House of the Dragon is trying to take the pain of its women seriously
House of The Dragonopens with a scene of contested succession. In the year 101 AC, 182 years before the birth of Daenerys Targaryen, King Jaehaerys I calls the lords of Westeros to King’s Landing to witness him officially announce his successor. Both his son and his brother have died, leaving the dynasty without an all-important male heir. And rather than appoint the obvious next in line — his granddaughter Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best), only child of the king’s oldest child — as queen, Jaehaerys chooses the son of his second son, Viserys (Paddy Considine), to rule. It’s a decision that sets the tone for not only the premiere episode of HBO’s Game of Thronesprequel, but for the fate of the entire Targaryen dynasty.
Dubbed “The Queen who Never Was,” Rhaenys accepts her fate gracefully enough. Fast-forward nine years, and we meet three more women whose existences are defined in relation to men, whether they be fathers, husbands, or sons. Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock, in this first episode) is the king’s oldest — and, for the moment, only — child, who’s always felt as if she disappointed her father simply by being born female. She does not particularly enjoy the courtly lifestyle, and dreams of riding to glory in battle on the back of her dragon. That doesn’t matter, however, because power is very gendered in Westeros.
As Rhaenyra’s mother, Lady Aemma Arryn (Sian Brooke) tells Rhaenyra early on in the episode, “the childbed is our battlefield.” Aemma’s — and therefore her daughter’s — power lies in her capacity to get pregnant and bear a male heir. Nothing else matters. But, as Aemma tells her husband shortly before she goes to labor, “this will be the last one.” She’s suffered through multiple stillbirths and
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