How Prince Daeron Transforms the Targaryen Civil War

Prince Daeron Targaryen, known to history as Daeron the Daring, is the third and youngest son of King Viserys the First Targaryen and Queen Alicent Hightower, coming after Aegon and Aemond. He never appeared in either season 1 or season 2 of the show. The closest we came was Tessarion flying behind the Hightower army in the closing moments of the previous season, with Alicent only briefly mentioning that he had been taken as an infant to be raised in Oldtown. The Daeron we meet in the season 3 premiere is an apt to task sixteen year old dragon rider who goes on to completely change the dynamics of the war and the Dance of the Dragons, specifically at the first and second battles of Tumbleton.

The Hightower army's negotiation in the Reach

Episode 3 opens in the Reach, the second largest and most heavily populated constituent region of Westeros. The Hightower army, led by Alicent's cousin and Daeron's custodian, Ormund Hightower, has marched from Oldtown northeast toward King's Landing. During the negotiation with the Blacks, the young Targaryen prince is missing in action, unlike the premiere where he stood behind his guardian until the moment Daemon brings him forward to be traded for the lives of the more than 15,000 strong Hightower host, alongside Ormund's facade of a surrender.

Daemon, riding Caraxes alongside Ulf and Hugh on Silverwing and Vermithor, presents an intimidating sight given that the Hightowers only have the much smaller dragon Tessarion. Daemon quickly outlines the dire situation Ormund finds himself in: the war is over, his allies are scattered, his nephews have fled, and a new queen sits the throne. Daemon tells Ormund and his men to take the Rose Road home, connecting Oldtown to King's Landing via Highgarden. But there is one more thing Daemon wants before they go, and that is Prince Daeron Targaryen.

Why the books make Daeron the greatest threat to Rhaenyra's claim

None of that scene happens in George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood. In the text, once Alicent's more prominent sons Aegon and Aemond are missing in action, the greatest threat left standing in the way of Rhaenyra's claim to the Seven Kingdoms is Prince Daeron, since he is technically next in line to the throne. In the books, Ormund and his men fight several battles on their journey to King's Landing, including the Battle on the Honeywine, which involved House Beesbury, a house the Greens found irritating enough that Criston Cole killed their lord, former Master of Coin Lyman Beesbury, during a council meeting in the Red Keep.

In that battle, Ormund's forces were boxed in on every side by the enemy and were about to suffer a bitter defeat until Prince Daeron arrived on Tessarion and turned the fight in favor of the Greens. Afterward, Ormund threw a feast in Daeron's honor and knighted him with his Valyrian sword Vigilance, dubbing him Daeron the Daring, which is how he earned his name in the history books. Daeron then stayed with Ormund's army and scouted ahead on his dragon. It is said that the Shield Islands, House Oakheart, and House Rowan submitted to the Greens to avoid facing Daeron the Daring.

My take on why the show invented Ormund's ploy over Daeron

Given the masterful ploy that Ormund plays in the show, I'd wager Ryan Condal's adaptation chose this deviation from the books because of how crucial the young prince is to the war and to the Dance of the Dragons. In the show, Queen Rhaenyra has offered Ormund and his men clemency if they swear allegiance to her, because she wants above all to be seen as a judicious and merciful conciliator, following in the footsteps of her father King Viserys and, before him, Jaehaerys the Conciliator.

You can't blame a queen who has barely seen war for most of her life for wanting to keep the peace going as long as she can instead of turning ruthless like Daemon would. But what Rhaenyra refuses to acknowledge is that the peace has already been compromised, and no amount of mercy can bring the Greens, especially the Hightower host, back to her side. Prince Daeron's invented appearance here, contrived as it is, slaps that reality hard in her face. If Jace's death was not enough to wake her up to the mess she is in, I'd bet Ormund's ploy and the first Battle of Tumbleton will.

