The long-awaited second season of Home of the Dragon got here with a shock for viewers from the soar — a model new intro sequence that replaces the clever, if troublesome to parse, Season 1 intro. The most recent entry into the “unskippable intros that includes the music of composer Ramin Djwadi” membership is stacked with extremely detailed info, lore, and historical past about Home Targaryen, Westeros, and dragons, so let’s get proper into explaining the secrets and techniques hidden on this unfolding Targaryen tapestry.
The Rise and Fall of Valyria, or How Home Targaryen Bought Fortunate and Survived The Apocalypse
The primary picture within the “Home of the Dragon” Season 2 intro is a cheeky nod to the Season 1 intro, which depicted blood winding by way of the degrees in a scale mannequin of Valyria, the ancestral homeland of the Targaryens and of dragons themselves. The brand new intro additionally begins with Valyria, however this time the blood speeding down the tiered partitions is barely the start of the story.
The subsequent few pictures summarize the rise and fall of the Valyrian Freehold, which considerably. These households had lots of of dragons between them, they usually used their energy to enslave and conquer hundreds of thousands, represented by the blood and distress depicted on the tapestry.
That distress leads into a picture of the Targaryen household leaving Valyria on the recommendation of Daenys the Dreamer, who wakened someday with a bizarre vibe and thought that her household ought to possibly transfer. They did transfer, together with just a few of their non dragon-riding household associates like Home Velaryon, they usually settled on Dragonstone, the place Rhaenyra and Daemon nonetheless stay — you may briefly see the define of their acquainted fortress on the highest left of the display screen earlier than the scene strikes on.
A number of a long time after the Targaryens moved to Westeros on her recommendation, Valyria was destroyed in a cataclysmic, Pompeii-style volcanic explosion appropriately referred to as the Doom of Valyria. The tapestry exhibits this occasion in all of its glory, with the volcanoes exploding and dragons falling out of the sky. This occasion left the Targaryens as the one dragonriders left on the earth, as a result of typically if you don’t play the sport of thrones you win anyway.
The Conquest of Westeros Half 1, or Why It’s Dumb To Deliver a Sword to a Dragon Battle
Now the tapestry strikes on to the actions of the Targaryens in Westeros. Aegon the Conqueror and his two sister-wives Rhaenys and Visenya journey their dragons Balerion, Meraxes, and Vhagar (hello, Vhagar!) above a fleet of allied ships which have the seahorse sigil of Home Velaryon on their sails (hello Velaryons!).
Then comes Aegon’s conquest, depicting how he and his queens subjugated six of the seven kingdoms. Spoiler alert: they did it with hearth and blood. The central part exhibits the ruined shell of Harrenhal, which Aegon burned with Balerion when King Harren the Black refused to give up the Riverlands. That’s Harren proper there within the center together with his axe and a glance of deep, painful remorse on his embroidered face.
Harren is surrounded by imagery from one other of the conquest’s most well-known battles, the Discipline of Hearth. In that battle, all three Targaryen dragons destroyed the mixed armies of King Loren Lannister and King Mern Gardener — for those who look carefully, there are little Lannister lions and the hand sigils of Home Gardner on the shields of the fallen troopers, with the chilling element that although the shields had been possible painted Lannister crimson and Gardner inexperienced, the tapestry exhibits each single considered one of them as black and burned.
In one of many intro’s many blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments, Queen Rhaenys’ silver dragon Meraxes is proven falling from the sky amongst a ridge of mountains, depicting each of their deaths by the hands of Home Uller of Dorne. You’ll be able to catch this second for half a second above the smoking smash of Harrenhall earlier than the intro strikes alongside to the remainder of the conquest.
The Conquest of Westeros Half 2, or How Good Folks Deal with Their Issues
One thing about having the Targaryens having the capability to burn tens of hundreds of individuals influenced the following a part of tapestry, during which homes Arryn, Stark, and Tully bow to Aegon and settle for him as their king with no need to indicate off in battle first. An attention-grabbing element right here is that the Arryns and Starks each put on crowns, however the Tullys don’t — it’s because the Arryns and Starks had been kings of the North and Vale earlier than they bent the knee, however the Tullys weren’t a royal home when Aegon granted them the Riverlands.
The Sons of the Dragon, or Who Let A Maniac Design This Citadel?
The lovable shot of the Purple Preserve and the rising metropolis of King’s Touchdown is barely marred by the looks of Balerion within the prime proper nook of the panel. We are saying marred as a result of it’s not Aegon driving Balerion, it’s his son Maegor. The excellent news is that Maegor is the Targaryen king who completed the Purple Preserve, establishing the long-lasting fortress because the royal seat of his home. The unhealthy information is that Maegor was a bloodthirsty tyrant who usurped his brother’s throne, murdered hundreds, and completed stated Purple Preserve by constructing entice doorways, tunnels, secret rooms, and every kind of bizarre stuff that makes it a harmful place to stay.
