the Intro

[HTN02]

i dont know if this is the right place, but as it debuted in this Ep, im making it here.

 

How did you guys like the intro?

 

Myself was a bit disappointed they used the GoT theme. id prefer the show to stand on its own feet.

Loved the symbolism of recreating the Targaryen family tree.

https://youtu.be/XilSEYZ9CbY

0:04 - Doom of Valyria and Aegon's crown
0:13 - Rhaenys and Visenya
0:20 - Aenys I
0:27 - Jaehaerys I and Alysane
0:35 - Baelon and Alyssa
0:41 - Corlys (top), Aemon's blood flows to Rhaenys then splits to possibly Laena and Laenor
0:50 - Viserys and Aemma (Arryn sigil)
1:00 - Daemon , Baelon
1:10 - Rhaenyra

[Ran]

Nicely done break down. The actual concept is good, but I admit the execution is a little confusing. Things fly by so fast that you have to rewatch a few times to pick up all the symbolism.

[DMC]

Yeah I guess I have to go back and watch it again.  Had no idea that's what it was trying to do - it's very hard to make out the little sigils in such a short period of time.

[EggBlue]

I liked the graphic in general and it was a really cool concept . however , that blood shouldn't have run like a river . blood of the dragon runs thick ! it kinda reminded me of Sweeny Todd's intro ! anyways , if they change the theme music which is not suited for a mysterious bloodline tree at all and make the pacing between sigils a bit slower , I will love it.

[The hairy bear]

The concept was not bad, but the execution is terrible. We are the uber-fans, and we still need multiple rewatches and some leaps of faith to make sense of what's being depicted. It's impossible that the casual viewer understands anything beyond flowing blood.

Has anyone been able to decipher what are the symbols representing each individual? I get that the kings are represented by their crowns (the one for Jaehaerys and Viserys is unlike the canon circlet from the books, but very similar to the one seen in the show). Baelon is represented by a Hand, and the Arryn falcon is clear enough.

But I am completely lost trying to make sense of Visenya, Rhaenyra, Alysanne (a woman pouring jugs of water?), Aemon, Corlys and Rhaenys. And any guess at why Rhaenyra is identified with some kind of helix?

2 hours ago, HTN02 said:

1:00 - Daemon , Baelon

That's the only identification I'm not sure about. Do you mean Visery's brother and short-lived son? They shouldn't be connected then, wouldn't they?  I had guessed that this was Otto and Alicent (the symbols may be a hand and the hightower banner, and just before, when Viserys is shown, an additional flow of blood flows away indicating that his second marriage is included.

That would also explain why they have waited until the second episode to show the intro. If someone had deciphered back then, it would have been spoilerific of the second episode's ending.

[Ran]

Visenya's looks like Dark Sister to us.

Rhaenyra's triskele happens to be the pendant on the necklace that Daemon gives her in the first episode.

I wonder if Alysanne is holding one of her women's courts?

Corlys looked a bit like a ship to me, but it's a tough one.

 

 

 

 

[slant]

Oof great that's what it is. Was gonna write up a whole post on why it cannot be the model of Valyria built by Viserys lol. It looks too much like an Escher painting to be a 3D model. I didn't like it at all... just the strange camera movements, the lack of clarity of the symbols, and too many weird blurry bits of meaningless walls and blood textures. 

What is going on at 1:13 though? 

[Lord Varys]

Don't like the intro, either. Had folks tell me what it is supposed to mean ... and that's terrible considering my background with this stuff. I think they should have gone not with such weirdo symbolism but rather abstract representations of the Targaryens in question.

Didn't bother to look at the symbols myself, but if Alysanne's show cups of water my immediate association is she serving Jaehaerys and the council river water in the council chamber, causing them to immediate decide to do something about the situation.

Speaking about symbols: Can anybody tell me what's there on Aemma's ring in the pilot? I just can't make it out and it is featured so prominently in the first episode.

[EggBlue]

2 hours ago, EggBlue said:

I liked the graphic in general and it was a really cool concept . however , that blood shouldn't have run like a river . blood of the dragon runs thick ! it kinda reminded me of Sweeny Todd's intro ! anyways , if they change the theme music which is not suited for a mysterious bloodline tree at all and make the pacing between sigils a bit slower , I will love it.

I said they should slower the pacing a bit , but having missed a lot of the symbols on second watch , I think they should make it A LOT SLOWER ! I feel sorry for the artists working on each symbol's concept! how can we appreciate them if we cannot see them?

[C.T. Phipps]

I wish they'd just stuck with the Game of Thrones board completely and had Driftmark and Oldtown.

[Takiedevushkikakzvezdy]

I guess the intro is literally supposed to symbolise the blood of old Valyria?

