Is the ‘Game of Thrones’ Franchise Trying To Have Its Own One Ring?

The Big Picture

• The Catspaw Dagger is retconned to link
  House of the Dragon
  to Game of Thrones using a prophetic vision.
• The dagger has parallels with the One Ring in
  Lord of the Rings
  as a new franchise symbol.
• House of the Dragon
  does not fix narrative mistakes from
  Game of Thrones
  , including Aegon’s prophecy.

The Catspaw Dagger first appeared in Game of Thrones Season 1 during the attempted murder of Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead-Wright), but no one could have imagined how indispensable it would become to the franchise. In the A Song of Ice and Fire book series, the dagger belongs to Littlefinger (Aiden Gillen), who frames Tyrion (Peter Dinklage) for Bran’s attempted murder. The dagger becomes a catalyst that sparks war across Westeros. Showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss tried to emphasize the importance of the dagger by making it integral to the overarching story of the battle with the Others, which led to some backlash. House of the Dragon then retconned the dagger to make it even more important to the story, using it as a plot device that links the two shows together.

Now that the Game of Thrones universe is expanding beyond a single TV series, is the the franchise settling on a new symbol to represent itself? Obviously, Game of Thrones has the Iron Throne, dragons, and countless Valyrian swords, but the world is expanding beyond just the politics of the Seven Kingdoms and beyond dragons. Even with an Aegon the Conquerer series greenlit, we can see this in shows like Dunk & Egg, Ten Thousand Ships, and the animated Corlys Velaryon series, The Sea Snake, that are currently in development. HBO clearly has a bigger vision for the Game of Thrones universe, and the Catspaw dagger could be the symbol that the franchise needs.

House of the Dragon Retcons the Catspaw Dagger

Game of Thrones made a sudden shift in focus to the Catspaw dagger in Season 7. The Valyrian steel blade remained rather irrelevant to the story after Season 1, but the Season 7 premiere features Samwell Tarly (John Bradley) discovering a picture of the dagger in an ancient book while researching the White Walkers. Sansa (Sophie Turner) and Arya (Masie Williams) later use the dagger to expose Littlefinger’s scheming. As the story continues, the dagger gets more screen time until it becomes an integral weapon during the Battle for Winterfell when Arya uses it to kill the Night King. The last-minute emphasis on the dagger felt rushed and jarring when Game of Thrones aired, but House of the Dragon incorporates the dagger into the overarching story of Westeros.

In Episode 1 of House of the Dragon, Viserys (Paddy Considine) explains that Aegon the Conqueror had a prophetic vision of the Long Night and the war against the White Walkers. The prophecy dictates that a Targaryen must be seated on the Iron Throne when this war begins and reveals that Aegon’s prophecy is inscribed on the Catspaw dagger when exposed to fire. This retcon ties the story’s beginning to the end, linking Aegon’s Conquest to the battle against the undead in Season 8. Aegon used the blade as a symbol of kingship, passed down from one Targaryen ruler to the next, along with the secret prophecy. The blade and prophecy go hand in hand. In House of the Dragon Episode 9, Alicent (Olivia Cooke) gives the dagger to Aegon III (Tom Glynn-Carney) as a symbol of recognition from Viserys. The blade changes Aegon’s entire attitude to becoming King, giving him the approval he always wanted from his father.

The dagger has taken on huge importance in the story, and it seems that the showrunners are trying to make this weapon the new symbol for the franchise, similar to the One Ring in the Lord of the Rings franchise. It not only has become a symbol of power, but the dagger even shares the detail of revealing secret text when exposed to fire. It would be easy to include the dagger in multiple Game of Thrones spinoffs, such as Dunk & Egg, which features various Targaryen rulers. However, whether this attempt to create a new icon for the franchise will work remains to be seen. If anything, the Catspaw dagger makes the story of Game of Thrones more confusing.

House of the Dragon Doesn’t Fix Anything

The Catspaw dagger has become the on-screen equivalent of a legendary sword from the books, Lightbringer.Lightbringer is the sword wielded by the prophesied hero, Azor Ahai, who is destined to lead the war against the White Walkers and bring an end to the Long Night. In the books, there are several contenders for the role of Azor Ahai, including Stannis (Stephen Dillane), Daenerys (Emilia Clarke), and Jon Snow (Kit Harington). Game of Thrones built Jon Snow up to be the hero who led the battle against the White Walkers. Jon faced down the Night King at Hardhome in Season 5, and again at the frozen lake in Season 7. However, during the climactic battle at Winterfell in Season 8, it is Arya Stark slays the Night King using the Catspaw Dagger, which became a very controversial moment in the series. While this may have subverted audience expectations, it came at the cost of rendering Jon’s character arc useless.

However, House of the Dragon didn’t fix any narrative mistakes in Game of Thrones by retconning the dagger. Viserys advocates that a Targaryen must rule Westeros when the Long Night comes, but Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) sits on the Iron Throne when Arya kills the Night King, meaning that Aegon’s prophecy was wrong. One of Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) motivations for becoming Queen is that she can continue to uphold Aegon’s prophecy and protect the Targaryen Dynasty until Long Night arrives. Rhaenyra is the only living person who knows of the prophecy, and she must bear the responsibility of keeping Westeros united until the Others invade. Nevertheless, her storyline has no stakes given the prior knowledge that the Long Night occurs while Westeros is under Lannister rule. Whether Aegon II or Rhaenyra rules the Seven Kingdoms, the outcome is the same.Arya kills the Night King regardless.

Retconning the dagger and the prophecy doesn’t fix the plot holes of Game of Thrones, but there might be more to the story. Kit Harington is developing a sequel to Game of Thrones, set after the events of the main series. Given that Jon Snow ventured out beyond the wall in the final episode, we may see a return of the White Walkers later down the line. So perhaps Aegon’s prophecy has not been completely fulfilled. There has also been recent news of a spinoff show based around Aegon the Conqueror, which would undoubtedly feature the Catspaw dagger. Aegon’s story could include the blade’s origins and flesh out his prophetic vision. A misunderstanding at the onset could do a lot to retcon some of the confusion around the dagger and the prophecy and fill in a plot hole. After all, prophecies were made to be misinterpreted, right?

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