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a song of ice and fire - Do the Game of Thrones books and series match up now? (Aegon Targaryen)


I have not read the books, but I know that



Varys wants to put Aegon, not Daenerys on the throne.



Since we know that



Jon Snow is now the son of Rhaegar (HBO final episode),




won't he get the push to be the new King with Daenerys as his queen? Wouldn't that solve all the lineage issues, claims to the throne, and unify everything?



Answer



The books and the show have diverged pretty far, especially when it comes to Aegon Targaryen, and will likely never match up.


As far as we know, Aegon Targaryen is not alive in the show -- we've seen no hint that he is hiding anywhere, and Varys has always openly supported Daenerys . This is most obvious in the last few episodes of Season 6. The entire plot thread where Tyrion meets Aegon was skipped completely, and Dany, not Aegon, is about to make landfall on Westeros with an army.


In the books, on the other hand, Aegon Targaryen is still alive, and he has a more legitimate claim to the throne. He's also already in Westeros, and the people in King's Landing (well, Kevan at least) are aware of him and suspect he might be telling the truth.


There's no way that Aegon and Jon can be the "same" character, for several reasons:



  • In the books, Jon Snow is almost exactly the same person as on the show. It's fully expected that his parents will be revealed to be Rhaegar and Lyanna Stark. In the books, Aegon is the son of Rhaegar and Elia Martell, a true born son that has since gone into hiding. Both are alive at the same time.

  • In the show, Jon Snow has not been given any of Aegon's character or plot development. Aegon was thought killed, secretly hidden, and grew up in Essos fully knowing who he was. Jon's story in the books is basically the same as his story in the show.


  • In the books, Varys has been secretly supporting Aegon since his birth, and done everything he can to get Aegon back on the throne. In the show, all of that plot development was given to Dany, not Jon.

  • As far as the lineage issue goes: Jon Snow is a bastard; he has no claim to the Iron Throne regardless of which family sits on it, unless the existing King legitimizes him. His claim to the Throne of the North was given to him not because he inherited it, but because the Lords of the North merely declared him King by fiat. That's not going to give him a claim to the Seven Kingdoms in any case.


There's no indication that the books are going to "sync up" to the show in this regard. It would be near impossible to take the story arc that Aegon has been following and somehow "merge" it with Jon's at this point. Most likely, the show is simply going to ignore everything about the Aegon plot and go their own way. (It's also possibly -- indeed, in this series, likely -- that Aegon just outright dies and the whole problem goes away. We'll find out eventually.)


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