House of the Dragon is hours away from taking the audience back to Westeros. The battle for the Iron Throne this time will rage among the Targaryens while Hightowers and Velaryons will also participate in this dance of the dragons. As the release of the series comes closer, HBO is making sure everyone is on the same page about the series’ myths and legends. In a new featurette author, George RR Martin speaks about the importance of dragons and the magic of the Targaryens.
Game of Thrones gave us only a glimpse of the legacy and magic of the dragon riders and established that with the decline of dragons their magic also faded. Nonetheless, House of Dragon will see house Targaryens at the peak of their power and wealth. Martin explained in the featurette, “In magic, it’s just not the recipe or the words of the spell. It's who you are. Who’s doing the magic? And what you’re feeling when you’re doing it?” In Martin’s world, Targaryens borrowed their knowledge of magic from Valyrian sorcery and brought it to Westeros when they migrated.
The author explained, "Valyrians, while practicing their blood magic and their fire magic noticed that it didn’t matter whether you pronounced the words of spell right, whether you made the correct sacrifice to correct god.” The big thing was “who you are and what was your relations, particularly, to the dragons.” We saw ample examples of it during the Game of Thrones, Daenerys’ dragons were born out of her attachment to the eggs, and they had come to her aid in the most crucial situations during the series. It was perhaps her belief that the dragons were her children that strengthened her magic. Martin described his dragons to have long necks & tails, slender serpentine bodies, and huge wings, but then comes the “fire issue.” He said, “So many people associate dragons with breathing fire. Leaving it out will just feel wrong.” Leaving fans on the note “And there’s something very magical about the fire.”
Martin’s remarks certainly ask fans to pay more attention to the relationship of each Targaryen with his or her dragon. The better the relationship the higher the magical quotient of the character will be. The featurette also revealed some cool shots of various dragons spitting fire on a battlefield promising to give fans some fiery experience during the series.
House of Dragon will premiere on August 21. Meanwhile, check out the new featurette below: