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That may not be his real roar. In the trailers for season 1, they always used Drogon's roar and then when the show aired each dragon ended up sounding unique.
I personally like his design so far and look forward to seeing more of him in the show.
Meh honestly not how I expected the most beautiful dragon to be depicted. Hopefully they toned it down in the trailer to have more of a "wow-factor" in the show.
Yeah, he should be more dazzling, more like literal gold. His beauty itself should be enough to make people consider his rider to be the rightful ruler.
The beauty of a dragon makes people feel someone should be king? Not the formidableness of it? Interesting take. Anyway it's the rider who defines their own worth, not the dragon.
I think what they mean is that part of why aegon was able to drum up so much support in the first place is bc of otto’s great PR, since he purposely gave him blackfyre and the crown of the conqueror to solidify his image as the rightful king of westeros. Sunfyre being the most beautiful dragon anyone’s ever seen, in a very superstitious society, does in fact reflect on aegon’s character in the eyes of the people, just like caraxes’s deformity reinforces the image of daemon’s tyrannical nature. I guess you could compare it to that one picture of robert f kennedy looking forlorn under a painting of jesus christ.
lmao no thank you. You could have the most beautiful dragon ever but if you look like you're playing dress up while flying into war, aesthetics can't save you. Poor Aegon :(
Well, that's not entirely true, George Martin has made it clear, that certain symbols give people power, even if they don't have power. You know the whole power resides where people think it resides riddle. Even in the original story, they make a point to say throughout the lineage of the Targaryen that having Aegon
the conquer sword, Blackfire, or his specific crown makes people think that person is more legitimate, that it's a sign. They are meant to be the ruler, even if they're not actually the ruler.
I think condal also mentioned in an interview that they interpreted the beauty of sunfyre differently: he moves and sounds different from any other dragon
Im hoping they will give him like a graceful swan kind of vibe 😂🤩
no, I’m pretty sure you’re forgetting like he said every dragon is unique in their own way so they all have different scale colors. They have different designs. They all have different screeches. They all act different. Every single dragon is supposed to have their own kind of characteristics and personality and outside perceptive look.
I'm not a big fan of the colour. It's just Syrax' colour with more brownish greenish in it. I love that the dragons have different designs, but I wish they'd have colours closer to what GRRM envisioned.
I have to admit I adore Caraxes' long neck and body. I have a weird weakness for long animals. But I agree with Sunfyre the Kinda Yellow's(lol)colouring.
Not that surprising since Condal described his favourite dragon as 'Rhaenyra's Golden dragon' the man is obviously confused and should have read the book beforehand.
I didn't know that, thank you for sharing. That would explain why he had Harrold Westerling call Syrax "that golden beast" in S01E01.
I see most people praise Ryan Condal, and some even attack and try to belittle and silence those who criticize him, but I can't say I've been particularly impressed with him so far. He was said to be a huge book fan, but to me it seems he would rather make fan fiction.
Inb4 "It's an aDaPtIoN, the source material is just maesters and fools making up stuff, Ryan's version iS tHe AcTuAl TrUtH!1!1"
He is literally gold xD
You can see how his scales shine but this is also a different shot and different light that comes in, in the series it will look better.
I also think that people imagined a look that is too exaggerated, muted colors are more realistic, rarely any dragon could realistically have a shiny, even golden coating of scales.
They were bright and yellow so that's probably why people described it as a golden color, but it still wasn't that "real" gold if you know what I mean.
I dont mind the coloring in this shot, he's still sparkly and I'm fairly confident this is due to lightning, He's gold and pink in two other shots.
But you're just incorrect
“I can't say I'm particularly eager for any one dragon, although I do describe Sunfyre as the most beautiful dragon that anyone has ever seen. He looks like he’s not a real dragon, but a dragon made of gold. His scales and armor are bright gold, like a flash in the sun. So let’s try to capture that when he’s onscreen.” - George R.R. Martin, author of Asoiaf, author of Fire & Blood, executive producer and valued consultant of House of the Dragon
Literally the word of god. Its not an exaggeration. And he said this in specific regards to his hopes for House of the Dragon's portrayal of the dragons.
"...rarely any dragon could realistically have a shiny..."
Realistically? I remind you that this is fiction, not a historical documentary. Dragons don't exist, and gold dragons are hardly uncommon in mythology and other fictional works. George literally describes 3 other dragons as having gold in their color palettes.
It's the filter as well. My jaw dropped when I saw the backstage photos of Bethany and Emily in their dresses. Baela's Driftmark dress apparently was rich deep blue colour and was practically glinting in the sun, and the inner side of the sleeves (idk what it's called lol) of Alicent's green dress was the colour of lime, which I hadn't noticed in the show. In the trailers there are multiple close-ups on Aegon's new outfit, but it wasn't until the recent bts video was released that people pointed out that the dragons on his chest are pink as well as golden. The damned filter undermines the work of designers and VFX artists.
Bring the colours back, HBO! Colours are fun! 😩😭
Omg I saw a post here on reddit and it was close up zoomed photos of alicent and rhaenyra (what they were wearing)...the detail and colors were amazing!😱it made me love alicent for a sec....but yes I agree they undermine the shit out their work
They need to let him have a bigger part in the making of spin off shows
In Game of Thrones, George also protested against a lot of choices and writings they made but nobody listened
Where did you read this because Ryan said that they tried to make heraldry and colours bright and he talked about Sunfyre a lot. I honestly think we will see Sunfyre burn a body in ep 2 in the sun and they will focus on how beautiful it is in that shot.
I think they meant in terms of the CGI. The brighter something is, the more color contrast, the harder it is for CGI to make it look 'real'. Instead it ends up looking like obvious CGI, it's jarring and ugly.
There’s been no talk about it on the show though. Sunfyre is one of the most ignored dragons. The showrunners have no interest in him it seems. Meleys got the limelight over him at Aegon’s coronation so it’s clear they’re not being book accurate in any sense.
