When creating the vocal personalities of the titular hearth breathers in HBO’s “Home of the Dragon,” sound designer Paula Fairfield begins by giving them a narrative.

Whether or not it’s “previous girl” Vhagar, or “white boy who thinks he can rap” Caraxes, or the “fidgety” 13-year-old Taylor Swift fan in Syrax, that is how Fairfield will get to know the creatures at her fingertips — and preserve them straight.

That was essential in Season 2, when extra dragons took to the skies than ever earlier than within the “Recreation of Thrones” universe as two factions of the Targaryen dynasty unleashed battle on one another from the backs of their winged companions. However followers of writer George R. R. Martin’s “Hearth & Blood” know the prequel is definitely a historical past of the downfall of the Targaryens and their dragon bloodline.

“We all know that is the battle the place all of them finish, so it’s honoring the legacy of those dragons to search out their greatest, most stunning voices even in dying,” Fairfield says.

The vocal make-up of any dragon in Fairfield’s care is a mix of animal sounds pulled from hundreds of hours of recordings, and sometimes earlier than she sees the completed visible results for his or her look.

“Sometimes, I’ll use a human voice, however I actually love utilizing animals from our Earth as a result of their expressions are pure emotion,” she says. “There’s no appearing, no agenda, no attempting to be one thing they aren’t — and infants are like that too.”

The aforementioned Vhagar is the recipient of these toddler sounds, which Fairfield felt had been applicable given her descriptors are “drained, cranky and IBS.”

As soon as she has chosen the sounds for a dragon’s vocal palette, Fairfield will get to work compressing, increasing and pitch shifting. The latter approach grew to become particularly essential in Season 2 when Meleys, the dragon ridden by Rhaenys (Eve Finest), is killed in battle.

“A variety of it was seals, pigs and a few chicken sounds,” she says. “Stuff that’s within the greater vary that may be twisted and manipulated and has sufficient articulations that I can use.”

One of many largest challenges Fairfield faces isn’t solely discovering the fitting vocals, but additionally ensuring she builds sufficient vary to punch by way of composer Ramin Djawadi’s hovering rating, which she says can typically drown out the dragons’ distinctive voices if she’s not ready.

One such scene was Season 2’s “The Purple Sowing,” when Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) bolsters her ranks by discovering riders for unclaimed dragons from a pool of her distant (aka illegitimate) relations. Little moments in huge set items like this matter for constructing the persona of the dragons. For instance, when Rhaenyra brings forth the towering Vermithor, the 2 share a young second that he matches with a comfortable hum, one thing he’ll later do when he chooses his rider, Hugh (Kieran Bew).

“That’s his inform,” Fairfield says.

In that very same sequence, Fairfield deploys a chirp sound when Vermithor unleashes his hearth breath to incinerate the opposite contenders for his declare. She laughs when explaining her reasoning for this sound, which she calls the “hearth sphincter.”

Whether or not it’s a chirp or a piercing roar, Fairfield’s work is simple, and typically it’s the one factor a scene wants to inform a dragon’s story. Following Vermithor’s fiery debut, the quieter, extra posh Silverwing chooses her rider, Ulf (Tom Bennett). This second was initially accompanied by a chunk of Djawadi’s rating, but it surely was scrapped to let Fairfield’s work actually sing.

“I used to be very proud as a result of this has solely occurred a few instances in my profession,” she says. “They took it out as a result of the story of her discovering him and sniffing him out and realizing that is my man was instructed by way of her voice.”