If there's one thing everyone can agree that House of the Dragon gets right, it's the dragons. Game of Thrones had only three dragons. House of the Dragon has over a dozen, some of whom we haven't yet met, and all of whom have very distinct personalities and looks.
To bring these creatures to life, HBO hired one of the the best special effects companies in the business: Wētā FX, founded by Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson. In a series of new videos, Wētā some of their incredible work making these dragons feel as real as any flesh-and-blood character on the show.
Let's start with Seasmoke, one of the more mild dragons in the mix, even though he burned that guy that time. In the video below, Wētā explains how they referenced fruit bats to get an idea of how dragons should look flying through the sky. They also go into the scene where Seasmoke chases his new rider Addam of Hull "like an energetic puppy," which would be adorable if he weren't a massive flying death machine:
"The Red Sowing" was a big episode in House of the Dragon season 2. It started with Rhaenyra meeting Addam of Hull on a beach, their dragons staring each other down; and ended with a massive scene where Rhaenyra essentially shuts a bunch of Targaryen bastards in a giant cave with the massive dragon Vermithor in the hopes that one of them will be able to tame and claim the beast. One does, the blacksmith Hugh Hammer...but not before a lot of others get fried, stomped, and chomped to death.
Anyway, the next two videos are both about that episode, detailing how the cave set was already huge even before it was extended with CG, and how they pulled off the three-and-a-half minute shot that followed Hugh as he navigated through Vermithor's feeding frenzy:
The Red Sowing itself is so epic that it's worth more than one video. Below, Wētā explains how the team leaned into horror imagery for this scene. We never see the whole of Vermithor's body in the frame, since he's too huge to fit, adding to the claustrophobic vibe of the scene:
If you're interested in special effects, these videos are a goldmine, and include lots of technical talk that's beyond my ability to discuss intelligently. If you're not, they're still a really cool behind-the-scenes look at how the dragon sausage is made.
I'm sure we'll get more videos like this after the third season of House of the Dragon comes out sometime next year, since that will contain dragon scenes that could put these to shame:
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