How did Rhaenyra Targaryen go from the spunky little girl we met in episode
one to a woman willing to go to war against her former best friend?
Though House of the Dragon follows several members of the extended
Targaryen family, the show’s main protagonist is Rhaenyra – the
first woman to be named heir to the Iron Throne.
“Daemon was not made to wear the crown.
But I believe that you were.”
And though she claims to be interested in upending Westeros’
political systems, the first season of House of the Dragon traces Rhaenyra’s
path from an idealistic young woman to a canny operator, willing to
undermine her principles in order to establish and retain her power.
Here’s our take on how Rhaenyra became the very thing she hated most.
I’m Queen Rhaenyra now.
It’s made clear from the beginning that Rhaenyra doesn’t really want
power in the same way that everyone else in King’s Landing does.
What Rhaenyra wants most is to be left alone.
“I have no desire to live in fear. Only solitude.”
But thanks to her royal fate, she’s placed in a highly visible
position of authority – one that comes with big demands
and responsibilities.
Despite this, at every turn, she tries her hardest to be
free and live according to her own desires, ignoring what
she is quote-unquote “supposed” to do because of who her father is.
“Enjoyed that, did you?” “Who knows when I’ll next
taste freedom?”
And though Rhaenyra has a few opportunities to pretend to be
someone else—especially when she visits the underbelly of
King’s Landing with Daemon—she ultimately has to return to being
Rhaenyra Targaryen, with everything that name entails.
Without the opportunity to live the life she wants, she instead
becomes focused on the power she will gain once Viserys dies.
Because if she can’t be truly free,
then she wants to fundamentally remake the government of Westeros
in her image – a different kind of freedom she can settle for.
“When I’m queen, I will create a new order.”
In particular, young Rhaenyra wants to both live in and create a
Westeros that is kinder to women.
She spends much of her adolescence resisting her father Viserys’
demand that she marry and begin having children.
“For men marriage might be a political arrangement.
For women it is likely to be a death sentence.”
After all, her own mother died in childbirth – in a particularly
gruesome fashion that we got to see in the first episode.
It’s no wonder that Rhaenyra above all wants to avoid
having children.
“My mother was made to produce heirs until it killed her.
I won’t subject myself to the same fate.”
Rhaenyra also pursues her own sexual agency with Ser Criston –
deciding to live for what she wants.
This is what makes Rhaenyra’s character so appealing – we love
a rebel – and she staunchly opposes the archaic traditions
of Westeros’ ruling class.
“ I do not wish to get married.”
“Even I do not exist above tradition and duty, Rhaenyra.”
This is all in sharp contrast to Alicent, who accepts those
traditions and duties throughout her life without pushback.
When her father suggests that she
ingratiate herself with the king, she does it.
She marries the much-older Viserys
without complaint, and though she doesn’t enjoy having his children,
she still makes an effort to embody the role of queen.
The tension between Rhaenyra’s birthright and her own desires
find their fullest expression in her relationship with her father.
Even though Viserys named her heir, she lives with the knowledge that
he would have preferred a son—and
in fact, hastened her mother’s death in the pursuit of a male heir.
“He didn’t choose me. He spurns Daemon.”
and the whispers throughout Westeros doubting Viserys’
decision definitely don’t help.
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the thrilling history of the Targaryens. Fire and Blood by George R.R. Martin which
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As House of the Dragon jumps forward
in time, we start to see a more adult Rhaenyra making a series
of choices that would have horrified her younger self.
For most of her childhood, Rhaenyra steadfastly opposes all
of her father’s attempts to arrange a wedding for her––but then she
actively rejects a possible
opportunity to actually gain the freedom she claims to want.
After she sleeps with Ser Criston, he offers to marry her and run away
to Essos, where they could be anonymous and free of their duties.
“If there were another path,
one that led to freedom… would you tread it?”
Rhaenyra turns him down—because ultimately she needs the comforts
and privileges that her position provides to her.
“I may chafe at my duties, but do you think I would choose
infamy in exchange for a bushel of oranges and a ship to Asshai?”
Instead, Rhaenyra tries to convince Ser Criston to continue to break his
oath of chastity as her secret lover,
an arrangement that would work well for her while forcing him to live in shame.
Rhaenyra’s once “rebellious attitude” starts to be portrayed as an inherent selfishness.
She wants all of the benefits of her role,
without the less glamorous responsibilities.
To the point where, when she does eventually get married – she and
her husband Laenor agree to have an open marriage – something she
knows could ultimately create a
crisis for their family and complicate their bloodline.
And when it becomes politically expedient years later, Rhaenyra
unflinchingly arranges marriages for her own children, in order to
strengthen her alliance with Rhaenys and House Velaryon.
“I’ll make you an offer.
Back Luke’s claim, and let us betroth Laena’s children to mine.”
And even later when Rhaenyra does
choose her own spouse, it’s ultimately for political reasons.
Rather than spurring progress and bringing modernity to the
system like she once swore she would – she ends up relying on
ancient Targaryen traditions when she marries Daemon as a
way of benefiting her own position.
