House of the Dragon has finally unveiled its own take on the iconic Game of Thrones opening. The series, which did not have an introduction during the airing of the first episode, “The Heirs of the Dragon”, finally appended an introduction to the show starting with the series’ second episode.
Game of Thrones’ opening was an iconic affair. With its swelling music and visuals, which was a raven’s eye view encompassing the locations that would be featured in any given episode, it has been parodied and recreated countless times. Composer Ramin Djawadi’s score was an immediately recognizable tune that immediately drew audiences into the Westerosi world.
Fans have been eager to see what House of the Dragon’s opening sequence would be like, and Sunday’s episode, “The Rogue Prince” revealed an homage to and departure from Game of Thrones’ opening. While Game of Thrones focused its opening on different locations that would be present in the series, House of the Dragon decided to be a bit more low-key. Given that, so far, the only locations that House of the Dragon has taken place in are King’s Landing and Dragonstone, it makes sense that a different approach was needed for the show, which is not as geographically widespread as Game of Thrones was.
The opening features rivers of blood flowing through King Viserys’ model of Valyria - a nod to the Valyrian ancestry of House Targaryen. Upon closer inspection, the opening is actually a somewhat-abstract family tree focusing on House Targaryen. Blood pours from a cog emblazoned with three dragons - symbolizing Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters, Rhaenys and Visenya, before flowing out into other cogs that represent other Kings of Westeros. For instance, King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne’s cogs come together and create many streams of blood, symbolizing their many children, and Princess Rhaenyra is symbolized by the charm in the necklace her Uncle Daemon gave her in episode 1. The deceased Targaryen monarchs are overtaken by blood, but the living members rise above the flow (for now).
The introduction to the show will likely change as the series goes on. Game of Thrones never kept its introduction static, adding and removing locations whenever they were or were not relevant to an episode. As House of the Dragons goes on, and as new Targaryens are born and die, it’s likely that they’ll be added to the family tree.
The new introduction is a bit more abstract than the old. Whilst it appears to be a family tree upon closer examination, the symbolism present in it relies on a fair amount of knowledge that can only be found in the books. It is absolutely visually striking, but some fans do appear to be a bit disappointed that the old Game of Thrones theme was reused in lieu of a new song.
House of the Dragon airs Sundays on HBO.