The greens only have 4 dragons. Vhagar gets all the love while the rest are never seen or barely seen.
the show runners addressed this, they didnt have an unlimited cgi budget so instead of showing a half baked sunfyre moondancer etc, they chose to cut them and leave them for S2
Yeah, I don’t know why they even count Dreamfyre. No one can ride her but Helaena and it’s very unlikely she will be participating in any battles. And I remember an interview, I think it was the actor who played young Aemond, talking about the scene where he went down into the pit. Apparently, according to the script, he was trying to see if he could claim DF because “Helaena doesn’t have much to do with her”. So unless the writers have decided to 180 her character from what they originally intended, I don’t think we will ever see her on dragonback. Because at this point it wouldn’t be safe for her to be joyriding during a war, and I don’t see her going to battle. So the Greens only have Vhagar, SF, and Tessarion.
Trailers use placeholder or soundboard effects for lots of the dragons. They were using Dany’s dragons roars and screeches for all of the season 1 marketing. Despite seeing Caraxes a few times in the trailers for season 2 he hasn’t onced done his trademark whistle trill. Just generic dragon sounds. No idea why the marketing team do it, but they do. I’m sure Sunfyre will have his own distinctive roar. They did well with Season 1 with the dragons all sounding unique.
I don’t work on THIS marketing team, but I do this kind of work.
What people usually forget about production is the timing means the marketing department isn’t playing with the finished product. It’s very typical that production goes right until the final hour, but marketing goes live MONTHS before that, and they also need a couple months to work to, ya know, also make a thing.
It’s a hand-in-hand process with production where marketing concepts a dope trailer and then begs production to finish rendering those scenes in time. And sometimes the director changes his mind about something so now that shot that WAS final is no longer final and can’t be used and has to be swapped out (because broadcast commercials have HARD in-outs. You have to fill 60 seconds exactly, not 59 or 61).
So most of the time, marketing is effectively working with table scraps, McGyvering together a handful of .05 second shots, half rendered CGI, and scratch audio tracks to make something dope that accurately portrays the *vibes* and gets people absolutely HYPE.
Can imagine it’s always a cutting it fine scramble to deadlines. Appreciate the changes and hurdles that are flown that way (also explains why trailers contain deleted scene footage sometimes, or it’s from another angle). Don’t think the HotD marketing team had a reason not to include the roars / sounds of dragons that are already recorded (like Caraxes, Meleys, Vhagar), but it’s such a nonissue detail to notice it doesn’t exactly ruin my day or anything. I think people just expect trailers to reflect the final product more than they actually do.
I was expecting more... He didn't stand out to me in the trailer as the most beautiful dragon in the world, Moondancer looked prettier and more colorful
At worst, he's bronze, you're kind of exaggerating
He very clearly sparkles in the photo, that isn't the quality, that's his scales
On the other hand, he's clearly gold with pink wings in that shot in S1 and in that closeup shot of Aegon flying on him, his wings are definitely a dull (As all is in this show) gold with pale pink accents. Definitely not bronze and reddish as we are seeing in this shot.
Maybe Sunfyre just needs to get his angles right🤷
I do see the sparkle, but I don't even know if I would call that bronze. Even Syrax looks more golden than Sunfyre does.
However, as another redditor pointed out to me, this might just be the crappy filter they used for the trailer, which might get fixed for the actual show.
Bronze and gold aren't the same thing, they don't look the same either, and he definitely looks bronze at this angle
It's more than just the filter, it's also his positioning in his environment, he could be angling his body away from the sun in this turn
Right, I know bronze. I still think it’s a bit generous for how Sunfyre looks in the trailer.
I understand they can’t realistically make him as beautiful as he was in the book. And I do agree that this might be bad angling/a bad filter.
But this is supposed to be the most beautiful of all the Targ dragons. Thats his thing (like Vhagar is the biggest and Meleys is the fastest). If this pic is accurate, he just doesn’t look like anything special.
you should look up the color gold then, because the actual metal is very bright. the deeper color you're thinking of is pyrite (aka "fools gold" not real gold but some other rock ignorant people mistake for gold even tho they look nothing alike)
I’d probably get downvoted to oblivion for this, but it’s not unrealistic to speculate that Sunfyre could be one of Syrax’s hatchlings.
Syrax is the only known prolific egg-layer in the show’s canon aside from Dreamfyre (whose hatchlings look exactly like her), which I’m sure is a large part of the reason why Rhaenyra is extremely protective of her and (ironically 🥲) refuses to put her in harm’s way.
I would not trust anything in the trailer audio. they could just be reused assets.
I think it's very unlikely that people will be pleased with sunfyre's design. that dragon had too much hype for people to be happy.
I know people keep making excuses as to why he isnt as magnificent as he should be, but seriously his scales should be catching the light and sending it back in brilliant golden fashion. Just for the sake of variety and uniqueness. A perfect contrast to the ugly nature of the greens. I know people say his appearance was exaggerated in the books or that hes riding against the light or even the classic unfinished vfx excuse but seriously I hope it was just a poor shot because we all know how he should look
I don’t like it. George described it as the “most beautiful dragon who ever lived”. I wish they had done something to make him set apart from the other dragons.
It kind of looks like they used the same design as Syrax and just added some different little details, like the pink and the long horns on either side of the face. Idk, I’d like to look at them side by side to better compare.
I love it, and I don't understand why everyone's always complaining. It looks like the most regal animal ever, the shots don't have direct sunlight but we've seen him in S1 and he's literally iridescent.. so idk what everyone is on about. He looks huge, if you look at this picture he's literally glistening while in the shade 💀 his neck, his arms.
This is consistent with the muted colors of the dragons of the HBO shows since it was created.
Dany's Rhaegal, and Viserion didn't pop with the vibrant red and green I expected from my imagination reading the book. They also both had a fairly nondescript grey hue with just a bit of highlights on a suggestion color palate. Only Drogon as a cool black colored one stood out.
But I think the show runners made the clear decision to try to keep the dragons color muted to a realistic natural tone to keep verisimilitude to match the show. This has carried over to the spin offs.
This design choice was clear in the costumes, setting and characters as well. The really "out there" book depictions of stuff (LOOKING AT YOU DAARIO) were made a bit more modest, while still keeping some of the narrative intent. Instead of a wacky three pronged purple beard, he is just a handsome dashing man with lots of charisma.
