Princess Helaena Targaryen was born with a destiny set for her: thanks to family tradition, her role was to marry one of her brothers – Aegon or Aemond – and have children. Shy, more comfortable collecting insects and observing people than interacting socially, her time in House of the Dragon promises to be one of the most traumatic and tragic in the entire series. And look, we already have a penalty for her in advance.

Played by actresses Evie Allen (as a child) and Phia Saban (as an adult), Helaena has a distant, strict, and complicated mother like Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), a father – Viserys (Paddy Considine) who clearly prefers her firstborn, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), who in turn is a sister he doesn’t live with, an ambitious grandfather (Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans)) as well as two violent and jealous brothers, Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney), Aemond (Ewan Mitchell ) and Daeron (who we are yet to meet). Helaena’s calm and discreet soul will be destroyed as a guarantee of these people’s conflicts, irreversibly. We feel very sorry for Helaena.

It was to be imagined that because she was an orphan because she knew that women were not necessarily in the line of succession (Rhaenyra was an exception), it was expected that Alicent would be a careful and affectionate mother with her only female daughter. From what we saw in the series, practically the effect was the opposite. Among the matriarchs of Westeros, Helaena’s trajectory places her in a position of pain and victim, with no chance of reversing her destiny. She is the protagonist of one of the most horrifying nights of the Dance of the Dragons which, based on the episode titles, should take place between the first and second episode.

Born after Aegon II, Helaena always seems to live in a world of her own, interacting a little with Alicent or her future husband, but, apparently, close to Aemond. No book is described as overweight, but in the series, she is an attractive, affectionate, and obedient girl. It’s a shame we haven’t seen it in greater detail until now.

When she came into the world, her mother Alicent was already Rhaenyra’s declared enemy, so in addition to the large age difference between them, Helaena barely got along with her half-sister. Close to her nephew’s age, she rides the dragon Dreamfyre and likes to dance. Although her mother disliked the Targaryen habit of maintaining the bloodline by intermarrying, at the direction of Otto Hightower, as soon as possible, Helaena was married to Aegon, much to their mutual disgust. House of the Dragon made strong allusions in the first season that there is something more between her and Aemond, who would like to do everything Aegon complained about.

Aegon, as we know, has been a comforter since birth: a sexual predator, he also likes to see his bastard children fighting like dogs in King’s Landing (literally), but he fulfills his role as a husband and fathers three children with his sister: the twins Jaehaerys and Jaehaera and the boy Maelor. In this oppressive universe, like her sister Rhaenyra, Helaena reveals herself to be an excellent mother, caring lovingly and personally for her children, remaining oblivious to her family’s political dispute. If only it were possible!

From what we could tell, there was no connection between Alicent and Viserys’ four children with Rhaenyra, Daemon (Matt Smith), and their children, but Helaena seemed affectionate with her nephews. In a provocation to her uncle, Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collet), a dancing acquaintance, she generated even more jealousy in Aemond than Aegon. At what would become Viserys’s farewell dinner alive, the family would be complete and in apparent peace in the same environment for the last time. From then on, it will be one less with thousands of other people paying with their lives for the Targaryens’ conflicts.

In the coup d’état led by Alicent and Otto, Aegon II is crowned in Rhaenyra’s place, which made Helaena the Queen of the Greens, replacing her own mother in the position. In theory, by not getting involved in the fight, she would be “safe”, even if her children would always be a risk if seen as heirs, but what accelerates the danger is precisely Aemond’s mistake, who tied Lucerys Velaryon (Elliot Grihault ) with Vaghar, killing his nephew by not controlling the dragon. Apparently, Aemond just wanted to upset the uncle whose eye you took years before, that’s for sure. The fact is that Vaghar’s attack was not carried out on his command, but it made a civil war between Targaryens irreversible.

Season two will pick up immediately after Lucerys’ unexpected death, with a devastated Rhaneyra. We still don’t know how Daemon broke the news, but, from what we know from the book, History will tell that Aemond chased his nephew and deliberately sent Vaghar to attack him, and she swallowed him whole and his body will never be found.

We saw in the trailer that Rhaenyra will search for her son’s remains, as well as it was in the book: neither Otto nor Alicent will like receiving the news. War was something they wanted to avoid and they were negotiating with the official heir that it was better to leave things as they were with Aegon II on the Iron Throne. Now there is nothing left to negotiate as Rhaenyra has two strong reasons for wanting everyone dead. And that’s when even a peaceful Helaena is dredged into the arena of blood. With an extra aggravating factor.

