![]() ![]() The Red Comet is ascribed a number of different meanings by different characters. ![]() ![]() Western civilizations have generally categorized them as harbingers of evil, but the universal consensus is that when a comet appears, something momentous is happening, enough so that the heavens themselves have taken notice. Then there’s the fact that the Red Comet conforms to a well-known literary trope: the Comet of Doom:įor thousands (and perhaps tens of thousands) of years, they were seen by civilizations around the world as omens of good and ill, pronouncing the deaths of kings, horrible disasters, and military victories. First of all there’s the visual aspect since the tail of the red comet does indeed lend itself to the image of a “bleeding red star”. The Red Comet is generally understood to refer to the bleeding star of the prophecy and there are several reasons why this is indeed the case. She could not have asked for a stronger sign.” (AGoT, Daenerys X) Just before Daenerys lights Drogo’s funeral the pyre, she sees the Red Comet in the sky. Let us have a look at how Daenerys fullfills the conditions of the prophecy. In my opinion, Daenerys Targaryen is the most likely candidate for the title of Azor Ahai come again since all the conditions for the prophecy are fulfilled in one single event: the hatching of her dragons in the funeral pyre of Khal Drogo from which she emerges unburnt – an event that most certainly can be interpreted as a symbolic rebirth. In this meta I have therefore chosen to focus solely on the prophecy of Azor Ahai, which I believe to be fullfilled by Daenerys Targaryen.ĭAENERYS TARGARYEN = AZOR AHAI COME AGAIN I already have written about this and thus won’t delve further into this issue. However, you can make a Doylist argument that GRRM is withholding information of tPtwP, which could mean that the prophecies refer to two different persons. Textually, the prophecies overlap - at least with the knowledge we have so far, so it is indeed possible that the Prince that was Promised and Azor Ahai come again are the same person. The books mention another prophecy concerning the Prince that was Promised and it is unclear whether this prophecy refers to the same person as the prophecy of Azor Ahai come again. When the red star bleeds and the darkness gathers, Azor Ahai shall be born again amidst smoke and salt to wake dragons out of stone.” (Melisandre - ASoS, Davos III) According to ancient texts from Asshai, this hero is prophesied to return: In the legends of Asshai in the far east of Essos, Azor Ahai was a hero that fought the darkness during the Long Night with a burning sword called Lightbringer. I have previous written a series of metas on this particular subject ( Azor Ahai, the Prince that was Promised and the Red sword of Heroes 1-6) but I’ve decided to return to the subject because I’ve uncovered some more evidence to support my theory and because I want to elaborate my views in relation to the larger narrative structure and because I want to examine how the prophecy of AA may relate to the narrative arcs of Daenerys Targaryen, Stannis Baratheon and Jon Snow. The most popular candidates for Azor Ahai come again are Daenerys Targaryen and Jon Snow (though makes an intriguing case for Jaime Lannister). This raises the question of who is the true subject of this particular prophecy. Though this identification hasn’t yet been unequivocally disproven by the text itself, most fans (rightly) conclude that Stannis is NOT the Chosen One - mostly because it seems to early for the Chosen One to be revealed when you look at it from a Doylist perspective and because Melisandre attempts to engineer events to match the prophecy, which is entirely the wrong way to approach the issue and that in itself suggests that her identification of Stannis as AA reborn is wrong. GRRM introduces this prophecy in A Clash of Kings through the character of Melisandre of Asshai, a priestess of the fire god R’hllor - and she believes that Stannis Baratheon is the reincarnation of this fabled hero. It is a prophecy that is brought up repeatedly in the text and it is no wonder that fans try to determine which of the characters will turn out to be this prophesied saviour. This prophecy features two common tropes of fantasy fiction: The Chosen One and the Magic Sword. Martin’s unfinished fantasy epic A Song of Ice and Fire has spawned a thousand and one fan theories about a multitude of things - but one aspect that has received a lot of attention in the fandom is the prophecy of Azor Ahai come again.
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