Pronunciation:
MAY-leez
Valyrian Name:
N/A
Nickname(s):
"The Red Queen"
Status:
Deceased
Gender:
She-Dragon
Age:
≈ 54+ years old
Coloration:
Scarlet Red Scales
with Light Red Wing Membranes
Stroked in Bright Copper
Disposition:
Regal, Imposing, Astute, Assured
Current Rider:
N/A
Former Rider(s):
⬦ Princess Rhaenys Targaryen
⬦ Princess Alyssa Targaryen
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BARTIMOS: Pray forgive my bluntness, Your Grace, but talk of men is moot. Your cause owns a power that has not been seen in this world since the days of old Valyria. Dragons!
RHAENYRA: The Greens have dragons as well.
DAEMON: They have three adults, by my count. We have Syrax, Caraxes, and Meleys. Your sons have Vermax, Arrax, and Tyraxes. Baela has Moondancer.
RHAENYRA: Daemon, none of our dragons have been to war.
DAEMON: There are also unclaimed dragons. Seasmoke still resides on Driftmark. Vermithor and Silverwing dwell on the Dragonmont, still riderless. Then there are the three wild dragons, all of whom nest here.
RHAENYRA: And who is to ride them?
DAEMON: Dragonstone has 13 to their 4. I also have a score of eggs incubating in the Dragonmont.
- House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 10 "The Black Queen"
DAEMON: Take your mount again. We're flying out.
RHAENYS: I alone patrol over 100 miles of open sea, endlessly, to hold the blockade.
Meleys must gorge and rest, as must I.
DAEMON: We're going to King's Landing.
RHAENYS: To what end?
DAEMON: Killing Vhagar. I cannot face that hoary old bitch alone. With my dragon and yours together, we can kill Vhagar and her rider.
- House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 1 "A Son for a Son"
RHAENYS: You must send me, Your Grace. Meleys is your largest dragon and no stranger to battle.
- House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 4 "The Red Dragon and the Gold"
RHAENYS (In Valyrian): We're off to battle again, old girl.
- House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 4 "The Red Dragon and the Gold"
ALFRED: Our largest dragon has been killed.
- House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 5 "Regent"
RHAENYRA: Did your grandmother ever tell you of the night she claimed Meleys?
BAELA: She snuck into the Dragonpit.
RHAENYRA: She knew that place better than any elder. As if she could see in the dark.
BAELA: My father was furious. His mother's own dragon. The fastest beast ever known and she'd have none of him, but bent her neck to Rhaenys.
- House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 5 "Regent"
RHAENYRA: But if all else fails it is I who must fight. Vhagar is big, but Syrax is quicker.
JACE: So was Meleys.
RHAENYRA: Meleys fought two dragons and one of them is slain.
- House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 5 "Regent"
Meleys, nicknamed the Red Queen, is a she-dragon ridden by Princess Rhaenys Targaryen. Covered in scarlet scales, she has accents of bright copper. It is her unique coloring for which she received her nickname. In her youth, she is said to have outpaced even Caraxes and Vhagar.
- https://www.hbo.com/house-of-the-dragon/dragon-index#meleys
Rhaenys's dragon, Meleys, known as the Red Queen, was given a similar palette to Caraxes, though her scales were rendered more scarlet than crimson, in keeping with the way Martin describes her in Fire & Blood.
Like the Queen Who Never Was, Meleys is an elegant creature with a regal bearing; the membranes on her wings are pink, while her horns and claws are copper.
"She almost has a crown of horns, which was very challenging at first," Barybin says. "We had a back-and-forth with Miguel, who was also sending me some sketches of his. We were continuously asking, ‘How far can we push this fantasy thing without going too far away from Drogon?' That was a very delicate dance."
- Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon: Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty
Meleys, on the other hand, displays attributes of the calculating Queen Who Never Was (portrayed by Eve Best). "Regal, matriarchal, older, wiser," Bell elucidated. "Much more royal in the design, the horns are almost crown-like to a degree."
- https://www.syfy.com/syfy-wire/house-of-the-dragon-vfx-interview-game-of-thrones-prequel?amp
Only minor adjustments were made to Vhagar and Syrax, but extensive sculpture and texture work was required on Meleys, which was modeled by MPC in Season 1.
“As Meleys was featured more prominently in Season 2, often in bright daylight and undergoing several stages of wounds and damage, we needed to enhance her detail,” Martin explains.
