Aegon is real

[Stannis Eats No Peaches]

What do you think I have been arguing the past two days? :)

I'm impressed by the tenacity of some, to be honest. This argument should have ended at least 15 pages ago.

[Rhaenys_Targaryen]

1. A child forms memories which he/she will be able to remember later in life from the age of three. Not sooner. So the memory argument is, unfortunately, a no.

OK, that might have worked. But, then, there is that inexplicable Elia;s clinging to fake baby, when her own daughter was in danger. Ok, she had maternal instinct, but she would also have made sure her own daughter was safe.

If Elia was capable of getting the fake child to survive, it would mean her own son would get to live. Protecting the Pisswater Prince automatically meant protecting her own child. She knew (or thought) that, should the Pisswater Prince die, Aegon would never be able to live his live normally.

Again, Rhaenys was a girl, no harm to anyone, least of all Robert, who could have kept her as a hostage to (1) ensure the loyalty of all Targaryen loyalists, and (2) ensure the loyalty of Dorne. She would have remained a hostage, until Robert had a son of his own old enough to marry her, uniting the blood lines and ensuring the security of the future reign.

If Elia believed this was what would happen to Rhaenys, than it would explain why Aegon's safety seemed (!) more important to her at the moment.

I am surprised that people believe this Pisswater Bend story which, if you pardon my French, seems to be taking the Pisswater Bend itself.

It is a tale told to us directly by Aegon, who can't have remembered it himself and was presumably either told to him by Illyrio or indirectly by Jon Connington none of whom were witnesses to the events. Perhaps the tales goes back to Varys, who of course has no vested interest in the story whatsoever and can be considered to be completely honest, objective and trustworthy in this situation!

It requires us to believe that:

• Varys either persuaded Elia that the situation was dangerous enough to agree to the babyswap yet not so dangerous that she and Rhaenys needed to be rescued, or that Varys was lurking in wait in one of the secret passages and executed the swap as soon as he knew the sack was taking place and before the swap could be notice - (yet decided to abandon Elia and Rhaenys who under the Targaryen system would presumably have been intended to be little Aegon's bride)

That a ship was waiting all casual like at the docks for Varys to use - a ship that nobody apparently noticed and that later disappeared without a trace or a hint of the escape getting out even though in ADWD we learn that Illyrio can only get a couple of years of silence from the crew that smuggled out Tyrion by sending the ship to the other side of the world. Why would there need to be a ship on hand? Varys easily could have hidden Aegon in the Red Keep in the secret passages, or somewhere in the city, until a ship had arrived. And the people on the ship who could tell the tales? Well, nobody lives forever, and sometimes, you can speed that moment up a bit for them.

That staff were on hand, at least one wetnurse, guards?, Servants? a steward? All of whom are conveniently silent too since there's never been a rumour of Aegon living knocking about in the story. At the Wall, there was a baby but no wetnurse, and the child was fed with goat milk until a wetnurse was found. If it can be done at the Wall, it can most certainly be done at KL.

That Varys does this because, well why? He is certainly not a loyalist otherwise he would have saved Elia and Rhaenys too, nor would Daenerys and Viserys have been abandoned only to be integrated into the plan with the intention that Viserys dies and Daenerys is ruled out of contention through marriage to a barbarian. Perhaps he does it because he likes to troll people for decades on end? Elia's death would have inflammed the Dornish more than her being alive would have done. There was no reason for Rhaenys to get killed. Also, Dany and Viserys were followed around by hired knives all their lives, but never caught. Why? Because Viserys was so very good in fighting? In plotting? No, because of something else. There is no evidence for it, but it's not entirely impossible that Varys and/or Illyrio were involved.

And we have to accept that they don't form a court in exile as a focus for the Targaryen cause, to allow loyalists in westeros to retain hopes of a restoration even though Varys is in charge of King Bob's intelligence service and could foil any plot against it. No, instead they will base the military support they need on a mercenary company originally formed by the Blackfyres and still using their gilded skulls as a battle standard whose members have claims to lands in Westeros that will completely upset the existence balance of power by requiring massive transfers of land should they win. Hmmm. Nor will they involve Dorne in their plot even though the Prince of Dorne would be Aegon's uncle and can field more men than the Golden Company. Yes, this all makes perfect sense, it all seems perfectly above board and believable!

See the bolded parts.

How is that situtation related to Dany and why should it be shown to her in HotU?

Under the bed is the first place where anyone would look.

And, if you imagine that a mother would tell her 2-3 year old to hide under the bed and went away to check on or protect a substitute you are out of your senses - not to mention that a scared child of that age would simply not be able to stay put seeing the mother abandoning her.

I don't know why it should be shown to her? Foreshadowing for Aegon and Varys, perhaps?

So now we even know on which floor the royal nursery was? Curious.

You've missed the point. If Rhaenys ran and hid on her own, then she would have stayed put. If her mother told her to stay put and left as you propose, no way she would.

It was Ser Amory who brought me the girl’s body, if you must know. He found her hiding under her father’s bed, as if she believed Rhaegar could still protect her. Princess Elia and the babe were in the nursery a floor below

This is all that is known about the position of the nursery, and it's relative distance to Rhaegar's rooms.

Like Varys conveniently knowing exactly how Aegon would be killed, or Elia completely abandoning Rhaenys to take care of someone else's baby.

There was no way Aegon would not have been killed. Robert's reign would never be secure if Aegon had been allowed to live.