This coming Sunday the first season of House of the Dragon is coming to a close… and we won’t get another one for quite a long time, I’d wager, so we’d best savor the finale. And we can start now, before it’s out, with Ollie Upton’s promo photos HBO has released for the season finale, which is titled “The Black Queen.”
The first photo shows Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best). She’s clad in armor as we last saw her escaping from the Dragonpit, but at another historic Targaryen location: Dragonstone. As the episode preview reveals, she’s come to warn Rhaenyra of what’s happened… and what’s coming for her.
Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) is at long last dressed in black:
Around Aegon the Conqueror’s painted table we can see the recently betrothed Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia) and Jace Velaryon (Harry Collet), and Luke Velaryon (Elliot Grihault) and Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell):
Rhaenyra has a heart-to-heart with her son Luke:
Everyone leaves Rhaenyra to be alone (that we can see) at the painted table room:
There is also Ser Erryk Cargyll (Elliott Tittensor). As Aegon’s sworn shield, this knight of the kingsguard knew the prince better than most, so naturally he decided to defect from the Greens to the Blacks before the war started. In this photo, we can see Ser Erryk offering to Rhaenyra the crown of her father, King Viserys, and his grandather before him, King Jaehaerys:
UPDATE 1! A new batch of photos has been released, the first of which shows the details on the painted table, which on this show will be lit from below to magnificent effect:
Next up we can see Daemon and Rhaenyra together, looking worried:
Daemon and Jace have a talk—I’m fascinated to see what Daemon’s relationship is with Jace and Rhaenyra’s two other Velaryon kids. What kind of step-dad is he?
Here we can see three lesser characters. In the middle, that’s Maester Gerardys (Phil Daniels), the maester of Dragonstone, who we briefly met at Rhaenyra and Daemon’s wedding in “Driftmark” and then teaching Jace High Valyrian in “The Lord of the Tides.” To our left, that’s Ser Lorent Marbrand (Max Wrottesley) of the Kingsguard, who we met in “The Lord of the Tides”… but not without the helmet, so he was easy to miss. To our right, that’s a new character portrayed by actor Nicholas Jones. His role has not been confirmed, but we can tell who it is: his line in the preview (“Lay siege to the Red Keep”) is essentially what Lord Bartimos Celtigar of Claw Isle says in Fire and Blood (“Celtigar urged the princess to fly against King’s Landing at once, and reduce the city to ash and bone”), and we can see crabs adorning this lord’s gold chain—crabs being House Celtigar’s sigil. If they follow the source material on this, his role should be quite large in later seasons:
Finally, HBO also released a screen capture of Daemon meeting a dragon in Dragonstone’s caverns. Judging by his size in the episode preview, that’s probably Vermithor, the dragon once-ridden by King Jaehaerys:
UPDATE 2! A ton of new photos have been released:
On Dragonstone’s stairs, Alicent’s delegation to offer terms to Rhaenyra, with Ser Otto Hightower, Grand Maester Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan), and Ser Arryk Cargyll (Luke Tittensor) meeting Daemon and three Kingsguards: Ser Erryk Cargyll (Elliott Tittensor), Lorent Marbrand, and Steffon Darklyn (Anthony Flanagan):
Finally, at Storm’s End, Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) is received by Lord Borros Baratheon (Roger Evans), son of the late Lord Boremund, who we saw through the first half of the season:
“The Black Queen
Chants the funeral march,
The cracked brass bells will ring;
To summon back the fire witch
To the court of the crimson king.”
(at 1m 38s):
https://youtu.be/ukgraQ-xkp4
🖤👑
Long live the 🖤 Queen
The preview ratchets up the tension and even though I know what happens, I still cannot wait.
My prediction is that in fact this is the real epic 9. Trust me. On the dvd this will be episode 9 and last week will be episode 10.
Ten Bears,
“I reign with my left hand, I rule with my right
I’m lord of all darkness, I’m Queen of the night
I’ve got the power
Now do the march of the black Queen
My life is in your hands, I’ll fo and I’ll fie
I’ll be what you make me, I’ll do what you like
I’ll be a bad boy, I’ll be your bad boy
I’ll do the march of the black Queen”
Queen – The March of the Black Queen
->
https://youtu.be/SoBMhx_ap_g?t=265 (at 4:25)
😀😀
So as an unsullied I should be hyped? 😳😳😳
Why was Aemond the same age as one of those kids a few episodes ago when he lost the eye and now he is like 25 and they are like middle schoolers?
I’ve been asking myself the same thing. The showrunners say all the kids should be between the ages of 17-21 lol.
