I Can't Possibly Be Wrong All the Time

On Saturday, December 2nd, 2023, HBO released a teaser trailer for their upcoming Summer 2024 show House of the Dragon, airing its second season. Within hours, trailer breakdowns were crafted by the usual explainers – that’s awesome to see. But none of them, I feel, are going to be suitable for my dad.

Dad Sponaugle has read all of the main A Song of Ice and Fire books, has seen Game of Thrones, but hasn’t read Fire and Blood. It wasn’t hard to get him to watch House of the Dragon, but I wanted him to see the show with at least some context – non-spoilery context, so for Season One I wrote up trailer breakdowns as they came out.

Here is my non-spoilery trailer breakdown for my father, covering the latest trailer.

Setting the Stage

HBO has to remind you of who they are. (The end of the trailer will be an advertisement for MAX.)

The Crime Scene

The first shot is of a woman regarding the famous castle Storm’s End – the seat of House Baratheon. At the end of last season, you’ll recall, Lucerys Velaryon (Rhaenyra Targaryen’s second son) was sent on a diplomatic mission to get Lord Baratheon to support her claim as King Viserys’ publicly acknowledged heir. Things did not go so well, and Prince Aemond Targaryen (the one-eyed guy) pursued Lucerys on dragonback. There was a brief aerial dragonfight which ended with Lucerys and his dragon Arrax chomped by Aemond’s ENORMOUS dragon Vhagar.

(Dad, I’m sorry about all the names, but you read Alexander Dumas, you can handle this.)

It appears that the woman observing Storm’s End is Rhaenyra Targaryen, Lucerys’ mother – she’s the firstborn child of the recently deceased King Viserys. She seems sad. We know why.

During these shots, we can hear Otto Hightower speaking.

Errors were made in the hours following King Viserys’ death.

It might seem like this is a reference to Lucerys’ unfortunate death, but Otto is probably criticizing Queen Alicent’s decision to not have Rhaenyra assassinated before she learned of her father’s death.

Meanwhile, In Kings Landing

King Viserys’ eldest son Aegon has been crowned and is taking his seat on the Iron Throne. He’s got the original crown of Aegon the Conqueror. We see him dressed in green – green is the primary color of House Hightower (at least it is in this show), the powerful noble house of Oldtown in the kingdom of the Reach. (His Mother, Queen Alicent is a Hightower.)

Dad, at this time the Tyrells are indeed in charge of the Reach, just like they are in the time of Game of Thrones, but the Hightowers wield a lot of power at this time as well.

Anyway, this has similar vibes to Joffrey Baratheon really leaning in on the maternal Lannister colors, Lannister symbolism (lions) when he took the throne.

Meanwhile on Dragonstone

From seeing Aegon wearing ye olde Aegon the Conqueror’s crown, we cut to the identifiable helmet of Daemon Targaryen. Dad, Daemon is King Viserys’ younger, wild brother. He’s also Rhaenyra Targaryen’s uncle. Oh, and her husband, because of course he is. Targaryens.

Daemon grabs his helmet and is strolling out. Probably to behead or burninate someone.

You’ll recall that at the end of last season, as soon as word came that Viserys was dead, Daemon was all-in on believing that the Hightowers had poisoned Viserys. Daemon did not get along with Viserys’ Hand of the King, Otto Hightower. They got along so poorly, Otto convinced Viserys to designate the princess Rhaenyra to be the King’s designated heir, to cut Daemon out of the succession. (Something that has come back to be a problem since that’s the counter-claim to Otto’s grandson Aegon having his claim secure.)

More Hightowers

The trailer is starting to show us military stuff. Here’s a camp, watched over by a soldier with a Targaryen banner. That’s the first problem. Both sides in this conflict are Targaryen. (We’re going to get some clues in the trailer of how troop identification gets resolved somewhat between Aegon and Rhaenyra.)

The next shot has very identifiable troops: Hightowers. The marching troops are carrying banners with the Hightower of Oldtown, the giant lighthouse/fortification that watches over the harbor of that city. The sigil has the lighthouse’s flame colored green. There’s a lot of green in this.

I did some research on these guys: the white shields with red chevrons I believe are of House Rosby, the green shield with the white animal I believe are from House Stokeworth. Both of those houses are in the Crownlands, which is the area around Kings Landing, not part of the Stormlands, Riverlands, etc. I’m not going to make any comment on if they’re supporting either Rhaenyra or Aegon in this. But it looks like, at least in this shot, that these Crownlands houses have both picked the same side.

