Why Aegon II being king doesn’t fulfill the Song of Ice and Fire prophecy

“He is the Prince that was Promised, and his is the a song of ice and fire.” Ever since readers first heard Rhaegar Targaryen utter those words in George R.R. Martin’s novel A Clash of Kings during Daenerys’ journey through the House of the Undying, theories have swirled about their meaning. Who is the Prince Who Was Promised, and what exactly is the song of ice and fire?

While Game of Thrones touched on this later in its run, hinting that the prophecy could refer to either Jon Snow or Daenerys Targaryen, House of the Dragon is folding the prophecy more deeply into its narrative. At the end of the season premiere, King Viserys reveals to his new heir Rhaenyra that the “song of ice and fire” is in fact a prophetic dream of Aegon the Conqueror; it foretells that the realm will only be able to stand against a dire threat from the cold north if it’s led by a Targaryen.

This prophecy plays an important role in the show’s eighth and ninth episodes, when King Viserys tries to speak of it with his dying words and his wife Alicent misinterprets it as an endorsement for their son Aegon sitting the Iron Throne. In the season finale, Rhaenyra reflects on how she was charged with keeping the realm together to uphold this prophecy…but it brings up a curious question: wouldn’t Aegon II Targaryen sitting on the Iron Throne also keep the song of ice and fire prophecy alive? After all, he’s a Targaryen too.

Rhaenyra is “uniquely qualified” to fulfill the Song of Ice and Fire prophecy

Showrunner Ryan Condal shared some thoughts on this conundrum during a recent interview with Deadline, where he discussed the unreliable nature of prophecies in George R.R. Martin’s world:

"It’s not as easy and clear cut as that. I think what Rhaenyra is struggling with is this idea that her father has entrusted this charge with her, and that she is the named heir, and the other side has seized the throne. She’s been told that Viserys changed his mind on his death bed but I don’t think Rhaenyra believes any of that for a minute, because he backed her. We saw him in episode eight climb the throne in that beautiful scene and essentially back her claim. So she’s dealing with the fact that she is the named heir and also that she thinks she is uniquely qualified to be somebody who keeps the realm at peace and to unite everybody. She does not think that Aegon is the guy to carry on the charge, nor does she believe that Viserys ever entrusted the secret with him. So she’s wrestling with the idea that she’s been asked to keep the realm of peace, but also she’s the rightful heir. That’s the thing that she’s really struggling with over the course of episode 10, when all the men around the table just want to charge off for war."

After seeing Aegon tugged out from under a table and literally forced onto the throne, it’s easy to see that he would clearly not be suited to keep the realm together against any sort of real threat. The irony, of course, is that the White Walkers won’t invade for nearly two more centuries, so none of these Targaryens can really fulfill the prophecy. But such is often the nature of prophecies in the hands of George R.R. Martin: they rarely work out like you expect.

“I think that’s one of the lovely things about the way George R.R. Martin writes prophecy: it’s a bit messy,” Condal explained. “I think part of the fun of this series as it unfolds is that … we’ve seen how this ends. The fun is to play with it in the middle as everybody’s wrestling with what does this mean? Everybody takes a myopic worldview, or at least an autocratic worldview. When Aegon had the dream, he assumed that the White Walkers were gonna come across the wall in his lifetime. And when Viserys heard it, he assumed that it was gonna happen in his lifetime. And then Rhaenyra thinks it’s gonna happen early. They don’t realize that they’re preparing for an eventual future that is decades, if not centuries away. We know where it ends. We know the Titanic sinks in the end. What’s interesting is what happens along the way and how we got there.”

House of the Dragon season 1 is streaming now on HBO Max.

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