What Does Helaena’s “Wooden Throne” Prophecy Mean for Aegon?

Editor’s note: The below contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2 as well as events from Fire & Blood.

The Big Picture

• In the Season 2 finale of
  House of the Dragon
  , Helaena predicts Aegon’s return to the throne on a wooden chair, not the Iron Throne.
• Aegon escapes from King’s Landing but is left with severe injuries after the Battle of Rook’s Rest.
• The show’s plot may deviate from the events of
  Fire & Blood
  , but Helaena’s prophecy hints at Aegon’s unfortunate fate.

Helaena (Phia Saban) has already made some pretty grim predictions for Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) in House of the Dragon‘s Season 2 finale — one that doesn’t leave much hope for the already-hopeless king and his paranoid brother. From voicing the coming tensions between the Greens and the Blacks as early as “The Princess and the Queen” and “Driftmark” to sewing her son’s funeral shroud prior to his death, Helaena has been predicting the events of the Dance of the Dragons since childhood. Her gifts as a dreamer have become so pronounced that she even physically appears in Daemon’s (Matt Smith) weirwood vision toward the end of the finale.

It’s after this vision that Helaena relays a foreboding prophecy to Aemond. After confronting her brother about his role in Aegon’s “accident,” Helaena tells her Aemond that he’ll be dead soon, “swallowed up in the God’s Eye,” but even more intriguingly states: “Aegon will be king again. He’s yet to see victory. He sits on a wooden throne.” It’s clear it isn’t the Iron Throne that Helaena is referring to, so what throne awaits Aegon in House of the Dragon Season 3?

What Wooden Throne Will Aegon Sit On in ‘House of the Dragon’?

Unfortunately, (depending on your allegiance) Aegon’s troubles are far from over, as George R. R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood describes another dire situation for the soon-to-be deposed king. In House of the Dragon Season 2, Larys (Matthew Needham) has convinced Aegon to escape to Braavos — and that seems to be where they’re headed in that chicken cart at the end of “The Queen Who Ever Was” — however, in Fire & Blood, Aegon escapes elsewhere. Following the Battle of the Gullet, which Season 3 is set to depict, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) decides to move on King’s Landing, but when the Blacks finally take the city, Aegon is already long gone.

Rather than going to Braavos, following Aegon’s escape from King’s Landing, he takes shelter at Dragonstone. After convincing a few members of the Blacks to defect to the Greens, Aegon attempts to capture the island in what becomes known as the Fall of Dragonstone. While securing the castle, a dragon battle takes place between Aegon and Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia). At the end of the battle, both Sunfyre and Moondancer fall from the skies and crash back down to earth, and Aegon leaps from his dragon to save himself, breaking both of his legs in the process. Unfortunately, Sunfyre dies and, from then on, Aegon is made to sit in a wooden chair at the bottom of the Iron Throne while in excruciating pain, refusing milk of the poppy after his experience with it following the events of Rook’s Rest.

How Accurate Is Helaena’s Prophecy for Aegon?

House of the Dragonhas made some pretty significant changes from its source material, and it’s possible things may not play out exactly as they did in Fire & Blood. It’s not yet confirmed whether Sunfyre survived the Battle of Rook’s Rest — the show seems to be hinting otherwise, and showrunner Ryan Condal has not explicitly confirmed this — and last viewers heard, Aegon was headed for Braavos, not Dragonstone.

Unfortunately for Aegon, given his sister’s track record, Helaena’s prediction sends a pretty clear message that this House of the Dragon plot point will indeed go the way of Fire & Blood. Forget Aegon the Realm’s Delight — it looks like the king’s future title is destined to be Aegon the Unlucky.

Seasons 1 and 2 of House of the Dragon are available to stream on Max in the U.S.

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