Quick shot of Otto Hightower – Queen Alicent’s father.

We’re getting a voiceover by Queen Alicent. We have a shot here where Alicent’s talking to someone with a cane. That would likely be the spyboss Master of Whispers Larys Strong (called Larys the Clubfoot). I’m sure you remember that creepy guy.

The war will be fought, many will die …

Here’s a shot of a shoreline and some boats. I’ll remind you that there are two important islands in this conflict, Dragonstone where Rhaenyra has her seat of power, and Driftmark where ancient House Velaryon resides, and its mighty naval forces.

(Okay, there’s also the Stepstones Islands, where the Crabfeeder and his pirates had been active, before being wiped out by Daemon and Corlys Velaryon. But new pirates have shown up, according to reports from the last half of Season One.)

We’re re-introduced to Ser Criston Cole, the Lord Commander of Aegon’s Kingsguard. He’s not as boyish as he was in the first half of season one, but is just as violent, beheading some dude. The important thing in this picture (in my opinion) is the guard in the background.

He’s got a Targaryen dragon sigil on his surcoat. The coat is green (that Hightower color) and the dragon is golden. King Aegon rides a golden-colored dragon named Sunfyre. This is Aegon’s new color scheme for the Targaryen sigil to disambiguate his troops from those of Rhaenyra. So it is possible the camp that we saw at the beginning of the trailer with the black and red Targaryen banner was Rhaenyra’s army (although again, maybe that was before Aegon let his passion for graphic design take over and the troops were using old banners.)

The voiceover continues, ushering in the next images.

… and the victor will ascend the Iron Throne.

One of the marble balls used for some purpose in the Small Council is spinning in its base – a nice touch following the beheading shot.

Aegon is shown on the Iron Throne, wearing the crown of Aegon the Conqueror, while …

Rhaenyra is shown wearing the crown of old King Jaehaerys, worn also by her father King Viserys. That crown was smuggled out of King’s Landing by Ser Erryk of the Kingsguard. (Dad, you remember Ser Erryk, his twin brother Ser Arryk is also in the Kingsguard. You can remember which [AE]rryk is with which monarch, because Aegon and Arryk both start with the same letter.)

Anyway, these shots are shown adjacent to the “the victor” mention by Queen Alicent, identifying the candidates in this conflict. Of course we already know this, but it’s a cool touch.

Alicent ends this section of the trailer by blowing out a flame (probably used to light some candles. She’s very devout.)

HBO

We’re reminded that this is HBO.

Dragons, People, and Places

A humble person with a fishing pole (look, they may or may not be humble, just go with this) looks up at the first appearance of a dragon in the trailer. Dad, I know you think I’m an expert, but I can’t identify the individual dragons yet. Since this is a person fishing, they’re likely on Driftmark or Dragonstone, and since they’re not freaking out, I assume this is one of the dragons attached to Rhaenyra’s cause.

This appears to be a continuation of that shot, with the dragon flying across the water. This could be a lot of places, Driftmark, Dragonstone, Shipbreaker Bay near Storm’s End, the Blackwater near King’s Landing. I don’t have the topology they’re using memorized yet, Dad.

More armored troops. We don’t see identifiable banners (okay, there’s a few in the far background, but it’s hard to tell) but based on these guys’ helmets, I think that they’re the same as the Hightower troops we saw previously. The tunics over the armor could be green. It’s a mixed-force though – we can see guys marching with them with different helmets, the kettle-hat style of helmet, having a brim going all the way around. So this is probably one of the other houses of the Reach, sending troops to support the Hightowers supporting Aegon’s claim. Or maybe from some other Aegon-supporting region. I need to see some sigils.

UPDATE! I zoomed in and I’m pretty sure the guys in the kettle-hat helmets are from House Darklyn (I can make out their shields.) The Darklyns are in the Crownlands (based in the port city of Duskendale) and will be wiped out in the future by King Aerys. Dontos Hollard, the only of the Darklyns (and relations) spared shows up in the second season at King Joffrey’s nameday tourney. He’s wearing a kettle-hat! Okay, back to the trailer recap…

A new voiceover, from Rhaenys Velaryon starts up:

There is no war so hateful to the gods –

We cut from Aegon’s ground troop forces to Dragonstone, and Rhaenyra considering her position on the map – the Painted Table that shows us Westeros. She’s in council with her husband-uncle Daemon, and her aunt Rhaenys (the Queen Who Never Was). In the background is Ser Erryk, the kingsguard who defected to her side.

