Fabien Frankel’s Criston Cole and his journey through the Riverlands alongside his soldiers in House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5 takes center stage. They are growing more hopeless by the second when they come across a dragon’s footprint. The episode’s director has revealed that the haunting scene was not in the script originally.
Quick read:
- Criston Cole’s haunting scene in the Riverlands was not in the original script.
- The dragon footprint scene was added as a connecting point.
- The art department made the footprint practically.
House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 5 director on the dragon footprint scene
Criston and Gwyane Hightower (Freddie Fox) have been waiting for Prince Aemond Targaryen and Vhagar to arrive for a long time. When no help arrives, they decide to head to Stony Sept on their own. While marching through the Riverlands, Criston comes across Vhagar’s footprint. He examines it before looking upward at the sky, searching for her.
The scene, albeit short, carries a lot of weight. During her appearance on the Official Game of Thrones podcast, episode director Nina Lopez-Corrado revealed that the scene was a last-minute addition. She said, “It was kind of a bonus piece, actually. It wasn’t originally in the script. But once we kind of pieced together the journey of Cole and his army, we realized that we kind of needed one more piece to see them– kind of connect them with, like, the townspeople.”
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Despite their best efforts, Criston’s attempt to overtake the Blacks at the Stony Sept is fruitless. The Blacks burned the bridge behind them and are waiting to ambush Criston’s soldiers on the other side. This knowledge, however, does nothing to deter him.
Visual effects had little to do with the dragon footprint
Lopez-Corrado also explained that the art department played a huge role in making that scene as good as it was. She said, “The art department did such an amazing job of creating those dragon footprints. And I’m gonna tell you, visual effects did very little in enhancing those. They did such a great job practically.”
She further explained that when Frankel went down on his knees to investigate it, she realised that it was the perfect shot. The scene, which she said came about completely “by accident,” ended up in the teasers for this season.
Read more: There is no glory left in Criston Cole’s increasingly apocalyptic war
