{"id":444470,"date":"2026-02-02T10:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T10:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/444470\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T10:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T10:29:08","slug":"aerion-finally-gets-his-first-villain-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/444470\/","title":{"rendered":"Aerion finally gets his first villain moment."},"content":{"rendered":"

After each episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Slate writers will gather to answer a crucial question: Who is the worst person in Westeros<\/a>? This week, staff writer Nadira Goffe and senior editor Jenny G. Zhang answer the call.<\/p>\n

Nadira Goffe: Jenny! I\u2019m so excited to gab about this episode for a bit, because woof\u2014or should I say hoof?\u2014what an episode it was. I would call it egg-cellent, because most of it is about Egg, the adorable, mysteriously bald stable boy who becomes Dunk\u2019s squire. It\u2019s 30 minutes of the unlikely friends just hangin\u2019 out, really living up to the title of the George R.R. Martin novellas that the show is based on, Tales of Dunk and Egg. Dunk teaches Egg how to mend a patch in clothing, they cheer over the day\u2019s jousts, and there\u2019s a scene in which the two role-play a conversation about eating salt beef that is so stinkin\u2019 cute I had a lopsided smile on my face the whole time. At one point, the gentle giant cooks his tiny squire a meal with goose eggs that have yolks so large I instantly sensed that there was some sort of subtext going on as they sizzled in the pan.<\/p>\n

I mentioned this to our colleague Sam Adams when we discussed the series premiere<\/a>, but I love Egg. He\u2019s small, cute, and whip-smart, making the duo a good match: Egg has the brains, Dunk has the brawn. But as Episode 3 went on, I began to have this sinking feeling that he\u2019s too pure to make it out of a Game of Thrones title alive. I also started to notice some things about the little tyke: He\u2019s vague about his parents, he\u2019s more knowledgeable than he should be about Westeros\u2019 regents and customs and legends, and he never directly answers the many queries he receives about the origins of his baldness. In one conversation about a legend told through song, Egg asks Dunk: \u201cBut is this not the act of the dogged spirit? Giving more than what was asked?\u201d I ask you: What child talks like that? When Dunk and Egg approach a fortune teller, she informs Dunk he will be successful and rich, but to Egg: \u201cYou 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 dying.\u201d Harsh!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Jenny G. Zhang and Rebecca Onion
\n The New Game of Thrones Show Flashes Something \u2026 Huge in Episode 2. It\u2019s Not Even the Most Impressive Part.
\n Read More\n <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t until princeling Aerion Targaryen (Finn Bennett) attacks Tanselle, the puppeteer and entertainer that Dunk is sweet on, that we find out the truth Egg has been hiding. Dunk punches Aerion, who promises to return the favor tenfold by removing all of Dunk\u2019s teeth, and Egg has no choice but to out himself as Aerion\u2019s brother, the missing youngest of Maekar\u2019s (Sam Spruell) sons. He shaved his head to hide his blond hair, wanting to distance himself from his family.<\/p>\n

Look\u2014this big secret wasn\u2019t hard to figure out. The child was weirdly in the know, and a fortune teller said he would be king, and every time someone mentioned the youngest of Maekar\u2019s sons, they were cut off before they said a name. (That\u2019s \u201cEgg\u201d for \u201cAegon,\u201d by the way.) But still, Egg lied\u2014and lied well. I know we have two decisions to make here: Are we crowning Worst or Best Person in Westeros this week? And, in either case, who is winning it? I would like to throw Egg\u2019s name in for Best, unless we feel Worst this week is more deserving. Mostly because his entrance toward the end was badass, but also because I just wanna pinch his cheeks. What did you make of this big reveal, Jenny? Is it worthy of a crown?<\/p>\n

Jenny G. Zhang: Egg\u2019s grand reveal came in clutch, as his new best friend would surely have lost his teeth, his hand, and maybe his leg for assaulting a prince of House Targaryen, even if the attack was justified. (For context, Aerion was hurting Tanselle because, while in character, the theater-troupe member killed a fake dragon onstage, an unforgivable act of treason in the dragon-obsessed Aerion\u2019s eyes. This won\u2019t come into play anytime soon, but for those interested in greater Song of Ice and Fire lore, Aerion Targaryen is remembered in Westerosi history as the royal lunatic who becomes so convinced he\u2019s destined to become a dragon that he eventually kills himself consuming wildfire.)<\/p>\n

