5 things from the Game of Thrones books we wish were in the show

4. Aegon Targaryen and Jon Connington

Next up, let’s hit on another enormous mystery from A Song of Ice and Fire which could have big ramifications for Daenerys Targaryen down the line. During A Dance with Dragons, Tyrion Lannister goes on a continent-spanning journey across Essos in order to meet Dany. This still happens in the TV series, but the most important person Tyrion encounters on that journey is suspiciously absent.

I’m referring to Aegon Targaryen, also known as “Young Grif,” a teenage boy who claims to be Daenerys’ long-lost nephew. The story goes that when Gregor Clegane slaughtered Elia Martell and her children at the Red Keep during Robert’s Rebellion, he dashed Elia and Prince Rhaegar Targaryen’s baby boy Aegon against a wall, killing him. Except the teenager Tyrion meets claims that this was a different baby, not Aegon at all.

Instead, the real Aegon escaped with the help of a disgraced lord named Jon Connington, who was a crucial advisor to the Mad King before he was defeated by Robert Baratheon during the Battle of the Bells and subsequently exiled for his failure. Connington goes by the moniker “Grif,” as a nod to his ancestral home of Griffin’s Roost.

After meeting Tyrion, Aegon and Connington decide to return to Westeros and conquer part of it in order to make Aegon seem like a viable marriage option for Daenerys. By the end of A Dance with Dragons, they’ve succeeded in making landfall on the continent, and it’s revealed that Varys is working in secret to help Aegon gain power.

The introduction of Aegon makes Dany’s claim to the throne far more complex — and that’s before you even factor in the very real possibility that Aegon isn’t who he claims to be. There are a ton of things we still don’t know about how the young prince fits into the larger story, but you can bet it’s going to be important.

Of all the things on this list, cutting Aegon is the most understandable. He muddies the political waters significantly, and as of this writing we still have no idea about his ultimate purpose in the story. But considering it’s one of the larger mysteries The Winds of Winter will have to address, it’s still a shame it didn’t make the cut.