Original subtitles

The Maesters don't believe in prophecy with good reason.

The Children of the Forest supposedly could see into the future...

...yet was surprised by the first men who nearly ended their race...

...and the Long Night, which nearly ended us all.

Some maesters posit that The Children's magical sight...

...was invented long after they vanished from Westeros...

...by singers hoping to thrill peasant girls.

Not that most maesters have much experience in what does or doesn't do that.

When Aegon the Conqueror came to the Iron Islands...

...the priest king Lodos claimed his divine father...

...The Ironborn's Dronwed God...

...had shown him krakens pulling Aegon's ships into the deep.

No krakens ever arrived...

...and even if they had, they wouldn't stopped Aegon and his dragons...

...without wings of their own.

Confused, Lodos filled his pockets with stones and walked into the sea...

...to take council with his father.

Thousands followed him.

But appearently The Drowned God didn't appreciate the crowd.

Their corpses washed upon the Iron Islands for years.

According the legend, House Targaryen survived the Doom of Valyria...

...thanks to Daenys the Dreamer, who foresaw the calamity...

...and convinced her father to flee their homeland.

It could be true.

Targaryens were always a bit more.

But as Maester Yendall points out...

...in the east, the Targaryens one of a thousand minor noble families...

...in Westeros, they became kings.

Politics, not prophecy could have drawn them to our shores.

Politics can also explain the prophecies of Daemon Blackfyre II...

...a Targaryen bastard rumored to possess the family gift.

While posing as a hedge knight...

...he told a future Lord Commander of the Kingsguard...

...that he dreamt of a dragon hatching in a white walls castle...

...and took it is a sign that he'd win the Iron Throne.

Perhaps if he'd slept a bit longer...

...he'd had dreamt the King's Hand putting down his rebellion a day later...

...before it even began.

Most maesters dismissal Targaryen claims of prophecy as mystic nonsense.

A relic of their Eastern ancestry.

To be fair, across the Narrow Sea...

...there isn't a market without a warlock from Qarth telling fortunes...

...or a Shadow Binder from Asshai reading fates in blood.

Up so I hear from the maesters.

But when I was a boy...

...I overheard the cook whispering to a maid about a woods witch...

...camping outside Horn Hill who was called Maggy the Frog.

Now I realize it was probably a corruption of the Eastern word for wizards...

"Maegi"

One day my father rode out hunting, though no game was in season.

Whatever power she had, likely didn't save her.

Even the wisest maesters however have no answer for the Red Priests...

...who prophesy about the return of the Long Night.

For thousands of years...

...they've kept watch for the return of the Prince who was promised...

...who will be born amidst salt and smoke to drive off the darkness once again.

Prince of what realm? Promised by whom and to whom?

...the prophecy doesn't say.

But at the very least, it confirmed that no even Essos escaped the Long Night.

I imagine the cataclysm must have confused the East.

Unlike Westeros, they wouldn't have known of the Night King nor the White Walkers...

...or the war waged by the First Men and the Children of the Forest.

They would have just seen a terrible winter descend...

...and linger far too long until spring magicaly returned to the world.

Yet somehow...

...maybe from passing merchants, maybe in their fires...

...The Red Priests saw the truth.

Now the truth is here again for anyone to see...

...but the maesters refuse.

They debate and question and doubt, not to choose the wisest course...

...because they're too used to doing nothing else.

Most prophecies might be lies, but not all of them.

The Long Night is coming.

If we don't believe that...

...we won't need any prophecy to tell us our future.