Why is Daenerys Targaryen one of the most important characters in the ‘House of the Dragon’ series?
© HBO
Years after the controversial epilogue of Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones, her legacy continues to be felt in the world created by George R.R. Martin. Even without being openly mentioned, she is still the reference Targaryen for all the Chronicles of Ice and Fire, a central figure in this third season of the prequel.
House of the Dragon Season 3 confirms this with the second episode, which, although set about 170 years before the birth of the Mother of Dragons, constantly evokes the symbolic weight that her character has assumed in the history of the Targaryens. And in the very sense of war itself.
Attention: from here on, there are spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 2, titled Queen’s Landing.
House of the Dragon 3, Daenerys leads the Targaryen prophecy
Since the series debut, House of the Dragon has used Aegon the Conqueror‘s prophecy as the secret engine (not for us viewers) of the story. The Targaryen king’s dream speaks of a terrible winter, a threat from the North, and a kingdom to be protected before it falls into darkness. In other words, the danger of the Others has always loomed over the fate of Westeros.
In the third season, however, the bond becomes even more explicit. After Daemon’s vision in the season finale of the previous season, the image of a silver-haired girl in a distant desert, with newly hatched dragons beside her, weighs heavily on the protagonists’ choices once again. Daemon does not know Daenerys; he cannot know who she is, and he will die long before her birth. Yet he describes her to Rhaenyra almost without leaving any doubts.
The point is not just the nostalgic reference to Game of Thrones. The HBO series uses Daenerys as a narrative reference point, as a symbol of what the Targaryens believe they must be: conquerors, saviors, heirs to a destiny greater than their own ambition. And this idea, both dangerous and fascinating, bounces directly onto Rhaenyra.
Rhaenyra succeeds where Daenerys has failed
The episode takes a decisive turn when Rhaenyra makes a move that Daenerys had failed to turn into a political victory: take King’s Landing without reducing it to ashes. The contested queen finally arrives at the Iron Throne and inaugurates a new phase of the civil war among the Targaryens.
It’s a very powerful moment also because it plays with the longtime viewer’s memory (and feelings). Daenerys had reached the Red Keep only at the end of her journey, now overwhelmed by fury and destruction. Rhaenyra, on the other hand, arrives there when her story is still in the midst of conflict and has yet to be written.
House of the Dragon therefore seems to construct a dialog at a distance between two women separated by centuries but united by the same burden: the blood, the power, the right to the throne, and the idea of being necessary to the future of the kingdom. Rhaenyra fights for what she considers hers. Daenerys will do the same much later. In between, there are generations of Targaryens, wars, betrayals, and dragons destined to disappear and then be reborn.
But Daenerys is not just used as a quote for the fans; she has weight in the course of events. Her indirect presence pushes Daemon and Rhaenyra to act once and for all, transforming a distant vision into a concrete force in the present.
So it’s true, Daenerys of House Targaryen – “Stormborn, the First of Her Name, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar, and the First Men, Lady of the Seven Kingdoms, Protector of the Realm, Princess of Dragonstone, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Mother of Dragons, Queen of Meereen, and Breaker of Chains” – never sits on the Iron Throne, but her projection continues to influence everything that happens around that throne.
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