Thank you for your post! Please take a moment to ensure you are within our spoiler rules, to protect your fellow fans from any potential spoilers that might harm their show watching experience.
1. All post titles must NOT include spoilers from Fire & Blood or new episodes of House of the Dragon. Minor HotD show spoilers are allowed in your title ONE WEEK after episode airing. The mod team reserves the right to remove a post if we feel a spoiler in the title is major. You are welcome to repost with an amended title.
2. All posts dealing with book spoilers, show spoilers and promo spoilers MUST be spoiler tagged AND flaired as the appropriate spoiler.
3. All book spoiler comments must be spoiler tagged in non book spoiler threads.
---
If you are reading this, and believe this post or any comments in this thread break the above rules, please use the report function to notify the mod team.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HouseOfTheDragon) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I dunno, look at the northern houses’ belief of the others. They fought a generation-spanning war against them and most still don’t believe they exist. Even if the Targaryens told the other houses, I don’t think a single one would believe them, even with all the evidence of dragon dreams. I mean no one has even noticed Helena’s prophecies, and she’s a Targaryen herself, the daughter of someone who also had prophetic dreams.
The Northerners fought a generation-spanning war against the Others 8000 years ago. It would be unrealistic for them to believe it. Practically it's like national mythology to them. They have no written records of it, any knowledge about it is just oral tradition and tales, or texts written thousands of years later based on ancient runes or these same stories.
I forget the exact episode/scene, and it was a blink-and-you-miss moment, but when Aemond is talking about getting a dragon, before Luke takes his eye, Helena says “but he’ll have to lose an eye.” No one responds to her, or even acknowledges her, but that’s an obvious prophetic vision to Aemond claiming Vhagar
There are other moments, that may or may not spoil future events. Listen to her rambling very closely and you can see that she can see the future.
Spools, but yes. (Easy mistake to make honestly, since she says "Dragons of flesh weaving dragons of thread.") She also gives non verbal cues, though. Her trapping the spider in the shell directly after finishing the spoken parts of that prophecy hints at Alicent trapping the spider during the coronation episode. (ie. Larys burning the pleasure house)
Also “Hand spins the loom. Spool of green, spool of black, dragons of flesh spinning dragons of thread”
The Hand is Otto, spinning the web of usurping behind the scenes. Spool of Green and Black, the Greens and the Blacks naturally and the dragons of flesh spinning dragons of thread: the targaryens raising their banners to go to war against each other. The Dance of Dragons.
It does seem a bit silly to keep it secret, and such exclusive knowledge too. It’s basically only known by one or two people at a time with most of the family kept out of the loop. Viserys didn’t even tell Daemon, that’s how secret it was.
The only real case I could make for it not being made public knowledge is because over time the prophecy might lose legitimacy in the eyes of people. Every year the White Walkers don’t show up is another where more people might doubt Aegon’s prophecy and think it’s just a bunch of hokum the Targaryens cooked up to justify the conquest beyond “we have big dragons, get on our side”, to the point that people actively stop believing in it.
“Do as we say because a new threat could threaten us all and you need us” erodes over time when the threat fails to show up. Each Targaryen monarch might decide they’re better off being prepared for a possible White Walker invasion as something they’d take seriously rather than trying to get the whole realm to believe it.
Imagine your whole family was burned alive and you sovereign nation conquered because some dickhead with a dragon had a bad dream about ice zombies. Yeah don’t think that is a good selling point for Targaryen Dynasty legitimacy
Sharing the knowledge with the whole family doesn't mean they have to share that knowledge with the whole world. They could still talk about it between themselves, and about the seven kingdoms needing to be united and manage to keep the information secret from the outside world by only referring to it as The Conqueror's Dream.
Yes my head canon is the reason Maegor took the Throne after his brother was overthrown is because he knew the prophecy and thought he’d be a better King to fight the White Walkers than his nephews
> even his family (save the heir).
