The latest episode of House of the Dragon season 3 is all about Rhaenyra Targaryen finally ruling the Seven Kingdoms – but there is one plot line that seems to have been lifted directly from George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels, rather than Fire and Blood.
Spoilers for House of the Dragon season 3, episode 3 follow. Turn back now if you're not up to date!
In the episode, Ormund Hightower surrenders young Daeron Targaryen to Daemon, who takes the young lad back to King's Landing and urges Rhaenyra to kill him, since he has a claim to the throne. Daeron stays silent, up until the point it's revealed that he is in fact a fraud, and the real Daeron is still with Ormund. This is very similar to the most popular fan theories about a character named Young Griff, AKA Aegon Targaryen, in Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels – and the show got to it before Martin could finish this particular storyline.
The similarities between the fake Daeron Targaryen and Young Griff explained
In the A Song of Ice and Fire books, we are eventually introduced to Young Griff, AKA Aegon Targaryen, in A Dance with Dragons. Now, a few things here are confusing. The civil war between the greens and blacks in House of the Dragon is called the Dance of the Dragons, and there are plenty of other Aegons running around the Song of Ice and Fire universe – but, to be clear, the book is part of the Game of Thrones series, and it matches up roughly with seasons 5 and 6 of the show.
As for Aegon, this is a whole new character who never made it to the screen. He's the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and his wife Elia Martell, and the young prince was thought killed during Robert's Rebellion. Jon Snow is Rhaegar Targaryen's other son named Aegon (in the show, anyway: his name and parentage hasn't been revealed in the books), whose mother is Lyanna Stark. To differentiate between the two, we'll refer to the Aegon we're talking about as Young Griff, a nickname he has in the books.
The story goes that Young Griff was swapped with a lowborn baby, and it was this baby that was killed in Robert's Rebellion, while the infant Young Griff was taken away by Varys to Essos. Initially, Young Griff planned on meeting up with his aunt Daenerys Targaryen, who at this point of time is busy ruling Mereen, and marrying her. However, this plan eventually changes to taking King's Landing himself, since, as Rhaegar's son, he has the stronger claim to the Iron Throne. The books end before Young Griff can make his attempt to take King's Landing, however – but expect The Winds of Winter to continue this plot, if it ever arrives.
So, what does all this have to do with the fake Daeron plot in House of the Dragon? Well, there is a very popular fan theory – so popular in fact that it's virtually accepted as canon – that Young Griff is not who he claims to be. In fact, he's believed to be a Blackfyre being passed off as Rhaegar's son. The Blackfyres stem from a legitimized Targaryen bastard, and there have been multiple rebellions from this branch of the family across the years.
There are quite a few moments in the books that appear to back up Young Griff being a fake. Perhaps the most obvious involves Daenerys. In the second book, A Clash of Kings, Daenerys enters the House of the Undying Ones, and the chapter is a treasure trove of mysterious foreshadowing (the Mother of Dragons even sees the Red Wedding a whole book early). One of the things she sees in this mystical place is "a cloth dragon sway[ing] on poles amidst a cheering crowd" – a fake dragon being welcomed by the people – and, shortly after this, Daenerys is referred to as "the slayer of lies."
Then, in A Dance with Dragons, she is warned: "Beware the perfumed seneschal. Remember the undivided, the kraken and the dark flame, the lion and the griffin, the mummer's dragon." The griffin seems to be Griff, or Jon Connington, who is an ally and surrogate father for Young Griff, and the mummer's dragon appears to be harking back to the cloth dragon in the House of the Undying Ones: a puppet.
Young Griff may well be a puppet for pro-Blackfyre schemes. He has the support of the Golden Company, a group of warriors closely tied to the Blackfyre rebellions. While they laughed at Viserys Targaryen, Daenerys's older brother, when he asked for their help reclaiming the throne, they allied themselves with Young Griff.
There are plenty more moments that point to Young Griff being fraudulent (you can find tons of deep dives on the various A Song of Ice and Fire-related subreddits), but it's a twist that may well never be truly revealed if The Winds of Winter does not arrive.
But, House of the Dragon got there first with its fake Daeron plot. Ormund Hightower passes off a lowborn child as Daeron by bleaching his hair white and ordering him not to speak. The ruse is revealed when Alicent Hightower is unable to hide her reaction to her 'son' from Rhaenyra. It's more of a rushed scheme than the long game of raising Young Griff as a Targaryen prince, of course, but it's close enough that it seems borrowed from the mainline books, since this twist does not appear in Fire and Blood.
We don't find out what happens to the poor youngster forced into playing Daeron, so hopefully he makes it out alive. Young Griff, on the other hand, might face a darker fate… (if you ask me, Tyrion Lannister beating him at the chess-like game cyvasse and telling the young prince his dragon playing piece is "too far away to save you. You should have moved her to the center of the battle" feels like some strong foreshadowing that Young Griff is going to get into trouble in Westeros, and Auntie Daenerys will be too far away across the Narrow Sea to save him).
So, while A Song of Ice and Fire might never pay off the Young Griff plotline, we at least saw a facsimile of it in House of the Dragon season 3, episode 3. The key difference being, of course, that Rhaegar's real firstborn son most likely did die as an infant during the sack of King's Landing, while the real Daeron is alive and well… and probably still has a huge part to play in House of the Dragon going forward.
House of the Dragon continues weekly on HBO in the US and HBO Max, Sky, and NOW in the UK. Keep up to date with our House of the Dragon season 3 release schedule.
For even more, check out our House of the Dragon season 3 review, or our guide to all the upcoming Game of Thrones movies and TV shows.
