The second season of House of the Dragon is off and running! The premiere, "A Son for a Son," taught us how to be upset again, and the weeks ahead looks like they're going to be violent and intense. It's good to be back.
We've broken down the trailer above shot by shot to see what hints we can pull out, and just to appreciate some of these images. We start with a placid image of Dragonstone, the home base of operations for Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy).
She's playing her young children by her husband and uncle Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith): the little ones are Aegon III and Viserys II. This is a gorgeous shot that almost looks like an oil painting or something:
You'd think that kids would be off limits in wartime, but things may have changed after the premiere, when Daemon hired a couple of mercenaries to get revenge on Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) for killing Rhaenyra's son Luke at the end of season 1. The mercenaries sneak into the Red Keep looking for Aemond, but settle for a different son: the very young Jaehaerys Targaryen, son of Aemond's brother King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) and his sister-wife Helaena. In a chilling line reading, we hear Aegon shout, "I'll kill them!"
We get a series of shots I assume we'll see in the aftermath of Jaehaerys' death, including dogs set to find the people who did this and a hooded figure scuffling around the Red Keep.
This next shot I'm still not sure about. I think it takes place in a courtyard in the Red Keep. A guard stands before someone collapsing on the ground, and there's...an explosion of dust? Anybody have an idea what's happening here?
The main point is that King Aegon is furious over the death of his son, as he would be. "I declare war!" he screams. There's no going back now:
Both sides get to planning. On Dragonstone, Rhaenyra's and her Blacks assemble for a Small Council meeting.
Someone puts a marker on Rook's Rest on the Painted Table, which will be the sight of a huge battle scene to come in Episode 4:
Aegon is thinking about Rook's Rest too. That should be one to write home about.
But first, everyone is still working through the fallout of Daemon hiring those guys to kill Aemond. Whether he meant for them to kill young Jaehaerys or not, it doesn't sound like Rhaenyra approves. "You have wounded me. Weakened my claim to the throne."
Aemond remains alive after the attack. Here he is contemplating how much he's like to sit the Iron Throne rather than his brother:
"I can't trust you, Daemon," we hear Rhaenyra say. Nevertheless, Daemon may be the best warrior Rhaenyra has on hand. He'll spend a lot of time this season in the cursed castle of Harrenhal, which looks moody and spooky at night:
Meanwhile, war breaks out in the Seven Kingdoms as noble houses declare for either Rhaenyra or Aegon. The shot immediately below is from a battle called the Battle of the Burning Mill, where longtime rival houses the Blackwoods and the Brackens work our their feud under the cloak of war:
King Aegon's mother Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) is always trying to keep ahold on things, but it sounds like she's resigned herself to chaos. "Rhaenyra's supports will believe what they wish, and so will Aegon's," she says, sitting in a very nicely apportioned chair. "The significance of Viserys' intentions died with him."
We stop briefly by the dock at Driftmark, where Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) introduced us to Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) in the premiere episode. Has Driftmark come under attack, or are those fires from something else?
In any case, Alyn is glad to see that his brother Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty) is okay:
"There is a war brewing," we hear Corlys Velaryon say over a shot of his granddaughter Baela (Bethany Antonia) riding into the sky on her dragon Moondancer:
Corlys himself is the most prominent advisor to Rhaenyra Targaryen. Here he is ushering in another Small Council meeting on Dragonstone:
It looks like we're going to have a lot of rival Small Council meetings this season. In King's Landing, Aemond is also plotting and scheming. "This war will not be won with dragons alone," he says. "Those dragons flying behind armies of men."
And here's a shot of Rook's Rest castle, the sight of that big battle scene I was talking about. Aemond will put his theories into practice here.
And for the occasion, he just might ride Vhagar, the oldest and largest dragon around during this time:
"The Riverlands are the key to the war," we hear Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) say. "Harrenhal is the key to the Riverlands." But the shot below isn't of Harrenhal. It looks like...the Twins? That's the castle that Walder Frey will preside over during the events of Game of Thrones. I'm a little surprised to see it in the trailer.
This is the first of several top-down shots from the trailer. I can't quite tell who's meeting at this table:
Back to Harrenhal, the below two shots show Daemon Targaryen alighting on the castle at night aboard his dragon Meraxes:
Daemon meets with lords of noble houses from the Riverlands and convinces them to bend the knee to Rhaenyra. And if they won't, he's not above threatening them. "Perhaps the presence of a dragon will sharpen minds round these parts," he says to a group of lords:
I'd listen.
Back in King's Landing, King Aegon is still pissed...
...although the next voice we hear is Rhaenyra's. "The path I walk has never been trod," she says. Over that line, we see what looks like the smallfolk of King's Landing staring up the bodies of a couple of men who have been hanged, and then getting rowdy on the streets. We'll see several shots of what looks like a riot throughout the rest of the trailer:
Next up is a shot of Rhaenyra with who I think is Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno), the common-born spymaster who helped Daemon carry out the hit on young Jaehaerys Targaryen in the premiere. "There is more than one way to fight a war," she tells Rhaenyra, ominously.
Here's one of the most intriguing shots from the trailer: a man of the City Watch tears a cloth sigil off a door. Maybe people hang that on their doors to show their support for Rheanrya and Aegon is ordering them taken down?
Another trailer mystery: who is this woman walking through the streets of King's Landing in a red hood?
