Small Council: What did we think of the new House of the Dragon trailer?

The official House of the Dragon trailer is here, complete with dragons! Let’s talk all about it:

FEDERICA: The second teaser for House of the Dragon showed how deeply the showrunners understand this story and its characters. Having Corlys Velaryon speak in voiceover about legacy is a terribly apt choice. History, he says, does not remember blood, but names. The significance of these words could sum up one of the focal points of the story. In the actual episode that the lines are taken from, Corlys could be speaking to any member of his family about Rhaenyra Targaryen’s children by (supposedly) his son Laenor: it does not matter if they are not his, for their names make them his, and that is enough. Or so they think.

So far, HBO is not directly setting up the succession dispute as an immediate problem, but only hinting at it. While we have not yet seen Aegon in any promotional material, we did get an emotional moment of Princess Rhaenys speaking with a young Rhaenyra about the slim chances of the realm accepting her as queen. I hope to see many more scenes of the two of them together. The ceremony where all the great lords swear fealty to Princess Rhaenyra as her father’s heir also set up future conflict while giving us HBO-mandated cameos from members of the Stark and Baratheon families.

The teaser also showed glimpses of Rhaenyra’s two weddings: one where she is young and (played by Millie Alcock) dancing with her cousin Laenor dressed in full Velaryon splendor, and one where we see a closeup of older Rhaenyra (played by Emma D’Arcy) and her uncle Daemon, probably engaging in a Valyrian ritual with fire and blood. I certainly can’t wait to see that.

We also see various new locations, like the island of Driftmark, where nearly the entire Targaryen extended family appears to be present at Laena Velaryon’s funeral, and also Harrenhal, where we see a flashback of the Great Council of 101 AC.

The trailer reaches its climax with the iconic “an eye for an eye” moment where Alicent Hightower seems ready to stab Rhaenyra or her children after one of her kids loses an eye fighting Rhaenyra’s kids. This is intermixed with another scene on Dragonstone, where Daemon unsheathes Dark Sister in front of Otto Hightower. We are shown the four most important players behind the Dance already in conflict with each other. One scene takes place indoors, one outdoors, as if to signify that this war will have violent consequences both within and outside of House Targaryen.

We also see Rhaenyra flying her dragon Syrax over King’s Landing, the Black Council on Dragonstone, Otto convincing his daughter Alicent to pursue ambition, and Daemon in various stages of his life; note how the wigs shift in length.

This teaser was incredible. I would love to actually hear Rhaenyra’s voice in the next teaser or trailer. It would be grand to see her speak since this is primarily her story. But maybe the show is sending us a message here: she is not in control of her own narrative, and this will inevitably bring about her downfall.

ARIBA: The House of the Dragon trailer is here—and it is glorious! We got a whole of action and drama in the 1:45 sneak peek and I’m certainly in my feelings about it.

Personally, I was pumped to see more of Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen and Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower. I’ve been following both of their careers for a while now so to see them in all their Game of Thrones glory was very exciting. Watching the trailer, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that things might be even darker and grittier than in the flagship series. Everything about this trailer points to darkness, including the tones they used. There’s just something dim about the scenes, and at first I thought that might be an editing mistake, but now I’m realizing, it’s all on purpose. We are heading into Targaryen territory, folks, so why wouldn’t things get heavy and frightening?!

Of course, I loved seeing the dragons in the trailer. During this particular era, there are going to be a lot of dragons flapping their wings around Westeros so I was excited to see some of that in the trailer. I hope that the series does this story justice and can eliminate the sour feelings so many of us were left with after the Game of Thrones series finale.

I think this show has a lot riding on it and a lot of pressure to do well, but I’d say we’re heading in the right direction after watching that trailer. August can’t come soon enough!

