Why Rhaenyra's Iron Throne Victory Becomes Her Greatest Tragedy in House of the Dragon

R. Martin's Fire and Blood suggests it was the worst mistake she ever made. The books paint a grim picture of what followed in King's Landing in 130 AC, so heavy book spoilers follow from here.

After what felt like two seasons of the rightful heir being denied, much like Daenerys was denied for eight seasons in Game of Thrones, there was real satisfaction in seeing Rhaenyra take her seat. Many fans, myself very much included, waited a long time to see her take what is rightly hers, given to her by King Viserys the Peaceful, her own father, long before he died.

Rhaenyra's claim was rightful, but the Iron Throne did not save her

This early victory, owing somewhat to Alicent Hightower's diplomacy in the capital, came at a point when the Dance of the Dragons was still far from over in the show. In the books, it comes with its own consequences, and those consequences strongly suggest that her claim, however rightful it was and however good it felt to us as an audience, would be not only the beginning of tragedy for her and hers, but also her worst mistake.

"The issue here isn't whether Rhaenyra had a claim, because she did, obviously." The real question is whether finally sitting on the throne helped her cause, protected her children, or saved the realm. By the end of this piece, you will know the answer for yourself.

Fire and Blood's half year queen was cut by the Iron Throne itself

According to Fire and Blood, Rhaenyra took the capital and sat the throne for roughly half a year. In that time she went from being known by the small folk as the realm's delight to being remembered as the half year queen. In this account, Rhaenyra insisted on claiming her father's seat as soon as she took King's Landing. She climbed the Iron Throne and accepted pleas of forgiveness and pledges of loyalty from those in the Red Keep all through the night.

She was dressed in armor when she ascended, yet Septon Eustace claimed that those present saw the throne leave several cuts on her legs and left hand. Eustace was a man who favored the Greens, a priest of the Faith of the Seven attached to the Royal Sept of the Red Keep during the reign of King Viserys the First. The dripping blood, which House of the Dragon portrays through Rhaenyra's bloody footprints after beheading Otto, was taken as a sign that the throne had rejected her and that her days as ruler would be few.

Eustace further claimed that Rhaenyra cut herself more and more often whenever she sat the Iron Throne, and that she grew fat from gluttony during her short time in the capital.

The Knights Inquisitor and mass executions turned King's Landing against Rhaenyra

This is where things start to get interesting. The people of King's Landing initially welcomed Rhaenyra warmly as a ruler, because they did not have as much love for Aegon the Second and his brother Aemond as they had for her. Once in power, though, Rhaenyra sent knights tasked with investigating and punishing threats, collectively known as the Knights Inquisitor, to pursue those who had helped Aegon the usurper escape the capital.

The fallout mirrors how Aegon dealt with the ratcatchers after his son was beheaded by Blood and Cheese, a move his grandsire and Hand, Otto Hightower, protested in the show as unwise and foolish, and was dismissed for. Rhaenyra's answer was mass execution of those involved, and that became the starting point for the small folk of King's Landing despising their queen.

In season 2, episode 2, Otto is furious because Aegon's mistake, just like Rhaenyra's here, ruined his public relations campaign. He tells his grandson that the ratcatchers were fathers and sons, and that their weeping families are now cursing the king's name, or the queen's in this instance. He adds that they barely managed to buy public sympathy with Prince Jaehaerys' blood and Queen Alicent's tears, and that Aegon had squandered it. It is said that Rhaenyra filled the spikes on the city gates with more small folk heads every day.

An empty treasury and crushing taxes earned Rhaenyra comparisons to Maegor the Cruel

Although the late King Viserys the First had left a great deal of money in the coffers before his death, the treasury was completely empty by the time Rhaenyra took the city. According to one maester's account, the Greens had made off with 75% of the crown's gold under the guise of keeping savings, and had squandered the rest among themselves before the capital fell.

Rhaenyra was therefore in desperate need of money. Lord Bartimos Celtigar, her new master of coin, placed new taxes on the populace day after day, on top of the inflation already caused by the Velaryon fleet's blockade of Blackwater Bay. That extreme inflation and taxation, together with the acts of the merciless monarch Rhaenyra had become, slowly turned the small folk against her, and they eventually gave her a name comparing her to Maegor.