In addition to attacking Rhaenyra for the heart, and killing her favorite son, the greens also made a dangerous enemy in Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno). Daemon’s ex-lover, she was Otto’s informant, but at the greens’ command her house was set on fire and for now, she was presumed dead. This is because Mysaria came to hide a confused Aegon, who feared the moment of being king and displeased the Greens by demanding things for the people of Westeros. If she was neutral in the fight, now she is more than ever united with the blacks and will be essential to the tragedy that will mark the season.

“A Son for a Son“, Daemon’s phrase is even the title of the premiere episode and does not need further clarification. But this means that Helaena, who had NOTHING to do with ANY of what happened, will be the mother who pays the bill. And in the worst possible way. Returning to the theories circulating the Internet, the charge is not so much on Aegon II, but on Aemond, with suspicion of the children’s paternity always haunting the imagination of fans.

Returning to what we “know”: the news of Lucerys’ death will turn the conflict into a bloody war. Only Aemond knows it was accidental, no one would believe it even if he swore on everything in life. Therefore, the blacks believe that the decision to kill him was deliberate and therefore justifies the counterattack. While Otto and Alicent bet that Aegon and Aemond are the ones at risk, the truth is that Daemon, with the help of Mysaria, goes to the hearts of the greens, literally repaying the death of a son.

And how will they achieve it?

In the book, Helaena is a woman of habit. Every night she visits her mother, Alicent, with the children. Mysaria, who has an enviable network of informants – and access via secret passages – creates a traumatic trap for everyone. Yes, we are talking about Cheese and Blood.

In the book, Helaena is more active as Queen, extremely popular among her subjects, and hoping that the conflict will have a peaceful resolution. It is uncertain whether she believes in her husband’s right to the throne, but she is obedient and connected to the Greens.

That night after Lucerys’ death, Helaena and her three children continue the habit of nocturnal visits to Alicent, without suspecting that Daemon Targaryen hired two men to avenge his stepson. Blood and Cheese, hidden in Alicent’s chambers, tie and gag the queen mother awaiting the visitors, who act as hostages. Helaena is then forced to choose which of her children should die.

Desperate, she offers her life but they force her to make a decision when Blood threatens to rape little Jaehaera and kill all three of her children. In tears and reluctantly, she elects her youngest son, Maelor, who hoped he didn’t understand what was happening. But it is Prince Jaehaerys who is murdered, losing his head with a single sword blow. The men flee with her as Helaena screams hysterically.

Without a doubt, after Jaehaerys’ death, Helaena was never the same. Depressed and feeling guilty about having chosen Maelor, she gradually “went crazy”. Traumatized, she ends up being locked in her room, without eating or even taking a shower. Little did she know that something almost as bad would come with time.

Her marriage to Aegon was practically a facade since Maelor was born (let’s remember those who think her father is Aemond) and she and her husband were already living separate lives. When he returns seriously injured in the Battle of Rook’s Rest, Helaena doesn’t even try to visit him. Without leaving her quarters, she never rode Dreamfyre again and when the blacks finally take King’s Landing, she is easily captured by her sister.

Kept ‘trapped’ in their quarters, the greens try to ‘save’ Helaena’s children, but Maelor is discovered and killed by the crowd, with his head being sent to Rhaenyra as a gift. Shocked and shaken, she is devastated. I mean, that’s one narrative, the other is that at this point she already hates green people so much that she smiles. Others say that Helaena received her youngest son’s head in a chamber pot, as a ‘gift’. This does not conclude another mystery. Then, the body of the green queen was found impaled, on the stakes that protected the tower where her room was located. Did she jump? Was she played? We don’t know, it depends on who counts. But the tragic death of Helaena, aged just 21, shocked Westeros and took away any sympathy Rhaenyra might have had. And Alicent, also a prisoner, tore her clothes and cursed Rhaenyra when she learned of her only daughter’s death.

There are more sadistic rumors behind Helaena’s death, as well as having violently lost her two children. Some believe that she was thrown from the Tower where she was imprisoned, others have heard the version that she was sold into prostitution by Rhaenyra and Mysaria, got pregnant, and decided to kill herself for it. But the most likely is the one that reports Mysaria as the last straw. Rhaenyra’s Master of Sighs would have been the person who recounted Maelor’s death in detail.

In any case, at just 21 years old, Helaena will be another casualty of the war between brothers. The people will turn against Rhaenyra, but for Alicent, who will lose her father, her brothers, and two of her three children, it is impossible to accept when much later her granddaughter, Jaehaera, is forced into marriage with Aegon III, son of Daemon and Rhaenyra. Well, the Targaryens challenge the meaning of a dysfunctional family. And the Crown of Tears? Well, she only has one Queen, the poor and tragic Helaena. Can you imagine how we will suffer in the second season?

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