Swan Song part 12/16. The Dragon has three heads

[Megorova]

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The dragon has three heads. There are two men in the world who I can trust, if I can find them. I will not be alone then. We will be three against the world, like Aegon and his sisters. - ASOS, Dany VI.

The Signs of Life & The Emergence of the Dragon-Magic

First appearance of Drogon:

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There are no more dragons, Dany thought, staring at her brother, though she did not dare say it aloud.

Yet that night she dreamt of one. Viserys was hitting her, hurting her. She was naked, clumsy with fear. She ran from him, but her body seemed thick and ungainly. He struck her again. She stumbled and fell. “You woke the dragon,” he screamed as he kicked her. “You woke the dragon, you woke the dragon.” Her thighs were slick with blood. She closed her eyes and whimpered. As if in answer, there was a hideous lipping sound and the crackling of some great fire. When she looked again, Viserys was gone, great columns of flame rose all around, and in the midst of them was the dragon. It turned its great head slowly. When its molten eyes found hers, she woke, shaking and covered with a fine sheen of sweat. She had never been so afraid… - AGOT, Dany II.

That was Dany’s first dragon-dream (dragonseeds are able to see prophetic dreams even when there are no dragons alive in the world, examples - Daeron the Drunken saw in a dream Baelor Breakspear’s death; Daemon II Blackfyre had a dream about a dragon rising at Whitewalls, and saw Duncan the Tall as a Kingsguard). In Dany’s dream were foreshadowed these events: her pregnancy (that’s why she was thick and ungainly), Viserys’ death (that’s why he “was gone”), Rhaego’s birth (that’s why her thighs were slick with blood), the hatching of Dany’s dragons in Drogo’s funeral pyre (that crackling and the great fire), and Dany becoming Drogon’s rider (“its molten eyes found hers”). In the next chapter Dany had a second dragon-dream, in which she again saw Drogon:

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Yet when she slept that night, she dreamt the dragon dream again. Viserys was not in it this time. There was only her and the dragon. Its scales were black as night, wet and slick with blood. Her blood, Dany sensed. Its eyes were pools of molten magma, and when it opened its mouth, the flame came roaring out in a hot jet. She could hear it singing to her. She opened her arms to the fire, embraced it, let it swallow her whole, let it cleanse her and temper her and scour her clean. She could feel her flesh sear and blacken and slough away, could feel her blood boil and turn to steam, and yet there was no pain. She felt strong and new and fierce.

And the next day, strangely, she did not seem to hurt quite so much. It was as if the gods had heard her and taken pity. Even her handmaids noticed the change. “Khaleesi,” Jhiqui said, “what is wrong? Are you sick?”

“I was,” she answered, standing over the dragon’s eggs that Illyrio had given her when she wed. She touched one, the largest of the three, running her hand lightly over the shell. Black-and-scarlet, she thought, like the dragon in my dream. The stone felt strangely warm beneath her fingers…or was she still dreaming? She pulled her hand back nervously.

From that hour onward, each day was easier than the one before it. - AGOT, Dany III.

When Dany had that second dream, she began physically changing and her personality also went through metamorphosis - she gradually became braver, bolder. This happened because during that dream she had bonded with Drogon (this sort of thing had also happened with the other dragonseeds, for example, Aenys I). The changes that happened to Dany, and Drogon’s egg becoming warm, prove that from the moment they bonded, their connection had unlocked the dragon-magic from within the stone eggs, and it began gradually sipping back into the world.

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She liked to hold them. They were so beautiful, and sometimes just being close to them made her feel stronger, braver, as if somehow she were drawing strength from the stone dragons locked inside. - AGOT, Dany IV.

Shortly after Dany’s second dragon-dream (in the same chapter), while being awake she had witnessed the first manifestation of the dragon-magic:

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Dany gave the silver over to the slaves for grooming and entered her tent. It was cool and dim beneath the silk. As she let the door flap close behind her, Dany saw a finger of dusty red light reach out to touch her dragon’s eggs across the tent. For an instant a thousand droplets of scarlet flame swam before her eyes. She blinked, and they were gone.

Stone, she told herself. They are only stone, even Illyrio said so, the dragons are all dead. She put her palm against the black egg, fingers spread gently across the curve of the shell. The stone was warm. Almost hot.” - AGOT, Dany III.

The scarlet flame that she saw and the heat that she felt attests that even though Dany’s dragons were still locked in their stone eggs, they were already alive and through their magic were able to influence the physical world and to cause there tangible changes.

Thus, if the dragon-magic is the “fuel” that makes Valyrian glass candles to burn, then they were reignited not after the hatching of Dany’s dragons, but many months earlier. Which also means that at the time of Rhaego’s birth they were already functional and could have been used by the people who knew how to operate them, people like Shiera Seastar and maester Marwyn.

Several months after Dany’s second dragon-dream, when Drogo’s khalasar had traveled far away from Pentos, on the day of Dany’s fourteenth birthday it was revealed that she’s pregnant. Sometime later, when Dany was heavily pregnant, Rhaegal’s egg also had showed first signs of life. In my opinion, this was the exact point when Rhaego and Rhaegal had bonded:

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Irri fetched the egg with the deep green shell, bronze flecks shining amid its scales as she turned it in her small hands. Dany curled up on her side, pulling the sandsilk cloak across her and cradling the egg in the hollow between her swollen belly and small, tender breasts. …

She was lying there, holding the egg, when she felt the child move within her … as if he were reaching out, brother to brother, blood to blood. “You are the dragon,” Dany whispered to him, “the true dragon. I know it. I know it.” And she smiled, and went to sleep dreaming of home. - AGOT, Dany IV.

They choose each other then, thus it’s already predetermined who will become Rhaegal’s rider. And this is the point when the embryo in Viserion’s egg also had showed signs of life:

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When she woke the third time, a shaft of golden sunlight was pouring through the smoke hole of the tent, and her arms were wrapped around a dragon’s egg. It was the pale one, its scales the color of butter cream, veined with whorls of gold and bronze, and Dany could feel the heat of it. Beneath her bedsilks, a fine sheen of perspiration covered her bare skin. Dragondew, she thought. Her fingers trailed lightly across the surface of the shell, tracing the wisps of gold, and deep in the stone she felt something twist and stretch in response. It did not frighten her. All her fear was gone, burned away. - Dany IX.

Thus, Dany’s dragons had awakened in this order (while they were still inside their eggs) - Drogon, Rhaegal, Viserion. Excluding the first appearance of those eggs in the book, whenever Dany saw them, thought or talked about them, she was listing them in this same order, with the black/Drogon always first. That’s because after they had bonded, Dany’s subconsciousness began to perceive Drogon as the most important out of her triplets. She had intuitively felt that eventually Drogon would become her mount. This was predetermined still in AGOT, same as who would become the riders of the other two dragons, and GRRM had left there clues about their identities.

The Three Sacrifices

The sum of this section’s title and the following quotes is self-explanatory:

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When the fire died at last and the ground became cool enough to walk upon, Ser Jorah Mormont found her amidst the ashes, surrounded by blackened logs and bits of glowing ember and the burnt bones of man and woman and stallion.

... The sun was going down when she called them back to carry his body to the pyre. The Dothraki watched in silence as Jhogo and Aggo bore him from the tent. Dany walked behind them. They laid him down on his cushions and silks, his head toward the Mother of Mountains far to the northeast.

... The godswife did not cry out as they dragged her to Khal Drogo’s pyre and staked her down amidst his treasures.

... Rakharo chose a stallion from the small herd that remained to them; he was not the equal of Khal Drogo’s red, but few horses were. In the center of the square, Aggo fed him a withered apple and dropped him in an instant with an axe blow between the eyes.

Drogo, Mirri Maz Duur, the stallion killed by Aggo = Drogon, Viserion, Rhaegal.

The Meaning of Placement & The Meaning of Colors

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She climbed the pyre herself to place the eggs around her sun-and-stars. The black beside his heart, under his arm. The green beside his head, his braid coiled around it. The cream-and-gold down between his legs. - AGOT, Dany X.

Black egg was placed near Drogo’s heart because subconsciously Drogon was perceived by Dany as the most close and dear to her. That egg’s coloration represents House Targaryen - black and red - smoke/fire and blood.

