I Can't Possibly Be Wrong All the Time

HBO’s House of the Dragon will be returning this Summer, and with it return the complicated relationships between its major players. Complicated Relationships is an illustrative phrase when describing Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen’s role in the show.

Rhaenyra: That’s Queen Rhaenyra, actually.
Me: I regret my error.

The entire Princess vs Queen dynamic in regards to the proper title for Rhaenyra is the core of her relationship problem with the various lords of Westeros. For years, the princess Rhaenyra had been the Realm’s Delight. Her place in feudal society was well-understood by the noble vassals of her father, King Viserys. As princess, she had a role to play in regards to political marriages; at some point, an ambitious lord might be able to bring the princess via marriage into his household, tying his fortunes with the powerful ruling family.

It’s not necessarily correct to frame this in a particularly romantic light, but in a sense the lords of Westeros (or rather, their eligible sons) were potential suitors for the princess. The kind of stuff that singers might get paid to compose some good lyrical propaganda about.

This changed when political circumstances (and Targaryen family in-fighting over the king’s brother Daemon being the worst) motivated King Viserys to organize a debutante ball for the princess – as his designated heir to succeed him in wearing the crown. The princess was now on track to become Queen, and any marriages would usher a husband into the subordinate position of Royal Consort. Still good, but not what the lords had expected.

This was the reality that the lords of Westeros embraced when swearing fealty and oaths to their future queen. But, in the back corners of their ambitious concerns, they continued to believe that the king would one day replace his princess daughter with a princely son as designated heir, and Rhaenyra would once again be a princess-to-be-wooed.

This “oh, you’re really just a princess” attitude was evident in the 3rd episode of the first season – when King Viserys called for an extravagant royal hunt to celebrate his toddler son Aegon’s second birthday. Aegon was not his declared heir, but some of the lords of the court certainly acted as if the little lad was.

Lord Jason Lannister rolled on up to Rhaenyra with an implied proposal that she should settle down with him as wife at Casterly Rock, far from the center of power known as King’s Landing. Maybe he’d even be extra-cool and build his little sweet spouse a dragonpit or something.

This was not an appealing proposition to Rhaenyra, which led to some strong words between her and her father and a night away from camp. Off in the woods, Rhaenyra shared her concerns with her Kingsguard and escort, the dashing Ser Criston Cole.

Rhaenyra: Tell me something, Ser Criston. Do you think the realm will ever accept me as their Queen?
Ser Criston: They’ll have no choice but to, Princess.

A somewhat non-committal answer to a serious question about how succession might play out from Ser Criston, who probably hadn’t given it much prior thought, the big himbo.

The matter of Rhaenyra being a marriage prospect was eventually settled, after an unsuccessful series of Westerosi-speed-dating. King Viserys brokered a political marriage between Princess Rhaenyra and Ser Laenor Velaryon, the son of the powerful and rich Corlys Velaryon.

From a personal relationship point of view, this was fine – Rhaenyra didn’t find Laenor objectionable, even if he was more interested in an intimate relationship with his military colleague Ser Joffrey Lonmouth than with Rhaenyra. But Laenor’s sexual preferences were going to become a political problem for Rhaenyra though, in regards to her relationship with the lords of Westeros.

When Viserys broke down the necessity for Rhaenyra to get married – he reinforced the importance of her producing an heir so her line would be secure. In part, this was to cement her relationship with the lords of the Realm.

Now that she was no longer available as a means for the random non-Velaryon lord to tie his destiny to the Iron Throne by marriage, in the eventual circumstance that Rhaenyra would have a son (lets simplify the succession talk and not consider if she just had daughters – because she didn’t) then there would be a new opportunity for some noble’s daughter to become queen and produce Targaryen sons.

Queen Alicent: Just like I did?
Me: I’m saving a blog post for you later, Your Grace.
Queen Alicent: Hmmmph.

The question of succession and daughters never came up, as I said, but the first three sons given birth by Rhaenyra were not Laenor’s children, but the offspring with her lover, Ser Harwin Strong.

Sometimes, royal bastards stay under the radar –

Robert Baratheon: Hah, how embarrassing for them!

– but Rhaenyra’s kids really didn’t look like Laenor, at all.

Robert Baratheon: Look, it just happens sometimes.
Cersei Baratheon: Everyone knows this.
Jaime Lannister: It’s just science. Like pyromancy or leeching.