We cut to Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake. He’s supporting Rhaenyra’s claim since he’s pretty much all-in with her side of the conflict. Although he shares no bloodline with Rhaenyra’s sons (who are bastards, just don’t say that too loud, like Corlys’ brother Vaemond did) his granddaughters via his daughter Laena are children of Daemon Targaryen. So Corlys has some skin in this game.

Speaking of Daemon, we have a shot of the Rogue Prince swinging down with his sword. In the background is a weirwood tree. Weirwoods are more common in the North, but there are some south of the Neck. We’ve seen one inside the Red Keep (it’s a stump by the time of Game of Thrones.) I don’t have any other context to give for this scene.

The sword cut transitions to one-eyed Aemond Targaryen, kind of a Daemon Targaryen 2.0. He’s responsible for the death of Lucerys Velaryon, is supportive of his brother Aegon Targaryen to be king. But this scene has him approaching an empty Iron Throne.

I’m including the two following shots of the Iron Throne, the lightning illuminates the throne and the green banners with the golden dragon of Aegon Targaryen, the same color scheme we saw on the guard when Ser Criston Cole was beheading a guy.

We have a geographical jump to a snowy location – we’d have to be in the North. A group of men are traveling along a road. For some possible context, at the end of last season, Rhaenyra’s eldest son Jacaerys Velaryon was sent on a diplomatic mission to the Vale of Arryn and then ordered to travel to the North and treat with Lord Cregan Stark of Winterfell. This might be all in relation to that.

We’re then treated to a kind of dreamlike sequence of Queen Alicent – not dressed in her usual green finery, looking sadly out over a lake. In the distance might be a castle. Maybe? I don’t have much context for this, but until I learn otherwise, I’m assuming this is the God’s Eye lake, which is in the Riverlands north of Kings Landing. That’s where the haunted and ill-omened castle of Harrenhal is (currently held by House Strong – Larys Strong had some arson done, which eliminated his father and elder brother Harwin Strong, making him the Lord of Harrenhal.)

(voiceover continues) – as a war between kin.

We then cut to a dramatic sequence of Rhaenyra having some kind of meeting/stand-off with another dragon-rider. The dragon behind Rhaenyra is her dragon, Syrax. The dragon in front of her isn’t immediately recognizable to me. It’s not Daemon’s dragon Caraxes, Caraxes is reddish and has a super-long neck. It’s not Vhagar, Aemond’s dragon, who is enormous and looks a bit run-down. It’s probably not Aegon’s dragon Sunfyre, which is a beautiful golden dragon. I just don’t know. It’s a cool shot, though.

We see the Dragonpit, a structure that is in ruins by the time of Game of Thrones. In the background is the Red Keep.

Chaos

Okay, we’re at the part of the trailer where many things happen all at once.

We get a shot of Helaena Targaryen, the sister-wife of Aegon Targaryen, daughter of King Viserys. We know that she seems to have the prophetic dragon-dreams that some Targaryens have – she foresaw Aemond losing an eye, she foresaw Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys bursting out of the floor of the Dragonpit near the end of the season. In Cassandra-like fashion, no one pays attention to the things Helaena says.

There are ashes blowing up in the foreground, so there’s something burning ahead of her.

There’s a procession in the city, with drums. Something official is happening.

An extremely-contextless shot of riders riding across a green field. No idea who these guys are, but the one on the left has a white cloak, so he’s a Kingsguard.

If these riders are the same as in the previous shot, the white-cloaked figure appears to be Ser Criston Cole, the Lord Commander, personal guard of Queen Alicent, and definitely not on Rhaenyra’s team.

Here we have troops reacting to something. The guys in the right background appear to have Hightower-style helmets, the guy in the background behind the horsemen has a kettle-hat helmet like we saw previously, so the troops we saw a few shots up appear to be under attack.

I included two shots of the dragonfire, since it provides a little bit of the sense of the action. The dragon is definitely burning some structure. Supply wagons? Siege engines? In the background of the shots, I can see the Rosby shield (white shield, red chevrons) so that’s the Crownlands troops we saw. I see a kettle-helm, which makes me think that the Hightower troops and their auxiliaries are here. Was this a Reach-Crownlands group being attacked by one of Rhaenyra’s dragons, or was this a case of Hightower troops fighting Crownland troops loyal to Rhaenyra and the dragon is a Team Green coming to roast Rosby and Stokeworth troops? Or something else? I’m making no predictions.