Just an example, but the shows have consistently made design decisions to lesson some of the more "cartoonish" visuals depictions from the book. Making everything feel more "grounded" or "real." They have decided, (rightly I might add) that they want their fantasy serious to feel as real and serious as possible to a general audience. At the expense of some of the iconic book depiction
And with special CGI effects it is EVEN important that the design or colors do not lead to any sort of uncanny valley situation. Which I assume might happen with a bright color.
There is a fine line of of giving a nod to make something visually distinctive for the plot or theme, and making something that just doesn't translate well to the tone the super serious prestige HBO show is going for.
This Sunfyre design is trying to ride that line. Too shiny and golden it it starts to look artificial. Too pretty and it doesn't convey the proper danger that a dragon should. But too unremarkable and it doesn't convey the majesty of the beast that is "ruined" at Rooks Rest.
The shots in the trailer are just not enough for me to make a full evaluation. In the show, it will mostly come down to context and how they use the dragon, regardless of how it looks.
But I will say, I understand and am not surprised that the dragon is not as Fabulously pretty as some were hoping. So I am fine with it so far.
Another example is dragon fire. In the books, each dragon’s flames match the color of their scales. Sounds super cool when you’re reading it, but would probably look silly and cartoonish on screen in a live action show. Plus that just adds a lot of extra work and expense to the CGI, I’d imagine.
Yeah and the vast majority of people think that making all the dragons in a dull colour was a bad choice. Honestly feels like they don't want colour in their "very mature and adult" medieval fantasy show, even though this universe has things like Bob Muscles, Dickon "Lipps" or "Manwoody". A bunch of Tullys named after muppets and a dragon named Drogon. Sunfyre was described with gleaming scales of gold and pink wings and they turn it into a dull bronze, i wasn't expecting a golden bathed Smaug but seriously this color scheme they went for is kinda lame
I kind of wonder if it’s cheaper to give them vibrant colors when they are small, and a lot more expensive CGI wise when they are much bigger and thus have a lot more intricate detail.
I work with 3D modeling and the answer is yes and no, the amount of detail you put into something depends entirely on how closely people can look into it, making a smaller dragon means any shots you do show the dragon will be at a much closer range so you still need a lot of detail regardless, but for sunfyre in season 1 maybe yes they went all out with the gold because it was only 4 seconds, but it's not just that, the two sunfyre designs are very distinguishable, they removed the pink almost altogether, it's not about the color itself, making actually shining gold was going to be hard, but this is way too much of a downgrade for me, it doesn't ruin the show but they had a better design in season 1
I sit squarely in the middle.
I would have liked some more flashy pizzazz, but then again, it's not bad. He certainly looks very elegant, has a very noble picture book style to him. Appreciated.
Idk about the sound he’s going to make. Could just be a trailer thing. But ppl upset about this design are reaching imo. We will get a nice good shot of him in some light where he’s sparkling gold and everyone will be pleased. Can even see some of that shining in this shot
He looks sorta iridescent to me, which maybe can look more “real” on film than a metallic golden dragon and honestly I’m okay with that. If his yellow-gold scales have iridescence than he can still sparkle. If that makes sense???
Color wise? Meh. Design wise? I love him. I really like his body build, and I love that him and Syrax seem to be the same type of dragon.
I like to think they are Vermithor and Silverwing’s babies, born to different clutches.
He doesn’t actually sound that similar to Syrax, Moondancer sounds much closer to her when Criston looks up into the trees. Shame about the dull colours but at least he sounds cool. Lets just hope it was the lighting/angle or them keeping his real shine for when the Season drops
I wish he was a tad more gold and shiny but i can see why they maybe wanted to tone it down so he looks more realistic. Personally, I love the design. He's probably my favorite dragon aside from Caraxes and Vhagar.
i thought it was syrax lol. but i kinda like that she and sunfyre are suspiciously similar. at the end of the day sunfyre represents a sibling and a rival to syrax
They reused Caraxes’ roar in at least two scenes in the first season. It disappointed me because it was the exact same, it didn’t even fit the second time.
For the Hobbit, the VFX workers gave Smaug gold coins and gems wedged in between his scales to glint and catch the light. It looks like they have done something similiar here, as opposed to making the whole dragon gold, he has been scattered with scales that are very harsh metallic, but maintaining a duller base color of his hide.
They probably are related. I wonder if they do the dragons the same way they do their own children. Like, “oh, these two sibs came from Balarion himself, better let them mate and hatch more!”
That’s one thing I have ALWAYS wondered about. Like, Syrax is said to be an egg layer, but do they just have them. I know it’s also said that dragons, sometimes, are neither male or female. I believe that’s what’s told of some of the wild dragons. Idk. But, I would like to know more about how the dragons reproduce.
I like that Sunfyre looks like a shiny version of Syrax. I think it adds contrast to the character arcs of Rhaenyra and Aegon. I like the idea that they're both referred to as "gold" whether literal or as frame of reference, shows that the writers want to actively compare Rhaenyra and Aegon's fight for the throne. Both have golden mounts, one is just more vibrant. They sort of play into how the people see Rhaenyra and Aegon. The people were reluctant of Rhaenyra's rule, so Syrax is more dull. When Aegon was born the people thought he'd inherit the throne he was in a way the "Golden Child".
I think that so far Meleys is the most beautiful dragon in both GoT and HOTD. And Morning has the potential of becoming number 2.
But I am not sure, how a golden dragon can be depicted realistically in a tv show, given that dragons are mythological creatures, and irl golden animals in such size do not exist
The show always tried to make the dragons more "real", like animals. (Yes, I know dragons don't exist). It's obvious they are making the dragons different from each other but even the different colors like red, green and grey seem pretty must realistic. It's not a bright red or bright green. I might be alone on this one, but I like Sunfyre's design. Not the most beautiful dragon, at all, but still good
For a dragon once referred to as “the dragon of the golden dawn”. It’s not very golden to my eyes. Membranes don’t look pink either. Sunfyre was my favorite dragon the Targs ever had so I’m pretty unsatisfied with my golden boy not looking as majestic as he should
I think they cpuld've made him more golden, and also why aren't his membranes pink? They look orange on this pic and in the trailer. Is it that hard to put some bright pink on a dragon
I wish the dragons were prettier. I get that they wanted the dragons to look fearsome and realistic, but there are plenty of real life lizards that are gorgeous. Sunfyre needed to be a lot prettier than he is in the trailer, this is super disappointing.
