House of the Dragon is mostly about the fiery side of Westeros, but the Season 2 premiere reminded fans that ice is never far off, and winter is coming. The new season opened strong at The Wall in the far north, where Jacaerys Targaryen (Harry Collett) met with Lord Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor). While this conversation was a bit abbreviated, it did add some fuel to a fan theory about Game of Thrones and A Song of Ice and Fire.
Many fans were hoping that House of the Dragon Season 2 would spend more time in the North, as the books hint at plenty of events there that would be interesting to explore. As it is, the show could also return there in flashback form, so I won’t spoil anything here. Regardless, the brief conversation we got to see between the young lord of Winterfell and the heir to the Iron Throne was enlightening in spite of how short it was. For starters, the fact that we saw them at The Wall means that Jace likely took Cregan for a ride on the back of his dragon, Vermax.
In George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, the historical record of Westeros is very unclear about Jace’s visit to the North, with three competing sources of information. One says that Jace and Cregan “took a liking to each other… They drank together, hunted together, trained together, and swore an oath of brotherhood, sealed in blood.” However, the book does not mention Jace and Cregan traveling further North to The Wall, and it’s worth remembering that this is a major journey, not undertaken lightly. By land, the trip should take between 16 and 22 days according to the books, and even on dragonback it would take between 11 and 19 hours, according to World Anvil. Still, just because it wasn’t mentioned in the book doesn’t mean Jace and Cregan couldn’t have visited The Wall, and if they did so on the back of a dragon, it would help illustrate their fast friendship.
The real interest here is the reason for this visit. Season 1 of House of the Dragon revealed that House Targaryen had a prophecy about the white walkers, and they united the Seven Kingdoms to stand against that threat – not just to amass power and wealth. As Rhaenyra’s heir, Jace either knows about this prophecy or will learn about it soon, so it wouldn’t be surprising if he wanted to see The Wall. As for Cregan, he shows a surprising amount of interest in The Wall, and he seems well aware of its supernatural mission.
“Do you think my ancestors built a 700-foot wall of ice to keep out snow and savages?” He asked Jace in the season premiere. When Jace asked what it was built to keep out, Cregan answered: “Death.”
Jace and Cregan also discussed their two ancestors – Torrhen Stark and Aegon the Conqueror. Torrhen is remembered as “The King Who Knelt,” as he was one of the only kings to submit to Aegon without a fight. Since learning about the prophecy, fans have been concocting theories about the meeting between these two, suggesting that Aegon shared the prophecy with Torrhen and they agreed to work together to keep the Wall strong and stand against the white walkers. However, the show adds to Torrhen’s legacy, with Cregan saying that he started a tradition of sending men to the Watch every winter.
The show also contradicted the book in this brief scene by saying that Torrhen and Aegon had met at The Wall. That wasn’t the case in the book, which says that Aegon I visited the North six times during his reign, but never at The Wall. This could simply be a discrepancy, but if there was an unrecorded visit between the two at The Wall, it would bolster fan theories that they were working together to unravel Aegon’s prophecy and prevent the Long Night.
On the other hand, some fans think that Aegon may have misunderstood his prophecy, believing that Torrhen and the Northmen might be the threat from his prophecy themselves. There are a lot of angles on this mysterious part of the story, and the uncertainty is built into Fire & Blood as a feature, not a bug. This question may not be answered in House of the Dragon, but could be tackled in the Aegon’s Conquest spinoff that is currently in development. However, it could be that we’ll see more of Jace’s visit to the North later this season.
House of the Dragon Season 2 airs on Sunday nights at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max. Martin’s books, including Fire & Blood, are available now in print, digital and audiobook formats.