Westeros

A good look at the redressed columns of the throne room. Game of Thrones introduced the idea, with the throne room’s columns changing after Robert’s reign. Here, the columns are covered with bas relief. It reminds us a little of Trajan’s Column. You can also partially glimpse a statue mounted higher on the column, which are apparently of the past Targaryen kings.

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Ser Criston Cole versus Prince Daemon. We can get a good look at what appears to be the show’s take on Daemon’s personal sigil, which takes the four-legged (...) Targaryen dragon, adds yellow/golden accents to its spines, and places it withina bordure of yellow/golden flames. Cole’s arms are as described by George, ten black pellets on scarlet.

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We’re guessing this is Princess Rhaenyra on Syrax swooping over King’s Landing towads the truly monumental Dragonpit. This is the first time we’ve seen it realized on screen in a non-ruinous state.

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A glimpse of a street scene in King’s Landing, which we believe was filmed on-location in Cáceres, Spain. The statue of a dragon may well be a memorial to Balerion, the Black Dread.

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A look at the small council of King Viserys. Note Rhaenyra serving as cupbearer, a role she began to hold shortly before her father declared her his heir. Otto Hightower sits on the left, Ser Ryam Redwyne stands guard behind Viserys, and then it seems we Lord Strong, the Grand Maester Mellos, and ... probably Lord Lyman Beesbury as Master of Coin? And finally Lord Corlys Velaryon with his back to the camera. Anoher thing of note: those dishes wih a glass ball set in front of everyone. Something for formal votes, placing them on the central stand?

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So, tourneys were just a bit bigger back in the day… Obviously, this show does not have the budgetary constraints that Game of Thrones had in its first year, but the scale of this is astonishing.

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We just have to admire everything about this: the incredible helm and panache, the decorated lance… and even the horse’s chamfron (or shaffron) that deliberately echoes a dragon’s head, and the beautiful crinet that echoes the spines on a dragon’s neck.

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A good look at the young Laenor Velaryon with Princess Rhaenyra.

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Now we see that the breastplate of Daemon’s armor is made to look as if it’s made of dragon scales—very cool. Here we see him with some of his gold cloaks, probably bringing his very harsh brand of justice to King’s Landing.

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This image we see is curious. There are seven figures on this table, and an empty spot. The figures appear to include an eagle, a boar, some sort of carved stick, an archer, and what may be a tree (plus a couple of indecipherable figures). The next image will show that present in the scene are a Mallister (eagle on indigo), what we’re guessing is a Crakehall (black and white brindled boar on brown), and a Tarly (scarlet huntsman on green), so one supposes the figures represent these men. Could the second of the figures try to represent the Corbray ravens holding hearts? Is the carved sick a stand-in for Ser Criston Cole? And what figure represents the field of Caron nightingales? Is it the sinuous shape in the middle? Odd.

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We suspect this scene is in fact Rhaenyra choosing a sworn shield for herself, something she convinced her father to do after his performance in a tourney at Maidenpool in 104 AC. However, given the changes in the timeline of the show, we suspect they’ve moved this later, and that Cole’s induction into the Kingsguard in 105 AC may actually be rolled into this event. Either way, it’s clear she’s making a selection from among the several knights present.

We’ve remarked on the arms, but the figure behind Ser Criston baffles us. It looks very, very slightly like House Tarth’s field division, but the colors look off to us—it looks like quartered teal and orange, and we can’t see the crescent moon on the teal parts. Perhaps some sort of knight who is presenting personal arms quartering those of his father and mother? Does the the tree figure on he small table represent him? Very curious.

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Absolutely astonishing depiction of two dragons in the mists of Dragonstone. The left one is definitely Caraxes, and here we see how the show has gone with the idea that in this generation dragons have highly divergent appearances from one another, with Caraxes having an extraordinarily long neck. We’re guessing the other dragon is Syrax, the dragon of Princess Rhaenyra; the translucency of her wing as it passes over the sun is gorgeous.

(For what it’s worth, George’s description of the dragons suggest that Caraxes is actually closer to his vision of dragons in the novels than the heavier, shorter-necked Game of Thrones dragons.)

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This would be Daemon coming back triumphant from the Stepstones. A later image suggests the hammer/axe he has in his hand is a trophy taken from Craghas Crabfeeder.