"I will not be seen as weak." we hear Aegon say over a shot of his dragon Sunfyre flying over the city. "You're already seen as weak, Aegon," answers his grandfather Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans).
Criston Cole is ready with a comeback. "Beware how you speak to your king." In the premiere, Aegon sounded like he was contemplating removing his grandfather as his Hand. It sounds like he'll have Criston's support.
Two more top-down shots: one above a forest (I believe that's the dragon Moondancer) and one above the room in the sept where Alicent lights candles for the dead:
Remember: this show is called House of the Dragon, and dragons hatch from eggs:
"We must seize the hour and act," we hear Corlys Velaryon say, "before our enemy does." The trailer is in the home stretch now, and the images are coming fast and furious, including of a smirking Rhaenyra attending another meeting of her small council...
...sad Daemon sitting in his armor on the edge of the the bed...
...and Alicent and Helaena running through a fracas in the streets of King's Landing. This may well be from the same riot scene we've seen other glimpses of throughout the trailer:
"Is there naught to be done but to claw for power?" asks Corlys during a meeting next to his wife Rhaenys (Eve Best):
Aemond Targaryen picks up one of those little marbles the members of the Small Council in King's Landing use to clock in. Those things are cute but kinda superfluous; I can see why they're gone by the time of Game of Thrones. Robert Baratheon wouldn't have the patience for them.
Someone has dropped their crown;
Alicent and Criston's love affair continues throughout the season. In this first shot, Alicent is shoving Criston, but in the next one he's pushing her up against a wall:
Criston actually gets the last lines of the trailer. "What we must do is terrible," he tells Alicent, seemingly as they prepare to part:
King Aegon rides his dragon Sunfyre, purportedly the most beautiful dragon in the Seven Kingdoms. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him this season:
"Will you preside over it?" Criston asks Alicent over another shot of Moondancer flying low to the ground during the upcoming Battle of Rook's Rest:
Elsewhere, Addam of Hull spots the dragon Seasmoke — the dragon that used to be ridden by Rhaenyra's "late" husband Laenor Velaryon — flying through the sky:
"We must break the will of our enemy," Rhaenyra tells her son Jace (Harry Collett) during yet another meeting. And the trailer throws in yet another shot of Aegon looking tormented:
Here's another of those mysterious shots: someone's fingers disappear behind a railing. Perhaps it's a shot from another one of Alicent and Criston's passionate encounters?
Keeping the mystery going, here's a shot of a woman doing some kind of fan dance. I'm going to bet this is part of the entertainment the Riverlords trot out for Daemon in hopes that he won't feed the lot of them to his dragon:
At the Battle of Rook's Rest, a soldier does a full superhero away from a ball of dragonfire:
This battle is going to be the chain. Here's a horse captured mid-gallop:
I don't envy the soldiers who have to face down dragons at the Battle of Rook's Rest:
Helaena watched her young son get murdered in the season 2 premiere. She does not look well, and no wonder:
Meanwhile, Aegon is dealing with his grief by beating someone with a nasty-looking club, probably Blood:
Yet another shot from that King's Landing that's going to happen sooner or later. I think the blonde guy is the smith Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew), who we met briefly petitioning Aegon in the premiere:
And now for something completely different, here's a shot of some folks mud wrestling in a tropical environment:
This probably has to do with a storyline from Fire & Blood involving the Triarchy, a powerful allegiance of city-states over on Essos. Corlys and Daemon defeated their agent the Crabfeeded back in season 1, but they'll rise again. And mud wrestling will be involved. Actually, there is a line from Fire & Blood that sets up this scene. "Racallio Ryndoon...insisted that [the envoy] wrestle with him in a mud pit behind his fort, whilst hundreds of jeering pirates looked on."
So that's probably Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) wrestling a pirate in order to secure the allegiance of the Triarchy for the Greens. I love that this scene is directly from the source material.
A robed figure slips a knife out of their sleeve. Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), maybe?
A nice close-up of Aemond glowering:
Rhaenyra and Daemon's marriage is weird at the best of times, but given the child murder he orchestrated on her behalf, I have to imagine it's near to breaking down at this point:
Back at that parting exchange between Alicent and Criston, it looks like she gives him her favor. Maybe these kids can make it.
Rhaenyra, Jace and a dragon-keeper stare at something impressive — probably a dragon — offscreen:
Remember that Jace is betrothed to his cousin Baela, who in Fire & Blood is said to have a confronational and fearless demeanor. A crossbow is a good look for her:
Baela's sister Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) has a more shy, milder disposition:
In our final mysterious shot, Daemon pounds on some doors:
I wonder if this is related to a shot from earlier, where a maester closes a door to a room:
My idea is that in the wake of Jaehaerys' murder, perhaps Rhaenyra shuts Daemon out of her official meetings, and he's jostling the door in impotent rage.
In any case, next we have one of the Cargyll twins — both of them Kingsguard knights — sword-fighting. Remember: Erryk Caryll (Elliot Tittensor) opted to abandon King's Landing and help Queen Rhaenyra when the Greens seized power, which his twin brother Arryk (Luke Tittensor) opted to remain loyal to King Aegon. You can probably guess where that feud is going:
And we wrap up with a shot of Vhagar spewing flames, while Criston Cole leaves us with one final dire pronouncement: "We have given the war to the dragons."
And that's what coming this season on House of the Dragon! New episodes drop Sundays on HBO and Max.
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