The even higher information is that the following panel exhibits Maegor murdered on the Iron Throne. In dying he’s flanked by one bronze dragon and one silver dragon. These are Vermithor and Silverwing, the mounts of the beloved King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne, who dominated after Maegor. These dragons are nonetheless alive on the time of “Home of the Dragon” — it was Vermithor to whom Daemon sang that candy dragon lullaby on the finish of Season 1.
Jaehaerys the Conciliator OR Westeros Catches a Break
The short depiction of Jaehaerys and Alysanne exhibits the brand new king sporting a golden crown, which was solid to distinction with the black, ruby-studded crown worn by Aegon the Conqueror and by Maegor. To their left is the seven-pointed star of the Religion of the Seven, indicating their work to unify the crown and the church. On their proper is a bag of gold as a result of their reign was affluent and peaceable and nothing unhealthy ever occurred to the Targaryens once more. Till the following panel.
The Nice Council, OR Severely? Viserys?
Lastly, one thing “Home of the Dragon” followers will acknowledge with out having to be an enormous nerd who’s learn all the A Tune of Ice and Hearth Books, examined each inch of the World of Ice and Hearth encyclopedia, learn “Hearth & Blood” a dozen occasions and spends their free time listening to Sport of Thrones podcasts on pretend historical past and dragonlore will acknowledge. Ahem.
That is the Nice Council of 101, whereby King Jaehaerys (middle, on the golden throne) let the males of the realm vote on who ought to succeed him: The competent, smart, succesful, dragon-riding girlboss Rhaenys Targaryen (proper, wanting superior in Velaryon blue and Targaryen crimson) or Viserys (left, with a really pregnant Queen Aemma), who would fairly have carried out actually anything together with his life. Everyone knows who they picked, and everyone knows how that labored out.
The First Steps of the Dance or “Home of the Dragon,” Season 1
This a part of the tapestry incorporates a number of parts of “Home of the Dragon” Season 1. Alicent’s posture and inexperienced costume invokes her dramatic entrance at Rhaenyra’s marriage ceremony, the blood between her and Rhaenyra is a nod to Rhaenyra’s bloody stroll throughout the fortress to see Alicent after she gave beginning, the entire Targaryen household sitting at a desk is harking back to Viserys’s closing evening alive, and the divide between the Targaryen-Targaryens and the Hightower-Targaryens represents…the divide between the Targaryen-Targaryens and the Hightower-Targaryens.
Enter: Alicent’s son Aegon sporting the black crown of Aegon the Conqueror, seated on the Iron Throne together with his inexperienced cape. Observe that the dragon sigil on his chest is gold as an alternative of crimson, as Aegon’s dragon Sunfyre has golden scales. The inexperienced hand under him sends out a flock of ravens, alluding to the primary diplomatic steps the Inexperienced Council took to shore up help for his coup.
Enter: Rhaenyra sporting the gold crown of King Jaehaerys on the throne at Dragonstone. The black hand under her sends out three dragons: little Arrax, lengthy Caraxes, and just-right Vermax, displaying that the Black Council despatched its diplomats on dragons.
Surrounding these two are the shields of homes that joined up on all sides. It’s troublesome to inform precisely which homes all of them characterize, however the Greens look to have the blue-and white protect of Home Tarbeck, the crimson apple of Home Fossoway, the three ravens of Home Corbray, the Lannister lion, the tower of the Hightowers, the Baratheon stag, two unclear shields, and the lamb of Home Stokeworth. The Blacks have two unclear shields, the Stark wolf, the Arryn falcon, the Velaryon seahorse, the Tully fish, the Frey towers, the Beesbury bees, and the swordfish of Home Bar Emmon.
The Actual First Step of the Dance OR Snacktime for Vhagar!
Yup, that’s Vhagar biting Arrax to items with Prince Aemond on her again and, considerably mercifully is incorrectly, poor Prince Lucerys “falling off the dragon” to his dying. And positively not additionally being eaten by Vhagar, which he was.
“Home of the Dragon” OR The Title of the Present
And that’s all for the brand new “Home of the Dragon” intro! Contemplating each the “Sport of Thrones” intro and the Season 1 “Home of the Dragon” intro each up to date to replicate the occasions that came about over the course of the present, it’s possible that this one will too, so control these threads for any new particulars which will emerge all through Season 2.