[Ser Not Appearing]

I got nothing out of it other than blood and some fire. I also wish that they had a slightly different version of the theme song.

The song is just preference but it's probably not ideal for the intro that I had no idea what was going on.

[DMC]

In terms of the theme song, yeah.  I mean, why didn't they just use that famous rendition of the guy playing it on like a dozen violins?  Just buying that probably woulda been the cheapest expenditure for the show.

[Corvinus85]

Yeah, I watched it again with pauses and can still barely make up the symbols. The first one looks to be Dragonstone or the Doom, with Aegon's crown popping up, after that the blood flows towards a dragon's head that has something through its eye, so that has to be Meraxes, i.e. Rhaenys. Then I lose track pretty much until Viserys and Aemma. It doesn't help that some of them are too far away from the camera or show up from odd angles and even pausing doesn't help.

I didn't like that they used the same song. The GoT soundtrack no longer has much of a positive effect for me after its final seasons. And there was a distinct lack of fire amidst all the blood and stone.

[slant]

Screencaps, if they help. 

https://i.imgur.com/sFCJJIL.jpg

 

[The hairy bear]

Rhaenys's symbol seems to be Meraxes head pierced by a scorpion.

So summarizing, we've got: Aegon (doom+crown), Visenya (dark sister), Rhaenys (Meraxes+bolt), Aenys (crown), Jaehaerys (crown), Alysanne (glasses of water), Baelon (Hand), Alyssa (not visible), Corlys (ship?), Rhaenys (?), Viserys (crown), Aemma (moon+falcon), Otto (Hand), Alicent (Hightower), Rhaenyra (necklace)

Some more thought on the intro:

• I wonder if they plan to update the family tree as the show progresses, as they updated GOT's map. We should be able to see soon enough if Aegon II is included. If they do so, they will have the opportunity to fix the disaster that this version of the opening is, perhaps taking some more care that it's possible to distinguish the symbols and what they represent without the need of multiple pauses on a HD screen.
• I'm not being serious here, but the fact that Maegor is omitted and no flow of blood is seen departing Visenys is the closest we may ever get to a canon confirmation that Maegor in not Aegon's trueborn son.
• Seems very weird that the camera doesn't focus at Daemon at any time. He is one of the main characters.
• Also not sure what to think about the door (of a Valyrian temple?) with all the Westerosi banners pictured on the arch. I guess it's just meant to represent the House of the Dragon dominating over the Westerosi families but, again, much better depictions could have been devised.

[slant]

1. What does the arch with all the Westerosi sigils and the Dragon on top mean? That the Targaryens are ruling over them? 

2. Is it King's Landing or Valyria, or something else? The model of Valyria does not seem to line up to whatever is shown in the title sequence, maybe it is a larger version though (in the title sequence)

  

52 minutes ago, The hairy bear said:

• Also not sure what to think about the door (of a Valyrian temple?) with all the Westerosi banners pictured on the arch. I guess it's just meant to represent the House of the Dragon dominating over the Westerosi families but, again, much better depictions could have been devised.

I have been breaking my head over this very thing! 

[Frey family reunion]

Ok, that is more interesting than I thought it was when I first viewed it. 

Yea, it's the bloodline of Aegon the Conqueror and his sister-wives.  One interesting aspect is how they depict new bloodlines being introduced.  The symbol pops up and the blood starts flowing directly from the symbol without the earlier stream first connecting it.  We see it around the time of Aemma, probably to showcase the Arryn bloodline being introduced into Aegon and his sister's bloodline.

The largest number of branches obviously occurs with Jahaerys and Alysanne, and after that we can often see other bloodlines in the background runnning along parallel to the "main" bloodline that the camera is following.

[EggBlue]

yeah , I'm expecting them to update it for next episode when Aegon II is born . also , I cannot detect Aemon and Jocelyn and not even pausing helps... such a shame

[Frey family reunion]

7 hours ago, The hairy bear said:

I'm not being serious here, but the fact that Maegor is omitted and no flow of blood is seen departing Visenys is the closest we may ever get to a canon confirmation that Maegor in not Aegon's trueborn son.

I could be wrong, but at the 13 second mark, we see the blood flow to both "symbols" but while the camera turns away from Visenyas and follows the stream of blood from Rhaenys, it still looks like blood starts to well up from Visenya's symbol as well, the camera just doesn't stick around it long enough.

One interesting thing I noticed, is that while the blood forks from the first symbol to the dual symbols that we think are Rhaenys and Visenya, there is also a thrid stream of blood that had already branched off.  I wonder if that's the bloodline of Orys Baratheon.

I have a feeling I'm going to be analyzing this video to death.