Nice profile shot of Rhaenyra. They love their hair-braids, those Targaryens.

Princess Rhaenys finishes up the dialogue that started as a voice-over way back in the trailer.

And no war so bloody as a war between dragons.

Baela Targaryen riding a dragon. Dad, you remember that Daemon had two daughters with his second wife, Laena Targaryen – Baela and Rhaena. Baela’s the one with a dragon, Moonfire. (Rhaena was supposed to get Vhagar, but Aemond stole Vhagar away by claiming her first at Laena’s funeral.) Baela looks like she’s ready to burninate someone.

Down at King’s Landing, the people seem to be in some state of alarm. Maybe because someone’s coming to burninate them?

Presuming that this is all part of the same scene, Queen Alicent is on the streets with a detachment of the Kingsguard, and some dude is grabbing at Alicent. My dude, that Kingsguard is going to mess you up badly for that. If it is Ser Criston Cole, you’re going to be badly, badly messed up. He doesn’t play around.

Some unidentified folks getting ready to rumble. The young man pulling his sword has a red animal sigil on his coat, but I can’t make it out. Maybe a horse? I might be going out on a limb, but the Brackens have a red stallion on a yellow shield on brown, so I’ll just call this guy a Bracken. They’re from the Riverlands though, and famously feud with the Blackwoods. (We saw a young Blackwood gut a Bracken in an impromptu duel while Rhaenyra was going on a speed-dating tour of Westeros.)

More dragonfire, seemingly unrelated to the (allegedly) Brackens in the previous shot. These guys don’t appear to be troops to me. Dragons are often used unethically. Like, any time they’re used.

Speaking of unethical use of dragons, here’s Daemon Targaryen, ready to engage in some ethically questionable activities. It’s his way.

Helaena Targaryen – Aegon’s sister-wife, appears to be in some distress as a rough character holds a knife up to her throat. No other context will be given.

Ser Criston Cole, man of action, is totally going to Joffrey Lonmouth this guy with his helmet. (We saw Daemon last season do something similar when he got a letter from home that he didn’t like.) I don’t know who this guy is, but since he got the drop on Ser Criston (who had to use his helmet instead of having his sword handy) I’m interested in what actually is happening here.

We get a dramatic shot of a horseman (and horse) going down. There’s no fire, so what happened? No idea. I’m sure no animals were harmed in the filming of this scene.

A few shots of Ser Erryk (unless that’s Ser Arryk) fighting with someone. We don’t see the other person, and this shot is too blurry so you’ll have to trust me, but the sword is being blocked by another sword being held with a gauntleted hand. (I think I know what’s going on. It’s cool.)

Here’s Aemond Targaryen, on dragonback (riding Vhagar, the oldest and biggest dragon). Since we saw a similar point-of-view shot with Baela, maybe they’re been doing this dragonrider reaction cam viewpoint a bunch.

A slightly different angle for the dragonrider-cam, we get a good look at Rhaenyra’s dragonriding saddle and gear. I respect the handgrips that these Targaryens use, rather than just holding onto the dragon like Daenerys would. No disrespect to Dany, but she needed a saddle. It’s a wonder Jon didn’t fall off those times on dragonback.

And here we have a shot of Vhagar, the old, seen-better days dragon (with Aemond on her back) coming over the trees. The helmets on these guys imply the Hightower troops and that one kettle-hat implies one of the Hightower colleagues. None of these guys seem worried about Vhagar, since they’re all on the same side.

The End

We end on the usual stuff – the dramatic Targaryen sigil engulfed in flame, the title of the show (reminding us that this is HBO) and the airing date : the Summer, 2024.

Dad, I hope this breakdown was useful in reminding you who people are and their relationships, and that I haven’t spoiled any major details of the season coming up.

I really enjoyed reading Fire and Blood, and I look forward to seeing the show and talking to you about it, as we do.

Valar Morghulis!

Oh, if you want to watch the trailer, here it is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMyMvCRJwr4

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(Comments are always welcome. Super welcome! But if you want to talk spoilery Game of Thrones talk with me (also welcome) I’d invite you to visit my Safe Spoilers page on my backup blog. That way my non-book-reading friends won’t be shocked with foreknowledge.)

Images from HBO’s HOUSE OF THE DRAGON. I make no claims to the artwork, but some claims to the text here. So there.

If you liked this article, thank you! I have all of my Game of Thrones related articles on my handy-dandy Game of Thrones page should you want to read more but don’t want to navigate around my site.

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