The first Battle of Tumbleton and Roderick Dustin's maneuver

The first Battle of Tumbleton was fought between the Greens and the Blacks at Tumbleton, a prosperous market town in the Reach bordering the Crownlands, sixty leagues southwest of King's Landing, during the Dance of the Dragons in the year 130 after Aegon's Conquest. Tumbleton was the seat of House Footly and the last stronghold of Rhaenyra's black faction standing between King's Landing and Ormund's advancing army. The battle is remembered for the Treasons of Tumbleton, in which Ulf White and Hugh Hammer betrayed Rhaenyra's crown, burning the town with dragonfire and sacking it. A second clash followed just two days later.

In the first clash, Ormund, accompanied by his ward Daeron on Tessarion, led an army of Greens from the Reach toward Tumbleton and was initially opposed by Ser Ulf White and Ser Hugh Hammer on Vermithor and Silverwing. George R.R. Martin notes that several black aligned lords, with hosts amounting to a staggering 9,000 soldiers, plus other defenders from the Blackwater Rush including Ser Merrell the Bold and Lord Owain Borrell, defended the town, though the Greens still greatly outnumbered them. At the start, 6,000 Blacks faced an estimated 15,000 Green troops and were nearly wiped out until Lord Roderick Dustin pulled off an insane maneuver, leading the Winter Wolves secretly through a back door to kill a large number of Greens.

Though outnumbered ten to one, the Winter Wolves reached the Green commander, and Lord Dustin himself killed Ormund Hightower. It was not long, though, before Prince Daeron and Tessarion appeared across the field. The Blacks were not initially perturbed, since Tessarion was much smaller than Silverwing and nowhere near the size of Vermithor, the second largest dragon in the world after Vhagar. The defenders of Tumbleton thought the battle was already won with the Hightower commanders dead. That was exactly when the fortunes of Daeron the Daring began to turn.

How the turncloaks Hugh Hammer and Ulf White burned Tumbleton

Instead of engaging Daeron and Tessarion, Hugh Hammer and Ulf White turned their dragons on the town and began burning it incessantly. Buildings throughout Tumbleton burned to ash, and thousands burned to death or drowned trying to cross the Mander River. Outside the walls, the black horsemen were unhorsed and trampled by the Greens, while some of their lords were burned by Tessarion's flame.

Ulf and Hugh were not the only turncloaks that day. Ser Roger Corne, initially a defender of Tumbleton from the Blackwater Rush, opened the town's gates to the Greens, and Lord Owain Borrell betrayed Ser Merrell the Bold within the town's castle. The Lord of Tumbleton's men yielded but were afterward captured and mercilessly beheaded by the Greens. What followed was a chaotic and prolonged sack of the town by victorious Green soldiers left leaderless after Ormund's death.

The town was sacked, and many civilians were killed in the chaos that followed Ormund's death.

Daeron's attempt to stop the chaos and Alicent's reaction

This level of savagery slowly drove the young prince mad, and he urged the most senior Hightower at Tumbleton, Ser Hobert, to bring the soldiers under control. Hobert could not do it either, as the other nobles kept squabbling over who should take command. Daeron named Ulf White Lord of Bitterbridge, but the two turncloaks refused to join him in a coordinated attack on King's Landing unless their steep demands were met.

Upon hearing of the Blacks' defeat at Tumbleton and being proud of her son, Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower is said to have laughed and said of Rhaenyra's faction, "All they have sowed, now shall they reap." Fear of the same savagery spread to King's Landing, and many tried to flee, assuming they would suffer the same fate. Queen Rhaenyra had the City Watch seal the city's gates so that there was no way in or out. Meanwhile, remaining at Tumbleton instead of marching on King's Landing, the leaderless Green army shrank by the day as men deserted with their spoils.

The second Battle of Tumbleton and Daeron's mysterious death

What remained of the army, together with Prince Daeron on Tessarion, Ulf White on Silverwing, and Hugh Hammer on Vermithor, on paper faced Ser Addam Velaryon on Seasmoke and an army of rivermen in the second Battle of Tumbleton, merely two days later. The young prince who had been mostly unaccounted for in his early days in the Reach, unlike Aegon and Aemond, became the last standing blockade once Aegon went missing and Aemond fell in the battle above the Gods Eye against Rhaenyra's side.

Daeron fought hard to the end until he fell in the second Battle of Tumbleton against Addam Velaryon's Seasmoke. His body was never identified, and according to history, his death is still considered mysterious to this day.