‘House of the Dragon’ Officially Proves George R.R. Martin’s Biggest Targaryen Quote Wrong

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 3 finale.

“They say every time a Targaryen is born, the gods toss a coin, and the world holds its breath.” It was almost impossible to watch the third season finale of House of the Dragon without thinking of this iconic quote, repeated many times throughout George R.R. Martin‘s work. When Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) learns about Aegon’s (Tom Glynn-Carney) survival, she takes a tyrannical turn in a desperate attempt to secure her position and to appear as the rightful occupant of the Iron Throne. It might seem like her coin has finally landed on the madness side, once again confirming the old adage. But if Rhaenyra is mad, then it feels like this entire generation of Targaryens ended up on the bad side of the coin flip. This begs the question: Is it really a 50/50 split on madness and sanity, or is there something else at play here?

The Targaryen Saying Is Actually About Power, Not a Prophecy of Madness

Ever since the finale aired, the “coin toss” has been talked about as the final nail in the coffin of Rhaenyra’s stability, as she has been challenged all season long to try and rule the realm peacefully. She loses her son and heir, is sabotaged multiple times in court, is rejected by the Faith, and loses the populace’s support… This all happens within a few weeks; it’s hard to blame her for losing her patience. In fact, Rhaenyra holds on longer than most, considering she has Daemon (Matt Smith) in her ear constantly talking about conquest.

On the Green side, Aegon’s reunion with Sunfyre and Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) seems to have exacerbated the worst in him. Although he is his father’s firstborn son, he was never prepared to be king like Rhaenyra and grew up hedonistic, with the throne highlighting the worst in him. Aemond, on the other hand, worked twice as hard as his brother to earn only half the attention he got, hence his obsessive focus and usurping tendencies. When he sees a chance to take the crown for himself and wipe Aegon off the board, he takes it, even if kinslaying is considered a cultural taboo.

The common thread between all of these Targaryens in House of the Dragon — with the exceptions of Helaena (Phia Saban) and Daeron (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) — is that they’ve been exposed to power and the Iron Throne from a very young age; it has nothing to do with their house. In House of the Dragon, we have the benefit of having seen these characters grow up. None of them were born mad. For Rhaenyra, being denied what she has always been told was her mission is maddening, while for Aegon and Aemond, the sudden promise of power is tempting, especially when, as men, they believe it is their right to rule.

The Old Saying About House Targaryen Is One of Their Main Drivers in the Franchise

Image via HBO Max

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With so many Targaryens running around throughout the franchise, it’s easy to lose track of who is mad and who isn’t, but when they are, it’s always because of the Iron Throne’s promise. In Game of Thrones, Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) lived with the pressure of being the Mad King’s daughter and the burden of taking back the throne all her life, only to lose everything to her own “madness” in the end. In reality, she was in an even worse place than Rhaenyra, having lost two of her dragons and learning that Jon Snow (Kit Harington) has a better claim than her, and that’s not even mentioning the threat of the White Walkers.

Because of how Game of Thrones ends, Daenerys is now seen as a mad queen, but before that, she was a conqueror and a liberator who had her heart in the right place. She was ruthless, yes, but never cruel. Only at her lowest did the whispers about madness resurface, implying that madness is simply a Targaryen trait, which just isn’t true. Even her father, the Mad King Aerys II (David Rintoul), grew paranoid because of all the treachery and competing interests around him, but mad is something you become, not something you are.

Like every family, House Targaryen has its fair share of terrible people — Aerys II himself, Aerion (Finn Bennett) from A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Aegon IV (who was remembered as “The Unworthy”), House of the Dragon‘s Daemon, Maegor the Cruel… However, none of them are born and raised in a vacuum. What truly sets them on their destructive path is the allure of power and what they’ll do for it, with their dragons greatly amplifying the consequences of such actions. And in the case of Westeros, doing unspeakable things for power isn’t exclusive to the Targaryens.

The Targaryens Aren’t the Only Power Hungry House in Westeros

The thing about how the game of thrones is played is that we get to see who each player really is along the way and, more often than not, end up rooting for terrible people. In Game of Thrones, for example, Daenerys is the only Targaryen player, but she is far from being the worst person. Joffrey Baratheon (Jack Gleeson), Littlefinger (Aidan Gillen), and Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) all put up a great fight for this title, but none of them had madness thrust upon them like the Targaryens do and no one simply assumed they could be mad because of their family name.

One reason for this saying could come from the Dance of the Dragons, which set the standard for how dangerous Targaryen madness can be to the whole realm. Their dragons wreak far more havoc than one king or queen, and collective memory is powerful, leading to sayings like the Targaryen coin-toss, which viewers usually take as an omen. It’s important to put all this into context, though, because let’s face it, the dragons are not the problem, the Iron Throne drives everyone around it mad and that’s been proven time and time again.

House of the Dragon is available to stream on HBO Max.