We've already seen some splendid action scenes on House of the Dragon. The Battle at Rook's Rest from the show's second season may well the single best dragon-vs-dragon aerial battle ever put on screen, big or small.
But the show has more to give us. The most exciting action scene from the source material, George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood, occurs later in the story, when Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) confronts his nephew Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) near the crumbling castle of Harrenhal on the shore of the Gods Eye lake. I won't explain the full context, but basically, these two hop on their dragons — the battle-tested Caraxes for Daemon and the massive Vhagar for Aemond — and have a furious fight in the sky. It's probably the single most iconic scene from Fire & Blood, and you know the producers behind House of the Dragon are itching to get to it.
And once they do, they might want to look at what the operator of the Unity 5 Games channel on YouTube did. This fan has animated the Battle above the Gods Eye; they even included dialogue from the book, which I assume was AI-generated. The result is pretty spectacular. Watch it below:
You could do a lot worse for a template! if the live-action version of this scene, whenever it comes, takes cues from this animation, we could be in for a legendary scene we'll never forget.
As for when we'll actually see this scene on House of the Dragon, it's hard to say for sure. Filming on the third season will start up pretty soon, with new episodes likely airing next year. The producers are aiming to make four seasons in all. The Battle Above the Gods Eye is such a spectacular set piece that I think they'll save it for the final season, but maybe they'll surprise us and make it the climax to season 3.
It'll be a while before we find out. In the meantime, there's a new Game of Thrones prequel series called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms coming out this year, and it's already getting great reviews. And if you want to go beyond TV, there's always the written word:
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