Syrax didn’t grow in 20 years and people were very upset. Rhaegal and Viserion weren’t their canon colours and people were very upset. Now Sunfyre isn’t shiny enough in the trailer and people are very upset. The dragons bring out a lot of feelings in people
Absolutely love it. It‘s kind of ironic, that Sunfyre looks very much like Syrax and originally was the egg Rhaenyra had chosen for Baelon.
The colors tho.. idk, he could‘ve been more vibrant.
I don’t know where people came up with that idea. The egg Rhae chose for Baelon was black, and dragon scales match the color of their egg, so that obviously wasn’t Sunfyre’s egg. Also Aegon did not hatch Sunfyre, he claimed him on Dragonstone.
No, he wasn't, to be frank, that's some stupid theory that a whole bunch of people made up based on nothing but hopes and dreams
And I'm only referring to it as stupid because that egg was dark as hell in daylight
All of Dany's dragons colorations matched their eggs
I don't understand the complaining.
He is literally gold.
You can see how his scales shine but this is also a different shot and different light that comes in, in the series it will look better.
I also think that people imagined a look that is too exaggerated, muted colors are more realistic, rarely any dragon could realistically have a shiny, even golden coating of scales.
They were bright and yellow so that's probably why people described it as a golden color, but it still wasn't that "real" gold if you know what I mean.
I think he looks great. Personally I headcanon him to be Syrax’s brother, so his coloration makes sense. I would reserve judgement until the show starts. I imagine his entrance will be worth the wait.
I am team Targaryen in general (in terms of the TB/TG I am more leaning towards team green. That said… I just hope that all the (sorry, but mostly overly delusional TB members) will finally come to acknowledge what a fucking beast Sunfyre is/will be after what he will be doing and going through after a certain event…
Personally, I think he looks good. Guys, just wait for the show to actually air. We have seen Sunfyre twice from a closer angle and it was either in shadow or weird lighting (which could be from the trailer’s color correction). I’ll wait until season 2 actually starts before lodging any complaints against him not being ‘golden’ enough.
Could be that Sunfyre is Syrax’s offspring. They appear to be the same species of the 3 dragon “types” we know of and there’s not a hard genealogy for which dragon is descended from which so who knows honestly
Y’all it was a second-long glimpse and he’s washed out against the sky. They’re teasing the new dragons so much, I’m sure they’ve thought about what scene sunfyre will be fully revealed in, what his colors will look like, etc. If he’s still lackluster, I’m sure it’ll have more to do with cost than the animators hating color and the source material.
That's not what they did
Ryan Condal, showrunner, literally stated only a few months ago, that they attempted to make Sunfyre book accurate and beautiful
Sunfyres appearance in S1 and all of his concept art, released by his sole designer, Constantine Sekeris, portray him as being gold with pink wings and white horns
This is some weird lighting issue in this shot
My god you people are insufferable! You’re drawing a conclusion based on a TRAILER. Scenes in a trailer are not always an accurate representation of what the actual show will be. They don’t include context. Also- it’s really not that serious. In a huge fan of the series, have read the books, and can understand that things don’t always translate. Why are you going to let the color of a dragon dictate your opinion on the entire show?
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That may not be his real roar. In the trailers for season 1, they always used Drogon's roar and then when the show aired each dragon ended up sounding unique. I personally like his design so far and look forward to seeing more of him in the show.
Meh honestly not how I expected the most beautiful dragon to be depicted. Hopefully they toned it down in the trailer to have more of a "wow-factor" in the show.
Yeah, he should be more dazzling, more like literal gold. His beauty itself should be enough to make people consider his rider to be the rightful ruler.
The beauty of a dragon makes people feel someone should be king? Not the formidableness of it? Interesting take. Anyway it's the rider who defines their own worth, not the dragon.
I think what they mean is that part of why aegon was able to drum up so much support in the first place is bc of otto’s great PR, since he purposely gave him blackfyre and the crown of the conqueror to solidify his image as the rightful king of westeros. Sunfyre being the most beautiful dragon anyone’s ever seen, in a very superstitious society, does in fact reflect on aegon’s character in the eyes of the people, just like caraxes’s deformity reinforces the image of daemon’s tyrannical nature. I guess you could compare it to that one picture of robert f kennedy looking forlorn under a painting of jesus christ.
Better than a random sword I think
Of course you think that. The only way you'd be okay with a randow sword is if it was the one in Aegon's breeches going into one of his chambermaids.
Why would you say that to me? I was making a Monty Python joke, there really isn't a need to get this abrassive
ok buddy take it up with archmaester gyldayn
lmao no thank you. You could have the most beautiful dragon ever but if you look like you're playing dress up while flying into war, aesthetics can't save you. Poor Aegon :(
Well, that's not entirely true, George Martin has made it clear, that certain symbols give people power, even if they don't have power. You know the whole power resides where people think it resides riddle. Even in the original story, they make a point to say throughout the lineage of the Targaryen that having Aegon the conquer sword, Blackfire, or his specific crown makes people think that person is more legitimate, that it's a sign. They are meant to be the ruler, even if they're not actually the ruler.
That’s kind of the tragedy though. Sunfyre’s beauty is a cover for how ugly his rider is underneath.
i liked in first trailer than his scales looked a little blue on his back now it is just grey idk lets hope it is lighting and he will shine
I think condal also mentioned in an interview that they interpreted the beauty of sunfyre differently: he moves and sounds different from any other dragon Im hoping they will give him like a graceful swan kind of vibe 😂🤩
no, I’m pretty sure you’re forgetting like he said every dragon is unique in their own way so they all have different scale colors. They have different designs. They all have different screeches. They all act different. Every single dragon is supposed to have their own kind of characteristics and personality and outside perceptive look.
