House of the Dragon is all about family dynamics. The entire Dance of the Dragons hinges out the Targaryen family being ripped in two, with Aegon and Rhaenyra, half-siblings, squabbling over the throne. Because only Targaryens (of varying legitimacy) can ride dragons, each family member is a crucial resource for their battle tactics.
But curiously, one member of the royal family has barely able to participate in the Targaryen civil conflict: Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban). This is a major departure from the book upon which House of the Dragon is based, Fire & Blood, which sees Helaena take a major role in the Dance of the Dragons. But no matter what lies ahead in Season 3, are the changes from the book enough to morph this character into something completely different? And if so, is that for the better?
Spoilers for the House of the Dragon Season 2 finale and Fire & Blood follow!
Helaena’s Visions
Helaena Targaryen, the second child of King Viserys and Queen Alicent, has played a smaller role in House of the Dragon so far. By the time the series reaches the Season 2 finale, we know she has two main characteristics: she’s a dragon dreamer, meaning she has prophetic visions and dreams that she often doesn’t understand, and she’s hesitant to ride her dragon Dreamfyre — Rhaenyra says, “She does not ride. She has no taste for it.”
But after hearing that Rhaenyra found riders for her surplus dragons, Prince Regent Aemond realizes how dire the Greens’ dragon ranks really were: they just added three new dragons to their ranks, while Aegon’s dragon Sunfyre succumbed to his injuries. He is forced to confront Helaena about how she’s needed on the front lines. Helaena refuses to fight on her dragon, and even goes so far as to tell Aemond directly that his constant fighting will lead to him being “swallowed up in the God's Eye.”
That’s not Helaena’s only prophetic moment in the Season 2 finale. When Daemon has his final Harrenhal vision, it ends with him seeing Rhaenyra on the throne followed by his niece Helaena telling him “It's all a story... and you are but one part in it. You know your part.”
Does this mean that Helaena’s dragon dreamer trait allowed her to influence Daemon’s entire vision? If so, then why did he see Rhaenyra on the throne when Helaena told Aemond that Aegon would be king again?
How Helaena was Changed From the Book
Both of Helaena’s defining characteristics in the finale are complete fabrications of the series. In the books, Helaena isn’t a dragon dreamer at all, and she has no qualms about dragonriding. It’s something that George R. R. Martin himself noted when he watched Season 2 Episode 1, “Blood and Cheese.”
“In the book, she is a plump, pleasant, and happy young woman, cheerful and kindly, adored by the smallfolk,” he wrote on his blog. “A dragonrider since the age of twelve, Helaena’s greatest joy in life is to take to the skies on the back of her dragon Dreamfyre. None of the strangeness she displays in the show was in evidence in the book, nor is her gift for prophecy.”
Phia Saban also noted the changes in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. “I know that people feel so passionately and lovingly towards the original story, but I think that me, as a fan of things, I love a certain level of loyalty,” she said. “Then I love the idea that I can be surprised or something could be subverted.”
That said, she does take issue with the fact Helaena isn’t shown riding Dreamfyre. “It's House of the Dragon, and I've got a dragon, and I haven't got on it. I'm rusty. I really wanted to get on the dragon,” she said. “Dreamfyre, like Vhagar, she's super ancient and big and cool. I'd like to see Helaena and Dreamfyre having a sort of spiritual connection.”
How This Changes House of the Dragon for the Better
Despite all the changes from the book, George R. R. Martin was quick to defend the series’ choices with Helaena. “Once I met the show’s version of Helaena, I could hardly take issue,” he wrote in the same blog post. “Phia Saban’s Helaena is a richer and more fascinating character than the one I created in Fire & Blood, and in ‘Rhaenyra the Cruel’ you can scarcely take your eyes off her.”
While Helaena may have found joy in riding her dragon as a young girl in the books, her role completely changes once the Dance of Dragons begins. After the murder of her son Jaeherys and then her son Maelor, she becomes so depressed she can no longer ride her dragon into battle. When Aemond dies in the Battle over Gods Eye — the very tragedy her series analog predicted in the Season 2 finale — she is so overcome that she commits suicide.
Now, in the series, she’s a powerful Cassandra-esque figure who may, according to your interpretation of Daemon’s vision, be playing both sides of the conflict. She may be reluctant to get on her dragon, but she’s still getting her hands dirty in a different, more mystical way.
Helaena’s shift is a testament to how female characters are given more agency in the adaptation to the HBO series. She’s a Targaryen just as much as her brothers, but if this series were loyal to the books, she would be sidelined throughout much of the next season even more than in Season 1 and 2.
Some people fight dragonfire with dragonfire, but this version of Helaena shows that sometimes the most effective ammunition can be dreams.
