Even in a stunted civilization like Westeros, a lot can change in 200 years, but in House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones, fans are often looking for what has stayed the same. The prequel series can’t carry over many characters from the original, but fans know that there are a few ways a character can become practically immortal in this world, Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) seems to have done just that. Many fans speculate that Alys is actually the red witch Melisandre in another guise, but there are some major flaws in this theory. A more plausible idea taking ahold of the fandom lately is that Alys may actually be Leaf, one of the mysterious Children of the Forest.
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Game of Thrones was often categorized as “low-magic fantasy,” but that really wasn’t true when you start to add up all the strange phenomena we saw in that series. Most magic was so baked into the worldbuilding that the characters barely felt the need to talk about it, such as The Wall or Valyrian dragons. Only a few characters who seemed to understand magic and have some amount of mastery over it, and among them, Melisandre had the most screentime, but Bran’s magical tutors were just as close to immortal as she was.
Why Alys is Not Melisandre
It’s natural for fans to associate Alys with Melisandre — both are women who use magic to try and influence powerful men for their own mysterious but lofty purposes. However, Melisandre tells us that she comes from overseas, and her magic seems to stem from the religion she brought with her. Added details in the book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, make it even less likely that Melisandre is Alys, as she has a point-of-view chapter with authentic memories of studying in Asshai. She also encounters Bran Stark and his mentor, Bloodraven in one of her visions and perceives them as enemies. On top of that, Melisandre is antagonistic to the old gods and all the native magic of Westeros, ordering Stannis’ vassals to burn their Weirwood trees. It’s hard to imagine her doing that if she could somehow draw power from them.
Alys, by contrast, is fiercely protective of the Weirwood trees, the old gods, and traditional ways of life in Westeros. She gives Daemon (Matt Smith) a potion that likely included Weirwood seeds in it, much like the concoction that unlocked Bran’s powers in Game of Thrones, and she seems able to see and influence Daemon’s dreams. She also leads him to a Weirwood tree to show him a vision of the future, and she even implies that she is a skin-changer, bonded to a barn owl.
Still, to some fans, these are just aesthetic differences, and Melisandre could be disguising her magic in familiar Westerosi practices to blend in better as Alys. After all, her powers are essentially the same — visions of the past and future, a spiritual sixth sense, and so on. That could be true, but it seems counter-productive for the writers. If the point of having one character in both shows is to draw lapsed viewers in, this would be too confusing, and too late. It seems more likely that, like so many other players in the game of thrones, Alys and Melisandre have different interests, but they just happen to be aligned when it comes to the White Walkers.
Why Alys Could be Leaf
Leaf was a Child of the Forest portrayed by Octavia Alexandru in Game of Thrones Season 4, and by Kae Alexander in Season 6. She helped Bran and his friends reach the Children’s protected cave so that Bran could be instructed by “The Three-Eyed Raven,” Brynden Rivers, a.k.a. Bloodraven. The show seems to imply that Leaf herself his thousands of years old, and was present for the creation of the White Walkers. However, in the novels, she describes a very different backstory to Bran’s party.
“I was born in the time of the dragon, and for two hundred years, I walked the world of men, to watch and listen and learn. I might be walking still, but my legs were sore and my heart was weary, so I turned my feet for home.”
YouTuber Michael Talks About Stuff has shared some extensive analysis of this quote and all the implications it might have for fan theories. It suggests that Leaf lived among humans during the Targaryen reign over Westeros, and to do so, she likely used one of the same magical powers as Melisandre — “glamour.” Melisandre could use magic to make herself appear younger, and to make Stannis’ sword appear to be on fire. In the Dunk & Egg novellas, Bloodraven uses this same power to change his own appearance, and it’s reasonable to assume that Children of the Forest could use any magic that Bloodraven has access to.
If Alys is really Leaf, her mysterious backstory and her powers all fall into place quite smoothly. The Children were skin-changers and Greenseers before humans were, and their psychic relationship with the Weirwood trees goes back much further. Her agenda becomes much more clear as well — she wants to help prepare Westeros for the inevitable war against the White Walkers by minimizing petty wars and preserving the power of dragons.
Alys’ Endgame
This theory really gets interesting when looking ahead at what’s coming for Alys, but to do that, we need to give a spoiler warning for George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, and for future seasons of House of the Dragon. Soon, Daemon will leave Harrenhal and fly his dragon to war, and when he does, his nephew Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) will claim the castle for his side. Alys will still be there when Aemond arrives, and the book makes it pretty clear that he will fall head over heels for her.
Alys remains at Aemond’s side for the rest of the war, and soon begins to claim that they are married, and she is pregnant with his child. When the war is over, there is no one to claim Harrenhal, and Alys assumes control of it herself. She gathers weary survivors of the war in the ruined castle and resists efforts by nobles to force her out. She claims that she has successfully given birth to Aemond’s son, and that he is the rightful king of Westeros.
When the new rulers of King’s Landing send knights to take Harrenhal back from Alys, she captures many of them and even seems to kill one using magic. She sends one of her captives back with a message, and he claims to have seen a real dragon while he was held in Harrenhal. He, too, seems to die by Alys’ magic, and the book ends with no resolution. The “witch queen” is still in control of Harrenhal until Martin finishes the second volume of Fire & Blood.
Again, the theory that Alys is actually Leaf explains the powers she uses here, but more importantly, her motives. If Leaf and the Children of the Forest want to unite Westeros against the White Walkers and ensure that Targaryen dragons can be used to melt them, then Leaf seeking to have a Targaryen son of her own would make perfect sense. It would combine the icy magic of the north with the fiery magic of Valyria in one person, much like it is combined in other characters with a mixture of Targaryen and “first men” heritage, such as Jon Snow, Bloodraven, and Daemon Targaryen.
House of the Dragon may not give us the final word on Alys, especially since she’s a mystery that hasn’t been solved in the books yet. However, the show’s emphasis on the Weirwoods is a hopeful hint that at least some mysteries might be solved by the time it’s over. House of the Dragon Season 3 is expected to premiere in the second half of 2026, after the new spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Martin’s books, including Fire & Blood, are available now in print, digital, and audiobook formats.
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