Targaryen Civil War Was, In Fact, Caused by Ridiculous Misunderstanding
The solution could be very simple: more. Male. Names.
Warning: the following article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon episode 8
Episode 8 of House of the Dragon, titled The Lord of the Tides, has given the viewers a glimpse into what might be an actual trigger for the Targaryen civil war, a.k.a. Dance of the Dragons. And it looks like the war has been caused by a huge misunderstanding which could have been simply avoided... if the royals would just use various names for their children.
Let us break it down. Queen Alicent Hightower has a son named Aegon II Targaryen, whom she considers to be a future rightful heir to the Iron Throne. Rhaenyra, in turn, also has a baby with Daemon Targaryen. For some reason, she also decides to name him Aegon — most likely as homage to the name of King Aegon the Conqueror who brought the seven kingdoms together.
Earlier in the show, King Viserys explained to Rhaenyra that Aegon — the Conqueror one — was a "dreamer", someone who was capable of seeing the future. In one of his vision, the late king saw that "a prince that was promised" will come, and his song will be "a song of ice and fire". When Rhaenyra speaks with Viserys in episode 8, she asks him whether he believes the prophecy was true and if he thinks that her children are those who will make it happen. Viserys doesn't give her a direct answer.
But later, when the King is dying in his bed with Alicent by his side, he doesn't seem to understand who is around. Apparently thinking it is Rhaenyra, he finally tells her that he believes the prophecy is true. But Alicent is doomed to not get his words right.
"Aegon... His dream... The Song of Ice and Fire... it is true. The Prince That Was Promised. The prince... to unite the realm... against the cold and the dark," Viserys was saying. Alicent kept asking him whether he meant their son Aegon, but clearly, the dying king was talking about Aegon the Conqueror.
But since there are two Aegons, and both happen to be rivals, Viserys appeared to have undone all his episode 8 efforts to fix things by speaking with Alicent.
Naturally, fans were basically left screaming at their screens — something worthy of being perpetuated in memes.
Of course, for Alicent, King Viserys' last words sounded like the confirmation of her own son to be a prince that was promised. Which is why she might feel her right to start a civil war over the Iron Throne succession — even though Viserys tried his best to resolve the matter.
On the other hand, if Aegon was not the most popular baby name in Westeros, we would not have the show. Now that the misunderstanding has happened, the remaining two episodes of season 1 are set to be even more dramatic than everything we have already seen in House of the Dragon. Next episode premieres on Friday, with the finale scheduled to hit HBO Max on October 23.