Dany coiled Drogo’s braid around the green egg. In my opinion, this choice of placement symbolizes that Rhaegal’s future rider will become undefeated Dothraki Khal, same as Drogo (in some cultures long hair symbolizes fertility). And the egg’s coloration - green and bronze - represents Rhaego’s origin, green like the grasses of the Dothraki Sea, and bronze like the color of the Dothraki skin and their bronze arakhs.

The placement of the third egg possibly means that the rider of that dragon will be Dany’s third mount (“three mounts must you ride . . . one to bed and one to dread and one to love”), her third husband. The last dragon is three-colored - cream, bronze and gold. Viserion’s coloration possibly means that its rider is a Northerner (cream/white snow), the bronze represents his First Men origin, and the gold means that he will become a King (gold/crown).

The Order of Things

The order of things is important because if we can correctly interpret its meaning, then we will be able to use the same key-codes to decipher other mysteries that GRRM hid all over ASOIAF. For example:

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One egg was a deep green, with burnished bronze flecks that came and went depending on how Dany turned it. Another was pale cream streaked with gold. The last was black, as black as a midnight sea, yet alive with scarlet ripples and swirls. - Dany III.

This is the first appearance of those dragon eggs in the books. Green, cream, black. Aside from this one time, in all other cases their order was different, the black was always first - first manifested signs of life, first was placed on the funeral pyre, Drogon first bonded with his rider (both in Dany’s dragon-dream and then in reality). So when GRRM wrote that scene in which dragon eggs were presented to Dany as her wedding gift, he intentionally changed their order. He wrote the first (black/Drogon) as the last, and then the second (green) as the first, and the third (cream) as the second. Though their correct order, the order in which they appeared in nearly all other scenes is this - black, green, cream.

GRRM used the same formula while writing Dany’s visions in the House of the Undying (in ACOK, Dany IV). If the reverse of this formula will be applied to reorder Dany’s visions (once to shift the order of sets - daughter of death, slayer of lies, bride of fire - the third should be placed as the first; then the same shifting also should be applied to the order of the visions in each set; and then for a third time to the last three visions, because GRRM is using trinities everywhere), then this is what we’ll get (chronological order of those events):

1. A blue flower grew from a chink in a wall of ice, and filled the air with sweetness.

2. Rubies flew like drops of blood from the chest of a dying prince, and he sank to his knees in the water and with his last breath murmured a woman’s name.

3. From a smoking tower, a great stone beast took wing, breathing shadow fire.

4. Her silver was trotting through the grass, to a darkling stream beneath a sea of stars.

5. Viserys screamed as the molten gold ran down his cheeks and filled his mouth.

6. Glowing like sunset, a red sword was raised in the hand of a blue-eyed king who cast no shadow.

7. A cloth dragon swayed on poles amidst a cheering crowd.

8. A corpse stood at the prow of a ship, eyes bright in his dead face, grey lips smiling sadly.

9. A tall lord with copper skin and silver-gold hair stood beneath the banner of a fiery stallion, a burning city behind him.

Blue flowers in ASOIAF are symbolizing Lyanna Stark - “the triumphant Prince of Dragonstone named Lyanna Stark, daughter of the Lord of Winterfell, the queen of love and beauty, placing a garland of blue roses in her lap with the tip of his lance” - TWOIAF, The Year of the Falce Spring; “Promise me, she had cried, in a room that smelled of blood and roses.” - AGOT, Ned I. The dying prince in that vision is Rhaegar. So it’s a logical conclusion that the next vision is about Jon’s birth, and that the smoking tower is the Tower of Joy. In this case the lie to slay is the “smoke screen” that Ned Stark created to cover the true origin of Jon Snow. So in that vision the winged stone beast is Jon. And he will be the last dragon that will be awakened from stone - “Finally he looked north. He saw the Wall shining like blue crystal, and his bastard brother Jon sleeping alone in a cold bed, his skin growing pale and hard as the memory of all warmth fled from him.” - AGOT, Bran III.

