Entertainment
‘House of the Dragon’ Is Quietly Setting Up Another Major Reveal About Aegon’s Prophecy
Prequels often suffer from a lack of suspense, since the audience knows where the story is headed in the end. Back in its first season, House of the Dragon had an explosive solution for this issue — it confirmed for the first time that House Targaryen had prophesized the Long Night and the return of the White Walkers, and that prophecy had guided their actions for generations leading up to Game of Thrones. It was a long-time fan theory, but by confirming it, House of the Dragon showed that Westeros has many mysteries left to uncover, and they could come from any spinoff media. Now, with the series hurtling towards its end, fan theorists have many ideas about what other revelations might be coming before the Dance of the Dragons is over. One tantalizing possibility concerns Aegon’s prophecy, House Stark, and the future king of Westeros.
It’s been nearly four years since House of the Dragon revealed that Aegon the Conqueror dreamed of the White Walkers in a prophecy he called the “Song of Ice and Fire.” In that time, fans have teased out many of the implications this might have on the story — characters who passed it down, characters who were influenced by it, and characters who failed to get the message. In all that digging, many fans feel that House Stark must have known about the prophecy, and likely cooperated with House Targaryen because of it in some cases. Evidence for that theory is mounting, but the real question is if or when it might be confirmed. It would make sense to put another monumental lore dump at the end of House of the Dragon, and the show itself is giving us some hints about what’s coming.
‘House of the Dragon’ Says ‘Winter is Coming,’ Though It’s Still Summer
There are plenty of clues to support the theory that House Stark knew about Aegon’s prophecy and passed that knowledge down in secret — too many to include in this article. What’s important is how House of the Dragon is drawing attention to those clues, and perhaps setting up a grand revelation towards the end of the series. Northmen have only appeared in a few scenes scattered throughout the series so far, but that’s about to change, as we’ve already seen with Roderick Dustin’s (Tommy Flanagan) dramatic entrance into the Riverlands this season.
“We have come to die for the dragon queen,” he said bluntly in the season premiere. This stellar line is taken straight from George R.R. Martin‘s book Fire & Blood, and it’s not just melodramatic wording. Lord Dustin leads a force known as the “Winter Wolves,” who are all old, gray-bearded warriors from throughout the North. They do not expect to survive the war whether they win or lose — it’s part of a brutal custom in the North where old men risk their lives in battle or hunting expeditions around the time the seasons change, knowing they’ll likely die. This way, they leave their community with one less mouth to feed through the winter.
House of the Dragon is not shying away from this fatalistic aspect of Northern culture — if anything, the show is calling attention to it. In Season 2 Episode 1, the show depicted Jacaerys Targaryen (Harry Collett) meeting with Lord Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor) on the Wall, rather than at Winterfell. Lord Stark claimed that he could not send all his forces south to war because he would need them in the winter to guard the Wall. He asked Jace, “Do you think my ancestors built a 700-foot wall of ice to keep out snow and savages?” According to Cregan, the Wall is really there to keep out “death.” However, the Lord of Winterfell rarely visits the Wall, allowing the Night’s Watch to operate independently. Cregan’s personal interest in the Wall might be a hint that he knows something we don’t.
Cregan’s focus on the Wall and the Winter Wolves’ willingness to die are both surprising, since House of the Dragon has given us no real indications that winter is coming to Westeros. This fantasy world is defined by its irregular seasons, but there is usually quite a bit of warning of the onset of winter. Characters in the south have not complained about unusual cold or storms, and the maesters of the Citadel have not sent out their albino ravens to herald the changing seasons. It’s possible that Cregan, Roderick, and other Northmen can sense a different kind of winter coming on. Cregan might even have knowledge of Aegon’s prophecy passed down to him, and he may believe there are signs that the White Walkers’ attack is imminent.
