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‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Finale Prophecies Explained: All About Daemon’s Vision of Bloodraven and How Aemond Dies
By Meghan O'Keefe,
10 hours ago
The House of the Dragon Season 2 finale on HBO gave Daemon Targaryen ( Matt Smith ) his wildest weirwood-induced visions yet. For weeks, we’ve watched as Daemon struggled to sleep and saw strange things while staying at Harrenhal. He’s been visited by more than one ghost from his past, but in House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 8 “The Queen Who Never Was,” Alys Rivers ( Gayle Rankin ) invites him to get a glimpse of the future.
**Spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 8 “The Queen Who Never Was,” now streaming on Max**
About midway through the House of the Dragon Season 2 finale, Alys Rivers leads Daemon into the godswood to show him “omens” of the future. He has always attempted to control his fate, she notes, but is he ready to see what his role is in the grand scheme of history? He touches the bloody sap of the Heart Tree and gets a wild series of visions from the future.
He sees first, the roots of the weirwood tree, which in turn lead him to an iconic character from the books called “Bloodraven” ( Joshua Ben-Tovim ). A three-eyed raven flies into frame, meant to confirm this is the younger character of the mystical “Three-Eyed Raven” that Max von Sydow played in Game of Thrones.
The vision goes even further into Game of Thrones lore, showing us the White Walkers descending upon the realm, dead dragons, three dragon eggs, and ultimately a young Daenerys cradling her newborn dragons.
Then we return to the characters of House of the Dragon . Daemon sees Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) sitting on the Iron Throne and then Helaena (Phia Saban) speaks. “It’s all a story and you are but one part in it,” she says. “You know your part.”
After that, Daemon shares his vision of “A Song of Ice and Fire” to Rhaenyra, noting that “Winter is Coming” and that she is his queen.
Interestingly, the show immediately cuts after this to Helaena speaking to Daemon all the way in King’s Landing. Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) walks in on her after she says, “You know what you must do.”
Aemond attempts to once more coax Helaena into flying Dreamfyre into battle with him so they can kill Daemon and destroy his army. Helaena then reveals that she knows Aemond burned Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney). He denies it, but she says she’s seen it. She then goes further, telling Aemond details of the future fans know from George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood .
“Aegon will be king again. He’s yet to see victory. He sits on a wooden throne,” she says. “And you…you’ll be dead.”
“You were swallowed up in the God’s Eye and you were never seen again.”
It’s a lot of prophecy to drop on two characters — and the entire House of the Dragon — at one time. Especially since most viewers don’t have a heavily annotated copy of Fire & Blood on their bookshelf.
So you recognized the White Walkers and you totally knew Daemon was seeing Daenerys, but what’s the deal with the guy with the birthmark? What is the God’s Eye? Who was that weird dude with antlers Daemon saw lurking in the godswood? And did Helaena just spoil the ending of the whole show? Here’s what you need to know about Daemon’s visions and Heleana’s prophecy in the House of the Dragon Season 2 finale.
Who is Bloodraven? Meet Bryndon Rivers, aka The Three-Eyed Raven
Didn’t have a clue who the dude with a birthmark hanging out in the roots of a weirdwood tree was supposed to be? That’s because this a vision of a younger version of one of the most mysterious characters in Game of Thrones : The Three-Eyed Raven.
While we met an old version of this all-knowing character through Bran’s (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) travels north of the Wall, he was also incredibly important as a young man.
Before he was the Three-Eyed Raven, he was Bryndon Rivers, one of the many important bastards of Aegon IV, aka Aegon the Unworthy. Bryndon Rivers was the son of this debauched Targaryen king and his favorite mistress, Lady Melissa Blackwood. He was called Bloodraven thanks to the blood red birthmark on his face, one that some thought resembled a raven.
Bloodraven was a key character in the Blackfyre Rebellion and the ensuing years. He should be a major player in HBO’s next Game of Thrones spin-off, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms .
How Does Aemond Die? All About Heleana’s Prophecy About the God’s Eye:
In a strange twist, House of the Dragon might have just spoiled part of its own ending with Helaena’s prophecy about Aemond’s death. Helaena’s lines about Aegon returning victorious to King’s Landing while Aemond’s dead, “swallowed up in the God’s Eye,” are 1000% what happens in George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood .
Per Larys Strong’s (Matthew Needham) plans, Aegon does go into exile for a span of time before returning to the chaotic ruins of the war to come. Again, more spoilers, but as the finale hints, Rhaenyra’s rule won’t be as peaceful as she and Alicent (Olivia Cooke) plan. Too many armies are on the match, too many grieved parties thirst for vengeance, and more dragons are in the field than ever before. Without spoiling everything , Aegon will eventually return and rule again.
Aemond will persist in fighting Rhaenyra. (Could you expect this guy to surrender?) At some point, Aemond and Daemon will be locked in battle above the God’s Eye. What’s that? Well the God’s Eye is a sacred lake south of Harrenhal. In the middle of the lake is a mystical island known as the Isle of Faces. In the books, Aemond and Daemon kill each other in this final fight, with Daemon literally impaling Aemond’s other eye with his Valyrian sword, Dark Sister. Aemond’s body falls to the bottom of the God’s Eye and he is never seen again. Daemon, again, also dies, fulfilling Alys’s early Season 2 prediction that he will “die in this place,” the place being Harrenhal and its nearby lake.
That said, this episode is also chock full of events that are seismically different from Fire & Blood , so maybe this is a red herring. Maybe Aemond won’t die battling Daemon above the God’s Eye.
Photo: HBO Who Was That Weird Antler Creature in House of the Dragon Season 2 Finale?
If you blinked, you might have missed it, but right before Daemon touches the Heart Tree, he sees what appears to be a humanoid with antlers skulking about the Harrenhal godswood. Then, antler man is gone.
In George R.R. Martin’s lore, ancient, magical beings dwelt on the Isle of Faces at the beginning of Westeros’s history. The green men allegedly had antlers and green, mottled skin. They were contemporaries of the Children of the Forest and the First Men. Some in George R.R. Martin’s world theorize that these were just normal men wearing ceremonial garb. Others think they were magical creatures. It’s rumored they still dwell on the Isle of Faces…and it looks like House of the Dragon just confirmed that they do! And that they visit Harrenhal occasionally.
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