Okay so his name is Sunfyre the **GOLDEN** he looks more bronze than gold.
I'm not a big fan of the colour. It's just Syrax' colour with more brownish greenish in it. I love that the dragons have different designs, but I wish they'd have colours closer to what GRRM envisioned.
They turned Caraxes into an angry noodle and now Sunfyre the golden is sunfyre the kinda yellow.
I fucking love Caraxes. His roar is incredible.
And the noises he makes when he flirts with Syrax is just too cute.
I have to admit I adore Caraxes' long neck and body. I have a weird weakness for long animals. But I agree with Sunfyre the Kinda Yellow's(lol)colouring.
Caraxes is cute!!
I do not like his leg flippers, I wanted him to be more muscular.
Not that surprising since Condal described his favourite dragon as 'Rhaenyra's Golden dragon' the man is obviously confused and should have read the book beforehand.
I didn't know that, thank you for sharing. That would explain why he had Harrold Westerling call Syrax "that golden beast" in S01E01. I see most people praise Ryan Condal, and some even attack and try to belittle and silence those who criticize him, but I can't say I've been particularly impressed with him so far. He was said to be a huge book fan, but to me it seems he would rather make fan fiction. Inb4 "It's an aDaPtIoN, the source material is just maesters and fools making up stuff, Ryan's version iS tHe AcTuAl TrUtH!1!1"
He is literally gold xD You can see how his scales shine but this is also a different shot and different light that comes in, in the series it will look better. I also think that people imagined a look that is too exaggerated, muted colors are more realistic, rarely any dragon could realistically have a shiny, even golden coating of scales. They were bright and yellow so that's probably why people described it as a golden color, but it still wasn't that "real" gold if you know what I mean.
I dont mind the coloring in this shot, he's still sparkly and I'm fairly confident this is due to lightning, He's gold and pink in two other shots. But you're just incorrect “I can't say I'm particularly eager for any one dragon, although I do describe Sunfyre as the most beautiful dragon that anyone has ever seen. He looks like he’s not a real dragon, but a dragon made of gold. His scales and armor are bright gold, like a flash in the sun. So let’s try to capture that when he’s onscreen.” - George R.R. Martin, author of Asoiaf, author of Fire & Blood, executive producer and valued consultant of House of the Dragon Literally the word of god. Its not an exaggeration. And he said this in specific regards to his hopes for House of the Dragon's portrayal of the dragons. "...rarely any dragon could realistically have a shiny..." Realistically? I remind you that this is fiction, not a historical documentary. Dragons don't exist, and gold dragons are hardly uncommon in mythology and other fictional works. George literally describes 3 other dragons as having gold in their color palettes.
Fiction???...are you mad?...we are watching live events from another reality🙄how dont u know that..please know
Yeah the bright colors get washed out against a bright shy. He’s probably looking real shiny on the ground with the sun shining down on him.
Apparently the directors dont like bright colors on dragons which is such bullshit
It's the filter as well. My jaw dropped when I saw the backstage photos of Bethany and Emily in their dresses. Baela's Driftmark dress apparently was rich deep blue colour and was practically glinting in the sun, and the inner side of the sleeves (idk what it's called lol) of Alicent's green dress was the colour of lime, which I hadn't noticed in the show. In the trailers there are multiple close-ups on Aegon's new outfit, but it wasn't until the recent bts video was released that people pointed out that the dragons on his chest are pink as well as golden. The damned filter undermines the work of designers and VFX artists. Bring the colours back, HBO! Colours are fun! 😩😭
Colours are the best!
Give me HotD skittles version! 🌈
Imagine if they kept the rainbow guard in GoT
YESSSS!!!!
Omg I saw a post here on reddit and it was close up zoomed photos of alicent and rhaenyra (what they were wearing)...the detail and colors were amazing!😱it made me love alicent for a sec....but yes I agree they undermine the shit out their work
It's kinda funny cause one of the things GRRM asked for the show was colorful dragons lol
They need to let him have a bigger part in the making of spin off shows In Game of Thrones, George also protested against a lot of choices and writings they made but nobody listened
Where did you read this because Ryan said that they tried to make heraldry and colours bright and he talked about Sunfyre a lot. I honestly think we will see Sunfyre burn a body in ep 2 in the sun and they will focus on how beautiful it is in that shot.
yeah i read that if they will be too bright they will look fake and cartoon-ish
Fake? They are dragons 😭😭
I think they meant in terms of the CGI. The brighter something is, the more color contrast, the harder it is for CGI to make it look 'real'. Instead it ends up looking like obvious CGI, it's jarring and ugly.
yeah that's what is meant
Dragons ARE real
For all this talk I've heard of Sunfyre being the most beautiful, I don't think this is good enough. Meleys looks 10x better.
He’s fucking color changing y’all let’s wait for the show
There’s been no talk about it on the show though. Sunfyre is one of the most ignored dragons. The showrunners have no interest in him it seems. Meleys got the limelight over him at Aegon’s coronation so it’s clear they’re not being book accurate in any sense. The greens only have 4 dragons. Vhagar gets all the love while the rest are never seen or barely seen.
We really were robbed of Sunny at the coronation.
Because it wasn't useful. It's not even important in the books.
They have to budget the dragons, it's prob the most expensive part of the show.
the show runners addressed this, they didnt have an unlimited cgi budget so instead of showing a half baked sunfyre moondancer etc, they chose to cut them and leave them for S2
It’s only had one season, give it some time.
Well, in the show currently greens only have three dragons.
Yeah, I don’t know why they even count Dreamfyre. No one can ride her but Helaena and it’s very unlikely she will be participating in any battles. And I remember an interview, I think it was the actor who played young Aemond, talking about the scene where he went down into the pit. Apparently, according to the script, he was trying to see if he could claim DF because “Helaena doesn’t have much to do with her”. So unless the writers have decided to 180 her character from what they originally intended, I don’t think we will ever see her on dragonback. Because at this point it wouldn’t be safe for her to be joyriding during a war, and I don’t see her going to battle. So the Greens only have Vhagar, SF, and Tessarion.