But now, the relationship that Rhaenyra might have with the individual lord largely depended on how they felt about the legitimacy of the children. Or what they could stand to gain, rather than following the oaths sworn when Viserys first declared Rhaenyra his heir.

Things didn’t quite improve when Rhaenyra remarried after the tragic death of her first husband, Ser Laenor. (Spoiler: Laenor faked his death – good for him!) The children that came forth from her second marriage were undeniably legitimate (at least, no one was questioning this) but the new husband was her uncle Prince Daemon Targaryen, that figure so politically controversial that King Viserys set aside male -oriented tradition to declare Rhaenyra the designated heir, over Daemon’s default heir status. The lords’ political relationship with Rhaenyra now included Daemon.

Prince Daemon: You are all cursed with me.

And although Rhaenyra and Daemon’s children Aegon and Viserys would have a higher claim than Alicent’s Aegon, they technically fell behind Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey – the first three of dubious parentage.

This led to ambitious Vaemond Velaryon’s challenge to the succession for the Velaryon seat of Driftmark, asserting that no VINOs (Velaryons-In-Name-Only) should be allowed to take Corlys Velaryon’s place. Vaemond risked all in calling out the questionable situation of Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey as Velaryons. Risked all and lost big.

Daemon Targaryen: He did keep his tongue, though.

With Viserys dying in his sleep while Rhaenyra and her closest supporters were away from King’s Landing, the lords with the weakest ties to Rhaenyra and the most to gain by supporting her half-brother Aegon staged a quiet coup, hoping to shore up their position before Rhaenyra could act.

Otto Hightower: Nobody invite Rhaenyra to Aegon’s coronation.

But word got out.

On learning of Viserys’ death, Rhaenyra overestimated her expected support from previous sworn vassals, like from House Baratheon. She sent her son Lucerys as an envoy to Storm’s End, but Lord Borros Baratheon was not moved by the entreaty to uphold the oath that his father Boremund had sworn, an oath recognizing Rhaenyra as his Queen.

Borros, to his credit (or perhaps as a testament to his ambition) ignored the question of Lucerys’ parentage by inquiring if the support of House Baratheon could be assured with a political marriage between Lucerys and one of Borros’ daughters. This was the potential relationship that Rhaenyra now had with this particular lord. The oaths of the previous generation were lesser in contrast to the opportunity of political gain.

Tragedy and violence soon followed and things got out of hand with volatile Aemond Targaryen also at Lord Borros’ court.

This was the reality of Rhaenyra’s political relationships with the lords of Westeros. Some might hold fast to their oaths but some might seek advantage elsewhere – which would force them to choose to oppose Rhaenyra’s claim. Assumed friends become declared foes.

This was all political, but must have felt personal to the newly self-declared queen since it echoed a previous relationship that had shattered between younger Rhaenyra and someone she’d been intimately close to. A time when things went sour, and worse than sour, between her and her Kingsguard knight, Ser Criston Cole.

Ser Criston can be viewed as the representative of the worst reaction to Rhaenyra, the most extreme reaction.

Once upon a time, Ser Criston and Rhaenyra had a good situation. A good professional relationship. He was a Kingsguard, sworn to protect the royal family. She was a princess and his duty included keeping her safe.

Things got complicated, when a sexually-frustrated Rhaenyra, disappointed at her uncle’s inexplicable vey-hot-and-then-very-cold attention, engaged in a forbidden workplace romance with the knight. As a Kingsguard sworn to chastity, he was duty-bound to avoid this situation. But he did not.

And then came the emotional consequences of Rhaenyra being betrothed to Ser Laenor. Ser Criston, abandoning all perspective, suggested that instead of his princess entering into an arranged marriage with the young Velaryon, that the princess simply run off with her devoted knight to Essos and live off of love.

Ser Jorah Mormont: I’m not born yet, but if I could go back in time, I’d counsel Cole on what would likely happen. Nothing satisfying.
Ser Criston: Sorry, I can’t take advice from not-yet-born creepers. Besides, this is the sort of stuff that singers would love to sing about.
Me: I did mention singers being paid to write lyrical propaganda about princesses and suitors.
Ser Criston: Paid with the inspiration of our love!

