A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Will Introduce 2 Important Targaryens Only Book-Readers Know

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Posted 3 hours ago by inuno.ai

Category: Animations & Comics

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, promises to be something of a more romantic take on the world of Game of Thrones. It follows the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall and his young squire, Egg, who is secretly a Targaryen Prince in disguise. While their journey across Westeros mostly has them involved in relatively minor conflicts during this tense period of peace, that isn’t to say that they had no greater impact upon history. Dunk and Egg were at the center of several major moments in Westeros’ history, both in the novellas featuring them and well after. However, one aspect of their travels that does not get nearly enough attention is how frequently the two came into contact with magic without ever realizing it.

In fact, Duncan unknowingly crossed paths with two extraordinarily gifted individuals during his early adventures: Prince Daeron Targaryen and Daemon II Blackfyre, both of whom possessed the rare talent of dragon dreams. For those unfamiliar, this is the ability of House Targaryen’s descendants to predict the future through their dreams. TV fans will be more familiar with Helaena Targaryen’s ability to see the future, but these later descendants of the family chose to respond to their gifts in much different ways. What is significant, though, is that both men had prophetic dreams regarding Duncan’s rise to prominence in the following years, which is worth examining.

Two of House Targaryen’s Dragon Dreamers Are Set to Take Center Stage

The crest of House Targaryen in front of the Iron Throne in Game of Thrones — Image via CBR

What determines which Targaryen, or in this case Blackfyre, gets the ability to dream the future is unknown. What is certain is that it is a different form of magic from the greenseeing of the First Men. Likely a byproduct of whatever magic the ancient Valyrians practiced before the Doom destroyed their homeland, the ability has surfaced only a handful of times in the three hundred years that the Targaryens ruled over Westeros. This, of course, does not take into account records that may have been forgotten, altered, or misinterpreted. By the time of Ser Duncan the Tall’s era though, the only two known dragon dreamers were Prince Daeron, the oldest brother of Egg, and Daemon II Blackfyre, the oldest surviving son of Daemon I Blackfyre, a rebel who tried to seize the Iron Throne from its rightful king.

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Unlike their much earlier ancestor, Helaena Targaryen, these two men responded very differently to their visions of the future. Daeron quickly realized that the dreams he had often come true, though due to the highly cryptic nature in which these dreams manifested, it was practically impossible for him to accurately interpret what would happen. This led to him fearing his dreams and their subjects, likely leading to his later drinking problem in life as he tried to numb his mind to any possibility of further visions of the future.

Daeron’s drunkenness is what prompted Egg to become Duncan’s squire in the first place, since he wanted to serve a true (and sober) knight.

Daemon II chose to embrace his visions instead of rejecting them. This was likely a desperate bid to prove himself, however. Though he was the heir to his father after the deaths of his older brothers, the rest of his family and supporters did not look to him as a suitable candidate to lead, likely due to a combination of his lack of combat skills as well as his homosexuality, something that is frowned upon in Westerosi culture. Regardless, Daemon recognized the value of his dreams, but chose to interpret them literally, and in any way that would benefit him. This was largely what led to his downfall as he believed one of his visions was a sign of his impending victory over the Targaryens, but really symbolized his own defeat and the beginning of Egg’s transformation into a potential king.

The Targaryens Have Forgotten About This Hidden Power

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Helaena Targaryen (actor Phia Saban) looks forlorn on HBO's House of the Dragon. — Image via HBO

What’s truly interesting about these dragon dreamers is not just their existence, but the fact that none of their family members seem to recognize the value they possess. Or even capable of identifying when one of their own possesses the ability to see the future. Take Helaena from House of the Dragon, for instance. Everyone around her, including her own father, who is arguably more versed in Valyrian lore than the rest of his family, dismissed Helaena as simply being a bit quirky, not taking the time to examine how the seemingly strange things she kept saying ended up being accurate predictions of the future. Granted, her abilities seem far stronger than Daeron or Daemon’s most likely consuming her waking moments as well as her slumbering ones.

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There is one other member of their family who had dreams and was even historically recorded for being able to do so. In fact, the case can be made that without her, House Targaryen would have died alongside the rest of Old Valyria during the Doom. This refers to Daenys the Dreamer. Twelve years before the Doom of Valyria, Daenys was recorded to have had a powerful dream of its impending arrival. Her father, Aenar Targaryen, heeded her warning and promptly sold his holding in the freehold and moved his family, their dragons, and all their possessions to Dragonstone. Skeptics would later claim that Aenar was likely avoiding a political scandal as the Targaryens were actually minor nobility among the Valyrians, but the Doom’s occurrence seemed to cement the fact that Daenys was a dragon dreamer.

Daenys the Dreamer is actually recorded as Balerion the Black Dread’s first rider.

Despite owing their continued existence to a dreamer though, it seems that the Targaryens have forgotten the signs of such a person among their own. Ironically, this might have cost them in the long run, as having access to someone with true prophetic visions might have enabled them to avoid catastrophic moments in their later dynasty. However, there is still the challenge of trying to interpret the visions at all, as well as distinguishing what is a true dragon dream from just mental instability, a problem that was becoming more frequent in later generations of the family.

Both Daeron and Daemon Dreamed of Duncan the Tall

Returning to the most recent dragon dreamers, while both men had several dreams over the course of their lives, what is notable is their shared experience of dreaming about Duncan the Tall. They had different visions of his future, but the fact that two dragon dreams featured Duncan at all indicated that he was destined for big things, though few realized his true importance at the time. In Daeron’s case, he dreamed that a great dragon would fall on Duncan and die, but that Duncan would walk away unscathed. Since the literal dragons had been extinct for decades by that point, Daeron could only interpret it as a potential warning that one of his own family members would die and that Duncan would be connected to the event. He was right in the end, as the dream predicted the tragic passing of his uncle, Baelon Targaryen, the heir to the Iron Throne. This triggered a series of events that would eventually lead to Egg being made the heir, despite him being the youngest son of the current King’s fourth son.

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Daemon would have a clearer picture of Duncan’s future and was partially accurate in interpreting it. He foresaw that Duncan would one day don the white cloak of the Kingsguard and protect the ruler of Westeros as one of the Seven Kingdoms’ finest knights. Daemon’s arrogance and desperation for prominence led to him interpreting that Duncan would one day serve and protect him when he had usurped the Iron Throne. This was wishful thinking on his part, as Daemon was immediately attracted to Duncan upon meeting him, but while Duncan would never serve Daemon, he would serve the boy he trained: Aegon V.

Duncan the Tall would go on to become Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.

Yet even those dreams about him did not predict how pivotal Duncan would be in several moments of Westeros’ history. Having a hand in fending off the ensuing three Blackfyre Rebellions, and keeping the realm stable when several lords tried to rise up in revolt against King Aegon V because of his many reforms that favored the commoners of Westeros. Duncan is even suspected of saving the life of Princess Rhaella Targaryen, the mother of Rhaegar Targaryen and later Daenerys. This means that Duncan was the catalyst for ensuring that the two most likely candidates to be the Prince That Was Promised were born. If anything, the dragon’s dreams undersold how vital he would be to Westeros’ future.