Anyone who watched “Game of Thrones” during its heyday probably knew what to expect from its prequel and first spin-off, “House of the Dragon” — namely, that there would be plenty of bloodshed, and fans would be forced to watch beloved characters meet grisly (and perhaps undeservingly cruel) deaths on-screen. During the show’s first three seasons, a number of major characters have endured horrible fates — so what about Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy), often called “The Realm’s Delight” and “The Half-Year Queen?” In the show’s timeline, Rhaenyra is still alive (whether she’s alive and well is its own discussion), but fans know from George R.R. Martin’s Targaryen family history “Fire and Blood” that she’ll fall at some point in the narrative.

In Season 3 of “Game of Thrones,” the awful boy king Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson) gleefully tells his bride-to-be Margaery Targaryen (Natalie Dormer) that the once-powerful dragon queen was killed by her own sibling. “Rhaenyra Targaryen was murdered by her brother, or rather, his dragon,” Joffrey says with undisguised, naked joy. “It ate her while her son watched. What’s left of her is buried in the crypts right down there.” When it comes to the broad strokes of Rhaenyra’s death, Joffrey is definitely correct, but there’s also a lot more at play here — so here’s everything you need to know about Rhaenyra, why her death is so brutal, and why it changes the trajectory of the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons.

Who is Rhaenyra in House of the Dragon?

In the very first season, audiences meet Rhaenyra Targaryen while she’s still a princess and the heir apparent to King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine), who doesn’t have any sons — as a teenager, she’s played by Milly Alcock — and when Viserys officially names Rhaenyra as his heir, it sends shockwaves through the Seven Kingdoms. Unfortunately for Rhaenyra, when her father dies of old age, her best friend and confidante turned stepmother and mortal enemy Queen Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey as a teen and Olivia Cooke as an adult), who married Viserys at the behest of her powerful father Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), claims that Viserys’ dying wish is that their son Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) take the throne.

This is all to say that the issue of Viserys’ successor — Rhaenyra versus Aegon II (and Alicent) — becomes the central conflict of the Dance of the Dragons, leading to multiple bloody battles and deaths. At the end of Season 1 of “House of the Dragon,” Alicent and Rhaenyra’s second-eldest sons, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and Lucerys (Elliot Grihault) get into a battle atop their dragons, only for Aemond’s cartoonishly outsized and ancient dragon Vhagar to destroy and kill both Lucerys and his smaller, younger dragon Arrax in midair.

This obviously sends Rhaenyra into a grievous rage, leading her husband-uncle Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) to order Aemond’s death; between Daemon’s unclear instructions and the fact that his assassins are bumbling idiots, Aemond doesn’t die, but his nephew, the young Prince Jaehaerys — son of Aegon II and his sister-wife Queen Helaena (Phia Saban) — is brutally murdered instead. Throughout Season 2, Rhaenyra and Alicent’s sons are all placed into seriously dire situations and the season ends with Rhaenyra demanding Aegon’s death. Unfortunately for the queen, that does not pan out.

Who kills Rhaenyra and how does she die?

After Rhaenyra takes King’s Landing for herself in the book, she remains queen for a little while, but Aegon II’s and Alicent’s forces ultimately force her out of the capital city of Westeros. According to George R.R. Martin’s book, with her defeat in sight, Rhaenyra becomes despondent.

Long and bloody battles ensue, so the long and short of it is that Aegon, anticipating her travels, is waiting for Rhaenyra at Dragonstone (at this point, she also discovers that Ser Alfred Broome, played by Jamie Kenna, has betrayed her in favor of Aegon.” Despite the fact that Aegon never fully physically recovers from the battle at Rook’s Rest — in “Fire and Blood,” he’s described as “bent and twisted, his once-handsome features had grown puffy from milk of the poppy [with] burn scars [covering] half his body” — he still gets his revenge on his half-sister by feeding her to his dragon Sunfyre.

Though Martin writes that Sunfrye “did not seem at first to take any interest in the offering,” the tide turns quickly for Rhaenyra. “The smell of blood roused the dragon, who sniffed at Her Grace, then bathed her in a blast of flame […] Rhaenyra Targaryen had time to raise her head toward the sky and shriek out one last curse upon her half-brother before Sunfyre’s jaws closed round her, tearing off her arm and shoulder. Septon Eustace tells us that the golden dragon devoured the queen in six bites, leaving only her left leg below the shin.”

Why Rhaenyra’s death is such a game changer

In the aftermath of Rhaenyra’s death, things calm down a tiny bit in that Aegon II becomes the uncontested heir to the Iron Throne, but there is still plenty of infighting.

What basically happens is that a sickly, weak Aegon II, surrounded by bitter enemies even after killing Rhaenyra, is relatively oblivious to the ongoing strife — something that works in favor of his namesake, Aegon, Rhaenyra’s surviving son. Armies march on Aegon II and demand that he kneel to the younger Aegon, but he and Alicent refuse; after Aegon II attends a meeting with his small council, he enters his royal litter and drinks some of his favorite wine, a sweet Arbor red. Upon the king’s arrival at the sept, his men tried to wake him, only to discover the king was dead.

The book then says that while there are plenty of suspects regarding Aegon II’s murder, it all seems to trace back to the conniving Ser Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), once an ally of Aegon II and Alicent. “Thus perished Aegon of House Targaryen, the Second of His Name, firstborn son of King Viserys I Targaryen and Queen Alicent of House Hightower, whose reign proved as brief as it was bitter,” the book reads. “He had lived four-and-twenty years and reigned for two.”

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