HBO’s House of the Dragon is coming to a conclusion in the next couple of weeks and for as long as we have had it on-screen, it has been a pleasure. As with most fantasy novels adapted for television, fans of the novels will be looking to see what alterations have been made when compared to the source material. One key difference fans noticed is the absence of King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) and Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke)'s youngest son, Daeron, from the series.
For those familiar with the books, the aforementioned king and queen had four children between them, three sons and a daughter. So far in the series, we have only met Prince Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), and Princess Halaena (Phia Saban). So where is Prince Daeron? The third son and overall fourth child of the union.
Rest your horses, diehard fans. Daeron is definitely still coming to the House of the Dragon we simply are yet to see him. Discussing the issue in his latest blog post, author and creator, George R.R. Martin confirmed that the character is indeed part of the series. The Song of Ice and Fire author wrote:
Very briefly, however, I think Ryan has handled the “jumps” very well, and I love love love both the younger Alicent and Rhaenyra and the adult versions, and the actresses who play them. (Truth be told, we have an incredible cast, and I love all of them). Do I wish we’d had more time to explore the relationship between Rhaenyra and Ser Harwin, the marriage of Daemon and Laena and their time in Pentos, the birth of various and sundry children (and 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), and everything else we had to skip? Sure.
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The series as a whole was filled with several time-jumps as referenced by Martin in his post. So Daeron’s omission was due to the series lacking the needed episodes to cover his story more dedicatedly. To cover the story properly, the author suggested that four seasons of ten episodes each would be needed to effectively carry out the task and do the show justice. Effectively, there is still ample time for the young prince to make his appearance and join the dance.
House of the Dragon airs a new episode every Sunday. Watch the preview for episode 9 below:
