Okay but like.
Based on the wikis, Prince Duncan The Small (Egg's kid) was born somewhere between 220–224 AC while Maekar died 233 AC. Meaning that he had ample time to get to know his grandson as well as watching him grow a little.
So how do you think he reacted to Egg naming his child after DUNK of all people??? Especially since usually Targaryens name their kids either after ancestors or with a very specific sound to it, something that Prince Duncan obviously doesn't have. Add to that the parallel of Maekar naming his firstborn son (Daeron) after his own father while Egg named his after his father/brother figure....Do you think he'd ever be jealous over the fact? Or do you think he'd somehow come to understand or accept it?
I think that Maekar stopped being jealous of Dunk over the years of being around him. He and Dunk literally coparented and he trusted Egg with him for years. I think he might’ve even cared for him eventually. I think when Maekar first meets his grandchild from Egg he is more shocked/nostalgic by how he looks than his name. Maekar accepted a long time ago that where he failed as a father or just couldn’t be there that Ser Duncan the Talk would be and wouldn’t replace him completely. I think Maekar kinda expected little Duncan to be named after Dunk and Dunk as the one that was shocked instead.
I do think it hits home twice as hard though when his grandson looks so much like Baelor who he hasn’t seen in years while carrying the name of a man who changed everything in Maekar’s life. Baelor whose line never continued and will never continue which haunts Maekar until the very end. I will forever love the fact that Duncan Targaryen was a dark haired Targaryen just because of the angst it brings. I like to imagine Duncan the Small has dark hair with mismatched eyes just like his great uncle but the tragedy is just like him he doesn’t sit the Iron Throne either.
I was actually talking with some friends about the relationship Maekar might have had with Dunk and like... what if MAEKAR is the one who makes Dunk a Kingsguard? There's an assumption (well-founded imo) that Egg is the one who appoints Dunk to the Kingsguard and eventually makes him Lord Commander -- but what if it was Maekar instead?
Because I think it's entirely plausible that Dunk proved his loyalty not only to Egg but to House Targaryen generally by the time Egg was ready to be knighted, and while in the novellas Dunk ruminates on having a family, there's very little evidence (other than the shield on Tarth) to suggest he did. And if that's the case — perhaps it was Maekar, not Egg, who first saw the benefits in having a hedge knight from Flea Bottom as one of his Kingsguard, sworn to not only his house but the Iron Throne itself?
In which case, these are two men who've known each other for years, who have an close bond and who know each other incredibly well. And as you say, they both share the trauma/guilt over Baelor's death, which I think really did make them closer. (That whole scene in the solar where Maekar says "you will hear the rumors too"? CHILL.) I can't see a Maekar who's taken Dunk as a Kingsguard ever being jealous of his relationship with Egg, simply because he would have had to accept the father-son relationship they had. Because -- and I know this is a weird characterization -- I don't think Maekar feels jealousy in that way. I haven't really tried to explain my reasoning in re: Maekar, but I think he's the kind of person who would think it was entirely fitting for Egg to name his eldest son Duncan. Hell, he might have suggested it.
