Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 3.
The big picture
- The tragic role of Helaena Targaryen in
House of the Dragon
Season 2 shows that he is the only innocent member of Team Green. - Phia Saban delivers a haunting performance, making Helaena an emotional character forced to navigate overwhelming trauma and isolation.
- Helaena's family does not give her the understanding and support she deserves, instead exploiting her pain for political gain.
House of the Dragon Season 1 didn't have much time for Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban). The establishment of the main characters of A Dance with Dragons meant that the only daughter of King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) and Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) kept in the shadows. Conveniently, an existence on the fringes reflected both Helaena's position and disposition, even if viewers caught only hints of the latter: a reserved young woman with a fondness for insects, whose cryptic statements often came true surprising There could hardly be a more brutal way to catapult Helaena to the forefront of Season 2 than the infamous blood and cheese incident. Forcing a mother, much less the mother's heir to the Iron Throne, to witness the beheading of her young child permanently alters Helaena's life and changes the tone of this entire conflict. However, beyond turning the Targaryen civil war into a greater tragedy, the aftermath of Blood and Cheese underscores a prevailing truth: Helaena is the only blameless member of Team Green. In a family of inspirations at best and killers at worst, Helaena is just a passenger, an innocent torpedoed by association. And, as the first three episodes of Season 2 demonstrate, the fallout is already tearing him apart.
The Other Targaryens Ignore Helaena in 'Dragon's House'
Despite having little to do in Season 1, Phia Saban's astute performance ensures that Helaena is a grounded, soulful character rather than a fragile, dreamy stereotype. Saban's eyes, esoteric yet ever-aware, suggest a keener understanding of the world than her family gives her credit for while still allowing Helaena a deep vulnerability. House of the Dragon suggests that her immediate family does not so actively and cruelly dehumanize her, but instead treats her like a portrait on the wall.: something distant and flat, his emotions are not worthy of recognition, which is a different kind of dehumanization. Helaena's brother and husband Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) ignores it; his childish disgust for his “strange” sister turns into adult apathy. Alicent feels sorry for his daughter. As a result, Helaena melts into the background, little more than a spectator and a living chess piece. After all, she is a woman. It has no value beyond fulfilling its obligation (producing heirs) and representing gender symbols (daughter, sister, wife).
With this in mind, it's easy to deduce that her family's inability to relate to Helaena's coded neurodivergent attributes (and their unwillingness to try) leaves her even more love-struck than the his damaged brothers. Of course, he never says as much. But his isolated habits speak for themselves. Helaena's impulsive dance with Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett) during the last quiet family dinner is the most animated we see her, and it's a situation where she breaks free from the Hightowers' despicable grip. Once his brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) breaks this joyful spell like fallen glass shattering on the floor, Helaena returns to her resting state: internalized and uncomfortable. She is not interested in the affairs of her family. Helaena can only be herself, and this me does not belong. No wonder he prefers the company of insects.
'The blood and cheese version of House of the Dragon is more realistic
When blood (Sam C. Wilson) and cheese (Mark Stobbart) infiltrate the Red Tower, their vengeful goal has nothing to do with Helaena. Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) would never target her “sweet sister” because Halaena has committed no act deserving of retribution. Helaena is nearby when Blood and Cheese improvise, just as she was born into the royal family, and just like Alicent and Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) are going through with their secret affair that night, a decision that leaves Halaena and her children unguarded. Helaena is a victim of circumstancesnothing more.
George RR Martin styles Fire and Blood, the novel that draws the Targaryen dynasty, like a historical tome. As such, Fire and BloodHelaena plays her motherly grief over Jaehaerys's death in line with expectations: theatrical screams and sobs, that is. House of the DragonThe interpretation of is a realistic response to trauma, and Phia Saban's performance actively pursuing it. Helaena never screams. She shrinks back into herself, the shock rendering her as numb as a petrified deer. When negotiation fails to deter his attackers, he understands the gravity of the situation; either his son dies, or all three fall.
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Helaena accepts reality and decides to save a child, running silently through the empty corridors with her daughter in her arms. When he hunches over Alicent's floor and calls Jaehaerys “the boy,” he's dissociating. Her mind and body are going through the motions long before she can process the overwhelming trauma to listen to the beheading of his son. Perhaps most heartbreaking of all, Helaena instinctively runs to her mother: the closest thing she has to a trusted protector.
'House of the Dragon's Team Green exploits Haleana's pain
Helaena doesn't get the support, reassurance or space she needs to grieve. Politics will make politics in wartime, but it is death by the thousandth cut for the Reduced Council to parade Halaena for public consumption. Aegon can shout and swing his sword all he likes as long as it's in private. Helaena has to do some girly angst for the little people's eyes, strangers to whom she has no connection and owes them nothing, much less their traumatized and exploited heartbreak. The more eyes on her, the more hands clamoring for her, the more her panic attack increases. Trapped inside her body and role as queen, desperate to break free from her clutches, all she can do is turn her head in claustrophobic agony as if she might pass out. If Helaena ever chose to scream, it would be during Jaehaerys' funeral: under a black veil, riding behind a procession that paraded her son's body, head severed, sewn back on, through the streets of Landing of the king
When it's not turning into a spectacle, Aegon and Helaena's eyes meet as they cross paths in the Red Tower. A deeply grief-stricken Aegon is unable to approach Helaena or chooses not to. Either way, it happens without a gesture or a word. A husband and wife should lean on each other at this time; no one else can understand this particular pain. Instead, Aegon dismisses Helaena back to her island of one. He watches Aegon leave and a settled resignation fills his face. In this, as in all things, she is completely alone and utterly powerless.
In episode 3, Helaena wonders if she deserves to feel her sorrow. If little people lose their babies all the time, then what right do they have to fall into a futile sentiment? The reaction could be their natural inclinations, a response to the funeral, or some other form of dissociation. Either way, her argument with Alicent ends with Helaena forgiving her mother. Whether it's Alicient's link to Cole the night Jaehaerys died or a vision of the future, she doesn't specify. What matters is how, in your time of greatest need, Helaena becomes a child who absolves the guilt of her parents instead of a daughter who gets the maternal support she needs.
Helaena is the only innocent person on Team Green
What could Halaena Targyaren have accomplished if her family had validated her? Who would she be if she were recognized and celebrated instead of infantilizing her with insulting jokes? Or if she has understood that she is a Dragon Dreamer, one of the rare Targaryen capable of prophetic visions? Paraphrasing Phia Saban's interview with the official House of the Dragon Podcast, Helaena is the quintessential Cassandra figure: a doomed woman who whispers warnings because no one bothers to take her contributions seriously. Rhaenyra has it right when she describes Helaena as “an innocent,” one who has done nothing but exist. Every Westerosi woman is a victim of the patriarchy. Helaena is the victim of her kingdom's most enduring curse: family indifference.
New episodes of House of the Dragon The second season premieres Sundays on HBO and Max.
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