Posted in: Game Of Thrones, HBO, TV | Tagged: game of thrones, house of the dragon, ryan condal

House of the Dragon: Condal on Reading Too Much Into Daemon's Vision

House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal on not reading too much into Daemon's vision during the Season 2 finale and its GOT ties.

As House of the Dragon wrapped its second season with the episode "The Queen Who Ever Was," we see the prequel series lay the foundation not only for what looks like a far bloodier season three but also the series' most direct allusion to the original series Game of Thrones. Showrunner Ryan Condal took the opportunity to reinforce the franchise's reliance on prophecy as a narrative, giving one of the main characters in Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) pause about his next course of action. He spoke with Entertainment Weekly to break down the visions. The following contains spoilers

House of the Dragon Showrunner Ryan Condal Making Sense of Daemon's Visions

Before his passing, King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) shared stories of the Azor Ahai, aka the Prince That Was Promised, the legendary warrior who forged the flaming sword, Lightbringer, and vanquished the great darkness from Aegon the Conqueror's vision uniting the seven kingdoms under Targaryen leadership. During the David Benioff and Dan Weiss series, it was a toss-up between Emilia Clarke's Daenerys Targaryen and her nephew Kit Harington's Jon Snow. The terminology was gender-neutral, but fans finally thought they got their answer Snow's best friend and newly trained maester Samwell Tarley (John Bradley) revealed his destiny as prophesized. There are some wrinkles in that since during the Longest Night battle at Winterfell, it's Snow's cousin Arya Stark (Maisie Williams) who falls the Night King (Vladamir Furdik) with dragon glass. After the battle, Snow commits regicide when he kills Dany, barely able to enjoy the fruits of her labor, taking the Iron Throne after sacking King's Landing. House of the Dragon season two finale creates even more confusion as Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) allows Daemon to connect with the three-eyed raven to give him a glimpse into the future that includes Dany (Clarke didn't reprise the role), shown from behind with dragon whelps, but not Snow.

"We are not trying to make any kind of specific interpretation of a prophecy that has yet to be revealed by its author," Condal said about not trying to undermine Fire & Blood author George R. R. Martin, on which HOTD is based. "That is George's world and George's space to tell that story. We're more interested in playing with the character drama that lives in and around that imagery." Complicating matters is Martin is still working on the final two books of his "A Song of Ice & Fire," on which Game of Thrones was based, as the TV series ended in 2019, overtaking the novels. It's also worth mentioning GOT also takes creative liberties that dramatically differ from Martin's books, as the author offered an outline for Benioff & Weiss to follow for the series' endgame.

"There's a whole lot to unpack in there," Condal said. "It's all kind of related, which is this idea that 'House of the Dragon' is a prequel story to this very famous story, one of the biggest, if not the biggest, television story of all time. There needs to be some interconnectivity. And because so many years have passed, there are really no characters that would be alive from our time period that exist in the subsequent series, so we were always looking for this interconnectivity between the two."

Condal reminds fans of the HOTD endgame as connective tissue to GOT. "[House of the Dragon is] the story of the Targaryen dynasty and its evolution, from the flight from Old Valyria to its growth and retaking of power in the form of Aegon and his sisters and the conquest, to this period, which is the height of its power and its self-destruction, in terms of this Shakespearean tragedy that we're experiencing: The Dance of the Dragons, the dying of the dragons, as we know from Fire & Blood. And we don't know how exactly the events play out in this history, but we do know at the end of it, there are no dragons left in the world until they're reborn to Daenerys in the end. That is the interconnectivity."

For more, including Condal discussing House of the Dragon's themes, and how it guides Daemon & Rhaenyra's (Emma D'Arcy) actions, you can check out the entire interview here. Seasons one and two are available to stream on Max.

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