How A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms' [SPOILER] Is Related To Familiar Game Of Thrones Characters

Don't go to any jousts if you haven't watched the third-ever episode of "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," titled "The Squire." Spoilers ahead!

At the beginning of "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," the newest spin-off and prequel to "Game of Thrones," we meet Duncan, a squire and aspiring hedge knight played by Peter Claffey. After the death of his mentor, who was a "real" knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Duncan decides to try to make it on his own ... and one fateful night, he meets a young boy known only as Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) who begs to be his squire. Duncan is hesitant, especially because hedge knights are a sort of freelance deal, but he ultimately agrees.

That little boy is no mere squire, though. In the final moments of the show's third episode, "The Squire," we learn that Egg is actually Aegon Targaryen, son of Prince Maekar Targaryen (Sam Spruell) and the younger brother of both Daeron and Aerion (played respectively by Henry Ashton and Finn Bennett). This only comes to light as Aerion publicly torments both Duncan and the object of Duncan's affection, puppeteer and artist Tanselle (Tanzyn Crawford), seemingly for fun, and Egg demands that he stop in his capacity as a royal.

This is probably just as shocking for Duncan as it is for audiences, unless you've already read the novella series by George R.R. Martin, "Tales of Dunk and Egg," and followed their adventures throughout Westeros. If you haven't read that or "Fire & Blood," Martin's history of the Targaryen family that serves as the source material for "House of the Dragon," there are some book spoilers ahead, but here's everything you need to know about Egg (also known as Aegon). 

Here's the gist of how Egg's life plays out apart from his time as a squire to Duncan (in the interest of keeping the secrets of "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" safe, we won't spoil those specific novellas here). Though we only see two of Egg's brothers in "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" — at least so far — he actually has three, including a brother named Aemon who joins the Night's Watch. You might remember Aemon from "Game of Thrones," where he works as Maester Aemon at the Night's Watch headquarters of Castle Black, mentors Kit Harington's Jon Snow and John Bradley's Sam Tarly, and is played by the late Peter Vaughan. In "Game of Thrones," as Aemon passes away, his final words reference his younger brother: "Egg? I dreamed that I was old."

Egg does become king, and he earns an unflattering nickname along the way: Aegon the Unlikely, referring to the fact that he's his father's fourth son and nobody expected him to ascend to the Iron Throne of Westeros. (As it happens, his father Maekar was also a fourth son who defeated the odds to become king.) By the time Maekar dies, both Aerion and Daeron are dead, and their heirs are too young to take the crown, so a council intervenes. With Aemon having taken a vow to "wear no crowns" when joining the Night's Watch, Aegon becomes Aegon V Targaryen, King of Westeros. 

That name would eventually be passed on to his great-grandson, who was the latest in a long line of Aegon Targaryens and theoretically the rightful heir to the throne of Westeros. However, Egg's great-grandson spent most of his life not knowing he was a Targaryen and was raised under a different name: Jon Snow.

Ultimately, Aegon's reign of Westeros ends in tragedy, despite his best efforts to be a good ruler, and we can see that early spark of kindness in Egg. (Also, I should say that Dexter Sol Ansell is an incredible young performer who previously appeared in "The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes" as the younger version of Tom Blyth's antihero Coriolanus Snow, and he brings so much heart to the role of Egg that he's an absolute delight to watch.) Despite Duncan's attempts to shake Egg off by insisting he doesn't need a squire, the curious and bright young boy remains undeterred, and by "The Squire," it feels pretty clear that the two have formed a fairly unshakeable connection.

There is a small problem here, which is that Egg, as a royal, isn't exactly supposed to be a squire for a lowborn knight who doesn't even serve a particular house. It's easy to assume that, before long, Egg's dad Prince Maekar might step in and insist that his son stop doing dirty work for a humble hedge knight like Duncan. Still, there has to be a way for this dynamic duo to stay together, especially when you consider that there are a few novels focused on their exploits in "Tales of Dunk and Egg." At the end of the day, "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms," that series' adaptation, is a pitch-perfect buddy comedy — even if one of those buddies just revealed he's a secret royal — so here's hoping that Egg remains in Duncan's service.

"A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" airs new episodes on Sundays at 10 P.M. EST on HBO and HBO Max.