u/Tronm-24

At the feast celebrating the tournament's opening, *Rhaegar sings a song of ice and fire in Valyrian about the Prince That Was Promised*. This marks the prince's first appearance in the narrative. The song is intended to draw the nobility's attention to impending calamities and Rhaegar’s status as the chosen one.

Rhaegar’s aloofness does not endear him to the audience, and only Lyanna is truly moved by the song: she does not understand the words, yet she knows the prince is singing of the very things she sees in her own dreams. Lyanna realizes that unfamiliar feelings are awakening within her following an awkward dance with Rhaegar, during which they share their prophetic - and partially shared - dreams. Later, Lyanna notices that her dreams grow more vivid after meeting the prince, with dragons beginning to appear in them. It seems that love renders Rhaegar’s mind somewhat less guarded, allowing Lyanna - a warg - to forge a fateful connection with him.

On the other hand, Rhaenys’s gift of dream-vision has also intensified.

Elia plays the political game differently, even chiding her husband for his lackluster performance. As we know well from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, it is a simple matter for an organizer to rig the tournament brackets; thus, it is hardly surprising that Rhaegar’s initial opponents are his potential allies in the conspiracy against the king. By demonstrating his prowess and magnanimity as a warrior, the prince finds it easier to earn his rivals' respect and exchange a few words with them - unobserved - right there in the lists. Rhaegar is not Elia’s only powerful asset; while dancing with Ned, Ashara Dayne mentions that she changes lovers frequently. (We recall from the books that Barristan Selmy was captivated by Ashara, yet in the play, he remains steadfast and resists her flirtations; Brandon Stark, however—already betrothed to Catelyn Tully—succumbs.) It is at the tournament that Ashara shares her bed with Brandon and conceives a daughter by him (much to Elia’s distress). (Incidentally, it is symbolic that in the play, both the jousting matches and the dances are choreographed as a dance.)

The atmosphere shifts when Aerys II himself suddenly enters the Great Hall of Harrenhal, having not left the Red Keep since his captivity at Duskendale. While many tournament guests had previously not taken Rhaegar seriously, seeing Aerys’s condition with their own eyes now made them doubt. In the play, Aerys is neither a cartoonish monster nor devoid of humanity. He remains suspicious, capricious, and cruel, with a mood that shifts in the blink of an eye, and he bears the scars of the tragedy at Summerhall; yet, at the same time, he is genuinely attached to his firstborn and possesses a sense of humor - often as dark as the field on his coat of arms.

According to eyewitnesses, in one of the play’s most poignant scenes, Aerys urges Rhaegar not to hide behind prophecies if he desires to take the throne before his father’s death: "The gods do not toss a coin, Rhaegar! It is the Iron Throne that drives us into the abyss of madness!" he cries, baring his neck and goading his son toward patricide. "Coward!" the king declares, as the prince stands frozen in bewilderment.

It is likely here that Aerys tells his son he is not the Prince That Was Promised - the prophecy referred to a third child, not the first. For Rhaegar, this comes as a double blow, as Elia had suffered a harrowing labor during the tournament, after which the maesters declared she would bear no further children. Yet, following this, Aerys allows his son to cut his matted hair and overgrown nails - a gesture imbued with both care and sorrow.

After speaking with his father, Rhaegar’s belief in the prophecy wavers. The concept of the prophecy’s third child expands upon the book-based idea of ​​the woods witch’s prediction - which had led to Aerys himself marrying his sister (the witch had declared that the Prince That Was Promised would be born of the king's second son's line) - and offers a loose interpretation of Daenerys’s visions in the House of the Undying ("drink from the cup of ice... drink from the cup of fire... Mother of Dragons... child of three...").

Since not everyone can watch this, I’ll be posting a summary so that more people can learn about this amazing project.

I’ve broken it down into several parts and plan to finish within a week. The source is a post on a popular forum that compiled all the reliable accounts from people who watched it. It's not available in published form yet, so this is the best we have.

I also recommend this account to anyone interested in learning more about this project - @got_onstage

🖤

The first act opens by introducing the characters who have arrived at Harrenhal for the tournament held during the Year of the False Spring. As we later learn, the true organizers of the event are Rhaegar Targaryen and his wife, Elia Martell.

They operate covertly through Oswell Whent; using a plausible pretext, he persuaded the Lady of Harrenhal, Shella Whent (portrayed in the play as his sister), to host the tournament using funds the prince had embezzled from the royal treasury. At Harrenhal, Rhaegar and his heavily pregnant wife hope to rally the support of the great and lesser houses to overthrow Aerys the Mad without bloodshed.

Rhaegar is torn between his duty to the realm, his filial love for his father, and a prophecy that has haunted his family for generations. He is also troubled by his gift of prophetic dreams and the fear that the gods, in a toss of a coin, have destined him for madness—wondering if he is the "Prince That Was Promised" or merely a madman like his father. All of this bears a striking resemblance to Hamlet.

Elia, for her part, is a pragmatic politician who acts primarily in the interests of her children and Dorne.

To her, the marriage to Rhaegar is strictly a political alliance founded on mutual respect. The couple shares their deepest confidences, and they select romantic partners in a way that avoids the birth of bastards: Ashara Dayne - sister to Arthur Dayne, a Kingsguard knight and the prince’s close friend - becomes Elia’s favorite and confidante, while Rhaegar’s favorite is the aforementioned Kingsguard knight, Oswell Whent. Elia views her husband’s prophecies with a degree of indulgence.

Rhaegar’s belief in the special destiny of their offspring aligns perfectly with the princess’s own interests, and her eldest daughter, Rhaenys, also experiences prophetic dreams. *After Aegon’s birth, the princess tells Rhaegar that their daughter has begun speaking in riddles at Harrenhal: "She wasn't afraid of blood; she held my hand and sang that our hour had not yet come. First, a river of rubies (Rhaegar at the Trident), then a storm (Robert Baratheon, Lord of Storm's End), music at the gates (The Rains of Castamere), and a mountain in our chambers (Gregor Clegane, known as 'The Mountain'). That is when we shall sleep in gold" (the slain wrapped in Lannister gold cloaks).*

The flower of the Seven Kingdoms gathers for the tournament - save for the King himself. Among the guests are the Starks: the charming, impulsive, and dashing Brandon; the quiet, honorable Ned; the youthful, enthusiastic Benjen - whom they intend to send to the Night’s Watch (perhaps because there are simply too many sons?); and their only sister, Lyanna.

In one of the opening scenes, the young woman prays before the heart tree at Harrenhal. It turns out she, too, is haunted by inexplicable prophetic dreams; as a child, she experienced "wolf dreams" that her brothers mocked. Lyanna is not devout and had long since ceased standing before the face of a weirwood, but now, dreading her impending marriage to Robert Baratheon, she prays to the Old Gods to let her choose her own destiny—even though, deep down, she knows her fate is already sealed by her gender and station.