House of the Dragon: Can Alicent’s daughter Helaena see into the future?

Episode 6 of “House of the Dragon” introduces a host of new Targaryen offspring. Does Helaena, the only girl among the king’s young children and grandchildren, have special abilities that allow her to see into the future? A particular line of dialogue of hers could be a reference to the hard fate of her brother Aemond.

Childish words as a vision of the future?

Prophecies and visions of the future have always played a major role in the world of “Game of Thrones”. A prophecy rescued the Targaryen family from falling Valyria, and a prophecy fuels the Song of Ice and Fire. The latest episode “House of the Dragon” may have given us a glimpse into the prophesying powers of another Targaryen.

Helaena is the youngest daughter of Alicent Hightower and King Viserys. In the short scene we see her playing with a kind of centipede and telling her mother various facts about him. Helaena seems a bit dreamy, like she’s just physically present and talking to someone else about something else entirely. The calm atmosphere is broken by the bursting in of Aemond, Alicent’s youngest son. He complains about the teasing of the other boys in the dragon pit and that he still doesn’t have a dragon of his own.

His mother reassures him and promises that one day he will have a dragon of his own. Unnoticed by the others, Helaena mumbles “when he closes one eye”. While this statement also applies to the insect that Helaena is examining, it also applies to Aemond’s bleak future.

That means Helaena’s prophecy

Even if it is not immediately apparent from the scene, knowing about Aemond’s further fate in the books, Helaena’s words have a completely different effect. Already in the next episodes we could see his character with an eye patch, because he will lose an eye and from then on he will be known as the “One-Eyed” Targaryen.

It cannot be mere coincidence that Helaena spoke those words in his presence. So can she see into the future? interpret these? Or does her gift just give her a mere inkling of what’s about to happen, without her being able to explain it exactly. We may yet find out, as Helaena’s character is yet to play a significant role in the upcoming Civil War and Dance of the Dragons.

That’s what’s happening with Aemond – spoilers from here

Helaena’s divination prophesies that before Aemond mounts a dragon, he will lose an eye. This is exactly what happens (not necessarily in the exact order) when a fight breaks out between him and his nephews Jacaerys, Lucerys and Gottfrid Velaryon. Rhaenyra’s children catch Aemond attempting to mount a kite without his parents’ permission.

And no ordinary dragon, but Vhagar, the largest living dragon, which until recently Laena Velaryon rode. Aemond actually manages to mount Vhagar and fly, but then a scuffle breaks out between him and Jacaerys.

When Aemond calls the three boys “Kraft boys,” implying their descent from Ser Harwin Kraft, and berates them as bastards, the situation escalates. As the oldest to fully understand the insult, Jacaerys attacks Aemond. However, when the latter gains the upper hand and begins to violently beat up Rhaenyra’s eldest son, Lucerys draws a dagger in his brother’s defense and stabs Aemond in the face, causing him to irretrievably lose his right eye.

eye for dragon

On this day, Aemond found a dragon and lost an eye at the same time. As he himself will later say, “a fair exchange” that his sister Helaena foresaw. From then on, this day will shape him forever and, under the guidance of Ser Kriston Kraut, make him one of Westeros’ most skilled and merciless swordsmen.

This act also leads to the final rift between Rhaenyra and Alicent and her children. Aemond’s scar is a constant reminder of just how ruthless and merciless this conflict between green and black is and will become. Aemond is supposed to take revenge personally on whoever took his eye.

It’s supposed to be the first dragon duel of the civil war. Over Storm’s End, Aemond and his dragon Vhagar meet Lucerys and his dragon Arrax, and Aemond is to push the Queen’s secondborn from the sky, “returning the favor” for his lost eye.

A tragic moment in Aemond’s early life should not only be from then on, but shape the fate of many. Something his sister Helaena foresaw. Will we see more of her prophecies on the show, or was it just a little “joke” and an Easter egg from the showrunners?