The first three visions are from the distant past - events that happened at the time of Robert’s Rebellion. The next three are covering events that occurred in 297-299 AC - Dany’s wedding with Khal Drogo, Visery’s death at Vaes Dothrak, Melisandre giving fake Lightbringer to Stannis and crowning him as the King of the 7K. And the last three are the visions of the future, which also means that Rhaego is alive, because in one of them Dany saw her son as an adult.

Aside from those visions GRRM had also used the changes in the order of things to conceal other important secrets. For example:

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The cream-and-gold dragon was suckling at her left breast, the green-and-bronze at the right. Her arms cradled them close. The black-and-scarlet beast was draped across her shoulders, its long sinuous neck coiled under her chin. When it saw Jorah, it raised its head and looked at him with eyes as red as coals. - AGOT, Dany X.

On Drogo’s funeral pyre, Viserion’s egg was placed the last out of three, though he hatched first. Possibly because the sacrifice with whose life was bought Viserion’s life - Mirri Maz Duur - had the most amount of life-force. She burned alive, but the other two sacrifices were placed under the pyre (the stallion) and on the pyre (Drogo), when they were already dead. Drogo was killed first, then the stallion, so Drogo’s body had the least amount of life-force left. Thus, the dragon whose life was bought with Drogo’s life - Drogon - had hatched the last. Viserion and Rhaegal hatched and went to their mother to feed. When Drogon hatched, both of Dany’s breasts were already occupied, so he draped himself across her shoulders. The dragons hatched in this order - Viserion, Rhaegal, Drogon; though on the funeral pyre their eggs were placed in the opposite order - black, green, cream. The order of their placing on the pyre is also the same as the order in which those eggs manifested signs of life - Drogon (AGOT, Dany III), Rhaegal (Dany IV), and Viserion (Dany IX). So this is also the order in which those dragons will find their riders.

To define the order in which those three people will become dragonriders, GRRM applied the same formula (the first he shifted to the last place) to the order in which they were born - Jon (283 AC), Dany (284 AC), Rhaego (299 AC). Thus Rhaego will become the second dragonrider and his dragon will be Rhaegal, and Jon will become the last dragonrider and his dragon will be Viserion.

The Meaning of Sound Effects

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The fires swept over Mirri Maz Duur.

She saw a horse, a great grey stallion limned in smoke, its flowing mane a nimbus of blue flame. Yes, my love, my sun-and-stars, yes, mount now, ride now.

Now, she thought, now, and for an instant she glimpsed Khal Drogo before her, mounted on his smoky stallion, a flaming lash in his hand. He smiled, and the whip snaked down at the pyre, hissing.

She heard a crack, the sound of shattering stone. The platform of wood and brush and grass began to shift and collapse in upon itself. Bits of burning wood slid down at her, and Dany was showered with ash and cinders. And something else came crashing down, bouncing and rolling, to land at her feet; a chunk of curved rock, pale and veined with gold, broken and smoking.

The first egg hatched with the sound of shattering stone, the piece of its shell fell to Dany’s feet. It was the egg that Dany placed between Drogo’s legs - Viserion’s, whose rider will be Dany’s third “mount”. This man is a great stone beast and a blue flower from Dany’s visions in the House of the Undying. He is the last dragon that will be awakened from stone, and he is the last lie that will be uncovered by Dany, his future bride and the mother of his dragonseed-children.

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And there came a second crack, loud and sharp as thunder, and the smoke stirred and whirled around her and the pyre shifted, the logs exploding as the fire touched their secret hearts. She heard the screams of frightened horses, and the voices of the Dothraki raised in shouts of fear and terror, and Ser Jorah calling her name and cursing. No, she wanted to shout to him, no, my good knight, do not fear for me. The fire is mine. I am Daenerys Stormborn, daughter of dragons, bride of dragons, mother of dragons, don’t you see? Don’t you SEE?

The second egg hatched with the sound of thunder, and then Dany heard screams of horses and voices of the Dothraki. It happened after the fire reached the wooden logs and what was hidden beneath them (“Over the carcass of the horse, they built a platform of hewn logs”) - the stallion killed by Aggo. The sound effects with which hatched Rhaegal’s egg - thunder, horses, Dothraki (“I have seen his face, and heard the thunder of his hooves” - Dosh Khaleen, AGOT, Dany V) - are clues that his future rider is the Stallion that Mounts the World - Rhaego.

