House of the Dragon is set over a century before Game of Thrones, so there is very little in the way of direct connections between the original series and its prequel. However, House of the Dragon is doing a good job of stringing together turns of fate that echo across time into the events of Game of Thrones, in service of larger prophecy in the Song of Ice and Fire. Well, House of the Dragon Episode 3 features one such moment that fans may not have noticed on first viewing: the foreshadow of a major death to come in Game of Thrones Season 1!
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In “Second of His Name” King Viserys I (Paddy Considine) holds a royal hunt to celebrate the second birthday of his son, Aegon II. The hunt goes down with a lot of superstition hanging over it, as Viserys sets out to kill the White Stag (King of the Forest), and thereby confirm the strength of his own royal claim. Princess Rhaenyra understandably doesn’t feel the joy of the festivities, knowing that every year of Aegon’s maturation threatens her claim to the throne. Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) takes off with her Kingsguard Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) into the forest where they camp for the night – only to find themselves under attack.
A wild boar of the forest nearly guts Ser Criston before he can take and down, and Rhaenyra brutally finishes the job by stabbing the boar into a furry pincushion with her dagger. The ferocity Rhaenyra shows in taking down the boar is stark contrast to her timid father (who has trouble killing a common Stag) – it’s also a stark contrast to another, future, king who will lose his life and his crown, to a boar in those same woods.
Game of Thrones Season 1 threw many twists at unsuspecting viewers who weren’t yet used to George R.R. Martin’s penchant for traumatic storytelling; one of biggest surprises was how the series dispatched one of its main antagonists, Robert Baratheon, in such unceremonious fashion. King Robert was gutted by a wild boar while on a royal hunt and dies of his injuries (“You Win or You Die”) while attempting to pass on his declaration of succession to his friend, Ned Stark. Those plans are destroyed when Queen Cersei Lannister instead seizes the throne, setting off the civil war that nearly tears Westeros apart.
As stated, House of the Dragon’s thematic subtext is all about showing how fate can echo across the span of history. The implications of how royal hunts and the animals involved are symbolic to the fates of kings and their lines are clear in their connections: as is the implication of Rhaenyra being the strongest of them all – as confirmed by her eventually getting a visit from the White Stag. King Robert wishes he had been as strong, when the boar eventually came for him.
House of the Dragon airs new episodes Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
