After the finale of House of the Dragon season 3 aired, audiences were still haunted by many unsolved questions. What happened to Daeron Targaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and his dragon, Tessarion? What is the true meaning of the prophetic tapestry knitted by Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban)? And where exactly is Vhagar hiding, and how come no one across the Seven Kingdoms knows the whereabouts of such a large creature? Unfortunately, we'll have to wait two years to find out the answers to these lingering mysteries. And to top things off, we never got to find out what Daeron's true hair color really is, either.
The Targaryens are (usually) known for their long, white hair. Even Daeron's siblings, Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), and Helaena Targaryen, all sport white hair, so why is he the one exception? The predominant theory was that Ormund Hightower (James Norton) dyed his ward's hair reddish-brown to throw off Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) and her husband, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith). After all, the queen was actively searching for any living heir to the throne to take them out of the picture and ensure her reign would be uncontested. So, what better way to hide Daeron than to make it seem he is not a Targaryen? Besides, the character has white hair in George R. R. Martin's novel Fire & Blood, so the show wouldn't change such a detail, right?
All signs indicated that Daeron's reddish-brown hair was just an intricate deceit that successfully managed to fool the Seven Kingdoms. But against all expectations, it seems the simpler answer may have been correct, and we've been seeing Daeron's true hair color all this time.
Ryan Condal hints Daeron Targaryen's real hair color is reddish-brown
During an interview with Business Insider, House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal was asked whether the theories that Ormund dyed his ward's hair were correct, and while Condal refused to give a direct answer, he did hint that there is no such conspiracy in play:
"I don't want to say anything definitively. I think it's a very interesting discussion. Daeron's hair color took up probably more discussion than any single character's hair color did in the entire making of the show. I just think it poses a lot of interesting questions. If you presume that that is actually Daeron's hair color — and that he's the one that just looked exactly like his mother — the question that was most interesting to me was, 'Oh my God, is that why Alicent sent him away?'"
A key detail to remember is that Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) constantly questioned the legitimacy of Rhaenyra's children during the first season of House of the Dragon because they had dark hair, as opposed to white. So, if Alicent herself was the mother of a son with brown hair, wouldn't it stand to reason that she knew a similar scenario could've also happened to Rhaenyra? Well, yes, but Condal hinted that maybe that's the reason why she sent Daeron away to Oldtown when he was still young:
"In a time when she was so in need of painting the picture of the perfect blonde Targaryen family, being able to stand on her soapbox and say that Rhaenyra's children are plain and illegitimate, and that they're not trueborn with Laenor, and they're unsuited to take the throne: 'Look at my perfect Targaryen children that I sacrificed so much to have with a man who's 25 years older than me, who's literally rotting to pieces.' It calls back to a past form of Alicent that's very different from the Alicent that we know today."
If we were to assume these statements were true, then this storyline would create a plot hole, as Alicent had previously stated that the true reason why Daeron was separated from the rest of his family was to keep him away from all the political turmoil that turned two of his siblings into a bit of monsters. However, Condal also weighed in on this matter by saying that Alicent could've convinced herself that she was keeping her son away to protect him, although she truly did it to pretend she had a "perfect" Targaryen family:
"So much of memory is emotion, right? It's an emotional memory. It's not the memory of actually what happened. It's your memory of the emotion that you experienced at the time. And I can totally see Alicent really believing a different version of that story, now that she's been through all of these horrors and tragedies."
Since Condal acknowledged that there were multiple behind-the-scenes discussions about Daeron's hair color, it's clear there must be more to this storyline than meets the eye. Regardless of whether it turns out to be a huge trick or not, all signs indicate that season 4 will finally give us some much-needed answers.
Perhaps Daeron the Daring will finally ride Tessarion into war and turn the tide in favor of the Greens, much as he did in the source material. And if this moment comes to be, wouldn't it be fitting if it also came with the revelation that Daeron had white hair all along? Unfortunately, we have a long wait ahead of us to discover some concrete answers, but Condal's comments may have pointed us in the right direction.
House of the Dragon season 4 will start filming in 2027 ahead of a 2028 release. The first three seasons are available to stream on HBO Max.
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