The Westerosi Primer - A Song of Ice and Fire Podcast
Oct 14, 2026 · 24 min · 14 segments
In this episode, Liz discusses fan theories about The Prince Who Was Promised! What is this prophecy about? Is this "Prince" connected to Azor Ahai? Who could possibly be the Prince Who was Promised?…
In this episode, I want to cover what exactly is this theory? Is there a difference between the two titles? Who are the ones people say could be the prince? What, if any, evidence exists in the books or George's interviews to point who the prince is? First off, we hear both terms throughout the saga.
This is likely why a lot of fans also view the terms in that way.
However, they're technically separate figures that have some similarities to each other.
This means that we need to talk about who exactly these figures are before we can dive into who allegedly these figures are according to the characters in the saga.
Though I imagine several of you who have never read the books would have been confused to some degree about this.
This does make sense, which I'll explain a bit.
In that episode, we finally meet the much-referred-to Middle Baratheon brother, Stannis.
We also see Stannis being told to pull a sword out of a fire pit.
What was the deal with that? Well, that was Melisandre's attempt to recreate Lightbringer because she believes Stannis is Azor Ahai returned.
Azor Ahai comes across as being a messianic figure along the lines of King Arthur with his promised return.
And of course, he had a legendary weapon only he could use.
Lightbringer is a subject of notable stories too.
One particularly famous one is how the sword was created in the first place.
I'll just recount this story briefly.
Similar to how Storm's End was a castle that had to be rebuilt multiple times before the existing castle was created, it took multiple times to forge Lightbringer.
In this case, he had to make it three times before the sword could be completed.
In this episode, I want to cover what exactly is this theory? Is there a difference between the two titles? Who are the ones people say could be the prince? What, if any, evidence exists in the books or George's interviews to point who the prince is? First off, we hear both terms throughout the saga.
This is likely why a lot of fans also view the terms in that way.
However, they're technically separate figures that have some similarities to each other.
This means that we need to talk about who exactly these figures are before we can dive into who allegedly these figures are according to the characters in the saga.
Though I imagine several of you who have never read the books would have been confused to some degree about this.
This does make sense, which I'll explain a bit.
In that episode, we finally meet the much-referred-to Middle Baratheon brother, Stannis.
We also see Stannis being told to pull a sword out of a fire pit.
What was the deal with that? Well, that was Melisandre's attempt to recreate Lightbringer because she believes Stannis is Azor Ahai returned.
Azor Ahai comes across as being a messianic figure along the lines of King Arthur with his promised return.
And of course, he had a legendary weapon only he could use.
Lightbringer is a subject of notable stories too.
One particularly famous one is how the sword was created in the first place.
I'll just recount this story briefly.
Similar to how Storm's End was a castle that had to be rebuilt multiple times before the existing castle was created, it took multiple times to forge Lightbringer.
In this case, he had to make it three times before the sword could be completed.
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