House of the Dragon trailer breakdown: Episode 6, “The Princess and the Queen”
By Daniel Roman
The blood of Old Valyria
The trailer also gives us our first shot of Daemon Targaryen and Laena Velaryon together after the time jump. Now, we’re going to start to get into SPOILERS, because HBO has given us some really juicy stuff to mull over.
In George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, Daemon and Laena eventually wed and have twin girls, Rhaena and Baela Targaryen. The show appears to be keeping this plotline, since we see Rhaena in the trailer. Here, Laena is telling Daemon that they are “the blood of Old Valyria.”
Not that any of us need to take her word for it: just look at their hair for proof. Daemon’s has grown back in the 10-year time jump! The scene then cuts quickly to a stunning shot of the two on dragonback:
Excuse me while I pick my jaw up off the floor. That’s Laena Velaryon riding Vhagar, the largest dragon still living at this point in Westerosi history. And Vhagar does look truly massive. What’s the deal with the ropes trailing along the she-dragon’s back? It’s hard to tell from this shot, but out of the gate it’s obvious that Vhagar is going to be a very different-looking dragon than anything we’ve seen in the series to date.
But as exciting as it is to see Vhagar, she’s not the only dragon we’ll meet in “The Princess and the Queen.” Here’s another:
This one’s just a little guy, so most likely not a dragon that was around before the time jump. In fact, we can make a pretty decent guess about what dragon this is from the final scene of the trailer, where Jacaerys Velaryon commands it to burn a sheep by saying “Dracarys!”
Given all that, we’re guessing this is Vermax. In Fire & Blood, Vermax hatches from its egg while Jacaerys is in the cradle. That would explain the smaller size.
Speaking of Jacaerys, here he is in his bed clothes with his mother Rhaenyra beside him. Note that she’s holding a baby — that’s most likely Jacaerys’ youngest sibling, Joffrey Velaryon:
Throughout these couple of scenes, we hear a voice discuss how the idea that we’ll live on forever in our children is a falsehood, and how they can often cause people to give up things they otherwise wouldn’t. It’s hard to tell exactly who is speaking, though it sounds kind of like Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) to me.
It’s super intriguing, because as he says the words, “a father, compromised by the acts of a son,” the camera lingers on Lyonel Strong having an uncomfortable conversation with King Viserys:
And then it cuts quickly to Lyonel’s son Harwin:
After that, all hell breaks loose: