In a recent interview with Vanity Fair there was discussion about House of the Dragon prophecies. ASOIAF creator GRRM also gave his thoughts and blessing to this dramatic detail from the new show. It has left some fans unhappy about what they consider a change to the mythology, but they’re so wrong.

Now, normally I’d plaster this story with SPOILER warnings as the press might have seen House of the Dragon but you and I have not. However this specific detail is more in connection with the main Game of Thrones series and the story that this universe was created around. Whilst GRRM (George R. R. Martin) has yet to finish the story he began, that story has already played out in TV land.

House of the Dragon Prophecies

Showrunner Ryan Condal explains below where this comes from.

“I think the Game of Thrones nerds were very interested and intrigued and compelled by the secret that Viserys tells Rhaenyra, connecting Aegon [the first king of the family and the original Westeros conqueror] with the prophecies that we know about the Long Night and the Others [a.k.a. the White Walkers] and the Night King coming out of the North—and how maybe the Targaryen dynasty was aware of it long before we think they were.”

Interested might be the wrong word. Many of the fans were furious and calling this a retcon. However as Condal explains, this was all approved before hand by GRRM himself.

“I think they were very intrigued by that. A lot of them said I committed A Song of Ice and Fire heresy, but I did tell them: “That came from George.” I reassured everybody.”

The Author’s Canon Trumps Your Canon

Martin clarified to the interviewer how this connects to his as yet unfinished story.

“It’s mentioned here and there—in connection with Prince Rhaegar, for example [the brother of Daenerys, played on Game of Thrones by Wilf Scolding]. I mean, it’s such a sprawling thing now. In the Dunk and Egg stories [about a future king, “Egg,” a.k.a. Aegon V], there’s one of Egg’s brothers who has these prophetic dreams, which of course he can’t handle. He had become a drunkard because they freaked him out. If you go all the way back to Daenys the Dreamer, why did she leave? She saw the Doom of Valyria coming. All of this is part of it, but I’m still two books away from the ending, so I haven’t fully explained it all yet.”

“I don’t want to give too much away, because some of this is going to be in the later books, but this is 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones. There was no sell-by date on that prophecy. That’s the issue. The Targaryens that know about it are all thinking, Okay, this is going to happen in my lifetime, I have to be prepared! Or, It’s going to happen in my son’s lifetime. Nobody said it’s going to happen 200 years from now. If the Dance of the Dragons had not happened, what would’ve happened to the next generation? What would’ve happened in the generation after that? Yeah, there’s a lot to be unwound there.”

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So I’ve been knee deep in the online discussion for this. In a bold move there are some fans still arguing that Martin has retconned his original ideas. Let’s be clear. The author and creator of this fantasy series still has two books left to finish the story. If he has an idea, even if it’s whilst he’s writing the last page of book 5, to have this prophecy be something passed down until forgotten by Targaryen rulers, then it’s the new canon.

You can’t meddle with a story you have not finished yet, that’s just writing the story. If Martin explains this in more detail in the later books and links it back to the ending which he admits will be very different from the show, then that’s it. Just because fans have had to wait a very long time for a new book and come up with all their own theories does not invalidate Martin’s right to keep changing that story as he see’s fit until he decides it’s ready to be read. Then this finished series is what the canon will be based on.  If it ever does get finished, Martin also says he’s given up trying to guess when the next book will be ready.

But……

Some fans may say that if he had finished the books in a timely manner before writing Fire and Blood then this would never have been in the books. Or that if House of the Dragon had never been made this would not have been in the books. However, my point stands. Until that story is finished in the way Martin wants, he can change any damn thing he likes and it doesn’t count as a ‘retcon’. Can we get a real word for this practice by the way? I hate using that made up one.

The main argument against all this? What I am seeing is fans who say that this makes the Targaryen’s look extremely incompetent. They should have focused on the North. Perhaps  they should have investigated why their dragons couldn’t pass the wall and manned up the Wall, etc? Well, how much would you believe in this prophecy many many hundreds of years later after nothing has happened and you’re just a normal human who happens to be a king or queen?

if Martin wants to show it this way, so be it. You can criticize the story as going in a direction you didn’t care for. Just the same way you would any other completed story. However at the same time you can’t blame the author if people have made their minds about about the mythology before you’ve even finished writing it.

What do you think as GRRM opens up about the House of the Dragon prophecies and how it all fits in to his larger story? You may not like the idea, but do you agree with me? That the author has the write to change that story in anyway way, for good or bad before it’s finished?

Thoughts below as always.

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