purposes.)

[Daeron the Daring]

29 minutes ago, Ran said:

The same dagger being so prominent is okay by me. I mean, where did Littlefinger acquire it in the first place? We don't know. For all we know, it was a reward Robert gave him from the treasury for boosting revenue in his first year in KL or whatever.

(FWIW, we even had the idea of doing something like that on our roleplaying game -- the future catspaw's dagger was a prize at a tournament, and is now in the hands of a knight of House Connington. How it goes from there to Littlefinger by the time of the books? Who knows, doesn't matter for game purposes.)

I was always wondering, is George inspired in any way by anything that happens in the MUSH? 

[Ran]

3 minutes ago, Daeron the Daring said:

I was always wondering, is George inspired in any way by anything that happens in the MUSH? 

Not that I know of, except maybe he ended up scrounging up some names for characters from our family trees (it's a weird coincidence that we came up with a Myles Mooton before ASoS was even done being written, and the fact that we have a variation of Jason (Jaesin) Lannister many, many years prior to George inventing Jason Lannister from the Dance ...), whereas many things that happened on the game were inspired by the notes he sent us for the era many years ago.

[The Dragon Demands]

1 hour ago, Ran said:

The same dagger being so prominent is okay by me. I mean, where did Littlefinger acquire it in the first place? We don't know. For all we know, it was a reward Robert gave him from the treasury for boosting revenue in his first year in KL or whatever.

(FWIW, we even had the idea of doing something like that on our roleplaying game -- the future catspaw's dagger was a prize at a tournament, and is now in the hands of a knight of House Connington. How it goes from there to Littlefinger by the time of the books? Who knows, doesn't matter for game purposes.)

I actually feel similarly: to us the book fans, regardless of anything after Season 1, it's a nice Easter Egg: there are only 200 blades, most come from the Targaryens, not impossible one is in the mix.

What I'm annoyed about is I'm already anticipating ALREADY SEEING the hype fansites reporting on SPECIFICALLY THIS and little else about the trailer!

I made this meme image which I feel sums up the situation:

 

[TheReal_Rebel]

Frankly, I needed this today.  Something that would take me out of myself.

I hope it is more true to GRRM’s vision & characters & what GRRM wants to say than  prior outings on HBO.

I hope it distracts people enough to leave GRRM to finish his Opus.

Right now it’s all Cake to me

Do wonder if Mushroom will appear & other scholars of the Era?

[Lord Varys]

My issue with the dagger just is that the stupid thing got some damned important in the stupid show, meaning I'd have preferred it to never see it again.

The very idea that it might be the weapon Luke used to cut out Aemond's eye ... and then, quite possibly, Aemond or Alicent to do hideous things to other people until it finally ended up in the hands of Littlefinger is just a little bit too much for me.

Also, it is kind of weird to imagine that it was the property of the Targaryens only to return into the possession of a king when Robert won it in a bet. Not impossible or anything, but awfully convenient.

I'm already seeing it: If the dagger is the knife that takes Aemond's eye it will actually be the blade of young Joffrey. They won't resist the opportunity to give the dagger to another prince named Joffrey.

[The Dragon Demands]

Maybe it's more subtle in the show an the trailer people just blew it out of proportion.

[zionius]

Could Catspaw's dagger be the 3rd VS sword Ryan mentioned? All 3 VS weapons made cameo in the teaser.

[Jaenara Belarys]

It's not far fetched to conceive of the Catspaw dagger being a Targaryen relic. Where else would Robert get it? I mean, think about it. Dragonbone hilt, Valyrian steel.....

6 hours ago, The Bard of Banefort said:

Arguably the worst mystery of the books too. Didn’t the show change it so that Jaime sent the dagger? That was dumb. 

Did they change that? I thought it was still Joffrey. 

7 hours ago, The Dragon Demands said:

I was more annoyed when they accidentally replaced the HotD plot description with the description for some French vampire movie. I had to drop director Greg Yaitanes a line over Instagram to get that fixed.

I hope you're joking .