Image credit: HBO Max
After the premiere of House of the Dragon Season 2, many viewers want to know why Helaena Targaryen let Jaehaerys die. The series is partly based on George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, a fictional history book on the reign of House Targaryen in Westeros. House of the Dragon focuses on the bitter civil war known as a Dance of the Dragons, in which the Black and Green factions of the Targaryen dynasty fought each other to secure the Iron Throne. The ending of the first season indicated that this war was on the horizon. Now, the events of the Season 2 premiere heralded its arrival.
The consequences of Jaehaerys’ death will have a long-term impact on Westeros and its ruling class, and certain details about the scene have stunned the fans, leaving them with questions.
Why did Helaena let Jaehaerys die in House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 1?
In House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 1, “A Son for a Son,” Daemon (Matt Smith) hires a Gold Cloak member and a Red Keep ratcatcher to assassinate Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) on Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) orders. Like its source material, House of the Dragon doesn’t explicitly provide the names of these killers. However, the closed captions refer to the ratcatcher as Cheese. According to Fire & Blood, history knows the Gold Cloak as Blood.
Cheese asks Daemon what they are supposed to do if they can’t find Aemond, but the scene changes before Daemon can answer. When the two killers reach the room where Jaehaerys and twin sister Jaehaera are sleeping, Cheese grabs Helaena and places his knife on her throat. He demands to know which one of the children is the prince. Much to his and Blood’s surprise, Helaena gives them the right answer, and Cheese recognizes it as such. As Helaena leaves with Jaehaera, Blood kills Jaehaerys and removes his head to present to Daemon.
This scene happens differently in the book. However, Martin wrote Fire & Blood as a history book penned by Maester Gyldayn centuries after the events took place while using multiple contemporary accounts as sources. Accordingly, these changes are not unexplainable.
In the book, Helaena has three children. Besides the twins, she has a son called Maelor. When Blood and Cheese tell her to choose which of her two sons will die, she chooses Maelor, but they still murder Jaehaerys. The horror of this incident drives Helaena to insanity.
In contrast, in House of the Dragon Season 2, Helaena seems unsettlingly detached when she points at Jaehaerys. Although she is clearly distraught by what is happening, the episode doesn’t provide an explanation for her choice.
However, Helaena is one of the Targaryens with the prophetic ability called the dragon dream. This episode underscores this fact when she tells her husband that she is not afraid of the dragons but the rats, correctly predicting Blood and Cheese’s arrival. Perhaps, she already knew that Jaehaerys would die and that this would lead to the Dance of the Dragons. If that is the case, she might also know how the war will end, and the impact it will have on her family. It’s possible that the enormity of this knowledge will be linked to the loss of her sanity in the show.
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