All The Interesting Details In "House Of The Dragon" Episode 2
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🚨 WARNING: This post contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 1, Episode 2.
"The Rogue Prince," the second episode in HBO's Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, was mostly full of setup for the action to come.
But there were still plenty of interesting moments to explore. Let's take a dive...
1.First of all, perhaps the most exciting detail: We got opening credits! They use the classic Game of Thrones theme song and a similar visual style, but instead of a map of Westeros, it's a version of Viserys's model of Old Valyria.
Running through the model is blood, which traces the Targaryen family tree and line of succession — the symbols you can see throughout are the various crowns/symbols of different Targaryens.
The blood is an apt choice for House Targaryen, whose words are "Fire and Blood" and who places emphasis on being of the blood of Old Valyria (which these opening titles highlight).
2.Then there was a fair bit of exposition in the opening scenes of the episode, so in case you didn't quite catch it all: We skipped six months ahead from Aemma's death in Episode 1, and Ser Ryam Redwyne, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard — whom we saw in a few scenes in the first episode — has died in the meantime.
RIP, Ser Ryam, we hardly knew ye.
His death has left an opening on the Kingsguard, which Rhaenyra fills with Ser Criston Cole. As director of the episode, Greg Yaitanes notes in the "Inside the Episode" special, "It’s something that’s done offhand that does influence the course of a lot of events.” So jot that down!
3.Another small but significant moment you probably caught in these opening scenes: Rhaenyra is still her father's cupbearer, despite being made heir.
This is a deliberate choice from the showrunners, emphasizing the way Rhaenyra still feels quite small and unheard at court — something that is highlighted later in the episode by Rhaenys when she says, "Do you remind your father's men of that as you carry their cups?" in response to Rhaenyra's statement about being heir.
In the "Inside the Episode" clip, showrunner Miguel Sapochnik says, "We wanted to capture the idea that Rhaneyra, in spite of her being made heir, continued to be the cupbearer with no real change in her life," while his co-showrunner, Ryan Condal, notes, "She still has to study at her dad’s feet, and that doesn’t mean that she suddenly has a voice at the council, and I think all that stuff is really important for the gradual evolution of Rhaenyra’s character”. Big 👀.
4.In the same scene, Rhaenyra is still wearing the necklace Daemon gave her in Episode 1, which feels significant considering that he's spent six months claiming her position as heir is invalid, basically setting him up as her enemy.
Interestingly, later in the episode — after she's confronted Daemon at Dragonstone — she's no longer wearing the necklace.
5.Viserys breaking the stone dragon is pretty clear symbolism for how he's going to inadvertently cause the downfall of his house.
Meanwhile, there's a shot later in the episode where he ponders the repaired dragon that Alicent gives him, and in the next scene he discusses his marriage prospects with Lyonel Strong — indicating that he was considering Alicent for the role at this point, and perhaps even saw in her a pathway to healing his family/securing their strength (as she fixed the dragon).
6.Viserys's finger that is rotting is the one he cut on the Iron Throne after sending Daemon away in Episode 1.
This cut could symbolize not only that Viserys is unfit for the throne but also that the "rot" has set in for his reign/his family.
7.This next point is a minor book spoiler, so skip over it if you want to avoid those!
Laena asking Viserys about Vhagar was a nice Easter egg/bit of a setup — Vhagar is actually the dragon she later rides.
8.Back to Rhaenyra: Her "When I am queen, I will create a new order" has big Daenerys "break the wheel" energy.
'Cause that worked out so well for Dany...
9.Otto's arrival at Dragonstone echoed Jon Snow's, with both of them being intimidated by dragons — seems like it's an eternal Targaryen power move.
10.We find out that the egg Daemon stole is the same one Rhaenyra gave to her baby brother Baelon — which was one of the dragon Dreamfyre's eggs. Interestingly, there's a fan theory that Daenerys's three dragon eggs were actually three from Dreamfyre that a noblewoman named Elissa Farman stole and sold to the Sealord of Braavos.
11.Meanwhile, the room we see Daemon in at Dragonstone might look familiar — it's the room Stannis and later Daenerys use for their war room, with the big map-of-Westeros table (which is not yet in the room).
12.Finally, we got a glimpse of Craghas Drahar, aka the Crabfeeder, at the end of the episode. He's the guy Corlys mentioned in the opening scenes of Episode 1, and his look screams "villain."
Yep, that's greyscale all over his body and face, while his mask is patched together from multiple masks he's apparently scavenged from various ships — including a Sons of the Harpy–style mask (the terrorist group that opposed Daenerys in Game of Thrones while wearing golden masks).
No doubt we'll get to see and learn more about ol' Crabfeeder in future episodes!
