In the book Fire and Blood, Rhaenys Targaryen is one of Rhaenyra Targaryen’s most important allies, supporting her cousin-in-law in the succession to the throne. In the series there are many more layers of gray in this support, with decisions that cost both of them dearly, but especially Rhaenys (Eve Best).

Rhaenys Targaryen, known as Lady Rhaenys, is the wife of Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), the Sea Serpent, and mother of Laena and Laenor Velaryon. Called the queen that never was, she might have had the right to the Iron Throne but was passed over in the line of succession twice – once by her uncle, Baelon Targaryen, and then by her cousin, Viserys I (Paddy Considine), in favor of Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy). Just like in the book, in House of the Dragon, she ends up on the side of those close to her, but her trajectory brings a new reading to the story. One that could have changed the entire course of the saga.

There were no less than three Rhaenys Targaryens

If there is something that readers of the saga imagined by George R. R. Martin already know, it is that “Rhaenys” is a name for strong women in House Targaryen but with no future. There are four, all with tragic fates.

The first and ultra-fascinating one will be in the series Aegon’s Conquest because her first name is one of the sister-wives of Aegon I, rider of the dragon Meraxes and one of the original conquerors of the Seven Kingdoms. Her death will be one of the mysteries to be discovered in the series.

There was also the daughter of Rhaegar Targaryen and Elia Martell, little Rhaenys who was a child during the events of Robert’s Rebellion, which precedes Game of Thrones and who was brutally killed along with her brother Aegon, and her mother, Elia, at the hands of Ser Gregor Clegane, The Mountain, by order of Tywin Lannister (Charles Dance).

For now, let’s focus on Rhaenys, the Queen Who Never Was. Also known as “the Red Queen”, she is a key figure in the Dance of Dragons. Granddaughter of Jaehaerys I and Alysanne, and daughter of Prince Aemon and Lady Jocelyn Baratheon, she was passed over from the line of succession because she was a woman. She is the one we follow in House of the Dragon and we will talk more here.

The frustration of witnessing what could have been her life

In a devious way, Rhaenys paved Rhaenyra’s path and it is something that she tries to warn the young princess about, but is met with resistance from the girl.

Born with King Jaehaerys’s firstborn, Aemon, she was called the future queen by her grandmother and from a young age claimed Meleys and traveled the kingdom accompanying her grandfather. When she was just 16 she decided to marry Corlys Velaryon, with her family’s blessing. The union of love, equally political as the Velaryons also came from Valyria, produced a couple of children who both adored. Everything seemed right until it wasn’t.

Rhaenys’ father died before Jaehaerys and so the king had to decide the order of his succession. That’s because Rhaenys was a woman, so it wasn’t automatically obvious that she would be Queen after him. Instead of making it official, he named Baelon, Rhaenys’ uncle and Aemon’s younger brother, even though he knew that his granddaughter was pregnant and could have a son.

Rhaenys and Corlys revolted and returned to Driftmark in protest. The women were against Jaehaerys’ decision, both her mother, Lady Jocelyn Baratheon, her uncle, Lord Boremund Baratheon, and her grandmother, King Jaehaerys’ wife, Queen Alysanne Targaryen, but to no avail. Even more so since she gave birth to a girl, Laena Velaryon.

Fate gave Rhaenys another chance a few years later when Baelon died and King Jaehaerys called the first Great Council at Harrenhal to decide the question of succession. It’s the scene that opens House of the Dragon.

Fourteen claims were considered, including Rhaenys’ dual claim: for herself and for her unborn son, Laenor. Houses Baratheon, Stark, Dustin, and Manderly were also in favor of her, but she was rejected because she was a woman, everyone considered that Laenor – as a man – would end the drama, but Viserys, son of Baelon was chosen.

With all this, so many years later, Rhaenys once again saw history repeat itself when Viserys was suddenly widowed and without a male heir. However, unlike his grandfather, Viserys did not ask for society’s opinion or convene a Council: he announced his only daughter, Rhaenyra, as his successor.

In the book, they don’t clarify, but in the series, Rhaenys is a little jealous and worried. She had already lived and seen too much not to anticipate the outcome. She warned Rhaenyra, but her words were ignored. Men would never let a woman sit on the Iron Throne.

Practicality and cynicism: Rhaenys tried to do her part

Despite being passed over by Viserys, Rhaenys always liked her cousin (it is not clear what her relationship was like with Daemon (Matt Smith), who later became her son-in-law). She felt sad for him when Aemma Arryn (Sian Brooke) passed away, but as soon as the Small Council started demanding a new marriage from him, she and Corlys offered little Laena, only 12 years old at the time.

