All The "House Of The Dragon" Details You Might Have Missed In The First Episode
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House of the Dragon, the first spin-off of Game of Thrones, is finally here and, like Game of Thrones before it, there were a lot of interesting details to look out for.
🚨 WARNING: Major spoilers below from the first episode of House of the Dragon. 🚨
Let's dive in...
1.The opening scene, which sees Viserys chosen as Jaehaerys's heir, takes place at Harrenhal, which you might remember is the ruined castle where Arya, Hot Pie, and Gendry are kept as prisoners in Game of Thrones (and where Arya becomes Tywin's cupbearer).
There are echoes of Arya's role when we see Rhaenyra later acting as her father's cupbearer. Like Arya, Rhaenyra is more interested in being a warrior than a lady of the court.
2.Rhaenyra's flight over King's Landing calls to mind the last time we saw a Targaryen doing so — when Daenerys torched the city on the back of Drogon. We also hear the familiar Targaryen theme play over this scene.
The visual and aural echoes highlight the contrast between the two journeys and the fact we're in a very different era: Rhaenyra's dragon flight is a casual joyride, an occurrence so mundane the people of King's Landing don't even look up.
3.We also get a good look at the dragonpit as Rhaenyra flies toward it. This is the location that is in ruins by the time we see it on Game of Thrones (where significant meetings are held in the last two seasons), but, of course, during House of the Dragon it's very much intact and in use.
4.The throne room is another iconic location from Game of Thrones that we see a very different version of in House of the Dragon — understandably, as it goes through hundreds of years and many regimes in the meantime.
Perhaps most interesting is the changes to the Iron Throne — the "earlier" one we see in House of the Dragon is much more intimidating, with more swords and seemingly sharper edges. It's closer to the throne George R. R. Martin describes in the books.
5.Corlys Velaryon mentions the Triarchy Alliance that has formed in the Free Cities, and the army that has amassed in the Stepstones led by Craghas Drahar.
It's only a fleeting moment, but — without spoiling anything — it may become more significant later, depending on how much the show follows what happens in Fire and Blood, Martin's book that the show is based on.
6.Meanwhile Rhaenyra and Alicent discuss Princess Nymeria and her 10,000 ships — whose story isn't particularly relevant to House of the Dragon, but is one of the other Game of Thrones spinoffs that HBO is developing.
And yes, it's the same Nymeria that Arya named her direwolf after.
7.Aemma says she wouldn't be surprised if she "hatched an actual dragon" after her "miserable pregnancy," which calls to mind what happened to Daenerys and the stillbirth of her son Rhaego — who Mirri Maz Duur describes as having scales and wings.
Of course, Daenerys subsequently hatches actual dragons to become the Mother of Dragons.
8.The juxtaposition of the tourney with Aemma dying in childbirth reinforces what she said earlier to Rhaenyra that "the childbed is our battlefield."
The visual connection between the two scenes (reinforced in the shape of the arena) strongly underpins how the men are playing at war while Aemma is quite literally fighting for her life.
9.Viserys names the baby Baelon, after his father.
Baelon was the younger son of Jaehaerys, the king we saw in the opening scene (Viserys's grandfather). Baelon died of a "burst belly" (appendicitis) before the events of the series.
10.As with Game of Thrones, there are a lot of intricate details in the costumes that reveal a lot about the characters and their houses — House Targaryen's clothes and armor, for instance, are full of dragon motifs. But a really interesting detail is the way Viserys's crown features the sigils of all the great houses, reinforcing the fact the Seven Kingdoms are united and at peace at this time.
11.At the tourney, there are a few family connections of Rhaenys Velaryon you might have missed.
As you might recall, she is a Targaryen herself on her father Aemon's side, making her Viserys's cousin. She lost the right to be heir to him in the first scene. But she also calls the Baratheon knight "cousin" — she's related to him through her mother, Jocelyn Baratheon.
Rhaenys's children with Corlys, Laena and Laenor, are also present at the tourney, and we see them a few times onscreen, although they don't speak in this episode. It's likely they'll become more signficant as the series progresses.
12.Otto Hightower describes Daemon as "a second Maegor, or worse" which, as you might have guessed, is NOT a compliment.
Maegor was known as "Maegor the Cruel" — he was, as his nickname suggests, a wicked, violent tyrant.
13.The model Viserys is building in his room is of Valyria before the Doom.
He's just a tired nerd who wants to be left alone with his toys and history books, okay!
14.Viserys playing with the flames of the candles serves as a reminder of his dragon blood.
(Although it should be noted it's not exactly canon that all Targaryens are immune to fire).
15.Rhaenyra and Viserys stand in front of Balerion's skull — Balerion was Aegon the Conquerer's dragon, whose skull we saw several times in Game of Thrones, notably when Cersei tested her anti-dragon weapon on it.
16.Perhaps one of the most significant moments in this episode is when Viserys tells Rhaenyra of Aegon the Conquerer's "dream" — how he invaded Westeros not just because of his lust for power, but because he foresaw the end of the world of men.
Viserys describes Aegon's "song of ice and fire" — that is, the prophecy that becomes the story of Game of Thrones — specifically the coming of the White Walkers. Aegon believed — as Viserys does — that a Targaryen must rule the Seven Kingdoms united in order to stop the "darkness." Of course, we know this isn't quite what happens in Game of Thrones, but perhaps it aligns more closely with Martin's plans for the end of the books.
17.What's interesting in this scene is that not only is Viserys's story juxtaposed with flashes of Rickon Stark, Ned's ancestor, swearing fealty to Rhaenyra, but we also get several close-ups of Viserys's dagger — which will be very familiar to Game of Thrones fans.
Yes, it's THE Valyrian steel catspaw dagger — the one used in the attempt on Bran's life in Season 1, and the one Arya wields in Season 8 to kill the Night King.
18.Finally, Viserys saying, "Promise me, Rhaenyra, promise me," in relation to the song of ice and fire is eerily similar to Lyanna Stark saying, "Promise me, Ned," when she begs Ned Stark to take care of Jon Snow — who, some fans believe, is the song of ice and fire.