“Our art department used photo references of red lizards to overpaint images, ensuring large portions of these photos remained intact to avoid an overly painterly or artificial look. In fact, some of the perfect references were found in a local pet shop, where I stumbled upon a dark red lizard that matched our vision.
- https://www.vfxvoice.com/pixomondo-puts-the-dragon-into-house-of-the-dragon-season-2/
A sculpted metal front piece I made for House of the dragon. On Meleys dragon's saddle , ridden by Rhaenys. Shown are the various stages of sculpting from the yellow foam. An undulating bone like structure that reminded me of a pelvis ,mixed with a selection of birds beaks and a gothic arch for reference.
- https://www.instagram.com/p/C-u11LnIWTM/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Meleys saddle was the second we developed, @kiba.art was heavily responsible for the #Meleys saddle look , his early iterations of meleys used the multiple layers and overlapping leather , straps / webbing that Miguel and Ryan really wanted to take forward. We took Kirills concepts and developed them using our newly formed buck, they wanted to show how #Rhaenys was an experienced and hardened rider with a well warn in saddle , including tons of modifications, but also a hint of sophistication, intricate metal work and gilding. The dragon was developed by @kiba.art and @constantinesekeris , and was built by @craignarramore Dominic meyrick-brook and @rozziebutler
- https://www.instagram.com/p/CtANumioN0v/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Season 2 also saw us make new adjustments to Meley’s Saddle, for the battle between Vhagar and Meleys, Meleys was to loose all luggage in her webbing. I worked closely with Alan Taylor to develop a specific belt attachment for Rhaenys as she straps in for her final under belly attack on Vhagar, the action was seen in detail and so needed to be extremely functional.
Meleys is more matriarchal, older, and has seen battles; even the design of the horns was almost crown-like.
-
The animation team started thinking about even the way they shake their head. Meleys does it the way a lioness would do it.
-
Does that mean you know how many people were crushed by Rhaenys and Meleys in episode 9?
Mike Bell: That's quite interesting, because [the coronation in episode 9] was changed a little bit. Especially when Rhaenys exits, because we initially had shots where she exits and plows through thousands of people. And it was just like, "Well, that's not really into the feeling of the character." There's definitely a feeling like, "Is it okay that she's just going through all this crowd?"
We went high and then reduced it down. But in all that dust, there's also people flying and somersaulting. I think if you paused it, you might be able to count them. It's hundreds, maybe thousands.
Director Claire Kilner and DoP Alejandro Martínez wanted concepts to help figure out how the scene could look with Meleys exploding through a door in the Dragonpit floor.
Claire specifically asked for one image showing Meleys in the haze and dust.
The bronze doors were a tricky design as it had to be something we could realistically make on stage using part of a set we already had. and we had to make them big enough so that Meleys could theoretically fit through in the escape. It was fun to make the extra images showing the guards panicking trying to close the doors.
For Rhaenys and Meleys, the team wanted to strike an “immense kind of foreboding sadness as they go off. They kind of go into battle with dignity. [...] We tried to reflect a bit the character of Meleys through Rhaenys and their relationship, how they kind of interact with each other. It’s kind of a stoic and quiet regal character
- https://www.polygon.com/24191638/house-dragon-season-2-episode-4-dragon-battle-details
So next, obviously, will be a full CGI dragon head, and thats kind of more complicated than some in that you have, you know, a lot of blood and guts and gore
In all of our sequences the starting point is always an incredible concept and so there were a lot of iterations that went through to get the right type of dragon head. The right amount of gore and blood; and we'll literally be taking those concepts and making them real.
But the dragon head was created from our real dragon's head model and then scaled down a little; and we had the horns on it because its got massive horns and it's a big show, big dragons.
-
Written by George R.R. Martin in collaboration with Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson
MELEYS (Princess Rhaenys): The Red Queen, old and cunning, lazy, but fearsome when roused, killed at Rook's Rest with her rider, the Queen Who Never Was.
- The World of Ice and Fire "The Targaryen Kings: Aegon II"
In the end they prevailed, and Princess Alyssa ascended into the sky upon Meleys, a splendid scarlet she-dragon, never before ridden. “Red maidens, the two of us,” the princess boasted, laughing, “but now we’ve both been mounted.” The princess was seldom long away from the Dragonpit after that day. Flying was the second sweetest thing in the world, she would oft say, and the very sweetest thing could not be mentioned in the company of ladies. The Dragonkeepers had not been wrong; Meleys was as swift a dragon as Westeros had ever seen, easily outpacing Caraxes and Vhagar when she and her brothers flew together.
