Are those dragon eggs in ‘House Of The Dragon’ the ones Daenerys has in ‘Game Of Thrones?’

There’s a very important, ahem, Easter Egg (or three) in its final episode House of the Dragon on HBO. Spoiler ahead.

Part of the third episode, “The Burning Mill,” Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) sends her stepdaughter Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) to the Vale along with her younger children. He will take them first to the Vale to Lady Jeyne Arryn and from there across the Narrow Sea to Pentos.

Pentos, you may recall, is where Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) was in the beginning. Game of Thrones when Master Illyrio Mopatis (Roger Allam) gives her a very special gift on the eve of her wedding to Khal Drogo (Jason Momoa): Three dragon eggs.

Along with her children and two newborn dragons, Tyraxes and Stormcloud, Rhaena is about to take another precious cargo: Four dragon eggs—which may well have been turned to stone when they were taken from Dragonstone. Three of these eggs look awfully familiar: one is gold, one green, and one dark reddish-black. The fourth is light blue.

When I saw this, I wondered if HBO was changing the story of how Daenerys got her eggs from the book Fire & Blood where it was strongly implied that the three eggs reached Pento much earlier, during the reign of Rhaenyra’s grandfather Jaehaerys I.

I didn’t mention that these could be Dany’s eggs in my review because the book’s recollection – which is correct by the way – was that these eggs were stolen from Jaehaerys I by a noble named Elissa Farman, the lover of Princess Rhaena Targaryen (not Rhaena from this time period). When the two lovers’ relationship ended rather badly, Elisa stole the eggs and sailed across the sea to Braavos where she sold the eggs to the House of Braavos, using the money she earned to pay for her subsequent travels.

The theory—never confirmed by George RR Martin, except largely—was that these eggs eventually made their way to the wealthy Illyrio on Pentos and from him to Daenerys.

However, it seems like the show is making a significant (if entirely understandable) change from the book. “These are Daenerys’ eggs” The episode’s director Geeta Vasant Patel told Mashable. “All of us who work on this show are adults Game of Thrones fans, so it was really exciting to shoot that scene.”

Rhaena is at first bitter about being sent away, continuing to stew about the lack of a dragon (though there are four eggs, remember, and only three turn to stone and make it to Daenerys hundreds of years later). When Rhaenyra shows her the eggs and tells her that they are the hope for the future of the Targaryens – should the war destroy them all, and their dragons too – Rhaena realizes how important her mission is, though unfortunately the preservation of these eggs eventually ends in the deaths of thousands of innocents at the hands of the Mad Queen and Drogon.

Clearly, Rhaena’s story will take a very different turn than in the book, though it’s possible she’ll play the same role and have another character steal her eggs instead of her great-grandfather. Works to link this show directly to Game of Thrones? After all, I doubt HBO will make another show about Jaehaerys I. He’s one of my favorite Targaryen kings, but if they make another Targaryen show, it makes more sense to make one about Aegon the Conqueror and his exploits . Jaehaerys, moreover, ruled in a time of great peace and prosperity. Where’s the fun in that?

Read my review of Episode 3 here. I’m watching my video review below:

Update 2/7/24

I write a lot about adaptations and why so many seem to fail. And not just adaptations, but also new entries in long-running franchises like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, which seem to constantly disappoint fans (myself included).

I recently discussed this in my newsletterwhere I used this quote from FIRE AND BLOOD Author George RR Martin and his thoughts on writers and producers making big changes from source material:

Everywhere you look, there are more writers and producers looking to take great stories and “make them their own.” It doesn’t seem to matter if the source material was written by Stan Lee, Charles Dickens, Ian Fleming, Roald Dahl, Ursula K. Le Guin, JRR Tolkien, Mark Twain, Raymond Chandler, Jane Austen or… well, anyone. No matter how important the writer, no matter how great the book, there always seems to be someone who thinks they can do better, willing to take the story and “improve” on it. “The book is the book, the movie is the movie,” they will tell you, as if they were saying something profound. Then they make the story their own.

But they never make it better. Nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of a thousand, they make it worse.

I think so House of the Dragon is one of the best examples of a show making very significant changes from the book, but in ways that make a lot of sense. This dragon egg bit is a perfect case to make a change that makes sense to the audience, since we’ll likely never see the original story on screen. From FIRE AND BLOOD it’s a fake “history” that uses various unreliable narrators, hearsay and so on, they can make changes that work for the story, but that leave the “historical” record the same. We’re meant to treat the show as “what really happened”, while the book is more of a “what history tells us happened in the mists of time”.

And some of these changes I don’t like. Not seeing Battle of the Burning Mill was a shame, but the reality is that these kinds of battles are incredibly expensive and time-consuming to shoot, and since this show is mostly about a civil war full of battles—including aerial dragon battles— they have to budget for it. We will have battles, sure, but not every battle FIRE AND BLOOD, which is a great reason that you should definitely read the book! It’s really awesome.

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