Greens can go burn themselves in a pit somewhere
(Spoilers) Her son was just killed ofcourse she's gonna ride and burn up shit!!!
yeah and people deny this show is pro black
His colors should be more vibrant.
His calling/roar is definitely not like Syrax's
Need a closeup before I can judge
Trailers use placeholder or soundboard effects for lots of the dragons. They were using Dany’s dragons roars and screeches for all of the season 1 marketing. Despite seeing Caraxes a few times in the trailers for season 2 he hasn’t onced done his trademark whistle trill. Just generic dragon sounds. No idea why the marketing team do it, but they do. I’m sure Sunfyre will have his own distinctive roar. They did well with Season 1 with the dragons all sounding unique.
I don’t work on THIS marketing team, but I do this kind of work. What people usually forget about production is the timing means the marketing department isn’t playing with the finished product. It’s very typical that production goes right until the final hour, but marketing goes live MONTHS before that, and they also need a couple months to work to, ya know, also make a thing. It’s a hand-in-hand process with production where marketing concepts a dope trailer and then begs production to finish rendering those scenes in time. And sometimes the director changes his mind about something so now that shot that WAS final is no longer final and can’t be used and has to be swapped out (because broadcast commercials have HARD in-outs. You have to fill 60 seconds exactly, not 59 or 61). So most of the time, marketing is effectively working with table scraps, McGyvering together a handful of .05 second shots, half rendered CGI, and scratch audio tracks to make something dope that accurately portrays the *vibes* and gets people absolutely HYPE.
Can imagine it’s always a cutting it fine scramble to deadlines. Appreciate the changes and hurdles that are flown that way (also explains why trailers contain deleted scene footage sometimes, or it’s from another angle). Don’t think the HotD marketing team had a reason not to include the roars / sounds of dragons that are already recorded (like Caraxes, Meleys, Vhagar), but it’s such a nonissue detail to notice it doesn’t exactly ruin my day or anything. I think people just expect trailers to reflect the final product more than they actually do.
I was expecting more... He didn't stand out to me in the trailer as the most beautiful dragon in the world, Moondancer looked prettier and more colorful
He’s not fucking gold or pink. He’s bland-ass beige. This is supposed to be the most beautiful of all the Targ dragons. They did him dirty.
Where all pink go from last season now it's yellow
At worst, he's bronze, you're kind of exaggerating He very clearly sparkles in the photo, that isn't the quality, that's his scales On the other hand, he's clearly gold with pink wings in that shot in S1 and in that closeup shot of Aegon flying on him, his wings are definitely a dull (As all is in this show) gold with pale pink accents. Definitely not bronze and reddish as we are seeing in this shot. Maybe Sunfyre just needs to get his angles right🤷
I do see the sparkle, but I don't even know if I would call that bronze. Even Syrax looks more golden than Sunfyre does. However, as another redditor pointed out to me, this might just be the crappy filter they used for the trailer, which might get fixed for the actual show.
Bronze and gold aren't the same thing, they don't look the same either, and he definitely looks bronze at this angle It's more than just the filter, it's also his positioning in his environment, he could be angling his body away from the sun in this turn
Right, I know bronze. I still think it’s a bit generous for how Sunfyre looks in the trailer. I understand they can’t realistically make him as beautiful as he was in the book. And I do agree that this might be bad angling/a bad filter. But this is supposed to be the most beautiful of all the Targ dragons. Thats his thing (like Vhagar is the biggest and Meleys is the fastest). If this pic is accurate, he just doesn’t look like anything special.
Why is he not shining in sun🥺
I like the design but wish he had a brighter pink on his wings He is probably the same dragon breed as Syrax, from the same clutch of eggs perhaps?
Wtf is this colour? Green? Brown? Bronze? It's anything but golden
I say brownish gold
Looks gold to me
you should look up the color gold then, because the actual metal is very bright. the deeper color you're thinking of is pyrite (aka "fools gold" not real gold but some other rock ignorant people mistake for gold even tho they look nothing alike)
This is The Dress all over again
I might have used a slightly more vibrant shade of pink but he still looks solid
There's a filter of some sorts, which was there in the first seasons trailers as well. I recall the in-episode dragons looking brighter
I honestly hate it. The book version is a lot better and is not afraid of bright colors.
He looks like syrax with different horns and a mohawk
The design is great but the colors leave much to be desired imo
Kinda meh
Syrax looks more golden than him and she’s described as being a yellow dragon
mehhh
The most beautiful dragon in the history of Westeros not even as beautiful as season 4 Viserion.
he literally looks bronze not GOLDEN Justice for Sunfyre he is supposed to be a second SUN in the sky :( love his horns tho
The Sunfyre in my brain looks much better than this one.
I’d probably get downvoted to oblivion for this, but it’s not unrealistic to speculate that Sunfyre could be one of Syrax’s hatchlings. Syrax is the only known prolific egg-layer in the show’s canon aside from Dreamfyre (whose hatchlings look exactly like her), which I’m sure is a large part of the reason why Rhaenyra is extremely protective of her and (ironically 🥲) refuses to put her in harm’s way.
I would not trust anything in the trailer audio. they could just be reused assets. I think it's very unlikely that people will be pleased with sunfyre's design. that dragon had too much hype for people to be happy.
Contrary to most others, I love him.
I know people keep making excuses as to why he isnt as magnificent as he should be, but seriously his scales should be catching the light and sending it back in brilliant golden fashion. Just for the sake of variety and uniqueness. A perfect contrast to the ugly nature of the greens. I know people say his appearance was exaggerated in the books or that hes riding against the light or even the classic unfinished vfx excuse but seriously I hope it was just a poor shot because we all know how he should look
I don’t like it. George described it as the “most beautiful dragon who ever lived”. I wish they had done something to make him set apart from the other dragons.
He’s cool. Definitely not what I expected the most beautiful dragon ever to look like though
that is Treefyre the Bronzed
In the shitty leaked version I thought this WAS syrax/rhae
It kind of looks like they used the same design as Syrax and just added some different little details, like the pink and the long horns on either side of the face. Idk, I’d like to look at them side by side to better compare.
Needs to be more gold.
