How the House of the Dragon opening sequence changed for Episode 6

The opening sequence of Game of Thrones famously depicted a map of Westeros; whatever places we lingered on, that’s where we would visit that episode. The opening sequence of follow-up show House of the Dragon has gone in a different direction, instead giving us a primer on the long history of the Targaryen family. Different sigils represent different people in that family, with lines of blood connecting them to their progeny.

For the first five episodes the credits remain more or less the same; we break it all down here. However, the sixth episode jumped ahead 10 years, during which time several important characters had kids. That means the opening sequence changed a bit. You can see how in the comparison video below:

What exactly changed? Let’s walk through it, with the help of excellent Game of Thrones fansite Los Siete Reinos.

Daemon and Rhaenyra’s kids get added to the House of the Dragon opening sequence

The first part of the sequence remains the same. We begin with a seal representing Aegon the Conquerer, the first Targaryen to rule Westeros. We follow his bloodline through the union of King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne, who had a lot of kids, including the parents of Viserys and Daemon Targaryen, both of whom we’ve gotten to know well on House of the Dragon. (Yes, Viserys and Daemon’s parents were siblings; go figure.)

That’s where the new stuff comes in. We see this sigil representing Daemon Targaryen (that’s the dragon helmet he wore during the tournament in the first episode):

As we saw in Episode 6, Daemon got married to Laena Velaryon. They had twin daughters together: Baela and Rhaena, represented in the opening credits as a pair of dragon eggs:

The final new additions are Jacaerys Velaryon, Lucerys Velaryon, and Joffrey Velaryon, the children of Rhaenrya Targaryen and *ahem* Laenor Velaryon:

That’s a lot of new additions, but there are some curious omissions…

Where is Daeron Targaryen?

Curiously, the updated opening credits don’t have any sigils representing the children of King Viserys Targaryen and his queen Alicent Hightower: in Episode 6, we got to know their sons Aegon and Aemond as well as their daughter Helaena.

This is curious, because all of those characters have a role to play in the story and you’d figure they’d be represented in the opening credits. But it’s doubly vexing because it’s unclear whether the show includes Viserys and Alicent’s fourth and youngest child, Daeron Targaryen. He didn’t show up in Episode 6, nor was he mentioned, but there could be a plot reason for that; I’m curious to see if the show cut him or if he’ll turn up somewhere in the final four episodes of the season. Putting Viserys and Alicent’s children in the opening sequence could have cleared this question up, but no dice.

Honestly, I don’t think the opening of House of the Dragon has been as useful as the one for Game of Thrones; if you need a key to decipher what all these bloodlines mean, it leaves something to be desired. Personally, I hope that the second season returns to the map opening, after all the characters have been introduced and we’re no longer jumping forward in time. What do you think?

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