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As Viserys lay dying he uttered his last words to whom he believed to be Rhaenyra, his daughter, but instead was his wife Alicent:

"Aegon, his Dream. The Song of Ice and Fi -- It is true. What he saw in the North. The Prince That Was Promised. From my blood come the Prince That Was Promised and his will be the Song of Ice and Fire. The Prince, to unite the realm against the cold... and the dark. It is you. You are the one. You must do this."

Alicent automatically believes that it is their son, Aegon II that he is referring to although there are a couple reasons that is not the case:

  1. When Viserys first says the name Aegon, Alicent asks to clarify, "Our son?" Viserys shakes his head to indicate that is not what he meant.
  2. Viserys mentions, "What he saw in the North." Aegon II had never been known to have gone to the north so, that would be impossible.
  3. Viserys mentions, "his Dream." While The Song of Ice and Fire is a House Targaryen family secret. Prophetic dreams are not something that seems to be confidential. The dream of Daenys foreseeing the end of Valyria is well known, as well as other Targaryen 'dreamers', as they are written in the histories. However Aegon II has not mentioned to have prophetic dreams, to his mother or anyone else.

So with these clarifiers why did Alicent believe it was their son, Aegon II that Viserys was referring to on his deathbed?

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  • #1 is really the only reason. #2 doesn't matter, because just because he hasn't been to the north, doesn't mean he will not go there, as this is a vision of "the future". #3. The prince that was promised is either Jon Snow or Jon and Dany together as suggested by Melisandre (although Dany also takes on the role/reenactment of Nissa Nissa via her death), but Jon did not have "prophetic dreams" nor was he a green seer, neither was Dany, but she did have some mysterious "intuition".
    – Darth Locke
    Oct 19, 2022 at 19:37
  • I would also argue that Alicent doesn't in any way really understand the context of what Visery's was saying either, not being very familiar with Targ history. As an aside, which I have mentioned before, It's one thing for the in-universe history to be written so vague, but it's another for the TV series showing the events/people to leave so much ambiguity and often not taking a strong stand on why these characters do what they do.
    – Darth Locke
    Oct 19, 2022 at 19:41
  • 2
    I find the series' writing to be a cross between an outline fleshed out to the level of an elevator pitch and an AI generated story. "Who are they writing this for?" and "Did the writers go to University?" are things I said out loud while watching.
    – Yorik
    Oct 19, 2022 at 20:07

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Alicent heard what she wanted to hear; simple as that. If there was anyway she could be questioned on the truth of the conversation or if she questioned herself she would probably rationalise it as the parts that don't make sense were due to the illness. However, if you spend even a second to think about it clearly the whole conversation makes no sense from Alicent's side; like she only has half of the information or is viewing half a conversation.

If you look at the quote with both sides it becomes a bit more clear that she doesn't understand what the conversation is about:

Viserys: But you wanted to know... if I believe it to be true.

Alicent: Believe what to be true, my King?

Viserys: Don't you remember? Aegon...

Alicent: Our son?

Viserys: His Dream. The Song of Ice... and Fi... It is true. What he saw in the North. The Prince That Was Promised.

Alicent: I don't understand, Viserys.

Viserys: The Prince.

Alicent: Prince Aegon?

Viserys: To unite the realm against the cold... and the dark. It is you. You are the one. You must do this. You must do this.

Alicent: Shh, shh. I understand, my King.

House of the Dragon, Season 1 Episode 8, "The Lord of the Tides"

However, it clearly doesn't matter to her and the main takeaways she takes from the conversation both point to Viserys having changed his mind and wanting Aegon to be King and take his place, not Rhaenyra.

He mentions Aegon by name multiple times. From Alicent's perspective it doesn't make sense for him to be talking about Aegon the Conqueror because she doesn't know about the prophecy so it must be their son.

He also mentions a prince and that he is The Prince That Was Promised. Well same again she doesn't know about the prophecy and Rhaenyra is a princess not a prince so he must again be referring to Aegon.

The last thing he says "It is you. You are the one. You must do this. You must do this." to Alicent would be referring to Aegon; Viserys says "The Prince [...] You are the one."

Lastly, you've got to remember that Alicent has been fighting for her line to take the Iron Throne after Viserys and now he's seemingly saying that is what should happen. She hears what she wants at the end because from her perspective it makes the most sense and aligns with her ideals.

It's worth noting though that as far as I can tell this conversation seems to have been completely made up for the TV show. Perhaps this was done because they'd had the two sides pretty much make up before hand (not friends but more amicable it would seem). But either was they felt like they needed a little more of a push to have the two sides go at it and so somewhat changed the events that follow the death of the King and what spurred Alicent to claim Aegon as the heir.

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