Aerea and Rhaella Twin Switch was a suspected exchange of Queen Rhaena Targaryen’s twin daughters around the time of Jaehaerys Targaryen’s coronation. Never proved, it nevertheless raised a serious question of succession: until the king had a child of his own, the girl known as Princess Aerea was heir to the Iron Throne, whoever she might truly be.

Separation at the Coronation

After Jaehaerys’s coronation, Rhaena left the king’s party at Highgarden and rode her dragon, Dreamfyre, back to Fair Isle, taking leave of her daughters. Rhaella had remained at the Starry Sept, while Aerea continued with the king to the Red Keep, where she was to serve as cupbearer and companion to Alysanne Targaryen. The twins’ separation placed them in different households just as the court’s account of their identities became suspect.

A Reversal in Temperament

Before the coronation, the sisters were described as mirror images in appearance but opposites in disposition. Rhaella was bold and willful, and reportedly difficult for the septas charged with her care; Aerea was shy, fearful, and prone to tears. She was said to fear horses, dogs, loud-voiced boys, bearded men, dancing, and dragons.

After the coronation, the girl who remained at Oldtown devoted herself to prayer and study and no longer needed chastisement. The girl who returned to King’s Landing, by contrast, proved lively, quick-witted, and adventurous, soon spending much of her time in the kennels, stables, and dragon yards. The apparent reversal of their established temperaments made the possibility of an exchange seem credible to observers, though it did not establish that one had occurred.

The Suspected Exchange

It was widely believed that someone had switched the twins on the occasion of the king’s coronation. Queen Rhaena herself and Queen Alyssa Targaryen, Rhaena’s mother, were both suggested as possible agents, but no proof was produced and the account leaves the question open. The suspicion rests on the contrast between the girls’ earlier and later behavior, together with their changed circumstances after the coronation; it does not identify who, if anyone, arranged the exchange.

Succession and Uncertainty

The possibility mattered because, until Jaehaerys had an heir of his body, Princess Aerea was heir to the Iron Throne. The account therefore distinguishes between the princess bearing that name and the girl who might actually have been Aerea: the succession attached to the recognized identity, while the suspected switch made that identity uncertain. No one was inclined to challenge the deception, if deception there was. The episode remains an unresolved question of both family identity and royal inheritance rather than a confirmed account of who the twins were.