‘House of the Dragon’s Opening Credits Explained: What’s With All the Blood?

The first thing we see in the House of the Dragon‘s opening credits is an ornate carving illustrating the Doom of Valyria, an apocalyptic event that destroyed the Freehold of Valyria and murdered the vast majority of dragons and their dragonlords in one fell swoop. The only reason the Targaryens were spared this horror is because of the family’s gift of prophetic dreams.

Daenys, known as “the Dreamer,” told her father Aenar Targaryen that she had a dream that Valyria would be destroyed in a massive destructive event. The Targaryens left the Freehold and settled on the island of Dragonstone, off the coast of Westeros. At the time, their withdrawal from the capital was seen as the family accepting their lower tier status. 12 years later, however, the Doom of Valyria occurred, leaving the Targaryens as the only remaining dragonriders in all the world.

Blood pools into the scene of the Doom of Valyria, revealing a personal sigil of sorts: the Valyrian steel crown of Aegon the Conqueror. About a century after the Doom of Valyria, Aegon Targaryen would have his own prophetic dream called “The Song of Ice and Fire” which would compel him, with the help of sister-wives Visenya and Rhaenys, to conquer Westeros with the help of their three dragons: Balerion, Vhagar, and Meraxes. Aegon believed that a Targaryen had to rule over a united Westeros in order for humanity to survive the arrival of the White Walkers. Securing his bloodline in a position of power was paramount to him and every future Targaryen monarch…

The blood that filled the first sigil gushes out and starts two separate lines (which we’ll get to in a minute). The main rivulet of blood that we follow throughout the House of the Dragon opening credits passes through a lock with a gilded symbol. Based on the subsequent sigils we’ll get, we can safely assume this is Aegon’s line through his beloved sister Rhaenys’s son Aenys.

Rhaenys was considered the more gentle, politically savvy sibling and she met a tragic end. While trying to conquer Dorne, a scorpion – like the one Bronn uses in Game of Thrones — takes down her dragon Meraxes. It is then unclear if she died falling from her dragon, being crushed by it, or if she perished a slow, torturous death by the hands of the Dornish. Her body was never recovered.

It’s hard to see, but right before we start to follow Aegon’s line through Rhaenys, the blood splits between two sigils. The other, a Valyrian steel one akin to Aegon’s, belongs to his older sister Visenya. She was a warrior queen who wielded the Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister. (Daemon Targaryen has that sword in House of the Dragon.) It’s also said she was more interested in magic and sorcery than her siblings.

Visenya’s son Maegor would eventually usurp the throne from cousin-brother Aenys’s eldest son. He was a notorious tyrant known as Maegor the Cruel. He took multiple wives, whom he abused, and sparked a civil war where many lords of the realm rallied around Aenys’s oldest surviving son, Jaehaerys.

Maegor died mysteriously. He was discovered dead on the Iron Throne with his wrists slit open and blades from the chair impaling him. No one knows if his last wife, the Kingsguard, or the chair itself killed him. He left no legitimate issue, meaning Aegon’s line did not continue through him. Hence why the opening credits follow Rhaenys’s side.

After the death of Aegon the Conqueror, his son by Rhaenys, Aenys, takes over Westeros. Like his mother (and great-grandson Viserys I), Aenys was kind-hearted. Which meant he wasn’t the most badass Targaryen king. He had six children with wife Alyssa Velaryon, but upon his death, his half-brother/cousin Maegor took control of the kingdom. Aenys’s eldest two sons, Aegon and Viserys, would die in the ensuing war.

When Maegor was finally found filleted on the Iron Throne, rule passed to Aenys’s only remaining son, Jaehaerys. Note that Aenys’s line splits in the image above…but it’s going to come back together real quick.