The proposal was more than indecent, given the girl’s age, but it shows how Rhaenys understood that love marriages were rare and not always possible. On the one hand, we can argue that Rhaenys had little involvement with the suggestion, but that she did not oppose it. On the other hand, there is an allusion in House of the Dragon that the marriage was more Corlys’ idea, out of ambition and resentment that Rhaenys had not been queen. There is a third possibility, that Viserys’s marriage to Laena would return to her heirs what was theirs from the beginning, as well as not making her an exception, as Rhaenyra suggests, of having been rejected not because she was a woman, but because they didn’t want it.

Unfortunately, Otto Hightower (Rhys Iphan) was faster and put Alicent (Olivia Cooke) in the way, creating a new impasse for the Velaryons and the line of succession. This was only resolved when Rhaenyra married Laenor, finally uniting the Valyrian houses and putting Rhaenys’ grandchildren on the path to the throne. Really?

Where the series was better than the book

Rhaenyra and her cousin Laenor’s relationship would always be complex because he was gay. The agreement was to try until they had a child, with each one living their own life separately, but something happened and although the book leaves the truth open, in the series it was revealed: the children were not Laenor’s, but Ser Harwin Strong’s (Ryan Corr).

Rhaenys therefore does not approach Rhaenyra, on the contrary, she feels that she is humiliating her son and is polite to everyone, without developing the same affection that she transmitted to her granddaughters, daughters of Laena and Daemon. This judgment on Rhaenyra determined many of the steps not made explicit in the book.

Everything gets worse when practically in the same week (in the book it is the same year), both Laena and Laenor die. In House of the Dragon, Daemon and Rhaenyra secretly helped Laenor elope with her lover, Ser Qarl Correy, but unaware of this, Rhaenys became angry at the couple.

When Viserys passes away, Rhaenys is in King’s Landing and is taken hostage by the Greens. This is because Alicent knows the fragility of the princess’ relationship with her daughter-in-law and tries to explore the conflicts to gain important support for Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney), without success.

A silence and the decision that will cost Rhaenys everything

Throughout her life, realistically and interestingly, Rhaenys is not fed with reasons or hopes that Rhaenyra will be a fair queen or that she is prepared. Her youthful arrogance and the fact that men would never let her reign make Rhaenys a consummate cynic.

Therefore, it is somewhat open whether she would side with the blacks or the greens. At the very least, she would be neutral, but fate forced her hand.

In the book, Rhaenys immediately supports Rhaenyra, helping her with attack strategy and participating in battles. In House of the Dragon, support is gained gradually. The most memorable moment was when Rhaenyra entered the Dragonpit to rescue Meleys and had the opportunity to kill in a single command not only Otto, Alicent, and Aegon, but Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) and Helaena (Phia Saban). In other words, it would put an end to the usurpers and there would be no civil war. Really?

Refusal to start the war, but support for the female heir

“That war wasn’t mine to begin,” is what Rhaenys argues when she is questioned in the series about the fatal MISTAKE. She didn’t mean to be a kinlsyaer, but the greens won’t reciprocate with thanks or care when it’s their turn to face her. The same Cole, Aegon, and Aemond will shamelessly take her life, inducing her to fall into a bloody trap in the battle of Rooks Rest. It would have been better and less bloody to end the coup when it had barely begun.

It’s okay that, at that moment, Rhaenys was still trying to understand who she would support. Rhaenyra was not his favorite at all: she had support for the succession that was denied to her twice, she was arrogant, she seemed irresponsible, she had given her son’s family name to the bastards she fathered with her lover, she was clearly involved in the death of Laenor, married Daemon immediately after Laena’s death and was insecure as regent. Somehow, Rhaenyra’s attitudes seemed to reinforce every sexist prejudice against women as regents. You can understand how she hesitated in deciding.

However, her legitimate granddaughters – daughters of Daemon and Laenor – adore Rhaenyra and are betrothed to the princess’s children, in theory, her cousins. Once again destiny seems to suggest correcting the succession deviation: Rhaenyra’s children (in theory) will be her heirs and once married to Rhaenys’ granddaughters, even though they are partially Strong, they are Targaryens enough to have their blood in the iron Throne. But as we know, it wasn’t meant to be.

Worst of all, Rhaenys’ death will cause a rift between Corlys and Rhaenyra, one that they overcome without conviction and that, in some way, will define the Targaryens Saga. This is because the seed of discord will be planted.

Today Corlys, who refused to see that her son was gay, embraces her bastard grandchildren, supporting Rhaenyra in the dangerous farce, one that provokes even more anger among the Greens. With the death of her grandchildren, and without Rhaenyra or Daemon, Corlys is losing her connection with the black queen. His paranoia and, especially, his passionate decisions will end up putting his former allies on opposite sides. And the most memorable scene from the first season will come back to haunt us. Why didn’t the war end before it started?

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