Maegor the First, also known as Maegor the Cruel, was the third Targaryen king to sit the Iron Throne, the son of Aegon the Conqueror and his elder sister and wife, Queen Visenya. He is said to have been a hard and brutal man who craved violence, death and absolute mastery over all he deemed his, and who was harsh toward defeated enemies. He was quarrelsome, quick to take offense, slow to forgive and fearsome in his anger. He had many companions in his youth but no true friends, and even as an adult he trusted no one. That paranoia is the memory the small folk, who once called her the realm's delight, were now comparing Rhaenyra to.

Rhaenyra's paranoia cost her Nettles, Addam Velaryon and Corlys Velaryon

The term Maegor's teats went on to become a common curse in King's Landing for a hundred years after Rhaenyra's reign. After learning of Hugh Hammer and Ulf White's betrayal, Rhaenyra grew paranoid and declared the two remaining dragonseeds traitors: Addam of Hull, who had become Ser Addam Velaryon, and the illegitimate girl Nettles. George R.R. Martin notes that decision came with disastrous consequences.

Prince Daemon and Nettles had been following Rhaenyra's orders to seek out and destroy Vhagar and her rider, Aemond. They searched the Riverlands for months without finding them. Because they spent so long together in Maidenpool, Rhaenyra believed Nettles was Daemon's lover, and once she learned her husband had grown fond of the girl, she ordered her arrest and immediate execution in a raven to the Lord of Maidenpool.

Lord Manfryd Mooton refused, as Nettles was under his protection as a guest. He was torn: he feared Prince Daemon would kill them if they carried out the order, while refusing Rhaenyra made him a traitor to the crown. Insisting that Kings Viserys I and Jaehaerys I would never have asked such a thing, he changed his allegiance to Aegon II. Daemon also let Nettles escape rather than obey his wife, and went on to Harrenhal to fight in the Battle Above the Gods Eye.

Meanwhile Rhaenyra's Hand, Lord Corlys Velaryon, who had named Addam his heir, warned Addam in time for him to flee on his dragon, Seasmoke. That led to Corlys' arrest, and the Velaryon fleet and his men, who made up half of the queen's forces in King's Landing, abandoned her cause immediately. Having lost all four dragonseeds, Daemon, and her sometime father in law Corlys, the very people whose efforts had won her the throne, Rhaenyra's reign became a ticking time bomb. It would have been such a hard time for Princess Rhaenys to be alive, knowing that the queen she rallied behind, who is rumored to have killed her son Laenor, would see her husband and stepson put to death over trivial emotions.

Helaena's death and the Dragonpit riot drove Rhaenyra out of King's Landing

The final straw was the horrific death of Helaena Targaryen, whose only ambition in the live adaptation is to raise chickens. Helaena was widely seen as noble minded, charming, sweet and charismatic, and the book notes she was by far the most beloved Targaryen royal among the small folk of King's Landing. Although George R.R. Martin clearly states her death was a suicide, many said she was killed on Rhaenyra's orders. That the story was believed so easily shows how far the city had turned against her.

A massive riot soon broke out, escalating into the storming of the Dragonpit and the death of Rhaenyra's youngest son, Joffrey Velaryon. During that storming, Helaena's dragon Dreamfyre, who is heavily implied to be the mother of Daenerys' three dragons Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion in Game of Thrones, was killed by the rioters.

Rhaenyra then fled King's Landing. Terrified and despairing, she made her way past Stokeworth to Duskendale, where she was forced to sell her crown to buy passage on a Braavosi merchant ship back to Dragonstone. That voyage became associated with the moment just before Rhaenyra Targaryen, the first of her name and, besides Cersei Lannister, of her gender to hold the titles Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Lady of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realm, met her horrific end by order of a certain someone.

Winning wars is easy for Rhaenyra, but ruling is hard

Ultimately, taking the Iron Throne, her birthright further asserted by her father when he named her heir over her half brothers, also became her greatest mistake, because "winning wars is easy, especially when you have as many dragons." Small council meetings without end and governing are hard, and the wisdom to rule is harder still.

This brings back memories of the seventeen year old me who craved so badly to be president of the students representative council of a high school in 2017. "Oftentimes when men or women vie for power, we forget it isn't the high position, but how we rule that matters." Rhaenyra, much like me, cared more for the idea of queenship than for the delicate administrative and fiscal responsibilities that came with it.

Did finally sitting the Iron Throne help Rhaenyra's cause, or was it the moment her downfall truly began?