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Any Game of Thrones fan who’s a stickler for consistency and is obsessed with attention to detail knows there are two variations of the House Targaryen sigil banner. The three-headed dragon typically sports two legs, but co-showrunner Ryan Condal confirms the alternate sigil as seen in the HBO prequel House of the Dragon that depicts the dragon with four legs isn’t new. In fact, Condal also says the sigil also has been depicted in the original series as well.
“I will say every choice we made on this show, down to even smaller minutia than that [sigil], was made with a reason,” Condal told Entertainment Weekly in December. “I would say stay tuned. But I also say that the sigil that you’re seeing in this show you did see in the original show, as well.” In season five of Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) uses the two-legged dragon to represent her army. The dramatic change to the four-legged dragon took place when Dany took her army from Meereen to Westeros in the season six finale. Fans saw the same sigil by the series finale in season eight in the ruins of King’s Landing.
In season seven, Bran (Isaac Hempstead Wright) had a vision of the distant past where Rhaegar Targaryen donned the four-legged sigil on the front of his clothing. “The truth of the matter is you think you’ve seen the Targaryen sigil a lot in the original ‘Game of Thrones,’ but actually it’s not in ‘Game of Thrones’ that much,” Condal explained. “You’ve seen it on books and Funko Pops and things like that. That was how far and high the Targaryen dynasty had fallen, that the sigil did not exist really anymore until Daenerys brought it back about. So we chose to go down a road that I think honored where Daenerys left us off versus where people think it all started. But I will say, stay tuned. Hopefully, it will all make sense in due time.”
House of the Dragon takes place 200 years before the events of GOT. King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) chooses his daughter, Princess Rhaenyra, as his chosen heir to the throne. But when the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms conceives a son later in life, the dynastic House is split in two over succession, leading to a civil war. (Milly Alcock will play Rhaenyra as a teen, while Emma D’Arcy plays her as an adult.) HOTD premieres on August 21 on HBO and HBO Max.
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