Does Rhaenyra Kill Rhaena in ‘House of the Dragon’? The Truth About Their Bond
Fans wrapped up in the chaos of the Dance of the Dragons have started asking a pretty urgent question, does Rhaenyra actually turn on her own stepdaughter Rhaena Targaryen. With ‘House of the Dragon‘ Season 3 stirring up new alliances and betrayals every week, it makes sense that viewers are nervous about who survives the war and who does not.
The short answer is no, Rhaenyra does not kill Rhaena, and the two actually share one of the more grounded relationships left standing in a story full of family betrayal. To understand why this theory even started circulating, it helps to look at where Rhaena fits into the Targaryen family tree and how her role has shifted dramatically this season.
Rhaena Targaryen and Her Place in the Family
Rhaena is the younger twin daughter of Daemon Targaryen and his second wife Laena Velaryon, making her Rhaenyra’s stepdaughter once Rhaenyra and Daemon marry. According to A Wiki of Ice and Fire, Rhaena was one of the twin daughters of Prince Daemon Targaryen and Lady Laena Velaryon, with her older twin sister Baela Targaryen born alongside her in Pentos in 116 AC.
For a long stretch of the show, Rhaena was the rare Targaryen without a dragon of her own, which left her feeling sidelined while chaos erupted around her. NPR notes that Rhaenyra sent Rhaena off to the Vale specifically to protect the Queen’s youngest children, including Joffrey and her own two young sons with Daemon.
That assignment says a lot about how much trust actually exists between the two women. Rhaenyra was not casting Rhaena aside, she was handing her stepdaughter one of the most important jobs in the entire war, the safety of the royal children.
Rhaenyra and Rhaena Relationship Explained Through Season 3
Rather than turning against each other, Rhaenyra and Rhaena’s storylines have grown more intertwined as the season has gone on. Time reported that after spending most of Season 2 caring for Rhaenyra’s younger sons and feeling the sting of being a dragonless Targaryen, Rhaena spotted her opportunity to change her fate by claiming the wild dragon Sheepstealer.
That moment reshapes everything about her position in the story. Once seen as expendable, Rhaena suddenly becomes one of the few remaining Targaryens with an active dragon, which puts her much closer to Rhaenyra’s inner circle rather than on the outside of it.
Reports from Wiki of Thrones point to leaked behind the scenes footage showing Rhaena reuniting with Rhaenyra after claiming Sheepstealer, filmed on location in Wales. That reunion, rather than any kind of confrontation, reinforces that the show is building toward cooperation between the two women, not conflict.
There is also a fascinating storytelling choice behind Rhaena’s arc this season. Winter Is Coming explained that in the show it is Rhaena Targaryen who claims Sheepstealer, whereas in George R.R. Martin’s original book Fire and Blood, that role belonged to a different character entirely named Nettles.
How the Book Character Nettles Factors Into the Confusion
A lot of the online speculation about Rhaenyra turning on Rhaena actually traces back to Nettles’ arc in the source material, which the show has folded into Rhaena’s story. Winter Is Coming detailed how the writers were more or less combining Nettles’ storyline with Rhaena’s, since Nettles has been removed from the show entirely.
In the books, Rhaenyra’s trust in Nettles eventually crumbles. Winter Is Coming pointed out that this could line up with Nettles’ arc from the novel, where Rhaenyra grows to mistrust her and even orders her death after the other dragonseeds abandon the Blacks.
Because the show merged these two characters together, some fans understandably worry that Rhaena might inherit that darker fate as well. It is an entirely reasonable theory given how faithfully some other storylines have translated from page to screen, even if this particular twist has not played out that way for Rhaena.
What Happens to Rhaena Targaryen Moving Forward
So far, nothing in the show has suggested Rhaenyra views Rhaena as a threat the way she eventually viewed Nettles in the books. If anything, the two seem to be moving toward working together as the war intensifies and the Targaryen family loses more of its dragonriders.
Winter Is Coming speculated that Rhaena might actually step into part of Nettles’ book role in a different way, suggesting she could volunteer to help Daemon hunt down Aemond and Vhagar as a way to make amends for Jace’s death, rather than becoming a target of Rhaenyra’s suspicion herself.
That theory lines up with everything else the show has built around Rhaena this season. She has gone from a background player worrying about her lack of a dragon to someone actively fighting for the Black faction, which makes a betrayal by Rhaenyra feel unlikely at this point in the story.
Given how much Rhaena has already sacrificed and risked to prove herself to Rhaenyra and the rest of her family, what do you think her final role will be before the Dance of the Dragons burns itself out?