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The third crack was as loud and sharp as the breaking of the world.

Dany is not merely the Breaker of Chains. By obliterating slavery in Essos, she changed the existing world order. She broke the world and will make it anew. That’s why Drogon’s egg hatched with the sound of the breaking of the world. That sound effect symbolized the identity of his future rider. In all three cases, the sound effects with which those dragons hatched from their eggs are clues about the identity of their future riders.

But, but, but…

Even if Rhaego is alive, he’s just a baby, so how is he going to become a dragonrider? And what about Tyrion? What about fAegon? And isn’t Jon dead?

If my theories are correct, then Dany will be reunited with her son at Vaes Dothrak. From there she will take him to Meereen. They will fly together on Drogon like little Ronnel Arryn flew with Visenya Targaryen on her dragon Vhagar, and newborn Viserys I with his mother Alyssa Targaryen. And that’s when Tyrion will come in handy - “I have a gift for you,” the dwarf said to Bran. “Do you like to ride, boy?” (AGOT, Bran IV). In the past dragonlords were using special saddles and harnesses to ride dragons. In TWOIAF there are several dragons depicted with a saddle on (Balerion, Meleys, Sunfyre, Quicksilver).

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Bran sat strapped to her back in the oversize saddle the Imp had drawn up for him… With his legs unable to grip, the swaying motion of the horse made Bran feel unsteady at first, but the huge saddle with its thick horn and high back cradled him comfortingly, and the straps around his chest and thighs would not allow him to fall. - AGOT, Bran V.

That’s how Rhaego will become a dragonrider, with Tyrion’s help.

Could be that Tyrion will also ride a dragon, though only as a passenger, not as a bonded rider. Because Tyrion is not a dragonseed, he is not King Aerys’ son. There is one major similarity between Jon Snow and Tyrion - both of them were unfairly mistreated by their families on false pretenses. Tyrion was treated by his father as though he is not his son, even though he was. And Jon was treated by Catelyn and her children as though he is Ned’s bastard, even though he isn’t.

And what are GRRM’s possible plans concerning Jon and fAegon you can read in the next two parts of the “Swan Song”.

[Megorova]

According to one of my theories - the three heads of the dragons, those three people who will become the riders of Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion, are Air signs of Zodiac. Dany is Gemini (born in May), Jon is Libra (born in September), and Rhaego is an Aquarius (born in January).

I just noticed this element mentioned in AGOT:

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Your brother Rhaegar was the last dragon, Ser Jorah had said. Dany gazed at her eggs sadly. What had she expected? A thousand thousand years ago they had been alive, but now they were only pretty rocks. They could not make a dragon. A dragon was air and fire. Living flesh, not dead stone. - AGOT, Dany VI.

Additionally I also noticed that GRRM often hides important clues in chapters numbered with 4 - IV, 6 - VI, and 8 - VIII.

[Jaenara Belarys]

@Megorova, I like this theory (I've always liked thinking of mother!Dany or a Rhaego lives situation to occupy boring times), but even with the saddle Rhaego would still need roughly fourteen years (or around there, 14 is out of thin air) to be ready for battle, at the very least (he needs to learn and such and toddlers are...not clever). Besides, during all this time, what's happening? The WW won't wait courteously, after all. 

[Megorova]

13 hours ago, Jaenara Belarys said:

Besides, during all this time, what's happening? The WW won't wait courteously, after all. 

GRRM said that the ending of ASOIAF will be bitter-sweet, like the ending of The Lord of the Rings. If you haven't read the book - it doesn't end like the movie version. In the book, after the main battle, when the Ring was destroyed, the war didn't just ended, the Orks didn't just all perished. The inhabitants of that world kept fighting against the Orks and other monsters for a long time after Aragorn became the King and married with Arwen.

There you know where the war between humans and the White Walkers ended when a heroine killed the Night's King, and then all the other White Walkers just exploded, and all the zombies just became plain dead, The End.

