House of the Dragon Just Foreshadowed a Major Player For Future Seasons

This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon season 2 episode 2 and references characters from Fire & Blood.

Things are heating up in House of the Dragon season 2, and as the Greens and the Blacks are rocked by losses on both sides, the clash known as the Dance of Dragons shows no signs of slowing down. To compete with all these cast departures, there’s been an influx of new blood in season 2, with episode 2 “Rhaenyra the Cruel” focusing on some major players.

The show’s latest episode cued up expanded roles for Clinton Liberty’s Addam of Hull and Kieran Bew’s Hugh Hammer, both of who will become important figures moving forward. However, an altogether more important member of the Green Team was given the nod. Yes, someone finally acknowledged Daeron Targaryen. 

With House of the Dragon season 1 covering around 24 years and involving multiple recasts for its younger characters, it’s been sometimes hard to keep up with who’s who in Westeros. In George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood compendium, it’s stated that King Viserys I (Paddy Considine) and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) have four children, Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney), Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), Helaena (Phia Saban), and Daeron. The series has spent plenty of time with the first three, but what about Vis and Alicent’s youngest?

Toward the end of the episode, Alicent is talking to a shunned Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), who has just lost his position as Hand of the King and is planning his next steps. In a throwaway mention, Otto references Daeron’s whereabouts in Oldtown and tells his daughter, “The Hightowers still have strength and you have a son there who will take more kindly to instruction. Daeron may yet help us in weeks to come.” Like in Fire & Blood, Daeron has been serving as a squire to Otto’s brother in Oldtown. The location is familiar to those who watched Game of Thrones, with Samwell Tarly (John Bradley) undertaking his Maester training at its Citadel.  

Although this is the first time Daeron is mentioned in the series, we knew he was out there somewhere. Writing on his Not a Blog blog in 2022, Martin reassured fans that Daeron existed but claimed there wasn’t enough time to include him in season 1. The author explained, “YES, Alicent gave Viserys four children, three sons and a daughter, their youngest son Daeron is down in Oldtown, we just did not have the time to work him in this season.” 

Showrunner Ryan Condal confirmed Daeron was coming in a post-season 1 finale interview with Variety, while Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) indirectly referenced him when he counted four dragons on the side of the Greens. Still, with Daeron being born in 114 AC, he should’ve been around for at least some of season 1. He was notably absent from scenes involving the children when they were younger, leading to speculation he’d been cut from the story like Aegon II and Helaena’s son, Maelor. Daeron is a similar age to Rhaenyra’s oldest son, Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett), and was seemingly born at some point during the season 1 time jump between Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) wedding and her giving birth to Joffrey Velaryon.

King Viserys I tried to keep the families together by raising Daeron and Jace as “milk brothers” with the same wet nurse, although animosity grew and he was sent away. Whenever Daeron arrives, he should be a breath of fresh air for the Greens. Unlike the tyrannical Aegon II and Aemond, Daeron is described as “the most popular of the queen’s sons” in the book, adding that he’s “as clever as he was courteous, and most comely as well.” Otto reiterates this in episode 2 when he tells Alicent how Daeron “takes more kindly to instructions” than Aegon. 

Earning the name Daeron the Daring as he rides on his dragon, we also expect Daeron to fly into action with Tessarion. The “Blue Queen” is said to be around a third of the side of the massive Vermithor, – which is currently without a rider. With Heleana refusing to ride Dreamfyre like in the books, Tessarion is destined to join Aegon’s Sunfyre and Aemond’s Vhagar. Still, the Greens are outnumbered by the Blacks’ dragons. In his latest Variety interview, Condal noted that Daeron hasn’t been cast yet and also cleared up the status of his absence, adding that nobility would often ward off children in Medieval times. Condal said that Daeron isn’t a dragonrider yet, although Tessarion is presumably with him.

As Daeron hasn’t been cast yet and presumably won’t appear until season 3, it could also suggest that Otto’s story could be parked for now. Either way, Daeron is (eventually) going to be a major player in the Battle of the Honeywine. We won’t go into heavy spoilers about where Daeron’s story takes him, but like with most events in Fire & Blood, there are different accounts about what happens to him. House of the Dragon has already pulled a major twist with Laenor Velaryon (John Macmillan) and switched up the arc of Ser Arryk (Luke Tittensor) and Ser Erryk Cargyll (Elliott Tittensor) in its latest episode, so don’t take his backstory as gospel. 

New episodes of House of the Dragon premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.

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