Warning: This article contains spoilers for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 3!
Episode 3 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a big one, as it ends with the reveal that Dexter Sol Ansell’s character Egg is far more than just a humble squire. He’s actually Aegon V Targaryen, a member of one of the most famous and volatile families in Westeros. That also makes him a distant heir to the Iron Throne.
Episode 3 (titled “The Squire”) foreshadows that big reveal earlier on, when Egg and Dunk (Peter Claffey) encounter an elderly fortune teller and she makes a rather startling claim about Egg’s future. Is he actually destined to become king? Why does everyone hate him so much? Let’s break down what the future holds for this character, but beware of spoilers for the Tales of Dunk and Egg books ahead!
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The Prophecy in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
In Episode 3, Dunk and Egg encounter a fortune teller who offers a glimpse of their respective futures. She tells Dunk, “You shall know great success and be richer than a Lannister.” That sounds pretty generic and optimistic as fortunes go, but she’s actually more accurate than Dunk would ever dream.
But the real meat of this exchange comes next, when Dunk urges the fortune teller to read Egg’s fortune and she responds, “You shall be king, and die in a hot fire, and worms shall feed upon your ashes, and all who know you shall rejoice in your passing.”
Pretty dark stuff, especially when delivered to a confused young boy. But, again, this fortune teller seems to be legit. Occasionally, Westeros has real, genuine examples of magic at work, and this appears to be one of them.
What Is Egg’s Future?
If there’s one truth about Westeros, it’s that Targaryens pretty much never have happy endings. That’s as true for Egg as it is any of his other relatives. The fortune teller gives a pretty accurate breakdown of what befalls him as an adult.
Egg eventually returns to his real identity as Aegon V, and he does indeed become king one day. In Westerosi lore, he’s actually known as “Aegon the Unlikely” because, as the fourth son of a fourth son, he was never expected to have a strong claim to the throne. But after the death of his father, King Maekar I, the line of succession becomes unclear.
A Great Council is convened to choose the new king. The Council passes over the late Prince Daeron’s children and instead selects Aegon’s brother Aemon. But when Aemon (whom you probably remember as a very old man in Game of Thrones) opts to join the Night’s Watch instead, it finally falls on Aegon to be king.
As far as Targaryen kings go, Aegon V is actually a pretty decent guy. His time spent among the smallfolk of Westeros gives him a certain affection for the underprivileged classes, and he does his best to institute new policies that would help them. He also makes Dunk the Lord Commander of his Kingsguard, hence the fortune teller’s promise of success and wealth.
Unfortunately, those same social policies make Aegon a pariah among the wealthy elite of Westeros, and he grows to be hated by many nobles. The fact that he has no dragons with which to enforce his rule doesn’t help. Aegon becomes obsessed with restoring the Targaryens’ dragon line, an obsession that eventually becomes his undoing.
Aegon becomes obsessed with restoring the Targaryens’ dragon line, an obsession that eventually becomes his undoing.“
True to the fortune teller’s word, Aegon eventually dies in a massive fire at his Targaryen summer home, a fire started when he attempts to hatch dragon eggs. That fire also claims the lives of his eldest son, Duncan, and his lifelong friend Ser Duncan the Tall. It’s safe to say that few among the upper classes miss King Aegon.
From there, the Iron Throne passes first to his son Jaehaerys, and from there to Jaehaerys’ son Aerys. Aerys is that “Mad King” everyone talks about, and Game of Thrones fans know what unfolds from there…
How much of Egg’s tragic story will we actually see play out in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms? It’s hard to say, but we do know the series has already been renewed for a second season. Showrunner Ira Parker would like to cover the full scope of Dunk and Egg’s shared lives, though he admits that the series may ultimately just focus on the three Dunk and Egg novellas published to date.
“George has outlined 12 more of these stories that he’s shared with me. These stories take them all the way through their lives,” Parker told The Hollywood Reporter. “Some of these are just a paragraph, but they give you a sense of where they’re going to go and the people who come back in and out of the story.”
For more on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, check out IGN’s full review of Season 1.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
