In Season 1, Episode 3 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, titled “The Squire,” things dramatically change for House Targaryen. The episode culminates in Egg revealing he is actually Aegon Targaryen, a secret he exposes to protect Ser Duncan the Tall. This reveal was triggered by Prince Aerion Targaryen, who impulsively attacked a performer named Tanselle after she staged a puppet show featuring a knight defeating a dragon – a scene Aerion found deeply offensive.
Aerion was upset because the dragon in the play was defeated – he believes dragons should always win. This feeling is made stronger by his already cruel and ruthless nature, earning him the nickname “Aerion the Monstrous,” which he embraces. As actor Finn Bennett explained, Aerion is actually ashamed of how weak and diminished House Targaryen has become. The fact that they no longer have any dragons makes the puppet show’s outcome particularly humiliating for him, highlighting their current state of decline.
What Tanselle’s Puppet Show Means In A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
For generations, the Targaryens have believed they were more like gods than ordinary people, and their dragons were central to that belief. Dragons represented their ultimate power – Aegon the Conqueror used them to invade and take control of Westeros. Now that the dragons are gone, the Targaryens are vulnerable. This is shown by the common people daring to openly protest and even throw things at a Targaryen prince after he kills a horse during a tournament.
For Aerion, the death of the dragon is more of a personal symbol. It’s particularly devastating for him because he identifies strongly with dragons – he sees his own death reflected in the dragon’s fall. Years after the events in George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg stories, Aerion ultimately dies after drinking wildfire, mistakenly believing it would turn him into a dragon, but it only resulted in his death.
But the puppet show isn’t just entertainment, you know? It’s telling the story of Serwyn of the Mirror-Shield, this amazing knight who actually defeated the dragon Urrax by using its own reflection against it. It reminded me a lot of the Perseus and Medusa myth – that whole ‘using a reflection to defeat a monster’ thing. But it’s also a really clever symbol for what happened to the Targaryens and why the dragons disappeared. It’s like the show is hinting at the reasons behind their downfall!
The Targaryens ultimately cause their own downfall. The brutal civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons nearly wipes out the dragons – only four are left – and the idea of a dragon being killed by its reflection mirrors how the Targaryens, who often identified with dragons, were destroyed by their own internal conflicts. While the puppeteer Tanselle might not have intended this symbolism, it adds a compelling depth to the scene and Aerion’s reaction to it.
New episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms usually come out on Sundays at 10 pm Eastern Time on HBO. But because of the Super Bowl, episode 4 will be available early on HBO Max starting Friday, February 6th, at 12:01 am Pacific Time / 3:01 am Eastern Time.
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2026-02-04 00:41