As evidenced by the first trailer for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the show is set in an interesting period of Westeros. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ timeline places it almost exactly in between House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones, around 80 years after the former and 90 years before the latter.
Focusing on Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, a boy named Egg with larger Game of Thrones connections, the series explores a time period where the Targaryen ruling family is without its dragons. Despite their lack of firepower, the Targaryens will still play a big role in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, complete with a new sigil.
A Knight Of The Seven Kingdom’s Three-Headed Dragon Targaryen Sigil Design Has Extended Fire & Wings
The sigil of House Targaryen, since George R. R. Martin first wrote A Game of Thrones in the late 1990s, has been a coiled three-headed dragon, the three heads symbolizing Aegon the Conqueror and his two sisters, Visenya and Rhaenys. This was emulated in both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, as well as A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Stretching backwards is also a large wing motif, emulating dragons in flight. In both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, the Targaryen sigil does not have wings or fire. This was a conscious choice by the creators of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, with one other difference fixing a big problem that George R. R. Martin has had with the two other Westeros-based shows.
A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Changed The Sigil To Reflect A Different Era Of Targaryens
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ showrunner, Ira Parker, commented on the slightly different look for the Targaryen sigil. Parker stated that, while he doubts there is ever much technological and societal progress in Westeros, from the perspective that knights and castles and battles are evergreen, he does believe there is artistic progress:
“I do think that there are artistic progresses, or at least cycles, that there is a new designer of House Targaryen doing just a little bit of a different freehand version of something. That’s really all it is. It wasn’t meant to be anything different other than this is the sigil of this specific time.”
To Parker, the differences in the Targaryen sigil are down to whoever designed the flags and adornments simply having a different view than whoever had that role in House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones.
This is, admittedly, a very straightforward answer. Most changes in lore or worldbuilding in big franchises tend to come with expectations, specifically expectations around a huge answer as to why something has been tweaked. Parker’s answer defies those expectations, explaining that, in-universe, the Targaryen sigil changed based on the artistic view of whoever designed it at that moment in history.
A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms’ Targaryen Sigil Avoids GRRM’s House Of The Dragon Criticism
Shortly before the ending of House of the Dragon season 2, original book author George R. R. Martin took to his personal space, Not A Blog, to give his thoughts on the series’ depiction of the titular mythical creatures.
After looking at various depictions of dragons in modern film and TV, Martin began to delve into how he created his versions of the creatures in A Song of Ice and Fire. During this section, Martin responded to a specific part of the Targaryen sigil that House of the Dragon got wrong, as well as later seasons of Game of Thrones.
Martin took issue with the change to four legs, insisting that no creature on Earth has ever had six limbs, and, while dragons were only legend and never real, it stands to reason that, if they were, this rule would apply. All of the dragons in House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones have two back legs, with their front “legs” attached to the end of their wings.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms heeds Martin’s words, with the sigil evident in the trailer switching back to two legs. This will undoubtedly please the author, whose comments about the four-legged sigil seemed extensive after House of the Dragon season 2. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is rectifying that, along with the other aforementioned Targaryen sigil changes.
