EW interview discusses dragon designs for House of the Dragon

[The Dragon Demands]

https://ew.com/tv/dragons-guide-house-of-the-dragons/

According to Sapochnik, they came up with three "Breeds" or "Types" of dragons, based on skull shape:
 

• "Dinosaur-shaped" - like a T-rex, with "a big bridge of the nose" (Drogon-like?)
• "Wolf-like" - "convex feel to it" (Caraxes?)
• "Horse-like" - described as "sort of between the other two" (Syrax?)

They started by designing Syrax and Caraxes, then spiraling out from there to the second and third tier dragons (as Condal said at SDCC)

Problem is, they don't specify which ones correspond to each description. I'm fairly sure the "convex" wolf-like head refers to Caraxes.  Drogon looks T-rex-like. 

Syrax has swept-back horns, and in other videos Condal said her design was inspired by an eagle - to make her look "regal". 

At any rate, then we get into Jack Vance territory: what are each of the three breeds meant to do?

Because if they're anything like horses, you've got destriers/coursers built for strength and fighting, then palfreys built for endurance. And maybe others built for sprinting? (shrug)

I like the idea they came up with for Vhagar, the oldest living dragon:

They took the idea that "dragons never stop growing" and ran with it: eventually, a dragon grows so big that it simply can't biologically sustain itself at that size. Reminds me of Ligers - lion-tiger hybrids which are huge...but due to the square cube law, at a certain point you get so big that it outpaces what your internal organs can sustain. They grow too big for their own heart to pump well. So eventually a dragon dies of "old age" when it gets so big its body just can't sustain that. Mentions that they're even difficult to LAND without shattering their own leg bones (again, Square cube law). Also use the analogy of cancer: their scales are almost OVERGROWN at this point, so she's constantly shedding scales as she moves.

Also mentions, as we pretty much assumed, that the three "Wild" dragons won't be in season one...but these are perhaps their most favorite designs. They look different from never getting riders; little things like the puncture points where they attach reins at a young age just aren't there, etc.
 

 

[mogl]

Why would they use mammals (wolf and horse) rather than a lizard?