14

Possible spoilers for everything through everything that's happened so far

Is Aegon Targaryen (son of Rhaegar & Elia) still alive?

Here's a link talking about the character

It states here that

"Aegon has been shaped for rule before he could walk. He has been trained in arms, as befits a knight to be, but that was not the end of his education. He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry. A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith since he was old enough to understand them. He has lived with fisherfolk, worked with his hands, swum in rivers and mended nets and learned to wash his own clothes at need. He can fish and cook and bind up a wound, he knows what it is like to be hungry, to be hunted, to be afraid. Tommen has been taught that kingship is his right. Aegon knows kingship is his duty, that a king must put his people first, and live and rule for them"

As we all know recently it was revealed in the show that

Jon Snow's real name is Aegon Targaryen

Since it states that Varys has been protecting this character since he was a baby. (It's possible he knew about Jon).

So it makes you wonder if he was talking about Jon or the other Aegon. Also I know it says that Gregor Clegane smashed his head in...but maybe that was to cover up identifying the boy?

Is there any proof? Or is this just another "not enough details"?

Aegon
  • 48,396
  • 18
  • 278
  • 309
Trevor Wood
  • 1,085
  • 3
  • 11
  • 15

1 Answers1

23

There are two Aegon Targaryens (Show)

Much to the dismay of many book fans, it was revealed that Jon Snow's name is Aegon Targaryen (as many were hoping for him to be called Jaehaerys or something similar), possible as Aegon (son of Rhaegar and Elia) is dead in the show (as far as we are concerned). The issue arises because in the books, Aegon (son of Rhaegar and Elia) is supposedly still alive, and having two sons with the same name is... strange (If Jon's plot in the book follows recent developments in the show).

A Song of Ice and Fire

Aegon Targaryen (?)

What we know from the book verse is that we are being lead to believe that Aegon Targaryen is still alive, although there is a theory going around that he's a fake [WARNING: Major spoilers for those who don't know about fAegon]. Aegon grew up in the free cities as mentioned above under the pseudonym "Young Griff", and acts as the son of Griff (who is actually Lord Jon Connington, exiled after the rebellion. Although the initial plan is to marry Daenerys, Tyrion convinces them to take Westeros while the War of the Five Kings remains ongoing. And so after joining the Golden Company, they sail across the Narrow Sea to begin taking Westeros. Lord Connington re-takes Griffin's Roost his ancestral home and the rest of the Golden Company besiege Crow's Nest and Rain House.

In The Winds Of Winter

It is revealed that Aegon has taken Storm's End from Stannis Baratheon

Jon Snow

Jon however dies at the end of A Dance with Dragons after being stabbed by his Black Brothers.

Game of Thrones

Aegon Targaryen

As far as the show is concerned, we have no reason to believe Aegon, son of Rhaegar and Elia survived the sack of King's Landing, reasoning him to have been killed along with his sister and Mother.

Jon Snow

After re-taking the Night's Watch, getting the Wildlings south of the Wall, re-taking Winterfell, being crowned King in the North and subsequently swearing fealty to Daenerys, we learn that Jon is in fact the trueborn (somehow) son of Rhaegar and Lyanna, and that his real name his Aegon Targaryen.

Whether the show-runners intended to have the two characters merge or simply have Jon replace Aegon is unclear and has not been mentioned.

TL;DR In the books Aegon Targaryen is alive and well, and Jon is... not so well. Jon's mother still remains unconfirmed. In the show, Aegon never seemed to survive past the sack of King's Landing and Jon Snow is the confirmed son of Rhaegar and Lyanna, also named Aegon.

Community
  • 1
Edlothiad
  • 77,282
  • 32
  • 393
  • 381
  • 3
    Book Aegon is fake because so many of the Aegons are fake. – Adamant Sep 14 '17 at 07:38
  • 2
    @Adamant good canon source material. – Edlothiad Sep 14 '17 at 07:39
  • 22
    @Adamant You wound me – Aegon Sep 14 '17 at 07:40
  • There are two Aegon Targaryens in the show yes, in the books, at least at the moment, there is only one, and we don't really know if he is really him anyway – Sekhemty Sep 14 '17 at 08:57
  • @Sekhemty from the context of the question I took the asker to be asking with reference to the show. And I go into all those details in the answer. I don't see what your comment aims to achieve? A criticism? A summary? – Edlothiad Sep 14 '17 at 09:13
  • Not a criticism at all, your answer is awesome and very detailed; it just seemed to me that by stating that in te introductory paragraph, before detailing books and show separately, it was implied that it was common to the both of them – Sekhemty Sep 14 '17 at 09:17
  • @Sekhemty apologies for misunderstanding. That seems like a good pointer, although wasn't very clear from your original comment! – Edlothiad Sep 14 '17 at 09:19
  • And on a second read I think that I was wrong, there are actually two Aegons if we consider books and show together... :) – Sekhemty Sep 14 '17 at 09:22
  • @Sekhemty you were correct, I was trying to keep the two separate throughout the answer, I've updated it with your advice :-P – Edlothiad Sep 14 '17 at 09:22
  • @Sekhemty "He has a song", the man replied. He is the prince that was promised and his song is the song of ice and fire." <- This vision that Daenarys had with the Warlocks could easily mean that the books also intended to have two Aegon's. People have always assumed it was a vision about his first son, but the song of ice and fire seems to indicate she was having a vision about Jon instead, and that Rhaegar is just really bad at coming up with names. – Theik Sep 14 '17 at 09:49
  • Please don't suggest edits which change my intended formatting and alter the words I'm using, grammar and spelling are accepted, the rest conflict with my intentions, thank you – Edlothiad Sep 14 '17 at 10:05
  • I've always presumed in the show that Jon is the original, one and only Aegon (born of Rhaegar and Lyanna). Is there anything to make us think this isn't the case, other than the fact the baby 'died' and was presented to Tywin Lannister ? (Who at some point, I'm unsure if in the books/series/both) says 'Who saw the child? I did...' Would he have had some reason to lie about the who the child was? – djsmiley2kStaysInside Sep 14 '17 at 12:10
  • 2
    @djsmiley2k There is an Aegon son of Elia in the show, and the show states that both the kids were laid out in the throne room, although Aegon's face had been crushed and was unrecognizeable. So maybe in season 8 Aegon will suddenly appear and say it was a fake baby, but probably not. Two Aegon's existed in the show. Jon cannot be the one from the Throne room because Elia had two kids. – Edlothiad Sep 14 '17 at 12:13
  • 1
    @djsmiley2k Thoros of Myr, Season 3 Episode 5: "House Clegane was built upon dead children. I saw them lay Prince Aegon and Princess Rhaenys before the Iron Throne." – Edlothiad Sep 14 '17 at 12:29
  • The Mountain will be the Snape of Song of Ice and Fire. He only left the corpse in an unidentifiable state so little Aegon could be the boy that lived! – m1gp0z Feb 14 '19 at 14:38