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Yes, definitely his return as King of the Stepstones and the Narrow Sea, given his crown. A nice touch here is that his armor is decidedly dinged-up

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A really great look at King Viserys and especially of Blackfyre, the sword of the Targaryen kings. Forged by renowned sword smith Peter Johnsson, it looks to us like it’s going to be an iconic example of cinematic swords. Something about the design just works for us. The way he ricasso meets the blade is particularly attractive, and we like the touch of the pommel featuring the seven-pointed star of the Faith.

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Daemon warning or threatening Otto Hightower at Dragonstone, with Mysaria behind him. We know this is a scene featuring a dragon’s egg, which may match up to the incident in which Daemon gave one to his lover.

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We think this is probably Rhaenyra enjoying a flight on Syrax, given the dragon’s size.

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The aftermath of a battle on the Stepstones, with Daemon walking among the dead.

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This item was mentioned in a recent article, a sort of incubator for dragon eggs. Not something explicitly referenced in the novels (although Dany does at one point place an egg on a brazier in A Game of Thrones, hoping it would cause it to hatch), and indeed we know of dragon eggs hatching without such heat… but it’s certainly the case that keeping them hot is not a bad idea and may be part of the reason the Targaryens were so successful in breeding them among the volcanic caverns of Dragonstone.

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Prince Daemon with Caraxes, the Blood Wyrm. But wait, there’s more…

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Caraxes the Blood Wyrm in his fully glory. Just a terrific design, and we love how deep and clear the color is. This is one place where we could critique Game of Thrones, in that the dragons were fully dull in color. Can’t wait to see Sunfyre…

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But this? This isn’t Sunfyre. This is clearly our very first glimpse of the truly massive Vhagar, the largest dragon alive after the death of Balerion. From the image directly before this in the trailer, this is a very fateful moment when a young prince decides to pay a visit to Vhagar.

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A better look at the crown of King Viserys, which correctly appears to be the same as what golden circlet with seven large stones that George described. Instead of different gemstones, it appears to have the sigils of the paramount houses of the Seven Kingdoms. It seems we’re seeing it from the right side, so going right to left we have the Tully trout and the Baratheon stag.

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This is a scene after a significant time jump, giving us our first (but not our last) look at Prince Aemond Targaryen, known (for obvious reasons) as Aemond One-Eye. It looks like he and Ser Criston Cole are having it out for some reason.

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A very nicely composed image of the older Queen Alicent and Princess Rhaenyra, perhaps at the time that the factions begin to be known as the Greens and the Blacks. Nice tapestry of King’s Landing in the background.

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Lord Corlys in armor, presumably fighting on the Stepstones. Interesting and unique helmet design which we suppose is a Velaryon tradition.

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Glimpsed in the background of this scene is a shield with what looks like a sort of swordfish. It doesn’t really match the House Bar Emmon sigil from what we can see, but perhaps it’s the show’s version? Or some minor related house in the Narrow Sea?

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A knight of House Baratheon on the tourney grounds (really gorgeous armor, by the by), and further back behind him we see what we believe is the show’s version of the arms of House Lefford. In this era, the Baratheons are closely-related to a branch of the Targaryens, as Rhaenys’s mother Jocelyn Baratheon was the half-sister of Jaehaerys and Alysanne.

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And this must be Craghas Drahar, the brutal commander of he Triarchy’s forces in the Stepstones, perhaps preparing to leave a corpse for the crabs covering the shore to feed on.

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A dragon unleashing fire on the forces of the Triarchy in the Stepstones, by the looks of it. This would be Daemon Targaryen on Caraxes.

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An ominous look at the man who is probably Craghas Crabfeeder. The mask is not something from the book… but we have a theory: on the show, Craghas has encountered Targaryens before… and Velaryons. In Fire and Blood, Rhaenys’s father Aemon was killed by Myrish pirates who had been exiled from Myr during the civil war known as the Myrish Bloodbath. His son-in-law Corlys’s fleet joned joined Prince Aemon, who flew on the back of Caraxes, in campaigning against the Myrish. After Aemon’s death by assassination, the Myrish were swept away by vengeful forces led by Prince Baelon on Vhagar. This would fit references in interviews highlighting the fact that Corlys is one of the few men in Westeros in this era who has taken part in a larger-scale conflict.

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An important scene between Alicent and Rhaenyra, but we’re sharing it for a notable detail not yet glimpsed in the show: Corlys Velaryon is putting himself between Alicent and his family… and you can see, just vaguely, that one or two dark-haired boys are behind his back. These would be Rhaenyra’s sons, the “Strong” boys.

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A nice close-up of Syrax, according to sleuths who compared this shot to a previously-released poster featuring Rhaenyra and Syrax behind her.

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