Next, the camera follows Aenys’s line and eventually swirls above the symbol of Jaehaerys’s crown and a symbol representing Alysanne. At this point, the blood line is bursting out in a bunch of different directions, some of which rejoin each other. That’s because Jaehaerys and Alysanne — who, yes, were both children of Aenys I — had a ton of kids and grandkids. Their two eldest sons both died before Jaehaerys did, sparking the Great Council of 101. You know, the cold open of House of the Dragon?

So the upside down golden crown on the right represents the old king we met in the opening minutes of House of the Dragon Episode 1. So where does the bloodline go next? Not directly to King Viserys…

Since the opening credits of House of the Dragon are a bloodline and not a line of succession, the path doesn’t go straight from Jaehaerys to Viserys, but next to Jaehaerys and Alysanne’s kids Baelon and Alyssa. The two married and had sons Viserys and Daemon before Alyssa died due to complications surrounding the stillbirth of a third son.

It’s unclear what Baelon’s flame-like symbol is in reference to, though he was known as the “Spring Prince.” Alyssa doesn’t seem to have an accompanying symbol, but she was known as a rambunctious woman, prone to take her baby sons on dragonback with her.

The bloodline continues to Viserys, noted by his crown sigil, and then joins that of House Arryn. We know the sigil of House Arryn from Game of Thrones: it’s a crescent moon and falcon in flight. Aemma’s sigil is silver, in contrast to the gold and Valyrian steel we’ve seen before. (Weirdly there should be a little bit of the Targaryen blood line flowing already through Aemma’s symbol as she’s part Targ, but I quibble!)

This is the moment that creates Rhaenyra…and from here on out, the camera will give us some additional clues about the future of the Targaryen family tree and its connection to the past.

Before we get to Rhaenyra, the camera takes its focus off Aegon’s bloodline for a quick moment and flickers to a wall where a different bloodline is making its way to join the river of royal DNA. You can tell that this is House Hightower thanks to the literal “high tower” in the sigil.

While we don’t see the moment this bloodline meets Aegon’s, we can infer it’s coming. House of the Dragon Episode 2 ends with Viserys declaring his intention to wed Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey, Olivia Cooke). A teaser for House of the Dragon Episode 3 already reveals they have at least one male heir, Aegon.

Metaphorically, the line of Aegon might be flowing smoothly towards Rhaenyra…but another bloodline is on its way to overtake the flow of “blood.”

One of the central tensions of House of the Dragon Season 1 is the question of whether or not Rhaenyra will get that crown her father promised her. To wit, there is no golden crown signifying Rhaenyra’s smooth transition to the Iron Throne. What she does have representing her, though, is the Valryian steel charm of three interlocking rings that her uncle Daemon (Matt Smith) gifted her.

Rhaenyra is still an unmarried woman at this point and therefore does not have an heir. That doesn’t mean the blood stops flowing, though… and where it goes shows us House Targaryen’s future and past.

As the various fractured bloodlines start to flood everything, we follow the flow of blood under a mosaic illustrating the dragon of House Targaryen flying over the combined banners of all the major Westerosi houses. This feels, to me, like a visualization of Aegon the Conqueror’s prophetic dream and plan for the future. The Targaryens must unite these squabbling lords under one, dragon-led, banner.

Of course, we can’t forget that the blood flowing has the ominous meaning that Aegon’s line will soak the land in blood. (There’s a double meaning in the blood, folks!)

Eventually all the blood we’ve been chasing begins to flow through Viserys’s model of Old Valyria, which seems even bigger here than in the show. What’s interesting is that physically this model is in present day Westeros, but metaphorically it’s a stand in for Old Valyria, which has already fallen.

Is this merely a circular call back to the start of the opening credits or is it something more? Viserys has off-handedly mentioned blood mages working in a place called the Anogrion in Old Valyria. Could this opening title sequence be giving us a clue about how blood magic worked in Old Valyria? (I’m not saying the flooded the streets of the city, but maybe they did?)

In any case, the House of the Dragon is a show about fire and blood, but mostly blood in all its myriad forms of importance.