Helaena Targaryen

Helaena Targaryen
Biographical information
Born	115 AC (age 17)
Political information
House(s)	Targaryen
Affiliation(s)	Greens
Title(s)	Princess Queen Consort (disputed)
Personal information
Culture	Valyrian
Father	{Viserys I Targaryen}
Mother	Alicent Hightower
Spouse(s)	Aegon II Targaryen
Issue	{Jaehaerys Targaryen} Jaehaera Targaryen
Sibling(s)	Aegon II Targaryen Aemond Targaryen Daeron Targaryen Half-siblings: Rhaenyra Targaryen {Baelon Targaryen}
World of Westeros
Series	House of the Dragon
Season(s)	1 · 2 · 3
Appeared in	12 episodes (see below)
First seen in	"King of the Narrow Sea"
Portrayed by	Phia Saban Evie Allen (child) Ziggy Barker (infant) Marliya Ralphie (infant)

"The queen is an enduring mystery, is she not?"

―Aegon II Targaryen

Queen Helaena Targaryen is the daughter of King Viserys I Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, and the sister-wife of King Aegon II Targaryen. She is the rider of the dragon Dreamfyre.

Biography

Background

Helaena is the only daughter of King Viserys I and his second wife, Queen Alicent. She has three full brothers, Aegon, Aemond, and Daeron, and one half-sister, Rhaenyra.

House of the Dragon: Season 1

Helaena's mother has trouble soothing her as an infant. Whenever Alicent is seen holding her, Helaena constantly cries.

Ten years later, Helaena examines a millipede as her mother sits beside her, listing facts about the creature. Her brother Aemond is then brought in after being retrieved from the Dragonpit. As Alicent interrogates him, Helaena quietly says to herself that the last ring on the millipede has no legs at all. When she hears her mother tell Aemond that he will have a dragon one day, Helaena states that he will have to close an eye.

Later, during a Small Council meeting, Rhaenyra proposes a marriage between her eldest son Jacaerys Velaryon and Helaena as a way of bridging the gap between two branches of House Targaryen. While Viserys seems interested in the idea, Alicent furiously refuses it when he brings it up after the meeting.

During Laena Velaryon's funeral, Aegon and Aemond discuss the former's betrothal to Helaena as she studies a spider and mutters cryptically about flesh dragons weaving thread dragons of black and green, and then proceeds to crush the spider with a seashell. Aegon laments their betrothal, considering her an idiot, while Aemond states that he would do his duty if he were betrothed to her.

Later, Helaena flies back to King's Landing on her dragon Dreamfyre.

Six years later, Helaena and Aegon are married and have two children together: Jaehaerys and Jaehaera.

Helaena walks in on a conversation between Alicent and Aegon, asking where their household servant Dyana is as she is supposed to dress the children, unaware that Dyana has just been raped by Aegon. Alicent hugs Helaena afterwards.

A disinterested Helaena hears the petitions of Vaemond Velaryon and Rhaenyra on behalf of her son Lucerys Velaryon over the succession to Driftmark. When her father enters the throne room to defend Rhaenyra, Helaena smiles. Moments later, she covers her ears in shock as her uncle Daemon beheads Vaemond after he calls out the bastardy of Rhaenyra's children.

Helaena has dinner with her family that night. Following Rhaenyra's, Alicent's, and Jacaerys's toasts, Helaena cryptically mutters to beware the "beast beneath the boards" under her breath before making her own toast to her cousins Baela and Rhaena, who have been betrothed to Jacaerys and Lucerys. She tells them that marriage "isn't so bad," and makes a jape at Aegon, saying that the husband mostly ignores the wife except for when he's drunk, which elicits laughter from Daemon and praise from Otto.

After the musicians start playing, Jace asks Helaena for a dance, which she happily accepts. The happy dance is interrupted by Aemond smashing his fist on the table to make his own toast, calling his nephews "Strong." Helaena almost claps, not understanding that the comment refers to Jace's rumored father, the deceased Harwin Strong, but stops herself when Jace takes offense.

