In this week’s ‘Send the Ravens’, we take a look at the prophecy of the Three-Headed Dragon and answer your ‘Game of Thrones’ questions…
By Damon Martin — Editor/Lead Writer
It’s hard to believe that another season of ‘Game of Thrones’ is about to come to an end but the 80-minute finale airing this Sunday titled ‘The Dragon and the Wolf’ will bring the penultimate season to an end. That means after Sunday night, we only have six episodes of ‘Game of Thrones’ remaining until the series is completed.
Don’t shed too many tears just yet because there’s still plenty to get to including several questions this week including one very interesting prophecy that’s been mentioned numerous times throughout the history of ‘Game of Thrones’.
The question originally came from Brad Wharton on Twitter, who asked about the Three-Headed Dragon prophecy following the death of Daenerys’ dragon Viserion after he was shot down by the Night King and then reanimated as one of his servants.
First things first, let’s talk about the Three-Headed Dragon prophecy.
This goes back to season two on ‘Game of Thrones’ when Daenerys was a prisoner in the House of the Undying when she was at Qarth. On the show, Daenerys visited several visions including one that showed the Iron Throne room covered in snow as well as another with her dead husband Khal Drogo and their unborn son Rhaego. Now the books had a much deeper vision quest for Daenerys including one where she visited a room inhabited by her older brother Rhaegar Targaryen where he told a prophecy about the Three-Headed Dragon.
In the room, Daenerys sees Rhaegar speaking to his wife while caring for their infant son, who they name Aegon and who he proclaims will be ‘the prince that was promised’ while adding that his is ‘the song of ice and fire’. Rhaegar already had a daughter named Rhaenys so in the vision he appears to look at Daenerys and says ‘there must be one more, the dragon had three heads’.
Now most believe that this prophecy ultimately leads to Daenerys Targaryen and her three dragons and the riders who would mount them in battle. Daenerys has already chosen Drogon, named after her late husband, as the one she will ride but the death of Viserion last week seems to eliminate at least one possible component of that whole three headed dragon prophecy.
The original idea was that Daenerys would be joined by Jon Snow, who is the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Lyanna Stark, as well as possibly Tyrion Lannister. There have been theories for years that Tyrion might actually be the son of Aerys Targaryen and Joanna Lannister, who many theorized was raped by ‘The Mad King’ before giving birth to a dwarf. That would explain why Tywin Lannister hates Tyrion so much. Unfortunately that theory seems largely debunked now considering Tyrion has no dragon to ride and the reason why Tywin hated his son so much was because he was born and then his wife Joanna died from giving birth.
So what does that mean for the Three-Headed Dragon Prophecy — well more than likely there won’t be anything else coming from this theory during the series except for one possible piece of the language spoken by Rhaegar in that vision.
He mentions that his son Aegon was the ‘prince that was promised’ — a mythical prophecy about a great warrior who will deliver Westeros from darkness into the light. Growin up, Rhaegar believed he was the prince that was promised but then passed along that moniker to his eldest son. Perhaps Rhaegar was on the money that one of his children would be the prince that was promised but instead he may have been speaking about his third born son — Jon Snow.
Jon was actually born of ice and fire — his father a Targaryen, his mother a Stark. The prophecy about the prince that was promised also connects to another legend named Azor Ahai, which was a great warrior who may have been involved in the Battle of the Dawn when the first men and the Children of the Forest teamed up to defeat the first invasion from the White Walkers. Azor Ahai is said to have forged a great flaming sword named Lightbringer that he used in battle against the White Walkers and part of the prophecy surrounding him is that he will be reborn one day in another warrior who will help save the world.
‘The Prince Who was Promised’ was already mentioned earlier this season by Melisandre because she believes after Jon Snow was reborn that he might be this mythical figure. Of course, Missandei noted that the prophecy has no gender so technically it could be ‘the prince or princess who was promised’ so Daenerys could be this person as well.
Considering how much this prophecy has been mentioned throughout the show it’s impossible to imagine ‘Game of Thrones’ won’t address this during the final season and my money is on Jon Snow. He has the heritage and the bloodline of ice and fire plus his sword — Longclaw — is forged in dragon fire because it’s made out of Valyrian steel.
As far as the rest of the Three-Headed Dragon prophecy, it certainly doesn’t appear that there will be a third person revealed to ride a dragon, especially considering one of them is dead now!
With that said, let’s get to your questions about ‘Game of Thrones’ this week…
And how exactly do you kill an undead ice dragon? #GameofThrones
— PrimeTime ???? (@DLDetroit) August 21, 2017
Viserion being reanimated as a ‘White Walker’ is interesting because the Night King didn’t just raise his arms to get this great beast under his control. He actually touched him, which means the dragon was more White Walker than just a wight. The Night King touches those who he transforms into the White Walkers so it would appear Viserion isn’t just another soldier in the army.
That being said, Viserion could be classified as an ‘ice dragon’.
There are tales from sailors from hundreds of years ago who had ships in the Shivering Sea — a great body of water that sits north of Essos and to the East of Westeros — where mighty creatures known as ice dragons are said to have existed. If the stories are to be believed, these ice dragons were bigger in size than the dragons we’ve seen on ‘Game of Thrones’ and they were made out of living ice with blue eyes. Instead of breathing fire, these ice dragons are said to have breathed cold that could freeze a man solid in a split second.
Now a couple of reasons why Viserion probably isn’t an ice dragon.
First off, we know he’s not made of ice although he does now have a blue eye like the White Walkers. Second, Viserion is obviously not any bigger than his brothers either.
