Let’s break down the stunning trailer for House of the Dragon

The dragons of House of the Dragon

Where Game of Thrones featured only three dragons, House of the Dragon will feature well over a dozen, many of them full-grown by the time the show starts. Dragons cost a lot of money to animate, which means HBO has its work cut out for it. One strategy: keep the shots very dark so we don’t see much detail, as with Daemon and his dragon Caraxes above.

Brightly lit or not, dragons can do some serious damage:

Below we have Syrax, Rhaenyra’s dragon. It’s hard to see in this shot but Syrax has a dragon saddle to accommodate Rhaenyra. That used to be standard on Targaryen dragons; a shame Daenerys had to figure it out on her own.

Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) is another dragon-rider, although she also takes time out of her day to educate her little cousin Rhaenyra on the ways of the world:

Here we have young Rhaenyra and young Alicent (Emily Carey) in happier times before war and ambition tear them apart:

Caraxes is the most cranky of the dragons on the show, which matches Daemon well:

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

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