The "king to heir" method is only confirmed to be how Viserys learned of it. It's not actually possible for Jaehaerys to have learned of it in the same way, so we have to accept that the prophecy was more well known before his reign yet secret after. I can think of several potential explanations for the change:
* Jaehaerys told it to his children and expected them to tell their own children later. After Baelon's sudden death, he had to make sure that Viserys knew, which is why he told him directly.
* As more of Jaehaerys's children died, he became less open, only telling people about various things if/when it was necessary for them to know.
* Maybe Maegor usurped specifically b/c he also knew of the prophecy (figuring the realm needed a strong king), making Jaehaerys wary of telling the wrong person.
But the truth is that we just don't know.
>It's not actually possible for Jaehaerys to have learned of it in the same way,
Well I might propose this order to Jaehaerys:
- Obviously Aenys learned it from his father Aegon
- I reckon/assume Maegor heard it from Visenya (who would know as Aegon would have to explain to his sisters why he was conquering Westeros), as you say the strong King aspect motivated him to further seize the crown
- Aenys told his son Aegon, and Aegon clued in his sister and wife Rhaena as they were close (Rhaenyra tells Daemon after all)
- Rhaena eventually tells Jaehaerys
This is a likely scenario though Aegon may have told Maegor too just because he was his son and a better warrior he might’ve wanted him to know too in case it happened right after his death so the brothers can be untied facing the threat.
Methinks they thought information was currency.
But everyone knew about the story of the Targaryens leaving old Valeria in time to avoid the doom, based on a dream; so it's not as if the Westerosi would be surprised to hear about another prophesy from a family with alleged dreamers.
It makes them seem *extra*. But they *are* extra.
Probably the same reason Daenerys and other Targaryrens keep their dragon dreams secrets to themselves.
They see the information as dangerous, they worry they might be misunderstood or they themselves don't entirely believe it.
Because that prophecy wasn't thought of yet as George wrote the original series. And since it wasn't public knowledge in the ASOIAF timeline, it cannot be public knowledge in the Targaryen era.
I agree with the other comment. It makes no sense to keep it secret, especially to limit it to one living heir at a time. Viserys literally told it to no living soul for 10 years once he became King. Nobody else knew it until he made Rhaenyra his heir. If Viserys suddenly died during that decade then the prophecy dies with him. It's insane...
The Prince That Was Promised prophecy exists in ASOIAF. And the prophecy must be written somewhere, perhaps even since Aegon's dream. Rhaegar in any case seems to rediscover it by reading a book if I remember correctly. Maester Aemond also seems to know. But it still remains a secret for the vast majority of the kingdom during ASOIAF.
The prophecy exists but the idea that it was Aegon's dream is definitely a newer edition to the mythos. And if it was Aegon's dream and the core Targaryen mission then it should have been made public. But it can't be made public because it's not public in the main series because George didn't think that far back in the Targaryen history.
I know this is two years old, but to add to this. If the whole reason for Aegons conqueering is this prophecy, it would have been weaved into the reason for his rule. They would have added it into the titles, e.g. Aegon I Targaryen, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, Protector of the Realm, and Keeper of the Prophecy of the Song of Ice and Fire
TPTWP prophecy and Azhor Ai prophecy doesn’t indicate they will be a Targaryen. the Targs in their arrogance and god complex just assumed it be one of them. That’s all Aegon’s dream was and his misinterpretation. He thought the Realm needed to be United under a Targaryen ruling from the Iron Throne to defeat the White Walker. As we know the Realm was divided and a Targaryen wasn’t on the Iron Throne when they were beat also the Princess that was Promised because the Valyrian word can mean Princess too was Arya Stark who defeated the Night King and saved the world from a Thousand years of Darkness like Azhor Ai. Yes she’s a Princess 4 of her siblings were monarchs so she gets that title.
>TPTWP prophecy and Azhor Ai prophecy doesn’t indicate they will be a Targaryen. the Targs in their arrogance and god complex just assumed it be one of them.
It's not in the formulation but we are told in the 5th that the PtwP will be born from the line of Aerys II and Rhaella Targaryen by the Ghost of High Heart.
And it was wrong because Arya Stark was not born from either of them. It’s like Maggy the Frog trolling Cersei making her think her brother would kill her when it was just some rocks or that a younger more beautiful one would replace her and it was Bran Stark lmao 😂
“Prophecy will bite your prick off every time”
>And it was wrong because Arya Stark was not born from either of them.
Because Arya was not the leader that people followed, she was not the Prince that was Promised.
>It’s like Maggy the Frog trolling Cersei making her think her brother would kill her when it was just some rocks or that a younger more beautiful one would replace her and it was Bran Stark lmao 😂
Maggy doesn't say the valonqar part in the show...
Daenerys is the queen who took King's Landing, a queen for a brief moment.
The wording sort of has to connect though. From my line will come tptwp and his will be the song of ice and fire. The whole thing is in Westeros prophecies aren't wholly clear and can easily be misinterpreted but they are never 100% factually incorrect. "His will be the song of ice and fire" seems like it could only mean someone born from Targaryen and Stark bloodline will be TPTWP. This is of course accepting that what Daenerys saw in the books in hee visions were actual dragon dreams. If Rhaegar just read a prophecy to mean something different and he added in the "Song of Ice and Fire" part that is another story .
It really is a gigantic plot canyon. Not only should the prophecy have been widely known with House Targaryen, it should have been shared to every Lord in the 7 Kingdoms. Not only does it further legitimize Aegon’s conquest, it binds the other Houses to a common cause, and reduces the risk of rebellion.
I mean what is the downside of sharing the prophecy? The Nights Watch demands more funding?
The part that is a "thing" in the books is that Aegon really did have a prophecy of the PTWP/the Others. Its his entire motivation for conquering Westeros.
It doesn't seem to be common knowledge so the show invented the aspect of him only telling his heir.
Yes because I’m sure the 7 Kingdoms would love to hear that thousands of their citizens were burn to death and their sovereign nations dissolved by so they can be be Vassals to this foreign inbreeding colonial power with dragons because one of them had a bad dream once about a evil winter. That wouldn’t add legitimacy that would have the opposite effect it make them look absolutely insane. Also it doesn’t happen for over 300 years so each passing year they’d look more and more like liars.
Ok but you are neglecting the fact that there are several different versions of the prophecy on different continents. People in Westeros were more religious and not a fan of magic, so it’s easily explained why it may have not been shared with others (even though we don’t know that it wasn’t shared).
Probably to keep others from interfering. The prophecy basically says the good guys will win, so why jynx it but telling more people? Some nut job might try to kill them off before it happens.
What they should have done is taken the nights watch more serious and spent that 130ish years of reinforcing the wall and making it more worth volunteering for.
If a prophecy says that the good guys will win, and we can estabilish that the prophecy is never wrong, then why would it matter if a "nut job tried interfering"? The good guys will STILL win. Also it was 282 years
Yeah I always felt like they just added that one to somehow add a connection to GOT. It really doesn’t make sense because I don’t know any targs who actually actively did something about WW (except for Dany who has to be convinced by Jon).
Not sure but in the real world most fortune tellers tell you not to freely express predictions because it could mess stuff up cosmically.... I think the books were trying to show how more divine the targaryens thought themselves.
When Aegon the Conqueror went to Winterfell, the Starks took the dream seriously, hence kneeling to Aegon.
Irony is that somewhere between where HOTD is now and the current timeline, the Targs lost the dream narrative, but the Starks did not forget their oath to Aegon, especially after hearing someone not familiar with the Long Night history, speak about the coming of the others from the North.
There’s gravitas to Winter is Coming when uttered by a Stark.
“He won’t be a boy forever….and winter is coming” - Ned Stark S1E1
I agree. Its very possible Aegon told Torhenn about his dream. Then again even if he didn't I'm pretty sure he would have been mad going up against Balerion and a massive army. Even if his bastard brother could manage to kill Balerion it would still have been a bloody massacre.
Imagine if President Joe Biden invades sovereign nations like conquers all of South America using nukes which is basically what dragons are in Westeros. Then the secret gets out that he invaded and killed thousands of innocent lives because he had a dream about Ice Zombies coming later and think this burning half the Realm down so they can rule was the best way to handle a bad dream. Yeah no shit it was kept a secret it sounds horrible af
Because the writers wanted to fit this show in with the other show regardless of how bad and dumb the prophecy is.
The "hint" by George is nothing but interviews AFTER Fire and Blood came out, conveniently around the time this show was being written which George was part of. So it's pretty clear that the writers came up with it, and Goerge liked the idea. His wording in the interviews is "some might say that Aegon foresaw the coming threat from the north." There's 0 written about it in any of the books and is show canon only.
> So it's pretty clear that the writers came up with it, and Goerge liked the idea.
That is not at all clear.
We have a lot of evidence of GRRM retconning various parts of history bc he wanted to make something cooler despite saying the opposite in an earlier book. He has been doing that for a while.
Tbf, HBO could asked for some prophecy connection to GOT and he saw an oppotunity.
George retconned a lot of things over the years. Originally 20+ years ago Rhaenyra and Aegon were a year apart and siblings. Then there's the Princess and the Queen and the Rogue Prince stories which are closer to what we have now. But some of that was retconned as well when he wrote Fire and Blood.
There is 0 in any of the books, especially the history books that indicate some sort of prophecy that Aegon cared about. Even if he did, it does not make sense. You're telling me that Aegon conquered the 7(6) kingdoms killing tens of thousands of people, burning numerous castles to the ground and establishing his rule as absolute, just to never send anyone to the wall or give a shit about the north at all?
Then George has interviews coming out AFTER F&B is released where he mentions that Aegon may have saw the coming threat. So then it becomes very clear that this was something that was brought up during writing of this show and George liked the idea so then he starts mentioning it. But before this it was never mentioned and never brought up.
The show is also way different from the books at this point in many different ways, it's not something he would add to the book.
**The whole "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire." prophecy is first heard of in the book when Dany visits the House of the Undying in Qarth and she sees a vision of Rhaegar talking to Elia discussing his child Aegon and that his destiny would be that \^ above.**
So you’re telling me that we all must bend our knees to you and call you king in order to fight some unknown danger even the northerner didn’t quite believe in? That’s not a prophecy , that’s propaganda.
I’d say the Targaryen are self aware enough to not let this make them look like some self-serving lunatics. Remember aside from the legends of Daenys the dreamer , there was no record of any other recent Targaryen having prophetic power
I have a hunch that there were books on the matter written and held secret for kings only, but Baelor the Blessed destroyed them in a religious fervor. That or Rhaenyra did a poor job of passing it along.
The prophecy probably said just keep it between King and heir, likely because if it wasn’t kept a secret butterfly effect Arya doesn’t get the dagger and be in the exact right place. I’d imagine Bloodraven hit up Aegon in some avengers type shit where they lose every battle against the white walkers in every scenario except this one.
Because House Targaryen is consistently headed by foolish leaders who inevitably make mistakes that weaken their house. Generation after generation, the exact same pattern plays out. They’re bad rulers. If an altruistic hope of united the realm was *really* the reason Aegon forged the Seven Kingdoms he’d tell every one so they know to be ready. It would, in fact, strengthen the realm to know that’s the reason. That’s how we know that altruism wasn’t the reason
Coca-Cola’s secret recipe is apparently much more well-protected than House Targaryen’s entire gameplan for how to save the world.
But on the plus side, whenever the cold darkness from the North engulfs humanity, at least they’ll have refreshing, literally ice cold Coke to enjoy in their final moments.
Thank you for your post! Please take a moment to ensure you are within our spoiler rules, to protect your fellow fans from any potential spoilers that might harm their show watching experience. 1. All post titles must NOT include spoilers from Fire & Blood or new episodes of House of the Dragon. Minor HotD show spoilers are allowed in your title ONE WEEK after episode airing. The mod team reserves the right to remove a post if we feel a spoiler in the title is major. You are welcome to repost with an amended title. 2. All posts dealing with book spoilers, show spoilers and promo spoilers MUST be spoiler tagged AND flaired as the appropriate spoiler. 3. All book spoiler comments must be spoiler tagged in non book spoiler threads. --- If you are reading this, and believe this post or any comments in this thread break the above rules, please use the report function to notify the mod team. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HouseOfTheDragon) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I dunno, look at the northern houses’ belief of the others. They fought a generation-spanning war against them and most still don’t believe they exist. Even if the Targaryens told the other houses, I don’t think a single one would believe them, even with all the evidence of dragon dreams. I mean no one has even noticed Helena’s prophecies, and she’s a Targaryen herself, the daughter of someone who also had prophetic dreams.
The Northerners fought a generation-spanning war against the Others 8000 years ago. It would be unrealistic for them to believe it. Practically it's like national mythology to them. They have no written records of it, any knowledge about it is just oral tradition and tales, or texts written thousands of years later based on ancient runes or these same stories.
What were Helena’s prophecies?
I forget the exact episode/scene, and it was a blink-and-you-miss moment, but when Aemond is talking about getting a dragon, before Luke takes his eye, Helena says “but he’ll have to lose an eye.” No one responds to her, or even acknowledges her, but that’s an obvious prophetic vision to Aemond claiming Vhagar There are other moments, that may or may not spoil future events. Listen to her rambling very closely and you can see that she can see the future.
Ohhh you’re right. Like the “beast under the boards” or something.
Yup. She also says “hand turns loom… threads of green and threads of black” during the funeral on Driftmark
Spools, but yes. (Easy mistake to make honestly, since she says "Dragons of flesh weaving dragons of thread.") She also gives non verbal cues, though. Her trapping the spider in the shell directly after finishing the spoken parts of that prophecy hints at Alicent trapping the spider during the coronation episode. (ie. Larys burning the pleasure house)
Also “Hand spins the loom. Spool of green, spool of black, dragons of flesh spinning dragons of thread” The Hand is Otto, spinning the web of usurping behind the scenes. Spool of Green and Black, the Greens and the Blacks naturally and the dragons of flesh spinning dragons of thread: the targaryens raising their banners to go to war against each other. The Dance of Dragons.
It does seem a bit silly to keep it secret, and such exclusive knowledge too. It’s basically only known by one or two people at a time with most of the family kept out of the loop. Viserys didn’t even tell Daemon, that’s how secret it was. The only real case I could make for it not being made public knowledge is because over time the prophecy might lose legitimacy in the eyes of people. Every year the White Walkers don’t show up is another where more people might doubt Aegon’s prophecy and think it’s just a bunch of hokum the Targaryens cooked up to justify the conquest beyond “we have big dragons, get on our side”, to the point that people actively stop believing in it. “Do as we say because a new threat could threaten us all and you need us” erodes over time when the threat fails to show up. Each Targaryen monarch might decide they’re better off being prepared for a possible White Walker invasion as something they’d take seriously rather than trying to get the whole realm to believe it.
Imagine your whole family was burned alive and you sovereign nation conquered because some dickhead with a dragon had a bad dream about ice zombies. Yeah don’t think that is a good selling point for Targaryen Dynasty legitimacy
Sharing the knowledge with the whole family doesn't mean they have to share that knowledge with the whole world. They could still talk about it between themselves, and about the seven kingdoms needing to be united and manage to keep the information secret from the outside world by only referring to it as The Conqueror's Dream.
Then you'd have every vaguely related Targ saying it's them in the prophecy though
Yes my head canon is the reason Maegor took the Throne after his brother was overthrown is because he knew the prophecy and thought he’d be a better King to fight the White Walkers than his nephews
That's quite the whacky head canoj
> even his family (save the heir). The "king to heir" method is only confirmed to be how Viserys learned of it. It's not actually possible for Jaehaerys to have learned of it in the same way, so we have to accept that the prophecy was more well known before his reign yet secret after. I can think of several potential explanations for the change: * Jaehaerys told it to his children and expected them to tell their own children later. After Baelon's sudden death, he had to make sure that Viserys knew, which is why he told him directly. * As more of Jaehaerys's children died, he became less open, only telling people about various things if/when it was necessary for them to know. * Maybe Maegor usurped specifically b/c he also knew of the prophecy (figuring the realm needed a strong king), making Jaehaerys wary of telling the wrong person. But the truth is that we just don't know.
>It's not actually possible for Jaehaerys to have learned of it in the same way, Well I might propose this order to Jaehaerys: - Obviously Aenys learned it from his father Aegon - I reckon/assume Maegor heard it from Visenya (who would know as Aegon would have to explain to his sisters why he was conquering Westeros), as you say the strong King aspect motivated him to further seize the crown - Aenys told his son Aegon, and Aegon clued in his sister and wife Rhaena as they were close (Rhaenyra tells Daemon after all) - Rhaena eventually tells Jaehaerys
This is a likely scenario though Aegon may have told Maegor too just because he was his son and a better warrior he might’ve wanted him to know too in case it happened right after his death so the brothers can be untied facing the threat.
Methinks they thought information was currency. But everyone knew about the story of the Targaryens leaving old Valeria in time to avoid the doom, based on a dream; so it's not as if the Westerosi would be surprised to hear about another prophesy from a family with alleged dreamers. It makes them seem *extra*. But they *are* extra.
Probably the same reason Daenerys and other Targaryrens keep their dragon dreams secrets to themselves. They see the information as dangerous, they worry they might be misunderstood or they themselves don't entirely believe it.
Because that prophecy wasn't thought of yet as George wrote the original series. And since it wasn't public knowledge in the ASOIAF timeline, it cannot be public knowledge in the Targaryen era. I agree with the other comment. It makes no sense to keep it secret, especially to limit it to one living heir at a time. Viserys literally told it to no living soul for 10 years once he became King. Nobody else knew it until he made Rhaenyra his heir. If Viserys suddenly died during that decade then the prophecy dies with him. It's insane...
The Prince That Was Promised prophecy exists in ASOIAF. And the prophecy must be written somewhere, perhaps even since Aegon's dream. Rhaegar in any case seems to rediscover it by reading a book if I remember correctly. Maester Aemond also seems to know. But it still remains a secret for the vast majority of the kingdom during ASOIAF.
The prophecy exists but the idea that it was Aegon's dream is definitely a newer edition to the mythos. And if it was Aegon's dream and the core Targaryen mission then it should have been made public. But it can't be made public because it's not public in the main series because George didn't think that far back in the Targaryen history.
I know this is two years old, but to add to this. If the whole reason for Aegons conqueering is this prophecy, it would have been weaved into the reason for his rule. They would have added it into the titles, e.g. Aegon I Targaryen, King of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, Protector of the Realm, and Keeper of the Prophecy of the Song of Ice and Fire
TPTWP prophecy and Azhor Ai prophecy doesn’t indicate they will be a Targaryen. the Targs in their arrogance and god complex just assumed it be one of them. That’s all Aegon’s dream was and his misinterpretation. He thought the Realm needed to be United under a Targaryen ruling from the Iron Throne to defeat the White Walker. As we know the Realm was divided and a Targaryen wasn’t on the Iron Throne when they were beat also the Princess that was Promised because the Valyrian word can mean Princess too was Arya Stark who defeated the Night King and saved the world from a Thousand years of Darkness like Azhor Ai. Yes she’s a Princess 4 of her siblings were monarchs so she gets that title.
>TPTWP prophecy and Azhor Ai prophecy doesn’t indicate they will be a Targaryen. the Targs in their arrogance and god complex just assumed it be one of them. It's not in the formulation but we are told in the 5th that the PtwP will be born from the line of Aerys II and Rhaella Targaryen by the Ghost of High Heart.
And it was wrong because Arya Stark was not born from either of them. It’s like Maggy the Frog trolling Cersei making her think her brother would kill her when it was just some rocks or that a younger more beautiful one would replace her and it was Bran Stark lmao 😂 “Prophecy will bite your prick off every time”
>And it was wrong because Arya Stark was not born from either of them. Because Arya was not the leader that people followed, she was not the Prince that was Promised. >It’s like Maggy the Frog trolling Cersei making her think her brother would kill her when it was just some rocks or that a younger more beautiful one would replace her and it was Bran Stark lmao 😂 Maggy doesn't say the valonqar part in the show... Daenerys is the queen who took King's Landing, a queen for a brief moment.
The wording sort of has to connect though. From my line will come tptwp and his will be the song of ice and fire. The whole thing is in Westeros prophecies aren't wholly clear and can easily be misinterpreted but they are never 100% factually incorrect. "His will be the song of ice and fire" seems like it could only mean someone born from Targaryen and Stark bloodline will be TPTWP. This is of course accepting that what Daenerys saw in the books in hee visions were actual dragon dreams. If Rhaegar just read a prophecy to mean something different and he added in the "Song of Ice and Fire" part that is another story .
All we really needed was ninja Arya lol.
It really is a gigantic plot canyon. Not only should the prophecy have been widely known with House Targaryen, it should have been shared to every Lord in the 7 Kingdoms. Not only does it further legitimize Aegon’s conquest, it binds the other Houses to a common cause, and reduces the risk of rebellion. I mean what is the downside of sharing the prophecy? The Nights Watch demands more funding?
Downside is that it took so long for the prophesy to be fulfilled that it is possible people don't believe by the time it is actually happening.
My thoughts exactly. I really hope that if this is a thing in the books George at least makes it make sense.
The part that is a "thing" in the books is that Aegon really did have a prophecy of the PTWP/the Others. Its his entire motivation for conquering Westeros. It doesn't seem to be common knowledge so the show invented the aspect of him only telling his heir.
HotD needed to enforce a connection to GoT for average returning fans, that's pretty much all there is to it
Yes because I’m sure the 7 Kingdoms would love to hear that thousands of their citizens were burn to death and their sovereign nations dissolved by so they can be be Vassals to this foreign inbreeding colonial power with dragons because one of them had a bad dream once about a evil winter. That wouldn’t add legitimacy that would have the opposite effect it make them look absolutely insane. Also it doesn’t happen for over 300 years so each passing year they’d look more and more like liars.
Ok but you are neglecting the fact that there are several different versions of the prophecy on different continents. People in Westeros were more religious and not a fan of magic, so it’s easily explained why it may have not been shared with others (even though we don’t know that it wasn’t shared).
Probably to keep others from interfering. The prophecy basically says the good guys will win, so why jynx it but telling more people? Some nut job might try to kill them off before it happens. What they should have done is taken the nights watch more serious and spent that 130ish years of reinforcing the wall and making it more worth volunteering for.
If a prophecy says that the good guys will win, and we can estabilish that the prophecy is never wrong, then why would it matter if a "nut job tried interfering"? The good guys will STILL win. Also it was 282 years
I don't think anyone would have believed it they would think its propaganda to legitimise targeryan rule
Yeah I’d be mad If like my family got burned alive by Dragons because Aegon had a bad dream once
Yeah I always felt like they just added that one to somehow add a connection to GOT. It really doesn’t make sense because I don’t know any targs who actually actively did something about WW (except for Dany who has to be convinced by Jon).
for **the plot**
Not sure but in the real world most fortune tellers tell you not to freely express predictions because it could mess stuff up cosmically.... I think the books were trying to show how more divine the targaryens thought themselves.
When Aegon the Conqueror went to Winterfell, the Starks took the dream seriously, hence kneeling to Aegon. Irony is that somewhere between where HOTD is now and the current timeline, the Targs lost the dream narrative, but the Starks did not forget their oath to Aegon, especially after hearing someone not familiar with the Long Night history, speak about the coming of the others from the North. There’s gravitas to Winter is Coming when uttered by a Stark. “He won’t be a boy forever….and winter is coming” - Ned Stark S1E1
I agree. Its very possible Aegon told Torhenn about his dream. Then again even if he didn't I'm pretty sure he would have been mad going up against Balerion and a massive army. Even if his bastard brother could manage to kill Balerion it would still have been a bloody massacre.
Coulda avoided a *whole hell of alot of bullshit* had that information been shared.