With you as my husband and prince
consort, my claim would not be so easily challenged.”
Of course, the biggest betrayal of
Rhaenyra’s younger self is the fact that she had children at all.
Though she feared and hated the idea of childbirth, she eventually goes
out of her way to have a child with Daemon—again, as a way of
strengthening her own hold on power.
And while she originally wanted to find her own path in life and
sought total freedom, some of Rhaenyra’s biggest setbacks come
because of her concern for her
sons—especially after Lucerys wounds Aemond’s eye.
While Rhaenyra tries to maintain a tentative peace with Alicent,
she decides to fully commit to war only after her son
Lucerys is killed.
Her conflict may have initially been defined by her own agenda,
but she’s slowly become defined by motherhood.
“My father looked after me and helped to prepare me for my duties.
Your mother will do the same for you.”
So what causes Rhaenyra’s change, and is she really betraying
her own ideals?
Consider the changes in her friendship,
rivalry, and eventual outright hostility with Alicent.
At first, Alicent is actually the
kinder and more empathetic of the two girls.
“It will take time. It did when I lost my own mother.”
Rhaenyra, on the other hand, claims to want to live outside
of the royal family, but still
shows some early signs of enjoying her power over others.
“Her heart broken for those that– your grace.”
“Did I say to stop? From the beginning.”
But Alicent’s kindness eventually becomes muddied with ulterior
motives—especially in her relationship with Viserys.
“This is a very kind gesture, Allicent.”
Despite being blindsided – Rhaenyra tacitly agrees to
Alicent and Viserys’ marriage as a way of avoiding another,
potentially more dangerous choice– and their union fundamentally changes
the nature of their friendship.
Alicent is now the queen and
legally Rhaenyra’s stepmother, meaning that she’s in a position
of power above Rhaenyra—at least while Viserys is still alive.
Rhaenyra loses her best friend and closest confidant at a
pivotal time in her life.
Alicent may have gained a husband
and a queenship, but she also lost a friendship.
“I find I have few friends lately.
All anyone sees when they look at me now is the queen.”
The young women drift apart – the trajectories of their
lives permanently altered.
And as Alicent gives Viserys children, more importantly, a son –
Rhaenyra’s former best friend becomes the mother of the very
thing that could threaten her claim to the throne.
The contrast deepens in their
respective relationships with their fathers.
Other than her marriage, Viserys has been pretty
hands-off with Rhaenyra.
She already has power and simply wants her father to respect and
admire her the way he would have seen a firstborn son.
“I want him to see me as more than his little girl.” Whereas,
since childhood, Alicent has been used by her father for
his own political gain.
Both Rhaenyra and Alicent eventually come to see tradition
and hierarchy as a weapon,
albeit from fundamentally different perspectives.
Where Rhaenyra struggles against the traditions that would bind her
to the subservient role of women in Westerosi society, Alicent
begrudgingly accepts them – and then uses them to her advantage.
She learned from her father that she must work to advance her position –
and to cloak her ambitions under the guise of duty.
“We play an ugly game. And now, for the first time, I see that
you have the determination to win it.”
As time passes, Alicent’s resentment and jealousy of Rhaenyra grows—both
because of the way Rhaenyra does as
she pleases and because Alicent isn’t afforded that same freedom.
“What have I done but what was expected of me? Forever
upholding the kingdom, the family, the law
Rhaenyra and Alicent’s hostilities come to a head in the wake of their
sons’ fight, which both leaves
Aemond without an eye and threatens to bring Rhaenyra’s indiscretions
out into the open.
By now, Alicent has become used to
power, and demands a literal eye for an eye.
On the other hand, Rhaenyra is able to contain herself –
"Rhaenyra's the only one who's demonstrated restraint"
– and rely on the privileges that she previously scorned—
the line of succession is the most important thing, and shields
both her and her children from her own infidelity.
“My sons are in line to inherit the Iron Throne, Your Grace.
This is the highest of treasons.”
Both Rhaenyra and Alicent have suffered as a result of the system
they may not like but were ultimately born into – forced
to play the game put in front
of them as the Targaryen empire begins to crumble.
And both of them end up investing their hopes and dreams into their
children being the ones to continue that system, rather than breaking it.
On one hand, Rhaenyra gives in to many of the worst and most damning
instincts of the Targaryen family, and of Westeros’ political system.
But on the other hand, her thirst for power makes sense—the only
way for her to have the freedom
she craves is to actually be the person who holds all of the power.
So, in many ways, she’s still the confident, often defiant
girl we saw in episode one.
As rebellious as Rhaenyra is or was, she didn’t want it to come to war
– "When dragons flew to war, everything burned…I don’t wish
to rule over a kingdom of ash and bone."
– but soon realizes that it must.
With the show teeing up a bloody second season, we’ll
see just how far Rhaenyra will go to claim what’s rightfully hers.
“I thought I wanted it, but the burden is a heavy one.”