Dragons fly and soldiers fry in new videos from the House of the Dragon set

Filming on the second season of House of the Dragon continues in Bourne Woods, in England. HBO is currently filming a very important scene from George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood: the Battle at Rook’s Rest.

I’ll try and summarize this battle as it’s presented in the book while trying to avoid some of the big SPOILERS, because this fight is yet another turning point in the increasingly bloody Dance of the Dragons. Rook’s Rest is a castle in the Crownlands, the area around King’s Landing. It’s located on the northern point of Blackwater Bay and controlled by House Staunton. House Staunton is loyal to Rhaenyra Targaryen, who is currently fighting her half-brother Aegon Targaryen for the Iron Throne.

Rhaenyra’s faction is called the blacks while Aegon’s is called the greens. Criston Cole, the head of King Aegon’s kingsguard, takes an army of greens to Rook’s Rest in an attempt to capture Rook’s Rest. (We’ve already seen Fabien Frankel, who plays Criston, on set.) Lord Staunton closes the doors of the castle and appeals to Rhaenyra for help. In answer, Rhaenys Targaryen eventually arrives on her dragon Meleys, who you may remember busting through the floor of Aegon’s coronation in the first season.

Rhaenys and Meleys are there to help Lord Staunton fight back against the greens, and start burning soldiers with dragonfire. But Criston expected this, and laid a trap. In the book, Aegon Targaryen and his brother Aemond are there with their dragons, Sunfyre and Vhagar.

So it’s two dragons vs one in the sky. How does it end? I won’t spoil that, although you can probably guess.

Which dragons are on set for the Battle of Rook’s Rest?

Anyway, that’s what House of the Dragon is filming. And indeed, we’re seeing lots of images of dragons on set.

Or at least, we’re seeing prop dragon heads meant to suggest to the cast and crew generally where a dragon will be once the special effects team is done with their work. This looks to be a stand-in for Vhagar. Notice the jowls. Vhargar is the oldest living Westeros at this time, after all.

We also see a red dragon head. This actually looks like Caraxes, Daemon Targaryen’s dragon. Unless they change the Battle of Rook’s Rest dramatically, which I hope they don’t, Caraxes will not take part in it. Meleys is also a red dragon, so maybe they’re just using the Caraxes’ head as a stand-in on set, knowing the everything will be transformed in post anyway. Or at least that’s my sincere hope.

We also have videos of soldiers running for their lives…

…and being roasted, presumably by dragonfire:

@UnBoxPHD, who is doing a tremendous job of bringing us these images and videos, says that Vhagar is roasting the soldiers. It’s possible that this is the case — Lord Staunton has men in the field, and Vhagar would want to burn them — but in the books, it’s Meleys who does most of the roasting. I’m hoping that once this is cut together, that’s what we’ll see.

Or I guess Aemond could lose control of Vhagar and she starts burning greens even though they’re on the same side, but didn’t we see enough of that kind of thing in the season 1 finale when Aemond loses control of Vhagar and she chomps up her nephew Lucerys Velaryon? I’m begging you, House of the Dragon, please don’t take the agency away from your human characters and give it to giant CGI beasts, however well-rendered.

It’s looking like the Battle of Rook’s Rest will take place in Episode 4 of season 2. New episodes of House of the Dragon will air on HBO and Max sometime in 2024.

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