The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 1, Episode 10, "The Black Queen," now streaming on HBO and HBO Max.
House of the Dragon's new dragon isn't the Cannibal -- despite what many fans on Twitter seem to think.
In the wake of the House of the Dragon Season 1 finale, "The Black Queen," a number of tweets have identified the Game of Thrones spinoff's newest fire-breathing beastie as the Cannibal. First mentioned in The World of Ice & Fire, the Cannibal is a fearsome wild dragon and one of the largest of his species in Westeros. As his name implies, the Cannibal was notable for feeding on other dragons. While the winged serpent Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) wakens in "The Black Queen" certainly fits this description, the official House of the Dragon Twitter account has since seemingly confirmed that this dragon is Vermithor and not the Cannibal.
According to both The World of Ice & Fire and House of the Dragon source novel Fire & Blood, Vermithor originally belonged to Daemon's grandfather, King Jaeherys I. Both tomes establish that Vermithor was known as "The Bronze Fury" due to the color of his hide. They also state that Vermithor's immense size and ferocity helped Jaeherys secure the Iron Throne. As such, it makes sense that Daemon would seek out Vermithor as he prepares to ride to war in support of his wife Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen's (Emma D'Arcy) own claim to the throne.
House of the Dragon Breathes New Life into its Dragons
The recent speculation surrounding Vermithor's identity underscores how much more prominently dragons feature in the HBO series. House of the Dragon co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik addressed the challenge of making each member of the show's monstrous menagerie feel unique in a pre-release interview, revealing this was largely achieved in the animation stage. "Each new dragon has its own personality. That's what's going on now in our last part of the animation -- we're applying personal character traits to each of the dragons," Sapochnik said. "One of them's got a [bad] leg. Another one's much more like an eagle, because she's kind of neurotic. And another one's like a curmudgeonly old granny."
House of the Dragon's titular flying creatures are also capable of feeling strong emotions, something that has tragic consequences in "The Black Queen." In the episode's tragic finale, Prince Lucerys Velaryon (Elliot Grihault) and his dragon Arrax are killed by his cousin Prince Aemond Targaryen's (Ewan Mitchell) mount, Vhagar. Although Aemond appears remorseful over Lucerys' death, co-showrunner Ryan Condal recently said the young prince was nevertheless to blame because he provoked Arrax into attacking the much bigger Vhagar.
All 10 episodes of House of the Dragon Season 1 are currently streaming on HBO and HBO Max.
Source: Twitter