After Viserys's death, Alicent goes to Helaena to learn of Aegon's whereabouts, though Helaena is not of much help to her, again telling her that "there is a beast beneath the boards," this time with increased urgency. She later attends Aegon's coronation at the Dragonpit. When Rhaenys Targaryen bursts through the floor on her dragon Meleys, Alicent orders Ser Criston Cole to escort Helaena to safety.

House of the Dragon: Season 2

Heleana is with her daughter Jaehaera when Aegon arrives in her chambers, looking for Jaehaerys. Helaena is hesitant at first, but eventually tells him that he's in the library. Before Aegon leaves, Helaena tells him that she is afraid. Aegon reassures her that she has nothing to fear, but she says that she's instead afraid of "the rats." Baffled, Aegon simply jokes that the queen is an "enduring mystery" before leaving.

That night, Helaena is putting her children to bed when two men attack her in her chambers, demanding "a son for a son." Helaena tries to bribe them with her necklace, but they rip it from her and demand she point to her son, as the assassins are unable to tell the twins apart. Helaena reluctantly points out Jaehaerys, and runs out of the room with her daughter as the two saw Jaehaerys's head off with their knife. She runs to her mother's chambers, only to find her having sex with Ser Criston Cole. Traumatized by the death of her son, Helaena can only mutter that Jaehaerys is dead.

The next day, the Green Council decides to arrange a funeral for Jaehaerys, with Alicent and Helaena behind them. When Alicent informs Helaena of this plan, she says she doesn't want to, clearly still shaken by the death of her son. Alicent then claims that the smallfolk must share their grief, but Helaena doesn't want them to as she doesn't know them. Alicent presses on, only for Helaena to give her a blanket, saying it was for her boy.

At the funeral, Helaena is surrounded by sympathetic smallfolk, but as the wagon becomes stuck in a pothole, she begins to suffer a panic attack as the people crowd around her. Later, she passes by Aegon, but they don't say anything to each other.

Personality

Helaena is considered eccentric and peculiar, having an interest in bugs and at times speaking in cryptic language. She chooses to stay away of politics and instead prefers to stay in her chambers isolated from people. Helaena doesn't like being near people like the smallfolk, because she doesn't know them. Helaena was noted by many, including her mother and half-sister, to be the gentlest and kindest of her family. This can be notablly be seen where Helaena refuses to participate in any of the battles during the Dance of the Dragons. A clear example shown when Aemond had come to demand her help against Rhaenyra and her new dragon riders, Helaena adamantly refused to participate and expressed her refusal use her dragon to burn anyone alive.

Quotes

Spoken by Helaena

"He'll have to close an eye."

―Helaena about Aemond claiming a dragon

"Hand turns loom; spool of green, spool of black; dragons of flesh weaving dragons of thread."

―Helaena predicts the Dance of the Dragons

"Beware the beast beneath the boards."

―Helaena Targaryen

"It is our fate, I think, to crave always what is given to another. If one possesses a thing, the other will take it away."

―Helaena Targaryen

Helaena: "I'm afraid."

Aegon: "Don't be. They'd be fools to come with Vhagar protecting the city."

Helaena: "Not the dragons, the rats."

— Helaena and Aegon Targaryen

Alicent: "When the people share our grief, they draw closer to us."

Helaena: "I don't want them closer. I don't know them."

— Alicent and Helaena

"Was it worth the price?"

―Helaena to Aemond

"You'll be dead. You were swallowed up in the Gods Eye, and you were never seen again."

