Westeros

Adam Savage, famed special effects fabricator best known for co-hosting Mythbusters, has a great Youtube series called Tested that’s been a great success. So much so that he’s been invited behind the scenes of a number of productions and effects houses over time… and the latest such behind-the-scenes tour involves none other than House of the Dragon.

Promising to be the first of several videos from the production, the introductory episode features master armourer Tim Lewis as he shows Adam swords and other blades that the production has made… including a look at what I am quite certain was their hero Ice while still in the earliest stages of creation.

As always, the highlight for us was the detailed, close-up look at Peter Johnsson’s remarkable Blackfyre and Dark Sister. Some amazing details in those, but a great surprise was learning that Corlys Velaryon’s dagger includes a crude astrolabe in the pommel, suitable to his place as a famed navigator and sailor.

HBO Max has given fans a pleasant surprise with a first look at House of the Dragon, in the form of a Matt Smith-narrated teaser showing a number of scenes and characters from the show, as well as confirming several significant new cast members. See the video below, and the press release about new cast following that.

Blackfyre looks great, we have to say. So, too, does Daemon Targaryen’s tournament armor with the dragon wings on the helm (an idea we used on our game, Blood of Dragons, for Aemon the Dragonknight, grandson of Prince Daemon). And, perhaps the biggest surprise at all, a revised vision of the Iron Throne and its dais to try and bring it more in line with George R.R. Martin’s actual vision of as a monstrous, twisted construction. There’s even a tourney scene featuring Criston Cole (distinguishable by his coat of arms, ten black pellets on red, on his shield) and a knight of House Tarly (possibly the future Lord Alan Tarly, who sides with the blacks?), though the array of banners there are rather curious: Lannister and what looks like Lefford, perhaps Corbray… but also Bolton, Stark, and what might be a take on Manderly (the latter at a southron tourney seems okay to us… but the Boltons and Starks would be incredibly unlikely to appear at a tourney in what appears to be the Reach.)

We plan to screen cap and go in more detail at some of the images and scenes later this evening, for those curious.

The press release follows: