Why Aegon’s Song Of Ice & Fire Dream Is Missing From GOT Despite Rhaenyra’s Speech Clarified By Ryan Condal

WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for House of the Dragon’s season 3 finale!

Rhaenyra’s speech in House of the Dragon‘s season 3 finale makes Aegon the Conqueror’s prophecy being entirely absent from Game of Thrones more difficult to explain.

House of the Dragon‘s series premiere in 2022 came with a surprising franchise retcon, in which King Viserys I revealed to young Princess Rhaenyra that Aegon the Conqueror’s takeover of Westeros was compelled by a prophetic dream. Having passed down this prophecy, which Aegon called the Song of Ice and Fire, to each chosen Iron Throne successor in the Targaryen line, the secretive dream foresaw an apocalyptic winter from far in the North that would destroy mankind, with the only way to save the living being to unite the realm under a Targaryen on the Iron Throne.

Rhaenyra and Viserys looking upon the skull of Balerion.

While the prophecy wasn’t mentioned in Game of Thrones, which ultimately fulfilled the dream in the original series’ ending, its absence made sense due to the secrecy around the prophecy and the Targaryens being overthrown when Daenerys was just an infant. However, in House of the Dragon season 3, episode 8, Rhaenyra makes a public speech to the people of King’s Landing unveiling Aegon’s Dream and her ordained rule, complicating the explanation for its absence from Westerosi histories.

In a press conference for House of the Dragon‘s season 3 finale, at which ScreenRant was in attendance, showrunner Ryan Condal addressed why Aegon’s Dream never became widespread knowledge in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms or Game of Thrones‘ timelines. According to Condal, historians were unable to agree on whether Rhaenyra’s claim about Aegon the Conqueror’s prophecy was legitimate or another form of Targaryen “self-aggrandizement,” so it was ignored in historical texts:

Ryan Condal: “Well, look, I mean, it’s something that is, certainly, it’s not in the book and it’s not in the history. But there is a bunch of talk about how Rhaenyra became very despotic and a tyrant at the end and was very unpopular with the people. So we saw it as, this could just be something that happened and there was disagreement over exactly what it was. So it didn’t make the historical record.

My sort of glib toss off from the historians is ‘Well, Targaryens say crazy sh*t all the time.’ So much of their existence is this self-aggrandizement and for the people, you know, the stonemasons standing there in the crowd just looking up at this, it could just sound like somebody trying to make something of themselves. Because they had no idea of all the ‘real history’ that went into Rhaenyra making that speech.”

Though Aegon’s Song of Ice and Fire dream isn’t included in George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood novel, on which the prequel series is based, Martin teased the White Walker prophecy during interviews all the way back in 2018. Condal later revealed that the author provided him with the basis of the prophecy back in the writers room for House of the Dragon season 1, but it still hasn’t officially made its way into one of Martin’s publications.

In addition to revealing the prophecy to King’s Landing citizens outside the Great Sept, Rhaenyra’s son Joffrey is told about and given the responsibilities and burdens of Aegon’s Dream now that he’s the Queen’s heir. However, with Joffrey only being about six or seven years old in House of the Dragon season 3, it’s difficult to know if he understood the weight and reality of the prophecy any better than the stonemasons listening to Rhaenyra’s speech.

Since Mysaria secretly watched Rhaenyra’s speech, it also remains to be seen whether Aegon’s Dream will be passed along to the Greens, especially since Rhaenyra claimed that the Hightower family line cannot fulfill the prophecy. If it’s told to Aegon and Aemond, they could still try to use the prophecy to further legitimize themselves, with Aegon already experiencing a “messianic return” alongside his dragon, Sunfyre, that many in King’s Landing have taken as a sign from the gods.

While Aegon’s Song of Ice and Fire dream never makes it into the Targaryen family’s histories even despite Rhaenyra’s public speech, there still lies the mystery of when exactly the Targaryens stop passing along the prophecy. It’s possible that knowledge of the prophecy dies with the end of the Dance of the Dragons, or may even secretly continue on until the death of the Mad King Aerys II and Daenerys’ brother Rhaegar Targaryen. With House of the Dragon season 4 being the series’ last, the future fate of the prophecy will hopefully receive a more concrete answer.

House of the Dragon‘s season 3 finale is now available to watch on HBO and HBO Max.