‘House of the Dragon’: Why Episode 2 Has an Opening Credits Sequence

Episode 2 of House of the Dragon may have brought the dragons into action, but that wasn’t its most exciting feature. No, the Game of Thrones prequel series finally revealed an opening titles sequence, after episode 1 surprisingly began on an abrupt opening sequence-free note. Why did the showrunners choose to omit the iconic aspect of the original series?

“It was a creative choice,” Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik revealed last week to Entertainment Tonight. “It seemed important that once the curtain went up so to speak, having a title sequence felt like an indulgence. We wanted to get on and tell the story.”

It turns out that long-awaited title sequence shares the exact same music as Game of Thrones.

“I can say this much, we very much wanted to keep the DNA alive for House of the Dragon from the original show,” Ramin Djawadi, composer for both the Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, told Entertainment Weekly. “We will hear themes that we remember from the original show, but because it’s all new characters, this is 200 years before, there is a ton of new material I’ve written, a lot of new themes that we will hear.”

But cellos will definitely be back.

“What was important to me was to keep the general sound alive. The big sound of Game of Thrones, the primary instrument was always the cello, and we will definitely hear the cello again in the show. Just the way I stylistically write the show, I hope people will hear it and go, ‘OK, I feel familiar. We’re back in Westeros.’ That was always the idea.”

What do the ‘House of the Dragon’ opening credits mean?

The opening titles contain insignia representing different Targaryens, including Princess Rhaenyra — you can see the same insignia in the necklace Prince Daemon gave her. The blood signifies many elements: House Targaryen’s obsession with maintaining the purity of their bloodline, their motto “fire and blood” and the destruction that will eventually befall them.

New episodes of House of the Dragon hit HBO on Sundays.