House of the Dragon trailer breakdown: Episode 6, “The Princess and the Queen”
By Daniel Roman
Children of the Dragon
First up in our line-up of brand new Targaryens, we’ve got Aemond Targaryen, played by Leo Ashton. Aemond is Alicent Hightower and King Viserys’ second son, and a brand new character being introduced in “The Princess and the Queen.” He wasn’t born yet by Episode 5, which means he’s probably around 8 or 9 years old here. He appears to be coming face-to-face with a dragon in this scene. Aemond stumbles back as the dragon breathes fire into a cavern:
Obviously, there are quite a few details missing from this picture. Where exactly is Aemond? Is this on Dragonstone? Beneath the Dragonpit in King’s Landing? And which dragon is this — to my eye, it doesn’t appear to be any of those we’ve seen in the show so far.
From dragon-inhabited caves, we go to the training yard, where Alicen’ts oldest son Aegon II Targaryen (Ty Tennant) is giving Rhaenyra’s oldest son Jacaerys Velaryon (Leo Hart) a kick to the chest. So presumably the familial drama won’t be passed down to the next generation at all…
Behind Aegon’s back, Harwin “Breakbones” Strong (Ryan Corr) is shooting a look at someone off-screen. The trailer seems to drop a lot of hints about Breakbones, which we’ll get to momentarily. Remember this guy.
Presumably, Breakbones is looking at his father, Lord Lyonel Strong, and King Viserys. They appear to be observing Aegon and Jacaerys’ training in the yard of the Red Keep. And man, this shot really gives us a good look at how withered Viserys is looking these days. The make-up team for House of the Dragon really outdid themselves this time.
Rhaenyra and Alicent’s families aren’t the only ones who have grown during the 10-year time jump. The trailer also introduces us to an adult Laena Velaryon, played now by Nanna Blondell. Here she is hugging her daughter Rhaena Targaryen, played by Eva Ossei-Gerning. Intriguingly, Laena is also resting her hand on her own stomach in this shot. Could she be pregnant?
From there, we get a brief glimpse at a dragon egg in a warmer. There are two sets of hands in this shot, and both are small enough that I’d guess they belong to children. The outfit on the right looks a little similar to one that Jacaerys Velaryon is wearing later in the trailer, although the glimpses are too brief to be certain.
Surprise! A dragon egg:
Next we get a better look at Aegon II Targaryen, accompanied by the voice of Olivia Cooke’s Alicent Hightower, saying, “you will be our king.” He kind of looks like he’s a rad dude who wants to start a metal band, and I don’t hate it:
From there we’re back to Rhaena Targaryen, lifting a dragon egg out of a little hanging warmer beside a fireplace:
That’s a lot of dragon eggs. But what about the dragons inside…?