This week’s episode of HBO’s House of the Dragon finally revealed the show’s opening and tells the family history of the Targaryen family’s nobility through blood. The opening also pays homage to the original Game of Thrones by reusing the same opening theme music and 3D animated art style.

The setting is a 3D stone model of Old Valyria – an old powerful city – that was eventually destroyed by the simultaneous eruption of fourteen volcanoes known as ‘The Doom of Valyria’. The city housed many wonders of the world of Game of Thrones such as dragons, dragon magic and Valyrian steel. Throughout the model are various symbols that represent specific Targaryens in the family tree. The first major symbol depicts many dragons near a volcano above a crown which represents the Targaryens in Old Valyria. The crown symbolises the nobility of the family as dragon-riders and Aegon the conqueror – the first Targaryen king in Westeros. the symbol fills with blood leaving only Aegon’s crown which represents the survival of the Targaryen bloodline.

As the blood flows, it branches into two paths representing Aegon’s children and descendants through crown symbols representing his two wives and flows quickly through symbols representing the four past Targaryen kings of Westeros in the current timeline until it reaches the current King Viserys I, and then the last symbol of the necklace (seen gifted in episode 1) of his daughter Princess Rhaenyra, the current heir. Notably, the symbols do not fill with blood for either of the two, possibly representing that they are both still alive, and Rhaenyra’s symbol is not a crown.

The trail of blood ends on the Targaryen sigil – a three-headed dragon which represents at their core, all Targaryens are dragons and they bring fire and blood.

Let us know what you thought about the new intro in the comments.