Are you the type of person who enjoys watching a kindly old man talk about his imaginary dragons? Then buddy, I have a video for you.
Instead of writing the books that everyone is dying for him to finish, George R.R. Martin has released a very detailed history book about Westeros. In it, he dives deep into the events that led up to what is unfolding in Game of Thrones.
In a new video discussing the dragon Balerion, Martin drops a pretty interesting detail about Aegon the Conqueror that connects to the most famous Game of Thrones theory.
As we've explained, The Long Night was a period of time 8,000 years before the events of A Song of Ice and Fire when the White Walkers first tried to wipe out humanity. The short version of the story is they were saved by a legendary hero known as Azor Ahai. In Melisandre's religion of Rheillor this hero will someday be reborn as the Prince That Was Promised to save the world yet again.
So, fast forward and 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones, Aegon the Conqueror arrived in Westeros where he led a campaign to unite the Seven Kingdoms.
In this new video, Martin explains what motivated Aegon Targaryen to conquer the Seven Kingdoms.
Aegon finally decided to take over Westeros and unify the Seven Kingdoms that existed at the time under one rule. There is a lot of speculation that in some sense he saw what was coming 300 years later, and wanted to unify the Seven Kingdoms to be better prepared for the threat that he eventually saw coming from the north—the threat that we are dealing with in A Song of Ice and Fire.
Hmmm okay, George. That has some pretty important implications.
If Aegon saw the threat of the White Walkers coming through some sort of vision, that could possibly mean he saw himself or one of his heirs as The Prince That Was Promised.
One of the most popular Game of Thrones fan theories suggests that either Jon Snow or Daenerys Targaryen are The Prince or Princess That Was Promised. Considering Aegon's only two living relatives are Jon or Daenerys, it must be one of them who, in his vision, he saw uniting the Seven Kingdoms to fight the White Walkers.
And so far, given the events of Season Seven, they've been doing their best to live up to great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandpappy's expectations.
Matt Miller is a Brooklyn-based culture/lifestyle writer and music critic whose work has appeared in Esquire, Forbes, The Denver Post, and documentaries.
