How House of the Dragon changes book canon with those dragon eggs

In the latest episode of House of the Dragon, "The Burning Mill," Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) makes a decision: in order to get them out of harm's way, she decides to send her three youngest sons — Joffrey, Aegon III and Viserys II — to the Vale, where they'll stay with the Lady Jeyne Arryn. She also assigns her step-daughter Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell) to accompany them. Rhaena isn't thrilled to be playing babysitter, but Rhaenyra also entrusts her with four dragon eggs; if the war goes badly for Rhaenyra, Rhaena will be in charge of their future.

Fans noticed that three of the eggs — one black, one green and one silver — seemed to resemble the eggs that Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) will receive at her wedding to Khal Drogo, which happens in the first episode of Game of Thrones. Those eggs eventually hatched into Daenerys' dragons Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion. Are the eggs one and the same?

Speaking to Mashable, House of the Dragon director Geeta Patel confirmed that hey were: "Those are Daenerys' eggs," Patel confirmed to Mashable. "All of us who work on this show are big Game of Thrones fans, so it was very exciting to shoot that scene."

This is a cute easter egg, but it does go against the story as set out in George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood...kinda. I'll explain what I mean, but beware SPOILERS below!

How House of the Dragon contradicts Fire & Blood

Fire & Blood is written like a history book, not a novel, and the "historians" who are "writing" it don't always have all the information. So there's no guarantee that what we learn is Fire & Blood is the whole truth.

That said, there's a story in the book that seems to answer the question of where Daenerys' dragon eggs come from. Years before the events of House of the Dragon, a highborn lady named Elissa Farman gets involved with Rhaena Targaryen (who is a completely different person from the Rhaena Targaryen on House of the Dragon; the Targaryens need more names). Rhaena wants to sail around the world, but Rhaena won't fund her efforts. Their relationship falling apart, Elissa steals three dragon eggs from Dragonstone and sells them to the sealord of Braavos in exchange for gold she uses to fund her seafaring dreams. The eggs are never recovered.

Although there's missing time, the implication is that these eggs eventually make their way into the hands of Pentoshi merchant-prince Illyrio Mopatis and finally to Daenerys Targaryen, and we know the rest of the story. In Fire & Blood. But again, it's not ironclad, so perhaps House of the Dragon is giving us the "true" story.

Except...Fire & Blood also catalogs the events of the Dance of the Dragons civil war. On the page, Rhaena Targaryen (the one played by Phoebe Campbell this time) leaves Dragonstone with three dragon eggs, not four. One of them eventually hatches into a dragon named Morning, who has an important symbolic role towards the end of the dance. The other two dragon eggs aren't accounted for.

In order to make it so this cache of eggs could plausibly make its way to Daenerys Targaryen someday, House of the Dragon had to up the number of eggs from three to four, one of which I expect will eventually hatch the dragon morning. So it does indeed look like the show is changing things.

The change isn't a huge deal, but I dunno, I guess I wish the producers would show a little more respect for the source material and not change things around like this seemingly just because. We'll see what else gets altered this Sunday, when a new episode of House of the Dragon comes to HBO and Max.

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