‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 New Intro Breakdown

House of the Dragon Season 2 opens with a surprise from the very first second, as the intro has been completely overhauled. In the first season, the iconic theme music from Game of Thrones played over a close-up depiction of model city, apparently mimicking the model that King Viserys I (Paddy Considine) constructed in his private chamber. In Season 2, the intro focuses on an intricate tapestry, with blood slowly soaking into its fibers.

The new intro shows threads spreading out to create images on an off-white tapestry – some clear images of characters, places and events, and other more subtle pictures that are harder to pin down. To start, we see gold thread joining some black outlines in what looks like an image of a castle, then we pan down quickly to an embroidered dragon. The red gout could be fire or blood, both are on theme here.

The next few images show human figures with silvery hair, indicating that they are probably Targaryens or Valyrians. The first could represent the in-world myth of Azor Ahai and Nissa Nissa, though I think these shots depict more recent history for House Targaryen. The second shows two people on a boat – one with their head resting on the other as blood speckles the tapestry behind her.

The next image grows over the course of several shots to show an ominous figure surrounded by flames and smoke, with volcanoes and dragons in the background. That calls to mind the Doom of Valyria – the apocalyptic even that killed every dragonrider except for the Targaryens. After that we see embroidery of a few different colored dragons in flight, followed by a stylized portrayal of two massive dragons breathing fire toward each other. In the middle, a castle and a handful of knights are caught in the flames, which again, have a kind of fluid, bloody quality. This could symbolize the Targaryen conquest of Westeros – in particular the destruction of Harrenhal or the battle known as the “Field of Fire.”

After that we see a few people kneeling, and it’s clear that they are Westerosi from their clothes. The middle figure has the wolf sigil of House Stark embroidered on his clothes, while the person on the left seems to represent House Arryn. My best guess is that the person on the right represents House Tully with a fish sigil, but I’m open to other ideas there. Panning down, we see the Targaryen sigil for the first time, and a depiction of King’s Landing. According to George R.R. Martin’s books, House sigils are common in Westeros but not the rest of the world, so House Targaryen did not adopt the three-headed dragon crest until conquering the Seven Kingdoms.

The next shot shows a silver-haired man sitting on the iron throne wearing a gold crown, but with a blade piercing his neck. This seems to reference the second Targaryen king, Maegor the Cruel, who died this way decades before the events of House of the Dragon. We then see a regal king and queen standing arm-in-arm beside the seven-pointed star and a pot of gold – probably the third Targaryen king Jaehaerys I and his queen Alysanne. The next shot shows an older king sitting on a dais, and it clearly matches the shot of an elderly Jaehaerys I we saw in the beginning of House of the Dragon Season 1. We can even recognize Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) and Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) standing to his right.

After that we pan past a full-length portrait of Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) which is symmetrical with a portrait of Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy). In between them there are two council tables – one with Rhaenyra’s allies and one with Alicent’s. We then see a gold Targaryen crest that expands to create an image of Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney), and continues expanding to form an ominous version of the Iron Throne all around him. A similarly austere portrait of Rhaenyra on the throne of Dragonstone takes shape, and as it zooms out we see a green hand below Aegon with a black hand beneath Rhaenyra. Both have a few dragons on their side as well, though they don’t seem to perfectly mirror their fighting forces as we know them now.

The next shot is the most heartbreaking – it shows one massive dragon flying over the remains of a much smaller one, spotted with blood. Beneath them both, a small human figure seems to be falling to his death. This is most likely Vhagar attacking Prince Lucerys Targaryen (Elliot Grihault) and his dragon Arrax in the Season 1 finale. The title sequence ends on a shot of the Iron Throne’s silhouette.

The contents of this title sequence are interesting and may hold some clues to the story to come, but on a simpler level, it’s amazing that this opener is so different from Season 1. Game of Thrones opened every episode on a map, which changed slightly from year to year to reflect new locations, changes to locations or locations that would be more important going forward. However, the focus always remained on a map of the same style, never changing this drastically. At the same time, House of the Dragon could be distancing itself from Viserys’ model of Valyria, as it will be less prominent this season.

Fans will undoubtedly go through this title sequence frame by frame in the weeks to come, especially if it changes at all in future episodes. House of the Dragon Season 2 airs on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.