Westeros

Another new episode of House of the Dragon, and another episode of Linda and Elio discussing it! This time we look into some of the changes to a couple of Kingsguard knights, and dive more into House Velaryon now that the episode reveals a change the show has made to their relationship to the Targaryens.

You can see the episode below:

Share your thoughts on the video, and let us know if there’s any changes or background details you’d like us to discuss in future episodes!

This tweet says it all:

Over at The Hollywood Reporter, James Hibberd provides a bit more detail, citing HBO’s report that in the US the show has cleared over 20 million viewers since the premiere, the kind of strong opening they were hoping for.

Just two months away from the release of The Rise of the Dragon, a book we’ve co-authored that takes Fire and Blood, boils it down to the essentials, and fills the rest of the pages with over 180 pieces of glorious, all-new artwork from artists both familiar and brand new to fans of A Song of Ice and Fire. Random House has started the wheels rolling promoting the book by releasing this video with George R.R. Martin where he talks about the book and its connection to House of the Dragon:

Been a long time since we’ve done one of these, and suffice it to say the combination of rusty recollection plus a bunch of new equipment made this a bit of a trial. Add a very lively puppy plus sundry other things, and this video is later than we hoped, but it’s done. As we remarked in our “Not a Review” of the first six episodes, we’re not really reviewing the show (as we did—and then Linda did solo after I quit—with Game of Thrones) but instead discussing some of the choices and changes made in the adaptation, as well as providing some background information and (of course) dragon facts.

You can see the episode below:

We’ve had the opportunity to watch the first six episodes of House of the Dragon, courtesy of HBO Max, and we certainly have some thoughts about the show. We’ve placed our “Not a Review” in our Features section which hasn’t seen much use since Game of Thrones came to an end, so go read it there.

We occasionally highlight really great, A Song of Ice and Fire-inspired fan works, and we’re happy to bring attention to the asoiafanimated instagram where a team of Italian animators led by professional animator Giovanni Ariutti. We have a very brief tease, but you should check the Instagram for a longer trailer, with music and all, and that in turn is leading to something even more substantial on August 23rd. See the teaser below, and the full details of the team working on the project:

A brand new promo ahead of the airing of House of the Dragon... and it includes an excellent look at the last living dragon from the Conquest, Vhagar:

And here is our last interview from the European premiere of House of the Dragon, with co-show runner and head writer Ryan Condal. Though it’s the last interview from the event, it’s not going to be our last interview with Ryan, who’s agreed to sit down with Westeros.org for a proper interview in the next few days. Feel free to comment on the video below with any questions you’d like to ask and we’ll try and pick the ones we find the most interesting to present to Ryan!

As promised, here are the next two interviews we managed to get from the press pit at the European premiere of House of the Dragon! In this pairing, we talk to Emma D’Arcy (Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen) and Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon). You’ll find the interviews below the image I took of the replica of Balerion the Black Dread’s skull during the Dragon’s Den interactive event.

Below you’ll find two of the five interviews we, and our good friend Javi Marcos of Spanish fan site Los Siete Reinos who kindly helped us out by bringing along and manning the camera equipment, secured as part of the press pool at the red carpet for the European premiere of House of the Dragon in Amsterdam. We’ll release the other three over the next couple of days. Red carpet interviews tend to be short, and these were no different: there were more than a dozen outlets present and each only had limited time, especially as the screening time drew near. Still, we enjoyed the spectacle, and I even got to sit on the new version of the Iron Throne with Javi perched beside me (I joked he was Mushroom).

You’ll find the two interviews below!

Tisdagen den 16 augusti premiärvisas första avsnittet av House of the Dragon på biograf Rigoletto i Stockholm och du och en vän kan vara där! I samarbete med HBO Max tävlar Westeros.org ut biljetter till eventet. För att ha chansen att vinna, svara på inlägget på Twitter från @westerosorg och berätta för oss vad du skulle döpa din drake till! Glöm inte att tagga ditt svar #HBOMaxNordic och #HouseoftheDragon och svara senast den 14/8.

We’ve an exciting opportunity for fans of Game of Thrones who are excited about the forth-coming House of the Dragon! Thanks to HBO Max Netherlands, we have a number of tickets that we’re giving away to attend the European premiere of House of the Dragon on August 11th. The event will be a grand affair taking place at the Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam, featuring members of the cast and crew as well as the Dragon’s Den, a unique interactive experience that will open first for guests of the premiere before opening for the general public on the 12th and 13th of August. We’ll post some more of the official information below, but the essential point is… how do you enter the contest? See below!

A pleasant surprise today, as the official Game of Thrones channels dropped a new video, this time a rather unique one as it had George R.R. Martin narrating the history of the Targaryens (as well as the Hightowers and Velaryons) that leads up to the time of The House of the Dragons, with animated graphics from none other than artist Doug Wheatley, the illustrator of Fire and Blood.

Very interesting that the Hightowers get a little bit of focus in this video. The Velaryons are to be expected, of course, although an interesting thing we noticed about this video is that it only mentions the marriage of Corlys to Rhaenys as one of the ties the families have to one another, when of course Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters had a Velaryon mother. It’s a short video, but since Aegon and the Conquest was mentioned, it seemed like a detail they could have slipped in there if they wanted to.

Great news from the LA Shorts International Film Festival! GRRM’s adaptation of his friend Howard Waldrop’s story “The Night of the Cooters” has won “Best Sci-Fi”. We previously wrote about the project when the teaser came out last year. Read the full press release for all the details.

On August 2nd, The Complete Guide to House of the Dragon will hit shelves across the country, a one-of-a-kind deep dive into the forthcoming HBO series. Among it’s many features? A lengthy exclusive interview with George R. R. Martin, discussing the show, it’s origins in Fire and Blood and The World of Ice and Fire, and more!