‘The house of the dragon’: The sixth chapter would confirm an important theory of the novel

SPOILER attention!

* Let’s talk in detail about some relevant facts from 1 × 06 of ‘The House of the Dragon’. If you haven’t seen the episode, read no further!

On Monday, September 26, HBO premiered the sixth chapter of “The House of the Dragon”, in which we witnessed the great time jump of a decade, the welcome of new characters and the replacement of the actresses in the main protagonists, who in their adult version is played by Emma D’Arcy (Rhaenyra) and Olivia Cooke (Alicent). The episode begins with the birth of the princess’s third child, a boy who will soon be branded as a bastard and illegitimate heir, doubting the paternity of her husband, Laenor Velaryon. These allegations were the suspicions the readers of the books theorized about, and seem to have been confirmed with the premiere of “The Princess and the Queen”.

The first to accuse the baby (Joffrey) of being a bastard is Queen Alicent. This of her humiliates Princess Targaryen because he shows her her newborn child, to verify how little resemblance she has with her father: the little one has brown hair and not platinum like her parents. It is not the first time that the queen is wary, because she thinks the same of her previous children of her, Jacaerys and Lucerys, who do not even look like Laenor. Alicent is tasked with bringing the suspect closer to onlookers, and to King Viserys, who tells her not to mention the subject again, so, for the time being, it appears she will remain silent..

The sixth episode reaffirms the theories of the readers of George RR Martin’s ‘Fire and Blood’, suggesting that Rhaenyra’s sons are not the sons of Laenor Velaryon, but of Ser Harwin Strong (Ryan Corr), captain of the Landing City Guard King’s. Officially the children of the princess are recognized as the descendants of her relationship with Laenor, but fans of “Fire and Blood” had always doubted it, reading some hints of the writer that suggested the bastardy of the little ones. Fan theories always assumed that the real father was Harwin, as the book tells that he was at the birth of the princess with Rhaenyra’s husband.

The importance of the origin of the descendants

Obviously, the origin and blood of the descendants of the princess and heir to the Iron Throne, Rhaenyra Targaryen, are of vital importance. Bastard children have no right to rule, so if Alicent decides to play her cards, disobey Viserys and reveal the secret to everyone, the queen’s children could relieve those of the princess in their right to succession, further aggravating the conflict between the two, and their homes.

The last episode leaves us with even more conflicts and open fronts between the queen and the princess, who had a friendship in their youth, but now more than ever have become real enemies. Also, while she is not the direct culprit, Alicent is part of the murder of Harwin Strong, the real father of Rhaenyra’s children, so in the next episode we will be able to see the consequences of the knight’s death and the reaction of the dragon princess to this.