Rhaenyra has spent a lot of the Dance of the Dragons relatively safe on Dragonstone, though that changes in House of the Dragon season 3 as she takes King’s Landing. Sitting on the Iron Throne may be what she’s long desired, but it will also, eventually, lead to her downfall. Based on both Game of Thrones and George R.R. Martin’s book, Fire & Blood, we know where her story is headed, and just how it will end.
Rhaenyra Targaryen Is Killed By Sunfyre
Aegon’s Dragon Burns & Eats The Queen
Rhaenyra’s death comes pretty late in the civil war, after the Targaryens’ warring Greens and Blacks factions have both suffered heavy losses. Rhaenyra does become queen and takes control of King’s Landing, but her rule ultimately sours, leading to riots in the city, and the smallfolk storming the Dragonpit and killing several dragons (and Rhaenyra’s son, Joffrey). Eventually, she is forced to flee the capital.
Rhaenyra’s journey after that point is a sorrowful one, and the “grey and haggard” queen is even forced to sell her crown at one stage just to fund safe passage on a ship. Ultimately, she makes her way back to Dragonstone, where she is betrayed by Ser Alfred Broome and finds that none other than Aegon was in control of the island. Rhaenyra’s remaining followers were defeated, and Aegon had his half-sister fed to his dragon, Sunfyre. As Fire & Blood recounts:
“… King Aegon II delivered his halfsister to his dragon. Sunfyre, it is said, did not seem at first to take any interest in the offering, until Broome pricked the queen’s breast with his dagger. The smell of blood roused the dragon, who sniffed at Her Grace, then bathed her in a blast of flame, so suddenly that Ser Alfred’s cloak caught fire as he leapt away. 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 “for the Stranger.” Elinda Massey, youngest and gentlest of Rhaenyra’s ladies-in-waiting, supposedly gouged out her own eyes at the sight, whilst the queen’s son Aegon the Younger watched in horror, unable to move. Rhaenyra Targaryen, the Realm’s Delight and Half-Year Queen, passed from this veil of tears upon the twenty-second day of the tenth moon of the 130th year after Aegon’s Conquest. She was thirty-three years of age.”
When Will Rhaenyra Die In House Of The Dragon?
It Won’t Be On-Screen For Several Years
There is, of course, a lot that needs to happen before Rhaenyra’s death can take place in House of the Dragon. Even after a full season of war, there are many more battles to be fought, several allegiances to change, and characters who need to die before the queen herself is killed in a burst of fire and blood.
Rhaenyra is one of the characters the show is marketed around, so HBO would presumably want her to survive until whatever the final season is.
With Rhaenyra taking King’s Landing in season 3, it would be really rushing things to have her death take place in that same season. Beyond that, it depends on how long the show runs for, which could be either four seasons or five, and how many episodes each run has. Rhaenyra is one of the characters the show is marketed around, so HBO would presumably want her to survive until whatever the final season is.
There are some key events that need to be shown after Rhaenyra’s death, including Aegon II’s own demise and the actual end of the civil war, but that could be wrapped up in a few episodes. With that, then again, depending on how the story is paced, expect Rhaenyra’s death to happen around the halfway to three-quarter mark of either House of the Dragon season 4 or season 5.
Rhaenyra’s Death Was Spoiled By Game Of Thrones
Add It To The List Of Joffrey’s Crimes
In Game of Thrones season 3, episode 4, “And Now His Watch Is Ended,” Joffrey Baratheon takes Margaery Tyrell on a tour of the Great Sept of Baelor. While there, he delights in telling his wife-to-be about what happened to Rhaenyra, saying:
” Rhaenyra Targaryen was murdered by her brother , or rather, his dragon. It ate her while her son watched. What’s left of her is buried in the crypts right down there.”
It’s not hard to see why Joffrey would delight in such a vicious story, but it does mean Game of Thrones fans had Rhaenyra’s fate revealed to them even before Fire & Blood was published in 2018. Of course, it’s possible House of the Dragon will change Rhaenyra’s death in some way, since it hasn’t shied away from altering the source material, but it would be very difficult to do so too much given how important it is to the overall story. Given the show’s production length, though, it should at least be several years before it happens.