Prophecies Could Completely Recontextualize ‘Game of Thrones’
In general, Game of Thrones did not examine the magical elements of Westeros very closely — especially toward the end, when it mattered most. For years, fans and critics have speculated that spinoffs like House of the Dragon will try to vindicate the main series, and in some ways, it looks like they’ve been right. House of the Dragon has magic centered in its story, from the haunting mysteries of Harrenhal to Helaena’s (Phia Saban) clear psychic abilities. Prophecies and telepathy are arguably more important to this franchise than dragons and ice monsters, and we should expect to see more of them in the back half of House of the Dragon.
So far, dreams and visions in this show have already shown us glimpses of important things coming in the main series. In Season 2, Episode 8 Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) leads Daemon (Matt Smith) to the Weirwood tree, where he sees the White Walkers, and Daenerys hatching dragons in the desert. He even sees Brynden Rivers, a.k.a. Bloodraven, the future Targaryen who will become a Greenseer and eventually teach Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) to do the same. Bloodraven is an important character in the books, though his presence was downplayed in the TV adaptation. The younger version of him on House of the Dragon is played by Joshua Ben-Tovim, while on Game of Thrones he was played by Struan Rodger, then recast as Max von Sydow.
Readers know we should never take a vision of Bloodraven lightly. It’s possible that we’ll see him again in House of the Dragon as more characters interact with the Weirwoods and the bloodshed of the war awakens the trees. However, it’s possible this show will go one step farther by showing us Bloodraven’s successor, Bran Stark. We know that Bran can use his powers to reach backward in time to influence people and events — he did so when he commanded Hodor (Kristian Nairn) to “hold the door,” and in the books, it’s implied that he can reach other characters as well.
If Bran appears in a vision, it would be a fitting magical climax for House of the Dragon, and it would mirror some of the other tie-ins we’ve seen in the show so far. Some fans and critics would inevitably call it cheap, but it’s a move that would definitely appeal to HBO executives and creators who want to keep this franchise alive. In the long run, Easter eggs like that could become a central feature of Game of Thrones spinoffs, further complicating the web of causes and effects around the wars in Westeros.
‘House of the Dragon’ Has Just as Much Ice as Fire
House of the Dragon is ostensibly about a civil war among House Targaryen’s dragon-riders, yet the show has dedicated a surprising amount of time to the other end of Westeros’ magical spectrum — the old gods and the Weirwood trees, which are strongest in the North. The show has given us two glimpses of the mythical “Green Men,” and shown an immense amount of Greenseer magic at play around Harrenhal and the God’s Eye lake. According to Game of Thrones, this same branch of magic was responsible for the creation of the White Walkers in the first place, so it makes sense that the prequel is still highlighting this connection.
In some ways, Fire & Blood tells us where these Weirwood-heavy plots are headed, but because of the book’s unique nature, there’s a lot of ambiguity in the upcoming parts of the story. We’ve already seen connections that fans didn’t expect, such as Helaena’s intrusion on Daemon’s Weirwood vision, implying that dragon-dreamers and Greenseers have access to the same astral plane. We should expect a carefully-planned show like this to save some of its best spectacles for the end, so it’s not unreasonable to imagine a fully-realized King Bran appearing by the series finale. Alternatively, revealing that House Stark was also acting on Aegon’s prophecy could serve as one final revelation without the need for magical dreams.
Of course, the creative team will want to be careful not to overdo it with Easter eggs and lore drops. They could also be wary of delving into the lore without the involvement of Martin. The author is not pleased with this prequel, and doesn’t seem to be as closely involved as he was in Season 1. It’s possible that he already agreed to another big revelation when the show first started, but it’s also possible that the creators won’t want to rock the boat now that he’s not closely involved anymore.
At the time of this writing, there are only 14 episodes left of House of the Dragon — assuming showrunner Ryan Condal fulfills his plan of finishing the series with four seasons. That doesn’t leave much time for new information to sink in, so we should have our eyes peeled for any more big clues coming our way. Season 3 continues on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max. Martin’s books are available now in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
- Release Date
-
August 21, 2022
- Network
-
HBO
- Showrunner
-
George R.R. Martin
- Directors
-
Clare Kilner, Geeta Patel
- Writers
-
Gabe Fonseca
-
-
Fabien Frankel
Ser Criston Cole
You must be logged in to post a comment Login