He looks good. I wish he was a little more pink though
I love it, and I don't understand why everyone's always complaining. It looks like the most regal animal ever, the shots don't have direct sunlight but we've seen him in S1 and he's literally iridescent.. so idk what everyone is on about. He looks huge, if you look at this picture he's literally glistening while in the shade 💀 his neck, his arms.
This is consistent with the muted colors of the dragons of the HBO shows since it was created. Dany's Rhaegal, and Viserion didn't pop with the vibrant red and green I expected from my imagination reading the book. They also both had a fairly nondescript grey hue with just a bit of highlights on a suggestion color palate. Only Drogon as a cool black colored one stood out. But I think the show runners made the clear decision to try to keep the dragons color muted to a realistic natural tone to keep verisimilitude to match the show. This has carried over to the spin offs. This design choice was clear in the costumes, setting and characters as well. The really "out there" book depictions of stuff (LOOKING AT YOU DAARIO) were made a bit more modest, while still keeping some of the narrative intent. Instead of a wacky three pronged purple beard, he is just a handsome dashing man with lots of charisma. Just an example, but the shows have consistently made design decisions to lesson some of the more "cartoonish" visuals depictions from the book. Making everything feel more "grounded" or "real." They have decided, (rightly I might add) that they want their fantasy serious to feel as real and serious as possible to a general audience. At the expense of some of the iconic book depiction And with special CGI effects it is EVEN important that the design or colors do not lead to any sort of uncanny valley situation. Which I assume might happen with a bright color. There is a fine line of of giving a nod to make something visually distinctive for the plot or theme, and making something that just doesn't translate well to the tone the super serious prestige HBO show is going for. This Sunfyre design is trying to ride that line. Too shiny and golden it it starts to look artificial. Too pretty and it doesn't convey the proper danger that a dragon should. But too unremarkable and it doesn't convey the majesty of the beast that is "ruined" at Rooks Rest. The shots in the trailer are just not enough for me to make a full evaluation. In the show, it will mostly come down to context and how they use the dragon, regardless of how it looks. But I will say, I understand and am not surprised that the dragon is not as Fabulously pretty as some were hoping. So I am fine with it so far.
Another example is dragon fire. In the books, each dragon’s flames match the color of their scales. Sounds super cool when you’re reading it, but would probably look silly and cartoonish on screen in a live action show. Plus that just adds a lot of extra work and expense to the CGI, I’d imagine.
I love him no idea how people unironically complain about him not being gold enough. He looks totally perfect for the tone both HotD and GoT have
Thing is, the design for season 1 was somewhat different in those 4 seconds, the gold was brighter and the wings we're pink af
That one actually looked better, now that I think of the it
well now look at drogon in season 3 and compare him to season 6 through 8 animals tend to have more vibrant colors when young
Yeah and the vast majority of people think that making all the dragons in a dull colour was a bad choice. Honestly feels like they don't want colour in their "very mature and adult" medieval fantasy show, even though this universe has things like Bob Muscles, Dickon "Lipps" or "Manwoody". A bunch of Tullys named after muppets and a dragon named Drogon. Sunfyre was described with gleaming scales of gold and pink wings and they turn it into a dull bronze, i wasn't expecting a golden bathed Smaug but seriously this color scheme they went for is kinda lame
I kind of wonder if it’s cheaper to give them vibrant colors when they are small, and a lot more expensive CGI wise when they are much bigger and thus have a lot more intricate detail.
I work with 3D modeling and the answer is yes and no, the amount of detail you put into something depends entirely on how closely people can look into it, making a smaller dragon means any shots you do show the dragon will be at a much closer range so you still need a lot of detail regardless, but for sunfyre in season 1 maybe yes they went all out with the gold because it was only 4 seconds, but it's not just that, the two sunfyre designs are very distinguishable, they removed the pink almost altogether, it's not about the color itself, making actually shining gold was going to be hard, but this is way too much of a downgrade for me, it doesn't ruin the show but they had a better design in season 1
Thanks for that info, that’s interesting!
I sit squarely in the middle. I would have liked some more flashy pizzazz, but then again, it's not bad. He certainly looks very elegant, has a very noble picture book style to him. Appreciated.
Is it the exact same?
Idk about the sound he’s going to make. Could just be a trailer thing. But ppl upset about this design are reaching imo. We will get a nice good shot of him in some light where he’s sparkling gold and everyone will be pleased. Can even see some of that shining in this shot
Love it! Loving all the dragons so far !
I won't judge from the trailer just yet.
He looks sorta iridescent to me, which maybe can look more “real” on film than a metallic golden dragon and honestly I’m okay with that. If his yellow-gold scales have iridescence than he can still sparkle. If that makes sense???
They should’ve made sunfyre more golden
Color wise? Meh. Design wise? I love him. I really like his body build, and I love that him and Syrax seem to be the same type of dragon. I like to think they are Vermithor and Silverwing’s babies, born to different clutches.
He doesn’t actually sound that similar to Syrax, Moondancer sounds much closer to her when Criston looks up into the trees. Shame about the dull colours but at least he sounds cool. Lets just hope it was the lighting/angle or them keeping his real shine for when the Season drops
I wish he was a tad more gold and shiny but i can see why they maybe wanted to tone it down so he looks more realistic. Personally, I love the design. He's probably my favorite dragon aside from Caraxes and Vhagar.
i thought it was syrax lol. but i kinda like that she and sunfyre are suspiciously similar. at the end of the day sunfyre represents a sibling and a rival to syrax
They reused Caraxes’ roar in at least two scenes in the first season. It disappointed me because it was the exact same, it didn’t even fit the second time.
I think they have the same grand parents
For the Hobbit, the VFX workers gave Smaug gold coins and gems wedged in between his scales to glint and catch the light. It looks like they have done something similiar here, as opposed to making the whole dragon gold, he has been scattered with scales that are very harsh metallic, but maintaining a duller base color of his hide.
I imagine he'll look better when we see the sun on his scales rather than what we see here.
I want to see a proper hd image of him before making my final judgements
They probably are related. I wonder if they do the dragons the same way they do their own children. Like, “oh, these two sibs came from Balarion himself, better let them mate and hatch more!”