And that's not how it's going to happen in the books. There is no a Great Other, killing whom the heroes can destroy all the Undead and all the Others with a single strike. The First Long Night lasted for a generation, for decades. So what made you and the other readers to think that this time it will be different?

Now Azor Ahai has dragons, and now he has a completed Lightbringer with all of the fallen star's power gathered inside the sword. During the First Long Night the sword was incomplete, because during the crash, part of the star's power got dispersed in the area where it has fallen. That's possibly the reason why the first Dayne had build Starfall at the crash site - to use the castle as a magnet that will gather all the power from the surrounding area. And then Jon was conceived and born in that castle, so the power of the star was absorbed by him during Lyanna's pregnancy, which she had spent at Starfall. So part of the star's power is in the sword, and the remaining part is in Jon. Now the weapon that can defeat the Others is complete. Though, despite Dawn/Lightbringer being a magical weapon, it can't kill all the Others, and all the zombies, just by killing one of them. It doesn't work like that in the books.

Just read thru the scenes in which Sam killed the Other, and another one where he killed a zombie. Those zombies that were following Sam and the other Night's Watchers didn't just fell over and became plain dead, when Sam killed that Other. Which also means that even if all the Others will be killed by Jon with Lightbringer, there will still be ramaining hundreds of thousands of the Undead. And even though Dany can use her dragons to burn the bulk mass of the Undead Army, who said that those zombies will be standing still and waiting for the dragons to burn them? Nothing stops them from turning and running away, from dispersing thru the wide area and making it impossible for the dragons to get all of them. The dragons are not going to chase every single zombie to burn it. Thus it will be the work that is supposed to be done by people. They will go after the zombies and will be fighting them. And that's when Rhaego and his Dothraki Horde will come in handy.

In one of her visions Dany saw grown up Rhaego, under a banner with a fiery stallion, and the burning city behind him. As I already wrote in the other part of SS - years after the main battle, that will occur in ADOS, the fights against the zombies will be continuing, same as it was after the main Big Battle in The Lord of the Rings. So Rhaego, who at that time (maybe) will be 16+ years old, will be fighting against the zombies. And it will take several decades (or at least several years) to clear Westeros from all the walking dead.

So the main battle will be fought by Dany and Jon, now, and it will occur at the Trident, because apparently that's what Dany saw in one of her dragon-dreams. They will defeat the main Undead Army at that battle, and then the remnants of the enemy's army will run and scatter all over upper side of Westeros, all that area above the Trident. So all of The North, parts of The Vale, northern part of Riverlands, upper part of Westerlands - all that area will be infested with zombies, and thus will be uninhabitable, until all the zombies will be "killed" one by one, later.

Thus during the Big Battle all three dragons will be participating in the fighting, though Rhaegal probably will be without a rider on its back.

Or maybe he (or is it a she? probably it is a girl) will have a rider, same as the other two dragons.

Because I actually don't see a reason why a 3-years old Rhaego can't ride his dragon, while being strapped into the saddle. He is a Dothraki, and they learn how to ride horses even earlier than they learn how to walk.

This is video of a 3-years old girl riding a horse:

 

And dragons are smarter than horses. While riding a dragon, his (or hers) bonded rider doesn't need to make signals to his mount, like it is done in case of horseriding. A dragon has a telepathic bond with its rider. And because Rhaego formed that sort of bond with Rhaegal, while both of them were still inside the uterus and the egg, I don't see a reason why Rhaego can't fly on his dragon. If he will be strapped into the saddle

(and it is a saddle with a high back - just read the scene where Bran went riding first time after his fall, and what kind of saddle was made for him based on the scheme provided by Tyrion. Which Tyrion probably copied from the books about dragons, and then made a saddle like that for himself, which allowed him to ride horses, despite his short legs and arms. And then he used the same scheme for Bran's saddle),

and if he will be able to direct Rhaegal thru their telepathic bond, I don't see a reason why he can't actively participate in the fight against the Others, during the main Big Battle.

And then, when he will be older, Rhaego and his Dothraki will cross the Trident, and will go into the northern territories, to clear that area from the zombie horde.

13 hours ago, Jaenara Belarys said:

but even with the saddle Rhaego would still need roughly fourteen years (or around there, 14 is out of thin air) to be ready for battle, at the very least (he needs to learn and such and toddlers are...not clever).

