The season 2 finale of House of the Dragon, "The Queen Who Ever Was," included a surprise appearance from Daenerys Targaryen, the iconic Game of Thrones character played by Emilia Clarke (and by Imogen Ruby Little in the prequel show). Daenerys won't be born for over a century in the future, but Daemon Targaryen saw her as part of a vision that also showed him the war against the White Walkers, another thing that won't happen for a very long time.
Daemon Targaryen’s vision of the Song of Ice and Fire #HouseOfTheDragon pic.twitter.com/YPhKKmtJHX
— westerosies (@westerosies) August 5, 2024
"It's all kind of related, which is this idea that House of the Dragon is a prequel story to this very famous story, one of the biggest if not the biggest television story of all time. There needs to be some interconnectivity," showrunner Ryan Condal explained to reporters, per Entertainment Weekly. "And because so many years have passed, there are really no characters that would be alive from our time period that exists in the subsequent series, so we were always looking for this interconnectivity between the two."
Essentially, Daemon is seeing what Aegon the Conqueror saw over a hundred years ago; it's the same vision he passed on to his heir, who passed it on to his heir, and so on until King Viserys told Rhaenyra about it in the series premiere. Rhaenyra recently passed this prophecy, known as the Song of Ice and Fire, onto her own son and heir, Jace.
The Song of Ice and Fire prophecy says that a Targaryen must be in control of the Seven Kingdoms when the White Walkers descend if humanity is to have any hope of surviving. The identity of that Targaryen, sometimes called the Prince Who Was Promised, is debated; after all, George R.R. Martin hasn't finished his Song of Ice and Fire series. Some people think it's Daenerys, some people think it's Jon Snow. Knowing Martin, it will probably end up being more complicated than that.
Nevertheless, those fans who think Jon is the Chosen One wondered why it was Daenerys and not him who showed up in Daemon's vision. Condal thinks it's a little more specific to Daemon. "We are not trying to make any kind of specific interpretation of a prophecy that has yet to be revealed by its author. That is George's world and George's space to tell that story. We're more interested in playing with the character drama that lives in and around that imagery," he said. "The connectiveness between this family and the family to come, and Daemon seeing something that we know who that is watching that image, Daemon has no idea. That could be his future daughter with Rhaenyra who has three dragons born. He doesn't know, but he is sensing that this was something that was shown to me for a specific reason."
"We know Rhaenyra is already kind of running with this idea of the Prince Who Was Promised. If Daemon also believes that that is Rhaenyra, as we've seen him say to her in High Valyrian in [the finale], there's a very interesting thing that can be done with his interpretation of that reality as we move forward. So for that reason, I think it was important that it was Daenerys, the image."
Personally, I don't think there needs to be a reason why Daemon sees Daenerys rather than Jon; I don't understand the rules of freaky tree visions and neither does anyone else save maybe George R.R. Martin, so who am I to say who should or shouldn't show up in them?
My concern is more than Daemon could become a duller character now that he's motivated by these visions from outside the story rather than anything internal, but I guess I'll have to wait for season 3 to see what happens. See you in 2026.
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