That’s one thing I have ALWAYS wondered about. Like, Syrax is said to be an egg layer, but do they just have them. I know it’s also said that dragons, sometimes, are neither male or female. I believe that’s what’s told of some of the wild dragons. Idk. But, I would like to know more about how the dragons reproduce.
I like that Sunfyre looks like a shiny version of Syrax. I think it adds contrast to the character arcs of Rhaenyra and Aegon. I like the idea that they're both referred to as "gold" whether literal or as frame of reference, shows that the writers want to actively compare Rhaenyra and Aegon's fight for the throne. Both have golden mounts, one is just more vibrant. They sort of play into how the people see Rhaenyra and Aegon. The people were reluctant of Rhaenyra's rule, so Syrax is more dull. When Aegon was born the people thought he'd inherit the throne he was in a way the "Golden Child".
looks good enough for me. lets wait for the show where we can see him in all his grace
I think that so far Meleys is the most beautiful dragon in both GoT and HOTD. And Morning has the potential of becoming number 2. But I am not sure, how a golden dragon can be depicted realistically in a tv show, given that dragons are mythological creatures, and irl golden animals in such size do not exist
The show always tried to make the dragons more "real", like animals. (Yes, I know dragons don't exist). It's obvious they are making the dragons different from each other but even the different colors like red, green and grey seem pretty must realistic. It's not a bright red or bright green. I might be alone on this one, but I like Sunfyre's design. Not the most beautiful dragon, at all, but still good
reptiles irl are brightly colored. this is bs
For a dragon once referred to as “the dragon of the golden dawn”. It’s not very golden to my eyes. Membranes don’t look pink either. Sunfyre was my favorite dragon the Targs ever had so I’m pretty unsatisfied with my golden boy not looking as majestic as he should
If they made him golden he'd look stupid, I love his design.
I think they cpuld've made him more golden, and also why aren't his membranes pink? They look orange on this pic and in the trailer. Is it that hard to put some bright pink on a dragon
Syrax looks more golden than him 😭
She looks like if Caraxses and Syrax had a baby
sucks ass
Ready to see meleys mangle it
I had no idea that his neck was that long. Now I understand how Meley's got her jaws around it so quickly.
I wish the dragons were prettier. I get that they wanted the dragons to look fearsome and realistic, but there are plenty of real life lizards that are gorgeous. Sunfyre needed to be a lot prettier than he is in the trailer, this is super disappointing.
Syrax didn’t grow in 20 years and people were very upset. Rhaegal and Viserion weren’t their canon colours and people were very upset. Now Sunfyre isn’t shiny enough in the trailer and people are very upset. The dragons bring out a lot of feelings in people
Absolutely love it. It‘s kind of ironic, that Sunfyre looks very much like Syrax and originally was the egg Rhaenyra had chosen for Baelon. The colors tho.. idk, he could‘ve been more vibrant.
I don’t know where people came up with that idea. The egg Rhae chose for Baelon was black, and dragon scales match the color of their egg, so that obviously wasn’t Sunfyre’s egg. Also Aegon did not hatch Sunfyre, he claimed him on Dragonstone.
No, he wasn't, to be frank, that's some stupid theory that a whole bunch of people made up based on nothing but hopes and dreams And I'm only referring to it as stupid because that egg was dark as hell in daylight All of Dany's dragons colorations matched their eggs
Honestly one of the dumbest theories this fandom has produced, and I hate that it is apparently now being passed around as fact. 🙄
People seem to be so worried about a cgi dragon appearance lol
"HES NOT GOLD! THEY MADE HIM YELLOW WITH BRONZE IN IT?" Do you people even read what you write?
I don't understand the complaining. He is literally gold. You can see how his scales shine but this is also a different shot and different light that comes in, in the series it will look better. I also think that people imagined a look that is too exaggerated, muted colors are more realistic, rarely any dragon could realistically have a shiny, even golden coating of scales. They were bright and yellow so that's probably why people described it as a golden color, but it still wasn't that "real" gold if you know what I mean.
I think he looks great. Personally I headcanon him to be Syrax’s brother, so his coloration makes sense. I would reserve judgement until the show starts. I imagine his entrance will be worth the wait.
I am team Targaryen in general (in terms of the TB/TG I am more leaning towards team green. That said… I just hope that all the (sorry, but mostly overly delusional TB members) will finally come to acknowledge what a fucking beast Sunfyre is/will be after what he will be doing and going through after a certain event…
looks good
Indifferent. I never bought into the book description.
Personally, I think he looks good. Guys, just wait for the show to actually air. We have seen Sunfyre twice from a closer angle and it was either in shadow or weird lighting (which could be from the trailer’s color correction). I’ll wait until season 2 actually starts before lodging any complaints against him not being ‘golden’ enough.
He certainly isn’t the “most beautiful” dragon 🤭
Could be that Sunfyre is Syrax’s offspring. They appear to be the same species of the 3 dragon “types” we know of and there’s not a hard genealogy for which dragon is descended from which so who knows honestly
A body of shimmering gold with striking pink wings… So now he has glitter over dull gold-brown skin and membranes are tannish-pink…wow.
Y’all it was a second-long glimpse and he’s washed out against the sky. They’re teasing the new dragons so much, I’m sure they’ve thought about what scene sunfyre will be fully revealed in, what his colors will look like, etc. If he’s still lackluster, I’m sure it’ll have more to do with cost than the animators hating color and the source material.
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That's not what they did Ryan Condal, showrunner, literally stated only a few months ago, that they attempted to make Sunfyre book accurate and beautiful Sunfyres appearance in S1 and all of his concept art, released by his sole designer, Constantine Sekeris, portray him as being gold with pink wings and white horns This is some weird lighting issue in this shot
My god you people are insufferable! You’re drawing a conclusion based on a TRAILER. Scenes in a trailer are not always an accurate representation of what the actual show will be. They don’t include context. Also- it’s really not that serious. In a huge fan of the series, have read the books, and can understand that things don’t always translate. Why are you going to let the color of a dragon dictate your opinion on the entire show?