Spoilers ahead for Episode 3 of House of the Dragon Season 2, called "The Burning Mill."
House of the Dragon is setting the stage for warfare beyond just the Targaryens in the 2024 TV schedule, with Daemon's spooky arrival at Harrenhal and Ser Criston Cole leading an army into the riverlands where he had a close call with Baela on her dragon. Throw in Rhaenyra realizing that Alicent had supported her father stealing the Iron Throne because she confused her Aegons, and there were a lot of big moments.
One small but notable moment involved Ulf, his claim of being a "dragonseed," and The Cock Inn, and the scene is bound to be quite important in the long run based on what happens in George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood. Cinematographer Catherine Goldschmidt spoke with CinemaBlend about the scene and its surprising sitcom inspiration, and you may want to rewatch with a Max subscription ASAP.
Let's start with the details behind the House of the Dragon scene in Episode 3 courtesy of the cinematographer.
How The Dragonseed Scene Was Inspired By Cheers
Episode 3 was Catherine Goldschmidt's return to House of the Dragon after lending her talents to the game-changing eighth episode of Season 1 alongside director Geeta Vasant Patel. Speaking with CinemaBlend, Goldschmidt opened up about the scene in "The Burning Mill" with Ulf claiming to be the bastard brother of Daemon Targaryen, a.k.a. a dragonseed, saying:
Oh, yes, The Cock Inn was actually a surprise favorite set of mine. We shot it really early in the schedule, and we actually shot the interior on stage before we went to Spain. That's not really the order I would have preferred. It would have been better to establish the exterior, because we're obviously connecting that camera movement that starts outside and brings us in. So we did it backwards by having to start inside and then go out, but either way, I found that set a really refreshing change of pace. It was much more intimate and collegiate, and we thought of it like the Cheers bar of Westeros.
It's hard to even imagine somebody on Cheers even uttering the words "The Cock Inn" when it was topping the ratings in the early '90s on NBC, but the atmosphere of the bar "everybody knows your name" was a great inspiration for the setting of Ulf telling his somewhat dubious story about being Daemon's bastard half brother. Goldschmidt went on:
You know, a place where everybody knows your name. That was the vibe we were trying to set up. It was a really fun shoot day, actually, that we spent inside, and then shooting the exterior in Spain was also really fun, but the window of time we had to shoot it in was quite short. That's always exciting to be up against the gun trying to execute this oner. I think it's a great introduction to Ulf.
Goldschmidt noted that although Ulf had already appeared earlier in Season 2, bragging about being a dragonseed at the Cock Inn was "his first meaty scene" and viewers can "learn a lot about him in the scene." Personally, I have my doubts that Ulf is truly Daemon's half brother, but there did seem to be a grain of truth in his claims in Episode 3 and plenty of Targaryen candidates for Ulf's father.
It's hard to consider The Cock Inn dragonseed sequence without also thinking back to Aegon's trip to the brothel with his men and a squire, where he discovered Aemond already present. House of the Dragon didn't hold back from showing what one would expect from a brothel in the Game of Thrones universe. The cinematographer explained the approach to filming the sequence:
It's definitely an important scene in terms of the relationship between the brothers. So I think we wanted to ultimately have that be the focus of the scene. But we also wanted to show Aegon bringing the boy in and discovering the place through their eyes in such a way that was not exploitative or anything.
As somebody who wasn't always a fan of Game of Thrones' abundance of sex scenes that didn't necessarily serve the plot, I was a fan of how House of the Dragon advanced the story and included some important character beats in the brothel sequence. I noted to Catherine Goldschmidt that nothing quite like that happened in her first episode of House of the Dragon back in Season 1, and she responded:
No, there wasn't! I think in the end, it really is about the actors and the performances that they give, and also making sure they feel safe and supported and able to do their thing. I think we were able to accomplish all of that.
It remains to be seen if there will be fallout for Aegon after he taunted Aemond in the brothel, but it's a safe bet that Ulf and the dragonseed concept from The Cock Inn are going to be important based on the events of George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood about his world of Westeros.
Warning: major spoilers for Fire & Blood are ahead through the "Dying of the Dragons – The Red Dragon and the Gold" chapter. Turn back now if you don't want any of George R.R. Martin's details!
What George R.R. Martin Tells Us About The Dragonseeds
While the dragonseeds are arguably more important during the Dance of the Dragons era – a.k.a. the civil war in the Targaryen family tree between the Blacks and the Greens – than any other time, Fire & Blood introduces the concept earlier on in the "Jaehaerys and Alysanne – Their Triumphs and Tragedies" chapter. The queen was attempting to convince her husband to get rid of the "first night" custom and noted that it has even been practiced on Dragonstone, prompting Jaehaerys to say this:
Dragonseeds, they call them. It is not a thing to boast of, but it has happened, mayhaps more often than we would care to admit. Such children are cherished.
If Jaehaerys spoke the truth about dragonseeds being cherished in his era, then that clearly wasn't the case by the era of Aegon vs. Rhaenyra, if what Ulf said in The Cock Inn should be taken at face value. They became more important by the chapter called "The Dying of the Dragons – The Red Dragon and the Gold," set during the Dance. George R.R. Martin wrote:
These happy bastards were said to have been 'born of dragonseed,' and in time became known simply as 'seeds.' Even after the end of the right of the first night, certain Targaryens continued to dally with the daughters of innkeeps and the wives of fishermen, so seeds and the sons of seeds were plentiful on Dragonstone.
According to the Targaryen history book, Prince Jacaerys turned to the dragonseeds when the Blacks had more dragons than they had Targaryen/Velaryon riders, "vowing that any man who could master a dragon would be granted lands and riches and dubbed a knight." Their "sons would be ennobled, his daughters wed to lords, and he himself would have the honor of fighting beside the Prince of Dragonstone against the pretender Aegon II Targaryen and his treasonous supporters."
Readers know that the call for dragonseeds didn't go smoothly, and in fact not all of the successful ones would turn out to be men, although it remains to be seen how House of the Dragon will handle Nettles. I won't go any deeper into spoilers, but suffice it to say that the plot is about the seriously thicken in Season 2 if the episodes follow the dragonseed storyline of the book at all.
Keep tuning in to HBO on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET for new episodes of House of the Dragon, with the shortened Season 2 on the verge of hitting its halfway point with the upcoming fourth episode. You can also stream all of Season 1 and Season 2 so far via a Max subscription.