Brandon,
Aemond wasn’t the same age though lol, he was born before both jace and luke…….about him looking 25, some people that are 15 look like they are 30, 16 year olds who fought in ww2 came back looking like they were 40, just the way it is lol.
Why did Ralph Macchio in Karate Kid look and sound like a 15 year old boy when the actor was something like 24 at the time?
It happens.
I am…. nervous.
Geoffrey M Potato,
I agree, I think for this show, ep 10 is the new ep 9!
Who is the man that looks like Graham McTavish but isn’t Graham McTavish?
I’m really hoping shortly after this airs they announce another spinoff officially in the works.
Jenny,
He’s bald and white, but other than that they’re not very similar. This guy’s like 20 years younger, too. As I explain in the text, that’s Max Wrottesley, who plays Ser Lorent Marbrand, one of the Kingsguard assigned to Princess Rhaenyra at Dragonstone (The other, in the show, is Steffon Darklyn; in the books, it’s Darklyn who escapes King’s Landing with Viserys’s crown to offer it to Rhaenyra, not Ser Erryk Cargyll, who in the source material was at Dragonstone as her sworn shield by this point. Swapping them gave the writers the opportunity to have the twins Kingsguard interact last episode, and to have Erryk make an active choice to defect to Rhaenyra, instead of finding himself on Dragonstone.)
Luka Nieto,
Bald, white, beard and same outfit. They look similar to me! I got excited for a second because I really want Ser Harold to join Rhaenyra. I wish we knew these people better, i’m having real trouble with the twins. GRRM was having a laugh with those names. Thanks for the run down, its very helpful because I haven’t read the book
Just a warning folks, the Episode has leaked and there are spoilers out there!
https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/house-of-the-dragon-season-finale-leak-hbo-statement-1235411207/
Jenny,
Thanks for the warning.
They really never do learn.
I laughed out loud at the comment about Graham but not Graham – I thought the same.
Jenny,
I couldn’t contain myself and gave in to the temptation – may I burn in the Seven Hells.
It’s a great final episode. I was often critical of the show so far, but now am looking forward to the next season(s).
Tar Kidho,
Well, you are being aggressively monitored according to HBO, its just some guy in a dark room crying as the download numbers go up lmao
Winterry71,
It has to be Dunk and Egg or Jon Snow. It looks like the Nymeria series might have been cancelled, though no official word on that
What makes you say nymeria has been cancelled?
Tar Kidho,
I wanted to ask for a link, but I didn’t, knowing that this is not allowed. I had the opportunity to watch the leaked episode from somewhere else, no connection to watcheronthewall.com.
I don’t care about spoilers, but I respect the people who avoid them. I am not going to spoil anything, I’ll only say that I love the episode and, at the end, I burst into tears, although I knew that was meant to happen.
Lol,
I hope it’s ok to link to Reddit here, because this is better explanation than I can give
https://www.reddit.com/r/asoiaf/comments/yac4lz/spoilers_extended_sea_snake_ten_thousand_ships/
Warner seems to be doing a lot of cutting of projects. I hope to hear news about the Snow project soon.
Damn. They might as well post photos of the whole episode. We’re really being spoiled haha.
Poor Steffon Darklyn, man. Replaced by Harrold Westerling and Erryk Cargyll in the narrative and now sidelined by Lorent Marbrand in the stills. Truly he is the unfortunate loser in this show.
All I can say is I’m on the edge of my seat! I can’t wait to see how many dragons are about to fly! I want to see some redemption here and I’m waiting for it to all go down!!! #TheBlackQueen shall reign 🖤
The painted table looks stunning with the lighting below it. Wow!
FFS – So its happened yet again… Incredible! The final episode has been leaked 🙁
HBO really need to get their act together and nip this problem in the bud.
I have no interest whatsoever in viewing leaked episodes or seeing spoilers and like millions of others, are content and happy to watch the official release when its aired at 9pm … Albeit for me in Europe that will be at 2am.
Black Raven,
There’s not much HBO can do, they’re obligated to send out the episode in advance certain parties like subtitlers. Who leak it. The things HBO can control, like not sending out the episode to critics, they don’t do.
Sue the Fury,
OK on that Sue. Thanks for your reply. Probably explains why the leaked episode appears to come from Europe? Some countries use subtitles and others are overdubbed. That´s certainly the case in Spain.
Geoffrey M Potato,
That would make no sense, how is rhaenys going to warn rhaenyra off the greens treachery if it hasn’t even happened yet, because putting episode 10 before 9, that is exactly what you’d end up with lol.