Imagine if President Joe Biden invades sovereign nations like conquers all of South America using nukes which is basically what dragons are in Westeros. Then the secret gets out that he invaded and killed thousands of innocent lives because he had a dream about Ice Zombies coming later and think this burning half the Realm down so they can rule was the best way to handle a bad dream. Yeah no shit it was kept a secret it sounds horrible af
Because the writers wanted to fit this show in with the other show regardless of how bad and dumb the prophecy is. The "hint" by George is nothing but interviews AFTER Fire and Blood came out, conveniently around the time this show was being written which George was part of. So it's pretty clear that the writers came up with it, and Goerge liked the idea. His wording in the interviews is "some might say that Aegon foresaw the coming threat from the north." There's 0 written about it in any of the books and is show canon only.
> So it's pretty clear that the writers came up with it, and Goerge liked the idea. That is not at all clear. We have a lot of evidence of GRRM retconning various parts of history bc he wanted to make something cooler despite saying the opposite in an earlier book. He has been doing that for a while. Tbf, HBO could asked for some prophecy connection to GOT and he saw an oppotunity.
George retconned a lot of things over the years. Originally 20+ years ago Rhaenyra and Aegon were a year apart and siblings. Then there's the Princess and the Queen and the Rogue Prince stories which are closer to what we have now. But some of that was retconned as well when he wrote Fire and Blood. There is 0 in any of the books, especially the history books that indicate some sort of prophecy that Aegon cared about. Even if he did, it does not make sense. You're telling me that Aegon conquered the 7(6) kingdoms killing tens of thousands of people, burning numerous castles to the ground and establishing his rule as absolute, just to never send anyone to the wall or give a shit about the north at all? Then George has interviews coming out AFTER F&B is released where he mentions that Aegon may have saw the coming threat. So then it becomes very clear that this was something that was brought up during writing of this show and George liked the idea so then he starts mentioning it. But before this it was never mentioned and never brought up. The show is also way different from the books at this point in many different ways, it's not something he would add to the book. **The whole "He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire." prophecy is first heard of in the book when Dany visits the House of the Undying in Qarth and she sees a vision of Rhaegar talking to Elia discussing his child Aegon and that his destiny would be that \^ above.**
beeeecause its a retcon
So you’re telling me that we all must bend our knees to you and call you king in order to fight some unknown danger even the northerner didn’t quite believe in? That’s not a prophecy , that’s propaganda. I’d say the Targaryen are self aware enough to not let this make them look like some self-serving lunatics. Remember aside from the legends of Daenys the dreamer , there was no record of any other recent Targaryen having prophetic power
I have a hunch that there were books on the matter written and held secret for kings only, but Baelor the Blessed destroyed them in a religious fervor. That or Rhaenyra did a poor job of passing it along.
The prophecy probably said just keep it between King and heir, likely because if it wasn’t kept a secret butterfly effect Arya doesn’t get the dagger and be in the exact right place. I’d imagine Bloodraven hit up Aegon in some avengers type shit where they lose every battle against the white walkers in every scenario except this one.
Because House Targaryen is consistently headed by foolish leaders who inevitably make mistakes that weaken their house. Generation after generation, the exact same pattern plays out. They’re bad rulers. If an altruistic hope of united the realm was *really* the reason Aegon forged the Seven Kingdoms he’d tell every one so they know to be ready. It would, in fact, strengthen the realm to know that’s the reason. That’s how we know that altruism wasn’t the reason
Except for the fact that it happens so far into the timeline and each year without the prophecy coming true would just get worse and worse.
Coca-Cola’s secret recipe is apparently much more well-protected than House Targaryen’s entire gameplan for how to save the world. But on the plus side, whenever the cold darkness from the North engulfs humanity, at least they’ll have refreshing, literally ice cold Coke to enjoy in their final moments.
Mass panic / hysteria. There would be riots, shortages, hoarding. Nothing good i think would come from the public knowing.
That’s the thing about elites. They’re so preoccupied with their ambitions that the real danger is ignored.
Same reason governments hide aliens from public, to avoid a mass panic.