Rhaenyra had a counter-offer, one that she’d expected Criston to see the wisdom of. Laenor had his own clandestine relationship with his favorite, Ser Joffrey Lonmouth. The marriage wouldn’t change that through the to-be-married couple’s mutual consent, and Rhaenyra thought that she could continue her own intimate relationship with her Kingsguard. As Joffrey suggested to Laenor, this could work out perfectly.

Except, that’s not what Cole wanted. And he reacted poorly.

First, he got sulky, which is not a good look.

Second, he confessed to sleeping with Rhaenyra to her step-mother Queen Alicent, who was asking Ser Criston about a totally unrelated affair. (Okay, not 100% unrelated, but also not a thing Cole needed to confess too.)

And finally, perhaps most awkwardly, Ser Criston freaked out during the engagement party celebrating Princess Rhaenyra and Ser Laenor’s upcoming wedding, and straight-up murdered Ser Joffrey Lonmouth. Murdered him extremely dead.

Ser Joffrey: And I really thought that he and I could be best buds. Each other’s wingmen. What the hell?

Needless to say, none of that was Rhaenyra’s fault. (Other than her getting involved with Cole in the first place, but that doesn’t get Ser Criston off the hook.)

Ser Criston’s volatile emotional state (not to mention his eagerness-to-confess tendency) was completely unexpected – and counter to her experience with and expectation of Cole. He was her Kingsguard and he had a duty to protect her. None of his reaction was remotely protecting her, on the contrary it was harming to her. It’s as if that his romantic unrealistic expectation was so ingrained into his being, that he could only react supremely negatively when that expectation went challenged or unfulfilled.

Likewise, across the realm, with the news that King Viserys had died and his son Aegon had been crowned king in the Dragonpit (a ceremony thrown into some chaos with the unexpected emergence and flight of Rhaenys Velaryon on dragonback) the ties that the lords of Westeros had to their Targaryen overlords were now tested, based on the strength of those existing ties, ties to their now dead king, to the oaths they’d sworn, to their feelings of the legitimacy of Rhaenyra’s heirs in comparison to Aegon the Elder and the bitter taste that Daemon brought to the equation.

It might be a cliche to quote Cersei Lannister’s “when you play the Game of Thrones” (hey, that’s the name of the first series) “you live or you die, there is no middle ground” – it might be cliche but it does provide a good framework for imagining the situation Rhaenyra is facing as a game of chance. If one is to play, one must take risks, and see what numbers come up.

Let’s reconsider the question young Rhaenyra asked her escort during little Aegon’s celebratory royal hunt, and his answer –

Rhaenyra: Tell me something, Ser Criston. Do you think the realm will ever accept me as their Queen?
Ser Criston: They’ll have no choice but to, Princess.

Cole was wrong, of course. The lords did have a choice, and Rhaenyra had to consider that now. Would a lord be agreeable to her claim, the way Joffrey Lonmouth was amenable to his lover Laenor getting married to the princess, or would they react negatively to her, like her squeeze Ser Criston did when she rejected his flight-of-fancy and had other expectations? It’s a gamble that she doesn’t have control of.

Perhaps the wheel Daenerys wants to break is a metaphorical roulette wheel. Roulette wheels traditionally are Red and Black, but for Rhaenyra’s gamble on how the lords of the realm will bet, the only colors that matter are Green and Black.

Ser Criston Cole: For the record, I’m betting on Green.
Me: We know, Cole. We know.

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(Thanks to everyone who read this. Years ago, I’d crank out a blog post about Game of Thrones every one or two weeks. That was a crazy amount of work. I’m easing back into Westeros Blogging or whatever by trying to get one out every month until the show starts up. I don’t think I’ll have anything particularly insightful to say, but I hope you enjoyed reading my lack of insights.

Comments are always welcome. Super welcome! But if you want to talk spoilery Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon talk with me (also welcome – I’ve read Fire and Blood, to be clear) I’d invite you to visit my Safe Spoilers page on my backup blog. That way my non-book-reading friends won’t be shocked with foreknowledge.)

Images from HBO’s HOUSE OF THE DRAGON. I make no claims to the artwork, but some claims to the text here. So there.

If you liked this article, thank you! I have all of my Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon related articles on my handy-dandy Game of Thrones page should you want to read more but don’t want to navigate around my site.

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