- Fire and Blood "The Long Reign - Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain"
Against all advice, his mother clapped the boy in swaddling clothes, strapped him to her chest, and took him aloft on Meleys when he was nine days old. Afterward she claimed Viserys giggled the whole while.
- Fire and Blood "The Long Reign - Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain"
And that was just what he did, for later that same year Princess Alyssa bore her Spring Prince a second son, who was given the name Daemon. His mother, irrepressible as ever, took the babe into the sky on Meleys within a fortnight of his birth, just as she had done with his brother, Viserys.
- Fire and Blood "The Long Reign - Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain"
Rhaenys, at six-and-ten, was a fearless young beauty, and more than a match for her mariner. A dragonrider since the age of thirteen, she insisted upon arriving for the wedding on Meleys, the Red Queen, the magnificent scarlet she-dragon that had once borne her aunt Alyssa. “We can go back to the ends of the earth together,” she promised Ser Corlys. “But I’ll get there first, as I’ll be flying.”
- Fire and Blood "The Long Reign - Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain"
At Highgarden, he was joined for a time by his granddaughter, Princess Rhaenys, who flew to his side on Meleys, the Red Queen. Together they visited the Shield Islands, where the king had never been before.
- Fire and Blood "The Long Reign - Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain"
Prince Aemon followed a few hours later, after bidding farewell to Lady Jocelyn and their daughter, Rhaenys. The princess had just learned she was expecting, else she would have accompanied her sire on Meleys. “Into battle?” the prince said. “As if I would ever have permitted that. You have your own battle to fight. Lord Corlys will want a son, I am sure, and I would like a grandson.”
- Fire and Blood "The Long Reign - Jaehaerys and Alysanne: Policy, Progeny, and Pain"
Rhaenys’s own she-dragon, Meleys the Red Queen, had grown lazy, but remained fearsome when roused.
- Fire and Blood "The Dying of the Dragons: The Blacks and the Greens"
Here Mushroom’s version seems most likely, for we know that nine days after Lord Staunton dispatched his plea for help, the sound of leathern wings was heard across the sea, and the dragon Meleys appeared above Rook’s Rest. The Red Queen, she was called, for the scarlet scales that covered her. The membranes of her wings were pink, her crest, horns, and claws bright as copper. And on her back, in steel and copper armor that flashed in the sun, rode Rhaenys Targaryen, the Queen Who Never Was.
- Fire and Blood "The Dying of the Dragons: The Red Dragon and the Gold"
Meleys suffered a score of hits, but the arrows only served to make her angry. She swept down, spitting fire to right and left. Knights burned in their saddles as the hair and hide and harness of their horses went up in flames. Men-at-arms dropped their spears and scattered. Some tried to hide behind their shields, but neither oak nor iron could withstand dragon’s breath. Ser Criston sat on his white horse shouting, “Aim for the rider,” through the smoke and flame. Meleys roared, smoke swirling from her nostrils, a stallion kicking in her jaws as tongues of fire engulfed him.
- Fire and Blood "The Dying of the Dragons: The Red Dragon and the Gold"
With a glad cry and a crack of her whip, she turned Meleys toward the foe. Against Vhagar alone she might have had some chance, but against Vhagar and Sunfyre together, doom was certain. The dragons met violently a thousand feet above the field of battle, as balls of fire burst and blossomed, so bright that men swore later that the sky was full of suns. The crimson jaws of Meleys closed round Sunfyre’s golden neck for a moment, till Vhagar fell upon them from above. All three beasts went spinning toward the ground. They struck the ground so hard that stones fell from the battlements of Rook’s Rest half a league away.
Those closest to the dragons did not live to tell the tale. Those farther off could not see for the flame and smoke. It was hours before the fires guttered out. But from those ashes, only Vhagar rose unharmed. Meleys was dead, broken by the fall and ripped to pieces upon the ground.
- Fire and Blood "The Dying of the Dragons: The Red Dragon and the Gold"
Lord Staunton’s head was carried back to King’s Landing and mounted above the Old Gate…but it was the head of the dragon Meleys, drawn through the city on a cart, that awed the crowds of smallfolk into silence. Septon Eustace tells us that thousands left King’s Landing afterward, until the Dowager Queen Alicent ordered the city gates closed and barred.
- Fire and Blood "The Dying of the Dragons: The Red Dragon and the Gold"
Screenshot Timeline of Meleys in House of the Dragon Season 1
Screenshot Timeline of Meleys in House of the Dragon Season 2
Unedited
Edited w/Canva + 100% Vibrancy + 30% Brightness