House of the Dragon's first season has ended and if you're a Shrek fan who hasn't watched the finale yet don't panic. There are no spoilers here. Just evidence that the Game of Thrones prequel's creators appear to have been heavily inspired by the Shrek movies when piecing together the HBO hit.
This goes beyond both Shrek and House of the Dragon having big old fire breathers and a woman in a green dress. Out Of Context House Of The Dragon shared a comparison video on Twitter, pulling scenes from both the show and Shrek and playing them alongside one another. As you can see, there are some scenes so similar that it's hard to believe it's a coincidence.
The shot of a dragon flying over King's Landing might be the most striking from the short montage. Not only is the building Shrek's Dragon flying towards very similar to the one from House of the Dragon, but the two fictional beasts appear to be taking the exact same swooping flight path. Someone in the replies has suggested the two teams used the same base animation to create each scene. Only those behind the scenes at HBO will ever know if that's the case or not.
Scenes featuring dragon flight aren't the only ones Shrek and House of the Dragon fans have picked up on. Images of King Viserys on his deathbed appear to have been inspired by John Cleese's King when he's about to croak in Shrek the Third. The scene during which Aemond tames Vhagar also lines up with Donkey meeting Dragon for the first time. Shockingly, a relationship that wouldn't be the most disturbing by quite some way should HBO decide to expand on that in season two.
While most, if not all of the shots above are likely pure coincidence, it's still pretty remarkable how two projects that are so different and happened years apart have so many similarities. If it's been a while since you've seen Shrek and you fancy a catch-up, maybe drop the person who accidentally made their Steam Deck boot-up screen the entire movie a call. Bring popcorn.