Are the eggs on House of the Dragon the same ones Daenerys hatched on Game of Thrones?

On the latest episode of House of the Dragon, "The Burning Mill," Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) has an assignment for her step-daughter Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell): Rhaena is to go to the Vale — and possibly beyond to the city of Pentos on Essos — along with Rhaenyra's youngest children: Joffrey, Aegon III and Viserys II. Things are heating up in the war between Rhaenyra and her half-brother Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Rhaenyra wants her kids out of harm's way.

Rhaena is upset that she is being sent away from the action, but she has an important job to do: not only does she have to play politician with Rhaenyra's wartime allies, but she also must safeguard a quartet of dragon eggs. If Rhaenyra's island stronghold of Dragonstone is breached, those eggs will represent the future of her movement. Plus, Rhaena doesn't yet have a dragon of their own, and every moment around a dragon eggs means a chance to change that.

Some viewers watched this episode and wondered: are these the same dragon eggs that will come into Daenerys Targaryen's possession decades later on Game of Thrones? Daenerys hatched those eggs and became Mother of Dragons to Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion. They're among the most important eggs in fiction.

It's a cool theory, but it goes against what fans commonly think. We'll explain below, but beware SPOILERS!

Where do Daenerys Targaryen's dragon eggs come from?

Most fans think that Daenerys' dragon eggs came to her via a long chain of events that start with a woman named Elissa Farman, who is a active in Westeros years before the events of House of the Dragon. According to George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood, Elissa was living on Dragonstone with her brother Androw and his wife Rhaena Targaryen, who is a completely separate Rhaena Targaryen from the one on House of the Dragon; I'm sorry these people tend to reuse names so much.

Anyway, it's hinted that Rhaena and Elissa were intimate with each other. But their relationship started to sour because Rhaena would not subsisize Elissa's dream: to build a ship capable of sailing into the Sunset Sea west of Westeros. So Elissa stole a trio of dragon eggs from the hatcheries on Dragonstone and sold them to the Sealord of Braavos, which secured her the gold necessary to make her dream a reality.

The dragon eggs were never recovered. We don't know exactly what happened to them after that, but fans think that they petrified and eventually made their way into the hands of Illyrio Mopatis, a merchant-prince living in the Free City of Pentos. And Illyrio Mopatis gifted them to Daenerys Targaryen on the day of her wedding to Khal Drogo. And the rest is (fake) history.

This isn't necessarily the way things happened — Fire & Blood doesn't purport to be a wholly accurate and comprehensive account of Westerosi history — but putting two and two together, it seems to be the most likely story. That means that the eggs Rhaena is now supervising on House of the Dragon have a different destiny.

UPDATE: The dragon eggs in House of the Dragon ARE Daenerys' dragon eggs

Okay, scratch all that, because Geeta Patel — the director behind House of the Dragon — just confirmed to Mashable that the eggs Rhaena takes to the Vale are indeed the ones that will end up in Daenerys Targaryen's hands years later. "Those are Daenerys' eggs," Patel said. "All of us who work on this show are big Game of Thrones fans, so it was very exciting to shoot that scene."

Again, Fire & Blood doesn't outright confirm that Elissa Farman took the eggs that eventually wound up with Daenerys, but it does heavily imply it, so I'm going to call his a canon change. Plus, in the book, Rhaena carries only three eggs to the Vale, and one of them hatches, leaving two. So far as the book goes, those couldn't have been the three that end up with Daenerys.

Is this a fun change or fan service for its own sake? You decide.

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