Every image from the House of the Dragon trailer, explained

We deep dive on the new House of the Dragon trailer. Who are these people, how do they know each other and why are trying to kill each other?

The other day, HBO dropped a new trailer for House of the Dragon, its hotly anticipated prequel series to Game of Thrones. Watch below!

This is our first really good look at the series since way back in October of last year, when we got a shorter, less complete trailer; now, House of the Dragon actually has dragons in it!

We know the broad outlines of the story: it’s 200 years before Game of Thrones and the Targaryens are at the height of their power. King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) names his eldest child Rhaenyra Targaryen as his heir, even if naming a woman goes against precedent. That holds for a while…until Viserys dies and his second wife Alicent Hightower decides that she’d rather her son Aegon become king. And then the realm bleeds.

So that’s the general flavor. Let’s take a closer look at the trailer and see if we can’t ferret out any specifics:

We begin with Rhaenrya Targaryen, who is played as an adult by Emma D’Arcy. Like Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon is an ensemble show, but if we had to name one character as the lead, it would probably by Rhaenyra. Her quest for the Iron Throne will drive much of the plot.

This shot of water crashing on the rocks of Dragonstone isn’t important; I just think it’s pretty.

Here’s an intriguing shot of the king’s brother Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) and his paramour Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) who starts the story as a dancing girl from Lys and ends up Rhaenyra’s Mistress of Whisperers.

They’re facing down Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), the Hand of the King and an enemy of Daemon’s at court. Otto does not want Daemon anywhere near power, and uses his influence to try and get the king to send away his brother. That’s easy to do because Daemon has a habit of acting out and flouting tradition, like when he gives a dragon egg to his unborn child with Mysaria; that might be what the groups are arguing about in these shots.

It’s good to see dragons again. And there are a lot of them in this story.

There will be a lot of familiar imagery in this show: