“Every time a new Targaryen is born, he said, the gods toss the coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land.”

– Ser Barristan Selmy quotes Jaehaerys II Targaryen

House Targaryen was the most elusive of the big Westerosi houses in the HBO mega-series Game of Thrones (GoT), with the show starting with just known 2 survivors, Danaerys and her brother Viserys, still alive from the once great House, and tales of the Targaryens’ era of dominance coming at a premium. Fans have thus long craved for more regarding the mysterious House- cravings that are soon to be satiated after HBO announced it was going to be launching a GoT prequel titled House of the Dragon.

Now that the prequel is at our doorstep- with its first episode airing early morning on 22nd August in India, it’s an opportune time to take stock of what all we have learnt about the Targaryens from GoT. 

The entire story of Game of Thrones was, in a way, the tale of a Targaryen on a mission to reclaim what she perceived to be her birthright. We got glimpses early on about the reign and the fall of the Mad King, the last Targaryen king. Danaerys and Viserys were the last known surviving Targaryens, after Viserys and his mother, the queen, who was pregnant with Danaerys at the time, had escaped from King’s Landing as the fatal rebellion started to take shape. 

Viserys, who had grown into a spiteful and cruel young man was bent upon staking a claim to the Iron Throne and was ready to gift his 13-year-old sister to the Dothraki chieftain Khal Drogo in marriage in order to seek the Dothraki’s help in actualising his dream. His plans went awry, as the Dothraki saw him for what he was. At the same time, Danaerys’ marriage to the Khal proved to be a blessing in disguise for her as she slowly learned to stand up for herself and began to get free from her brother’s clutches. 

Viserys’s ill-natured antics eventually led to his untimely demise- when he threatened to kill Danaerys and her unborn child, which the Khal didn’t take kindly to. Viserys thus died wearing a crown of hot melted gold around his head- his life’s dream, albeit with a few crucial caveats. 

Also read: House of the Dragon: Game of Thrones spinoff timeline explained

And so, Danaerys was the last Targaryen standing (officially), but at least she found company in her 3 newly hatched dragons- a modern-day Targaryen all alone emerging from the ashes. 

Over the course of the seasons, we got strategic tidbits about the Targeryan past- learning more about the Mad King Aerys II Targaryen as the show progressed. First, through conversations between Ned Stark and Robert Baratheon, we learned of his affinity for torture and punishment, and about how Ned Stark’s father and elder brother were burnt alive in court by the Mad King when they went to seek answers about Lyanna Stark’s perceived kidnapping by Rhaegar Targaryen. We also found that Maester Aemon, who was a member of the Night’s Watch and had taken Jon Snow under his wing, was a Targaryen himself, and the Mad King’s uncle. 

Some of the most insightful angles about the mad King’s depravity were revealed in a poignant conversation between Jamie Lannister and Brienne of Tarth. A beleaguered Jamie talked about the day he killed the Mad King. He revealed to Brienne how Aerys Targaryen had planned and given the order to set the entire city ablaze with wildfire, thereby intending to kill thousands of innocents along with his enemies, which is what led Jamie to end the Mad King’s life.  

Also read: ‘Game of Thrones’ author George RR Martin praises ‘House of the Dragon’ prequel

One of the most intriguing, yet rarely mentioned Targaryen in GoT was the Mad King’s eldest son and heir, Rhaegar Targaryen, who was said to have kidnapped and later on killed Lyanna Stark, Eddard Stark’s sister. This had been the trigger for the rebellion that ultimately led to the end of the Targaryen Dynasty. 

However, as the seasons progressed, the depiction of Rhaegar evolved as well- he was described by Ser Jorah Mormont as a great fighter, an honourable man, and the ‘finest man he ever knew’, and Ser Barristan Selmy described him to Danaerys as a man who wasn’t a killer at heart, but rather a person who found more joy in music and singing, often disguising himself as a minstrel and playing on the streets of King’s Landing as Ser Barristan stood guard. 

Parallelly, the one Targaryen known to be alive in the series, Danaerys, was consolidating her position, building an army, and tackling challenge after challenge in a bid to get closer to her dream of reclaiming the Iron Throne. 

Also read: ‘Game of Thrones’ author George RR Martin praises ‘House of the Dragon’ prequel

Throughout the series, there was an underlying theme that suggested that every Targaryen was either destined for greatness or madness- as if based on the toss of a coin from the Gods, and Danaerys’ scale seemed to be evenly balanced- perhaps a bit too evenly, as her righteousness was often undermined by a frightening ruthlessness that those close to her had begun to be wary of.  

In any case, Rhaegar’s character slowly went through a stunning posthumous redemption arc towards the end of the series, as it was revealed that he had in fact not kidnapped Lyanna Stark, but instead that the two had fallen in love and decided to marry each other. Lyanna Stark had been blessed with a baby boy from the marriage, a boy who we had come to know as Jon Snow. This was one of the biggest reveals of the series and meant that the boy who had been pushed to take the black of the Night’s Watch in the first season of the series was actually named Aegon Targaryen, and had been the rightful heir to the Iron Throne all along. 

However things did not end well at all at the Targaryen household, as Danaerys’ mission to capture King’s Landing and the increasing number of hurdles she had been struggling to navigate had been pushing her over the edge, and at the end of the series, she, in a cruel irony, became the one to actualise her mad father’s dying wishes to ‘burn them all’. 

Also read: The ever-expanding universe of ‘Game of Thrones’

Laying siege on King’s Landing, Danaerys on her massive dragon Drogo, lost all sense of right and wrong and began to set fire to the entire city, even triggering the wildfire that her father had installed during his reign to bring the city down triggering a cataclysm. It was her nephew and fellow Targaryen Jon Snow who took it upon himself to end the madness, and history repeated itself with Dany perishing by the steps of the iron throne much like her father perished all those years back at Jamie Lannister’s hands.