DAN: I agree with you, Federica, that the trailer suggests the House of the Dragon producers know what they’re doing so far as the story goes. Seeing the Great Council of 101 AC (or at least fans are pretty sure that’s what we’re looking at) and the moment King Viserys has the Great Lords of Westeros swear fealty to Rhaenyra is encouraging; it means the writers know where the pressure points of this story are. This is about a conflict between Rhaenyra Targaryen (and her team) and her half-brother Aegon Targaryen (and his team) over the Iron Throne. As on Game of Thrones, all of that has a history, and it’s important we learn it.

The note about Rhaenyra not having a line is also interesting. That underlines a topic that could get dicey: in many ways, Rhaenyra Targaryen’s story mimics Daenerys Targaryen’s: they’re ambitious women who eventually get paranoid and lose everything. And we all know how well that went over on Game of Thrones.

I’m of the opinion that the end of Game of Thrones didn’t falter because of what happened — I think the story is admirably bold — but because of how it was executed. It’s almost like House of the Dragon is a chance to do that story over and get it right. (In the abstract, of course; there are tons of differences between these two tales.)

And I agree with you, Ariba, that the show seems dark, both in content and color palette. I’ll leave the lighting to others, but I wonder if the tone might be too dark. Despite its reputation for brutality, Game of Thrones always took care to have moments of levity and human connection, which is something I hope continues in House of the Dragon.

ASHLEY: Later this year, two fantasy heavyweights hit our screens. In September, Amazon will premiere The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. And in August, we return to Westeros for HBO’s hotly anticipated Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon. We fantasy lovers are eating well!

As everyone else has already mentioned, the latest teaser trailer further illustrates the level of intent and detail that’s gone into this series. The sets are spectacular and the costumes are glorious. There are dragons, of course, and white-blonde wigs aplenty.

I agree that the show seems a little darker than the flagship series. That’s not a bad thing. A show about Targaryens lends itself to darkness, and we all know that fire burns brighter in the dark.

August can’t come quickly enough.

DANIEL: Dragons! Politics! Murder! Okay, there were no murders in the trailer, but you know they’re happening just offscreen. This teaser is our first look at new footage from House of the Dragon since the last one dropped in October, and it was worth the wait.

I very much agree that this trailer shows off the depth of understanding the creative team has of the story. The Dance of the Dragons is one of the most dramatic periods of Westerosi history, not just because of all the dragons, but because the backstabbing and betrayals are every bit as merciless as they were in Game of Thrones. And that tension started long before Rhaenyra and Alicent were at each other’s throats.

I think the thing that struck me most about this trailer was how much clarity it gives to the timeline. We still don’t know for sure whether House of the Dragon is going to utilize flashbacks or play out chronologically, but from this new footage we know we’re going to get to see multiple events that occurred long before the Dance, such as the lords of the Seven Kingdoms swearing fealty to a young Rhaenyra and (hopefully) the Great Council of 101 AC, where Rhaenys was passed over for the Iron Throne in favor of her cousin Viserys.

We’ve known for a while now that Milly Alcock and Emily Carey are playing young Rhaenyra and Alicent respectively, so I was expecting to see their relationship in those younger years. What I wasn’t expecting is the degree of interplay it looks like we’re going to get between all the other characters while Rhaenyra and Alicent are still kids. The whole reason those lords are called to King’s Landing to swear fealty to Rhaenyra is because Otto Hightower convinces Viserys to name her as heir in order to bump his brother Daemon, who is a loose cannon, farther down the line of succession. This causes all sorts of strife between the brothers, and results in Daemon being given control of the City Watch and subsequently reforming it as the Gold Cloaks (which we see alluded to in the trailer). There’s also that shot of Mysaria and Daemon giving Otto the dragon egg, which is another early-days bit of drama between Daemon and his brother Viserys. So the depth of the strife between different members of the Targaryen family surprised me a bit. Yes, this is absolutely Rhaenyra’s story, but it also involved literally every member of House Targaryen that was alive in the Seven Kingdoms at the time. It’s going to get messy.

And of course, that final shot of the dragon in the tunnels of the Dragon Pit was the perfect ending to the teaser. Giving me chills over here!

House of the Dragon premieres August 21 on HBO and Max.

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