My theory is this — Viserion will breathe blue fire and that will help the Night King to bring down the Wall. There’s another question about the Wall coming up later in this edition of ‘Send the Ravens’ but it stands as the biggest obstacle towards the Army of the Dead invading Westeros. It’s stood for thousands of years, spans over 300 miles wide and stands over 700 feet tall. For the Night King to attack full force, the Wall needs to come down and what better way to melt it than having a dragon breathe fire.
Of course that’s just a theory.
Perhaps Viserion really will breathe cold just like the ice dragons and that will be a new kind of weapon for the Night King to use in his war against the living. What we do know for certain is that if Viserion has been reanimated as one of the Night King’s servants, he can be killed by dragonglass or Valyrian steel weapons. That means, Jon better get with Qyburn and build one of his gigantic arrows for the Scorpion with a tip made from pure dragonglass.
where the hell did they get those chains and how did they get them around veserion? Also where the hell were the giant walkers?
— Bill Thruman (@BillThruman) August 21, 2017
Don’t be surprised if we don’t see the giants until another battle ensues. The Night King’s army is massive — how big we don’t even know. He’s been building this army for the better part of 8,000 years so you can imagine how many dead people he’s collected in that time. The giant wights will definitely reappear at some point in the future.
As for the chains…because this question has come up quite often.
My only guess is the Night King and the Army of the Dead have raided numerous villages where the Wildlings lived for hundreds of years. You’d have to imagine the Wildlings made chains or had chains already in their possession. Considering the wights are already dead, they could then go into the water, tie up the chains around the dragon and then drag him out of the drink
The better assumption is that the creators behind ‘Game of Thrones’ wanted to make a cool visual for the dragon dying and then being dragged back up onto the icy plain before he was reanimated. That probably makes more sense than the wights suddenly finding chains from out of nowhere.
https://twitter.com/HazeIdine_/status/899455816104902657
Melisandre will definitely return and she will have a part to play in the final season.
Remember when she left Westeros to return home, Melisandre told Varys that she would return and die in this strange land…the same as him. Melisandre is all about prophecies and the Lord of Light and considering the upcoming war with the dead, she’ll be a valuable asset in the fight. Whether she ends up bringing somebody else back from beyond the grave or maybe she just sacrifices herself to the Lord of Light, Melisandre will be back during these last seven episodes.
Will the Night King be able to get passed the wall!? Wasn't there some kind of spell that keeps them from passing?#GameOfThones
— Dillon (@dpack19358) August 22, 2017
Great question. So if you remember back to last season when Benjen Stark aka Coldhands rescued Bran and Meera and brought them to the Wall, he remarked that he couldn’t pass through with them. Benjen mentions that the Wall has mystical spells carved into the foundation that prevent anything dead from passing through.
According to legend, Brandon Stark — the founder of House Stark better known as Brandon the Builder — built the Wall alongside the Children of the Forest and several giants. In the foundation, Brandon and the Children placed ancient spells and sorcery to protect the Wall from another attack from the White Walkers.
Once again that’s why I’ve believed since the beginning of the season that the Wall is coming down, which will then allow the Night King to lead his armies south into Westeros.
Do you think the storytelling was inconsistent in the last episode? In terms of travelling time, decision by characters and similar things?
— Renjith Ravindran (@Midcard_Smark) August 22, 2017
This has been a common complaint with this season of ‘Game of Thrones’ considering the show has virtually eliminated travel time that used to be a major component for the series as it would routinely take characters weeks to go from place to place. Now this season everybody is essentially transporting from one location to the next with almost no time elapsed.
It was particularly prevalent during this latest episode when Jon Snow sent Gendry running back to Eastwatch to deliver a message so a raven could fly to Daenerys Targaryen and she could return to save them from the Army of the Dead. Now it’s not my job to defend the timeline how all of this unfolded but let’s break it down just a little bit.
The stretch of land where Jon and his squad were walking after leaving Eastwatch-By-the-Sea isn’t all that big. In fact, if you look at the map of the Known World, Eastwatch to Hardhome (where Jon battled the dead back in season five) is a very small stretch of land so it’s easy to assume that the group hadn’t walked all that far before encountering the Army of the Dead, which was presumably moving south towards them before they collided. So it’s no out of the realm of possibility that Gendry could run as fast as his legs could carry him and make it back to Eastwatch in a reasonable amount of time.
The raven flying to Dragonstone is probably the most ludicrous part of the story because the bird could potentially fly hundreds of miles in a day but that still probably wouldn’t explain how fast it made it to Daenerys. That bird would have to have a motor on its ass to get there that fast, especially considering how far Dragonstone would be from Eastwatch.
Finally, Jon and his squad are left outside overnight while the Army of the Dead stands watch so several hours do pass at this point. Daenerys flying in on the back of Drogon means she got the message from the raven and immediately mounted the dragon and flew off to save the day. The dragon would have to have flown hundreds of miles in a very quick amount of time, but we don’t know exactly how fast they can flap those wings so it’s possible she could have made it there on that schedule. It’s tough to imagine all of that happening that quickly but it almost fits.
https://twitter.com/BeachBoyBillion/status/899825962287869952
Well you have to remember, Daenerys didn’t quite believe Jon when he told her about the Army of the Dead in the first place. That’s why Tyrion suggested capturing one of the dead soldiers and bringing it back as proof. As convincing as Jon was about his belief in the Army of the Dead and the Night King, it does sound like a rather crazy story from the outside looking in.
Her opinion changed quickly, however, when Daenerys got an urgent message that Jon and her old friend Jorah were in trouble, she rushed off to save them. Unfortunately the end result was the death of one of her children and now the Night King has a dragon of his very own.
Don’t forget to submit your questions via Twitter to @DamonMartin following the season finale this week as ‘Game of Thrones’ season 7 comes to an end.
