Warning: This article contains spoilers from George R.R. Martin’s Fire And Blood book.

House of the Dragon season 1 has finished airing, but fans are still finding subtle hints and foreshadowing littered throughout the show. While re-watching the show we found that the Game of Thrones prequel had already foreshadowed the deaths of three major characters- Rhaenyra, Aegon II, and Helaena Targaryen. Let us explain it all below.

House Of The Dragon Foreshadows Rhaenyra Targaryen’s Death

Readers of George R.R. Martin’s Fire And Blood book already know how Rhaenyra Targaryen is going to meet her end. The half-year Queen will be burned by Aegon II’s dragon Sunfyre and eaten by it as well.

In episode 4, we see Daemon take Rhaenyra out through the streets of Kings Landing at night. Both the Targaryens are disguised as common folk and there they see dragon heads made of metal and mounted high. These heads periodically breathe fire. While walking through the narrow streets, the two Targaryens meet a woman who asks Rhaenyra as she’s walking by, “Do you wish to know your death, child?”

As soon as she’s done talking and Rhaenyra walks away, we see one of the dragon heads breath fire. And that’s exactly how she dies- being burned to death by a dragon. But that’s not all. In episode 6, when Laena Velaryon dies after commanding her dragon Vhagar to burn her, the scene immediately cuts to Rhaenyra. Thus, signifying her suffering the same fate.

Helaena Targaryen’s Death Is Foreshadowed As Well

In House of the Dragon, Helaena Targaryen is sort of a background character in season 1. We don’t see much of her or know much about her except that she’s quite naive and speaks about prophecies in riddles. But if the show follows the books, she will have impactful scenes in season 2.

After all, in GRR Martin’s books, Helaena is targeted after Rhaenyra’s son Lucerys dies. Daemon vows to take revenge by killing a son of The Greens. He hires two assassins, Blood and Cheese, to murder one of Helaena’s sons with her brother (and husband) Aegon II- Jaehaerys or Maelor.

When the assassins confront Helaena they give her a choice. She can decide which son will die. She chooses Maelor, her youngest. But Blood and Cheese disregard her wishes and kill her eldest, Jaehaerys. This incident causes Helaena to descend into madness and depression.

She doesn’t even look at Maelor because she chose his death. And eventually she commits suicide by jumping out of a window. Helaena gets impaled on spikes below and suffers a tragic death at only 21 years of age. In the show, when young Alicent is holding baby Helaena in her arms, the shot is taken in front of a window. So Helaena’s tragic end was foreshadowed right in her first appearance itself.

Aegon II Targaryen Death Was Foreshadowed Too

It’s interesting that just like with Helaena, his death was foreshadowed in House of the Dragon when he was a baby as well. In the books, Aegon II gets thrust into war with the Blacks right after his coronation. He replaces Otto Hightower as the hand with Ser Criston Cole because he feels Otto is inactive and too cautious.

Cole on the other hand follows aggresive tactics that put Aegon and Aemond into a battle with Rhaenys Targaryen and her dragon Meleys. The brothers win, but Aegon is left heavily injured and burnt. In another battle Aegon is left crippled and it is after this that he gets poisoned while in the Royal Sept.

It’s never found out who did it by Larys Strong and Corlys Velaryon are strongly implicated. It’s though that Aegon was a callous king who didn’t learn anything and was prolonging the war needlessly even after he killed Rhaenyra.

It’s said that he spent his time worrying about his imminent marriage to Cassandra Baratheon and even sent Corlys to cut off Aegon III’s ear (Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen’s son) as a warning to the Blacks. But this order was never carried out as he was poisoned shortly after.

In the show, there is a scene where King Viserys is feeding baby Aegon II from a cup. And this scene could be a direct foreshadowing of his death by poisoning.

Did you spot any other foreshadowing in House of the Dragon? Let us know.