―Helaena to Aemond

Family

Paternal

Rhaena Targaryen Deceased

Aegon Targaryen Deceased

Viserys Targaryen Deceased

Jaehaerys I Targaryen1 Deceased

Alysanne Targaryen Deceased

Vaella Targaryen Deceased

Aemon Targaryen Deceased

Jocelyn Baratheon Deceased

Rodrik Arryn Deceased

Daella Targaryen Deceased

Baelon Targaryen Deceased

Alyssa Targaryen Deceased

Corlys Velaryon

Rhaenys Targaryen Deceased

Aemma Arryn Deceased

Viserys I Targaryen2 Deceased

Alicent Hightower

Daemon Targaryen

Rhea Royce Deceased

Daemon Targaryen

Laena Velaryon Deceased

Laenor Velaryon3

Rhaenyra Targaryen2

Daemon Targaryen

Aegon II Targaryen

Helaena Targaryen

Aemond Targaryen

Daeron Targaryen

Baela Targaryen

Rhaena Targaryen

Jacaerys Velaryon

Lucerys Velaryon Deceased

Joffrey Velaryon

Aegon Targaryen

Viserys Targaryen

Jaehaerys Targaryen Deceased

Jaehaera Targaryen

¹ Jaehaerys had thirteen children in all. For simplicity, only the direct ancestors of future generations are on this family tree and they are not in the exact order of birth. The thirteen children in correct order are: Aegon, Daenerys, Aemon, Baelon, Alyssa, Maegelle, Vaegon, Daella, Saera, Viserra, Gaemon, Valerion, and Gael.

² Due to the nature of their respective births and deaths, Baelon Targaryen, son of Viserys and Aemma, and Visenya Targaryen, daughter of Rhaenyra and Daemon, are not included on this family tree.

³ While Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey are officially Laenor's, he and Rhaenyra never had any biological issue. Their three sons were in fact fathered by Harwin Strong.

Maternal

Hobert Hightower Deceased

Lynesse Hightower

Otto Hightower

Alyrie Florent Deceased

Ormund Hightower

Gwayne Hightower

Viserys I Targaryen Deceased

Alicent Hightower

Son(s)

Aegon II Targaryen

Helaena Targaryen

Aemond Targaryen

Daeron Targaryen

Jaehaerys Targaryen Deceased

Jaehaera Targaryen

Behind the scenes

On March 30, 2022, HBO announced that Phia Saban had been cast in the role of Helaena Targaryen for House of the Dragon. Her character description for Season 1 reads as follows:

"Second-born daughter of Viserys, sister to Aegon and Aemond, half-sister to Rhaenyra."

Her character description for Season 2 reads as follows:

"The sister and wife to King Aegon II and mother to the young Prince Jaehaerys and Princess Jaehaera. Considered strange by her family, she often perceives things that others do not. Helaena claimed Dreamfyre, but chooses not to ride her dragon."

Actress Lulu Barker started to play Helaena's daughter, Jaehaera, in Season 2. Her sister, Ziggy, previously portrayed the infant Helaena in Season 1.

In the books

In Fire & Blood, Helaena Targaryen was the second daughter of King Viserys I Targaryen, born in 109 AC. As a child, she was plumper and less striking than most members of House Targaryen, but was pleasant and happy nonetheless and beloved by the smallfolk as she grew older.

There is no mention in the books that Helaena had prophetical abilities or any supernatural powers in general. The ability to have prophetic dreams is passed down through the Targaryen bloodline, with some inheriting it more strongly than others or not at all. In the TV series, Viserys himself explains it is rare even in their bloodline and he believes he had a prophetic dream exactly once - that he'd have a son who would sit the Iron Throne - but this one dream strongly influenced his actions ever since. Both Daenerys and Jon Snow have prophetic dreams in the novels, but they are not yet aware that they are truly prophetic in nature.

Another Targaryen who did strongly inherit this ability, however, was "Daeron the Drunken" - eldest brother of Aegon "Egg" Targaryen, one of the two protagonists in the Dunk & Egg novellas. Daeron is so haunted by his prophetic dreams that he self-medicates with alcohol, desperately trying to have dreamless sleep. Unlike TV-Helaena, he is fully aware that his dreams are prophetic and directly shares them with other people such as Dunk to try to warn them, but the dreams are often so symbolic that Daeron himself isn't sure how to interpret them.

Appearances

• The Dance of Dragons (illustrated)
• – "King of the Narrow Sea"
• – "We Light the Way"
• – "The Princess and the Queen"
• – "Driftmark"
• – "The Lord of the Tides"
• – "The Green Council"
• – "A Son for a Son"
• – "Rhaenyra the Cruel"
• – "The Burning Mill"
• – "Regent"
• – "Smallfolk"
• – "The Queen Who Ever Was"

Forthcoming

• – Season 3 (unreleased)

External links

• Helaena Targaryen on A Wiki of Ice and Fire (potential spoilers for House of the Dragon)
• Helaena Targaryen on The Official Guide