House of the Dragon Just Brought Back A Big Game of Thrones Prophecy
“I am the Prince Who Was Promised”
Season 3 of House of the Dragon ended with a bang, not a whimper, but the season finale wasn’t just dragonfire and bloody battles. Its first scene proved that this is Rhaenyra at her most desperate, and with that in mind, she goes to extreme lengths to prove that she’s the rightful ruler to anyone who will listen, from the High Septon to the people of King’s Landing, to her own son, Joffrey.
In one of these pleas, she brings up a name: The Prince Who Was Promised. For fans of Game of Thrones, this is a very familiar term, but what does it mean when Rhaenyra says it? The answer, like most things in Westeros, is more complicated than it seems.
Warning! Spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 8 ahead!
Rhaenyra’s attempts to be respected as queen get a bit manic in the House of the Dragon Season 3 finale.
Rhaenyra’s Proclamation
Rhaenyra is emboldened by Daemon’s reassurance that they have the blood of Old Valyria, and therefore, she doesn’t need to follow the rules of Westeros. Wearing a symbolic outfit of chainmail, she travels with Ser Alyn Velaryon to the Starry Sept. The High Septon refuses to anoint her queen, so she has him murdered. She then stands before the people of King’s Landing and makes a speech.
She recounts how she was the original heir named by Viserys, but then she takes her claim one step farther. “My rule was already ordained,” she says. “It was prophesied, long before Viserys was even born.”
She describes the Doom, the rise of Aegon the Conqueror, and how he was destined to defend the realm against “an ancient and sinister darkness that looms in the far North, beyond the Wall, beyond the lands of Winter.”
Anyone who’s seen Game of Thrones knows which threat she’s referring to: the White Walkers, who lie in wait beyond the Wall. She proclaims that she’s the only one who can fulfill this prophecy, not a Hightower. “I am the Prince That Was Promised!” she cries in Valyrian. It should be noted that in Valyrian, the word for “prince” is gender-neutral, so she is eligible.
Thanks to the magical power of dramatic irony, we know this isn’t true. For one, Rhaenyra’s fate is written in stone thanks to a random line from Joffrey Baratheon in Game of Thrones. But beyond that, the question of who really is the Prince That Was Promised is still up in the air a century later.
Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen are the most likely candidates for The Prince Who Was Promised.
Who Is The Prince That Was Promised?
It’s a very important question — the Song of Ice and Fire, the very legend the books are named after, is supposed to belong to this figure, but the books haven’t specified who exactly it is. Even in the show, there isn’t a solid answer, though there are two main candidates.
Jon Snow is the obvious option. After all, he is likely the “Aegon” Viserys mentioned on his deathbed back in House of the Dragon Season 1. He was also born of a combination of ice (Lyanna Stark) and fire (Rhaegar Targaryen), and he was resurrected by Melisandre to unite the realm to defend against the White Walkers.
The other big candidate is Daenerys Targaryen. As Rhaenyra said, the mysterious threat is one only dragons could defeat, and her dragons were there to help. But a huge bit of evidence lies in House of the Dragon itself. Back in Season 2, when Daemon was having his spooky Harrenhal dreams, he saw a vision of a young silver-haired girl in a desert with three dragons, obviously referencing Dany.
But regardless of who the Prince That Was Promised is, it’s definitely not Rhaenyra. Unfortunately, this proclamation is fueled by hubris, a little bit of religious psychosis, and a lot of Targaryen supremacy. As another prophetic book said, the pride goeth before the fall, and that may be what we see in Season 4.
