House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 3 ends with Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) discovering that Lord Ormund Hightower (James Norton) has gotten one over on her, Daemon (Matt Smith), and the rest of Team Black. That’s because the HBO show finally introduced us to Prince Daeron Targaryen! Well, sort of…
**Spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 3, now streaming on HBO Max**
This week’s all-new episode of House of the Dragon opens with Ormund Hightower agreeing to surrender to Rhaenyra. He doesn’t want to, he explains, but Daemon is there with his dragon, Caraxes, and Hugh the Hammer (Kieran Bew) and Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) are there with Vermithor and Silverwing, too. The Hightower army will not be able to survive against dragons, even if they have an itty bitty one of their own.
Everything seems to be resolved, with Ormund free to return to Oldtown, until Daemon remembers that Ormund’s squire is Prince Daeron Targaryen, Alicent’s (Olivia Cooke) youngest son by Viserys (Paddy Considine). Daemon insists that Daeron return to King’s Landing with him as a hostage. If Ormund acts up, the slightly-built, silver-haired prince will suffer the consequences. (Meaning, he’ll be killed.)
When Daeron arrives at King’s Landing, he refuses to even speak to Rhaenyra, who not-so-secretly is daydreaming about killing him anyway. She wants revenge for Jace, while Daemon thinks Daeron needs to die because he’s a threat to her claim to the Iron Throne. Ultimately, Rhaenyra spares the boy and even arranges for Alicent to be reunited with her baby boy. However, when mother and son meet, it soon becomes obvious that the boy — played by Charlie Gordon — is not Daeron. He even admits to being an imposter! Ormund died the boy’s hair silver and threatened to murder his real mother if the kid stepped out of line.
This means that Prince Daeron is still in the Hightower camp, Ormund hasn’t really surrendered, and, in fact, the Hightowers have taken the nearby town of Tumbleton. Rhaenyra is warned by a dragonkeeper that Daeron and his small blue dragon Tessarion are behind the town’s walls.
So what does this all mean? Who is Prince Daeron? And have some clever fans already figured out where we’ve seen the young prince on House of the Dragon before?
House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 3 Ending Explained: Who is Prince Daeron?
Prince Daeron is the youngest child of Alicent Hightower and Viserys Targaryen in George R.R. Martin’s books.
Daeron is never seen or spoken of in House of the Dragon Season 1, but his existence was teased in the original opening credits. When the Targaryen “bloodline” gets to Alicent and Viserys’s union, it splits into four different directions, with the fourth taking its own path away from the group.
In House of the Dragon Season 2, Alicent asks her brother Ser Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox) about the sixteen-year-old Daeron. We learn that Daeron was sent to Oldtown to grow up amongst the Hightowers. According to Gwayne, Daeron is “stalwart,” “clever,” and “as adept with his lute as he is with his sword.”
In the books, Daeron is Ormund Hightower’s squire. He and his dragon, Tessarion, join Ormund and the Hightower forces in the war. Daeron is popular amongst the men and soon earns the nickname, “Dareon the Daring,” for leaping on his dragon and saving the day during the Battle of the Honeywine. Ormund knights Daeron for his service and the Hightower army marches onwards… to Tumbleton.
So if the silver-haired kid Daemon took to King’s Landing isn’t Daeron, who is? Well, we might have already met him… Because we’ve already met Ormund’s squire.
Is Benjamin Evan Ainsworth Playing Daeron in House of the Dragon?
In the House of the Dragon Season 3 premiere, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth plays Lord Ormund Hightower’s ginger-haired squire. He has little to do, but seems like a nice enough kid. You know, he seems a lot more potentially “stalwart” and “clever” than the mute sylph Ormund gives to Daemon. He also looks a lot like the rest of the Hightowers.
In House of the Dragon Season 1, Alicent was obsessed with proving that Rhaenyra’s sons were bastards on account of their pale skin, dark hair, and even darker eyes. Viserys shrugged this off, describing how he once saw two extraordinary horses produce a rather boring-looking foal. Let’s assume Benjamin Evan Ainsworth is playing Daeron. If that’s so, then Alicent might have sent her youngest child away so those same rumors of infidelity wouldn’t be flung at her. She can’t exactly make her case against Rhaenyra’s kids if her youngest kid by Viserys has red hair, you know? (And Viserys might be thinking of his one red-haired kid when defending Rhaenyra!) It’s a logical explanation for his absence in Season 1.
Who is Benjamin Evan Ainsworth?
Benjamin Evan Ainsworth is a 17-year-old British actor who got his start as a child actor in Emmerdale, The Haunting of Bly Manor, and Son of a Critch.
If House of the Dragon seems like a big step up for the actor, just wait. He’s playing Link in Nintendo’s upcoming live-action The Legend of Zelda movie, due out April 30, 2027. Let’s just say the kid looks good in a green tunic.
New episodes of House of the Dragon come out on Sundays at 9 PM ET on HBO and HBO Max.
