‘House Of The Dragon’ Fans Have Plenty Of Predictions And Theories For The Season Finale

(House of the Dragon spoilers will be found below.)

Let’s be honest here: few people who watched the whole of Game of Thrones (particularly that out-there-yet-still-underwhelming final season and the aesthetically-stunning-but-wtf series finale) held out a ton of hope that House of the Dragon would be good. Yet HBO sure showed us who’s boss in the realm of putting George R.R. Martin lore to the screen. They’re knocking this prequel series out of the figurative ballpark, and it’s almost upsetting to think that this first season’s almost over, and we’ll have to wait at least a year (and maybe two) for more. Could we also see that Jon Snow show soon?

The first season finale is nearly upon us, and that leaves the Internet with plenty of motivation to start theorizing into infinity. This opportunity arises following this year’s penultimate installment, which saw Aegon Targaryen anointed as king. He didn’t want this to happen, but they he heard cheers and liked the approval for a few seconds before the probable “beast beneath the boards” (the dragon Meleys) rose through the floor with a disapproving Rhaenys onboard. She let the Greens live (because we don’t want this story to be over yet, among other reasons theorized by viewers), and now, George R.R. Martin’s Dance of the Dragons has begun with Team Black vs. Team Green. Boy, Rhaenyra’s gotta be pissed off.

So, what will happen in the season finale? Few people know for sure, but here are a handful of the more captivating theories and predictions. Sadly, none of these involve Zombie Viserys or more foot-fetishing antics from Larys Strong. I still maintain that if Rhaenys had set Aegon ablaze, then people would have still tuned in to watch Daemon happily collect dragon eggs for three more seasons. We can’t have that, though, so here’s those theories as well as the Episode 10 trailer for reference’s sake:

– Which Dragon was Daemon hoping to tame by singing?

I know the screencap from the above trailer isn’t fantastic. The creative minds wanted it that way. Still, this is a huge question: Daemon already has a dragon (Ceraxes), so which fiery beast is he hoping to tame in the season finale? According to a very intensive discussion on Reddit, it’s notable that Daemon’s High Valyrian singing follows this line: “Your cause holds a power that has not been seen since the days of Old Valyria.” This dragon’s large, although not as big as Vhagar (who’s Team Green due to Aemond being Vhagar’s rider). Fans appear to believe that this is the Cannibal, given his apparent advanced age and utterly vicious appearance that borders on feral. However, one wonders if the source material’s wild dragons would appear this early on in the series, although this wouldn’t be the first time that this HBO universe added to existing canon. Other sizable nominees include Vermithor and Sheespstealer, but it seems fairly obvious that Daemon’s looking for a new ride for this war, given that we already saw (while Daemon rode alongside his then wife, Laena Valaryon) how small Ceraxes is in comparison to Vhagar. Let’s hope that the smaller dragon isn’t too terribly sad, and we should probably prepare ourselves for intense battle scenes.

– Rhaenys bursting through the floor helps to sets up the Storming of the Dragonpit: This means the end of the dragons. Obviously, we see more dragons later in Game of Thrones with Dany being the Mother of Dragons, but work with me here. According to GRRM lore, the Targaryen civil war doesn’t bode well for civilians in King’s Landing. They’re starving and full of resentment, and The Shepherd prophet harnesses this angst and convinces the people that dragons are evil. As such, the civilians burst into the Dragonpit and killed the dragons chained inside. One dragon survived, but that’s beside the point because (as Redditors point out) Rhaenys’ clear disregard for civilian life (she killed a bunch of them by bursting through the floor) could feed that resentment, contributing to the demise of Targaryen power. Although it seems that Rhaenyrs (from the looks of the Episode 10 trailer) wanted to foster peace instead of war, she could paradoxically be a primary cause of the common folk feeling justified in killing the dragons and, in turn, sparking the downfall of the Targaryen dynasty.

– Did the Maisters plot the Targaryen downfall and the civil war? We likely won’t receive the answer this question in the season finale, but you never know. This theory posits that the Maisters conspired to kill the only male heir of Viserys at the beginning, which also led to Aemma’s death and then pushed Viserys to choose a new wife, who ended up being Alicent Hightower. For whatever reason, Viserys chose to consult a Maister (instead of a healer) while fearing another difficult birth for Aemma. The Maister advised that Viserys needed to make that difficult choice (to the visible horror of the midwives), which ended up being the brutal procedure that killed Aemma. The end result was to integrate the Hightowers into the family, leading to a much weaker House of Targaryen. And in turn (according to Paddy Considine), Aemma’s death also led to the physical decline and death of the king.

– Did the White Worm survive? Mysaria may have lost her house to fire (via Alicent’s orders), but it’s almost certain that she will live. The show has expended quite a bit of energy parceling out her motivations (as a former sex worker and slave) and having her push Otto for a deal to fix what’s happening to those who lives in Flea Bottom. She’s also (if one reads into Larys’ masturbatory words to Alicent) apparently indispensable to running the network of spies that hangs at the Red Keep. This whole subplot can’t simply disappear, so get ready for more of her unusual (for Westeros) accent and for her to help push for common folk to receive better treatment. Also, we could see Mysaria join with Team Black (she does have a history with Daemon, so it could get awkward).

– Aemond might actually be the father of Aegon’s presumed children: This seems a little nitpicky and perhaps ultimately not too consequential, but it’s still fun to consider that Helaena Targaryen might be cucking her lousy brother-husband (who is out there committing rape and more). As Den of Geek notes, Twitter user by the handle of @darklesdarling posed this theory, in which Halaena’s young twins were essentially rattling on about “Aemond” when Alicent and Otto were searching for Aegon.

HBO’s House of the Dragon airs on Sundays at 9:00pm EST.