Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon have a complicated relationship. The events of the latter are set more than a century before the former, but despite that huge time gap, House of the Dragon is still a prequel with the opportunity to retroactively set up plot points that will go on to have massive implications.
Now, however, a subtle but important change has complicated one of the strongest ties between the shows. At the end of House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 4, Aemond is seen looking over his critically wounded brother Aegon after a monumental dragon fight. He then helps himself to the dagger Aegon brought to the battle, which is a small moment with a lot of meaning.
That dagger is the Valyrian steel catspaw dagger, which has a long history in Game of Thrones. First used in the assassination attempt on Bran in Season 1, it popped up here and there before cementing itself in Westerosi history when Arya used it to slay the Night King in Season 8.
House of the Dragon Season 1 showed us what it means to the Targaryens. Etched into it is the prophecy that’s caused so much speculation, the one Viserys calls “A Song of Ice and Fire.” As Rhaenyra learned when she confronted Alicent in Season 2 Episode 3, that prophecy — and the Greens’ misinterpretation of it — is responsible for the entire Dance of Dragons. Unlike Game of Thrones, which treated the prophecy as fate, House of the Dragon shows how a prophecy can be manipulated to achieve terrible things.
With Aemond’s insistence on taking the dagger, it’s clear that it’s more than just an old weapon with a history dating back to Aegon the Conqueror. It’s a symbol of the Iron Throne itself, a weapon wielded by whoever reigns. That’s why Season 2 Episode 5 contains such a pointed shot of Alicent noticing Aemond with the dagger on his belt; she realizes he must have taken it from his brother, revealing his intentions to replace him as ruler.
But this just raises more questions about the dagger’s future. If it’s so important, how did it end up as just an ornamental weapon given to an assassin by Littlefinger? How did a weapon that shaped entire empires become so ordinary? Much like the Targaryens, the blade fell from power, only to regain it in a big way in the last episodes of Game of Thrones. Maybe, as House of the Dragon continues, more blanks will be filled in.