But as far as adjudicating Egg\u2019s actions goes, I think his conduct in this episode may have been too mixed to crown him one way or the other. He does save Dunk, but he could have also stopped Aerion from hurting Tanselle by revealing himself earlier without involving Dunk. One could argue, too, that he put Dunk in greater danger throughout their friendship by concealing the truth from him. On the other hand, Egg is just a little kid who clearly loathes his family\u2014at least his brother Aerion\u2014so he can be forgiven for his lapses in judgment. Thus: neither Best nor Worst, but a secret third thing (aka neutral).<\/p>\n

There are other candidates for WPiW, however. For example, Plummer, the steward of Ashford, who tries to persuade Dunk to throw the tournament so he can make a quick buck. All Dunk has to do is earn the ire of everyone in Ashford by defeating the local lord\u2019s son, Plummer tries to argue, but Dunk has too much honor to even entertain the idea.<\/p>\n

Typing this out, though, I feel it\u2019s obvious that Plummer is small potatoes compared to the real menace of this episode. Are you thinking who I\u2019m thinking, Nadira?<\/p>\n

Goffe: Yes, as fine an actor as Tom Vaughan-Lawlor is in the role of Plummer, I sincerely, truly, never want to hear him hock a loogie again. Enough is enough!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I Went to See the Melania Movie. Now I Know Who\u2019s Buying All Those Tickets.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

But the real menace, as you said, is Aerion \u201cBrightflame\u201d Targaryen, a wild spirit made mostly of arrogance and ruthlessness. We first met him in Episode 2<\/a>, in a brief scene when he said all of three sentences, all of them belittling to Dunk. This week, we finally get to see him in his full, evil form. In a jousting match against Ser Humfrey Hardyng (Ross Anderson), Aerion\u2014determined to never lose\u2014does the medieval version of \u201csweeping the leg.\u201d He puts his lance right through the neck of his opponent\u2019s horse, condemning it to an awful death and its rider to a painful fall. (I\u2019m praying that no animals were harmed in the making of this episode, because that was brutal to watch.) This act immediately earns the ire of the watching crowd, with someone throwing a rock at Aerion\u2019s head, while many others in the audience call him a \u201ccheating bastard.\u201d In their fury, the angry mob must be held back by guards. If that bit of underhandedness weren\u2019t enough to prove Aerion\u2019s turpitude, this is followed by the aforementioned assault of Tanselle, with the Targaryen prince viciously breaking one of her fingers before Dunk steps in. It\u2019s safe to say that Aerion might be a physically attractive guy, but he\u2019s far from a good one.<\/p>\n

The one person who seems to be deeply aware of this, and who earns my personal badge of honor for the week, is Raymun Fossoway (Shaun Thomas). Dunk naively wonders to his new friend whether Aerion\u2019s horse-lancing wasn\u2019t an accident, saying that it\u2019s \u201cjust hard to accept that a knight might be so dishonorable, let alone a prince.\u201d Raymun pushes back in a particularly passionate rant, calling the Targaryens \u201cincestuous aliens,\u201d \u201cblood-magickers,\u201d and \u201ctyrants\u201d who enslaved their people. \u201cEvery pale-haired brat they\u2019ve saddled on us has been madder than the last,\u201d he spits. Whoo, baby! Game of Thrones doesn\u2019t get more populist than that, even if the message is coming from a distant member of nobility.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n Rebecca Onion
\n What Happened to Bridgerton?
\n Read More\n <\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

But when all is said and done this week, I\u2019m still thinking about that poor pony. What say you, Jenny? Was Aerion bad enough to take the crown this week?<\/p>\n

Zhang: Yes, between the animal (and human) cruelty, unsportsmanlike behavior, and general terrorizing of the entire encampment, I think it\u2019s enough to officially call it: Aerion is this week\u2019s Worst Person in Westeros. The cards were always stacked against him, being a Targaryen and all\u2014and I do like how this episode highlights just how much the smallfolk and non-Targ nobility loathe these descendants of Valyria, a real illustration of how far the once-godlike brood has fallen since the events of House of the Dragon\u2014but, seriously, it wouldn\u2019t kill Aerion to take a chill pill once in a while. Here\u2019s to hoping next week brings a little less royal madness, for all of Westeros\u2019 sake.<\/p>\n

Get the best of movies, TV, books, music, and more.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After each episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Slate writers will gather to answer a crucial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":444471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[88,52585,92,209021],"class_list":["post-444470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-game-of-thrones","tag-tv","tag-worst-person-in-westeros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=444470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/444471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}