House of the Dragon continues to keep fans guessing with its third season, and that's not like to change anytime soon. After two back-to-back barn burners to kick off the season, HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series dialed the action all the way back in its third episode, "Rhaenyra Triumphant," which hews closely to Rhaenyra Targaryen's point of view as she goes about her first few days ruling the Seven Kingdoms. (Spoiler: things do not go smoothly.)
While nearly all of the episode is centered on Rhaenyra herself, we also got a very intriguing cold open that featured four of the show's jaw-dropping dragons, when Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) negotiated the surrender of Lord Ormund Hightower (James Norton) in the Reach. Ormund brought 15,000 soldiers; Daemon brought Caraxes, Silverwing, and Vermithor. There's no question that Ormund would have lost if it came to blows — even though he has his own dragon, Tessarion, the mount of young Daeron Targaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), as well.
House of the Dragon has featured a number of impressive dragons over the course of its first three seasons, but of all of them, Tessarion is the new dragon for this season who stands to have the largest impact. We can say that from the material in George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood, where she does just that; but we can also say it because showrunner Ryan Condal is finally starting to hype up Tessarion, saying this "stately" dragon has a "great role to play" in the season ahead.
How House of the Dragon created Tessarion the Blue Queen
"Tessarion is Daeron's dragon, the Blue Queen. She's a juvenile dragon, but kind of very stately and reserved," Condal said in The House That Dragons Built documentary for "Rhaenyra Triumphant." A graphic follows that gives an idea of Tessarion's size; she stands about twice as tall as Daeron, which makes her larger than both Vermax and Moondancer, the two smallest fighting dragons on Team Black at the start of the season.
While the show's dragons are composed pretty muche entirely of visual effects, that doesn't mean that just as much thought doesn't go into them as any other character in the series. In the documentary, we see several VFX workers dressed in blue screen suits holding up a dragon head on a pole, the better to lay out a baseline for Tessarion's movements and mannerisms, both for the actors who have to appear alongside her and for the special effects wizards who will bring her to life.
"Ultimately we want to act in the way an actor would," said VFX supervisor Dadi Einarsson. "This is a character in the show, so we kind of want to imbue that life into that character, and make it multilayered and give it some depth. And something that people start to recognize the individuality of this one compared to the other one, and how would this one react in this situation? I think that's when you make it a kind of living, breathing part of the show."
"She is undoubtedly smaller than Vermithor, Silverwing, and Caraxes are, but she's a nuclear weapon in her own right on Ormund's side, and I think will, you know, have a great role to play in this story yet to come," Condal teased.
How will Tessarion impact House of the Dragon season 3?
While we've had a few glimpses of Tessarion so far this season, House of the Dragon has played coy with her rider, Daeron. "Rhaenyra Triumphant" featured a subplot where an imposter Daeron (played by Charlie Gordon) was surrendered to Rhaenyra, in order to give Ormund time to capture the city of Tumbleton. We have gotten a look at the real Daeron, but only briefly in the season premiere. That will change in the weeks ahead as we see more of him and Tessarion.
Tessarion takes part in a number of important battles in Fire & Blood as the only dragon the Greens possess in the Reach. The first is the Battle of the Honeywine, where Daeron earns the nickname Daeron the Daring. I have a feeling House of the Dragon is skipping that battle, just like it skipped the Fishfeed. There are a lot of battles to cover in the Targaryen civil war, and Tumbleton is farther north than the Honeywine River, so it stands to reason that that battle came and went off-screen.
However, the other major battles involving Tessarion will absolutely feature: those would be the First and Second Battles of Tumbleton. Tessarion has a key role in both of them, so much so that it would be almost foolish of House of the Dragon to include this dragon if she wasn't going to play a major part. So be on the lookout for some good Tessarion material especially in the climactic episodes of this season.
Tessarion is a very memorable dragon from George R.R. Martin's written works, and it's nice to hear she'll be getting her due in House of the Dragon. Here's hoping we see more of her and get a proper introduction to her rider sooner rather than later.
House of the Dragon season 3 premieres new episodes Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
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