Who needs to fight in a battle while using a sword, a spear, or an arakh, if he has a fire-breathing weapon under his command? ->

"The king told him that fire was the champion of House Targaryen." - ACOK, Cat VII.

"Ours is the house of the dragon," he would say. "The fire is in our blood." - AGOT, Dany I.

"She was lying there, holding the egg, when she felt the child move within her … as if he were reaching out, brother to brother, blood to blood. "You are the dragon," Dany whispered to him, "the true dragon. I know it. I know it." - Dany IV.

"Dany stroked the swell of her belly gently, wishing she could reach him, touch him, soothe him. "You are the blood of the dragon, little one," she whispered as her litter swayed along, curtains drawn tight. "You are the blood of the dragon, and the dragon does not fear." - Dany VI.

"I am khaleesi, heir to the Seven Kingdoms, the blood of the dragon," Dany reminded him. "It is not for you to tell me what I cannot do." - Dany VII.

 

Rhaego is the Stallion who mounts the world. So who will dare to stop him and to say to him - you can't do it, you are not allowed, you are too young - if he will wish to mount his dragon?

Even when GRRM had to let go of his original plan with a 5-years long time-skip in it, he just decided - whatever, if a 12-years old child is destined to become the ruler of the world, then so be it.

https://www.westeros.org/Citadel/SSM/Entry/US_Signing_Tour_Half_Moon_Bay_CA/

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Q: 5-year gap?

A: It worked for characters like Arya and Dany but not so much for the adults or those who had a lot of action coming. He was writing chapters where Jon thought, "Well, not a lot has happened these past five years, it's been kinda nice." And Cersei chapters where she thought, "Well, I've had to kill sooo many people the last five years." So he ended up dropping it. He said he would have done it sooner if he hadn't told so many fans about it. And there is no gap anymore. "If a twelve-year old has to conquer the world, then so be it."

 

Rhaego was born in January of 299. So he will be 12 in 311 AC. And if GRRM hadn't dropped the plan with the 5-years long time-skip, then by the end of the series Rhaego would have been 17, instead of 12. So he would have been a lord, because he would have been an adult, aged over 16. And now GRRM will probably make that time-skip between the last chapter of ADOS and that book's Epilogue. So the scene with grown-up Rhaego under the banner of the fiery stallion, will occur in 316 AC.

Or it will be in 311 AC, because even if Rhaego at that time will be only 12 years old, it doesn't mean that he can't be tall (just look at Sansa - she was really tall for a 12-years old girl), or that he can't be a Lord, despite being younger than 16. He is a Dothraki, maybe a Dothraki-male is considered to become an adult after his first kill (like it was in the past in certain tribes of the American Indians - get your first buffalo, or your first scalp, and then - you're a man <- I don't know this for sure, I just saw things like that in movies), and not based on him reaching certain age, like it is with the male-citizens of the 7K.

GRRM said - "then so be it", so the final scene of ASOIAF could be this -> a 12-years old Lord Rhaego, the Stallion who mounts the world, had conquered the world, after clearing Westeros from the zombie horde.

Though that will be years later, after the main Battle, and the main Battle will occur maybe in 301 or 302 or 303. And little Rhaego will either take active part in the fighting, while flying on his dragon, or the dragon will participate in the battle even without a rider on its back. The details are irrelevant. The point is - it is possible for a child-Rhaego to lead people into the Battle, because it's one of the most popular Biblical tropes -

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Isaiah+11&version=NKJV

Quote

“The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,
The leopard shall lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little child shall lead them. - Isaiah 11:6.

and because ASOIAF is largely inspired by the Bible.

Read this article on GRRM's site about his childhood:

https://georgerrmartin.com/about-george/life-and-times/bayonne/

In his early formative years he was strongly influenced by church, faith, Bible, etc. So all that (Biblical themes) are strongly reflected in many of his works, not only in ASOIAF. For example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Way_of_Cross_and_Dragon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuf_Voyaging#"Loaves_and_Fishes"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuf_Voyaging#"Call_Him_Moses"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuf_Voyaging#"Manna_from_Heaven"