Viserys hinted at Aegon’s Prophecy to Daemon in a deleted scene from House of the Dragon

In A Song of Ice and Fire, Aegon’s prophecy is about to cause one of the worst wars in Westerosi history. Although nothing of this sort was detailed in the book Fire & Blood, In the first half of the episode, Rhaenyra asks to be assured by her father that she is the one who will carry this prophecy forward. Viserys (Paddy Considine)  could not answer immediately as he was on the milk of the poppy, which caused brain fog. In the last scene of the episode, Alicent visits his chambers; unbeknownst to Viserys, he assures Alicent instead of Rhaenyra. And Alicent mistakes Aegon the Conqueror for her son.

Speaking on this matter with The New York Times, Paddy Considine said, “The fact that Alicent misinterprets it is horrific. What comes next would horrify Viserys. I mean, we have this knowledge of where this goes and the fact that [the prophecy] did come true. But the fact that it’s misunderstood is an absolute disaster. Viserys would be turning in his grave.”

A Song of Ice and Fire

This prophecy is only passed from one Targaryen King to his heir. But, Considine shares that they filmed a scene where Viserys tried to tell Daemon of the prophecy. In this scene, King Viserys wanted to test the waters with Daemon’s sense of responsibility. He wanted to see if it telling his brother would be the right decision. “That’s something that we struggled with. There was a scene that was deleted after Aemma (Sian Brooke) died, where Viserys meets with Daemon, and he tries to hint at this idea of prophecies and what the gods mean to him.”

The actor continues, “He was trying to get some idea where Daemon’s at with his beliefs, but the tone of the scene was never quite right. There’s no way that Daemon would even connect to that — he’d laugh Viserys out of the room. He’s not into dreamers or things like that”. This dream is meant to be honored, but we doubt the person who toasted to his dead nephew would take this seriously.

This prophetic dream is what motivated Aegon the Conqueror to take over Westeros. He believed only a Targaryen from his bloodline could save humanity against the Long Night. His Valyrian steel dagger’s inscription reads: “From my blood comes the prince that was promised, and his will be the song of ice and fire”. Maybe Viserys felt like sharing this secret with his brother, who was then second in line to the throne. He knew from personal experience that the council favored a male sibling over a female heir. It would make sense then for Viserys to share A Song of Ice and Fire with his younger brother.

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