Rhaena Targaryen and Aerea Targaryen

Rhaena Targaryen and Aerea Targaryen’s relationship joined a mother’s grief and possessiveness to a daughter’s anger at separation and lost status. Aerea was not merely Rhaena’s child: as the daughter of Aegon the Uncrowned, she had long been heir to the Iron Throne, and she experienced the arrival of a rival claimant, her mother’s distance, and the loss of a hoped-for return to court as intertwined injuries. By the end of the Year of the Stranger, their conflict had become a flight that separated them, with no reunion recorded in the year’s remaining days.

Motherhood and the Question of Succession

Aerea was eleven when Princess Daenerys was born, and had considered herself heir to the Iron Throne for nearly all her life. The exception was the three days between her father Aegon’s birth and his death. The book presents her as strong-willed, bold-tongued, and fiery, and notes that she enjoyed the attention due to a queen-in-waiting. The newborn princess therefore altered more than a line of succession: she challenged a place in the future that Aerea had regarded as hers. Rhaena likely shared her daughter’s feelings about the change, but kept them to herself, even among her closest confidants. The evidence leaves that shared response unspoken; the subsequent conflict shows how differently mother and daughter voiced their claims.

The two had also been separated by Rhaena’s life away from Dragonstone. Aerea later told Alysanne Targaryen that her mother had once placed a dragon egg in her own cradle and cared for her as a mother, but had not done the same for Aerea. In the girl’s account, Rhaena had given her away and flown to Fair Isle. Aerea also recalled Elissa Farman saying she would take her, only to leave without her. These are Aerea’s explanations of abandonment, not an independent account of every decision behind the separations; their force lies in how plainly they reveal the history through which she understood her mother.

A Daughter in Rebellion

When Rhaena returned to Dragonstone in 54 AC, the daughter she encountered had become, in the chronicler’s account, a wild and defiant child. Aerea resisted her septa, her mother, and her maesters, mistreated servants, and missed prayers, lessons, and meals without permission. She also insulted members of Rhaena’s court. These acts made their household conflict visible beyond the private bond between them: Aerea challenged the authority of the adults responsible for her, while Rhaena faced a daughter who rejected the expectations imposed on her.

The queen’s visit to Dragonstone brought Aerea’s complaints into the open. Alysanne had tried to restore some order at the castle, where Rhaena was sunk in melancholy after losing friends and companions. When she turned to her niece, Aerea responded with anger rather than comfort. She questioned why the deaths of Rhaena’s companions should matter when her mother could find others, and contrasted her own childhood with Alysanne’s memories of being cared for by Rhaena. She was equally resentful of Daenerys: in her view, the younger princess should not be queen in her place. Yet beneath the anger was a direct appeal. Aerea asked Alysanne to take her to King’s Landing, where she wanted the court, its singers and fools, and its lords and knights. Her wish to leave Dragonstone was also a wish to recover the life and attention she believed she had lost.

Refusal, Flight, and Separation

Moved by Aerea’s distress, Alysanne promised to raise the request with Rhaena. When Rhaena emerged to eat, she rejected the idea: she believed her sister already had everything and would now take her daughter as well. Her response made the conflict more than a disagreement about where Aerea should live. Rhaena saw the proposed departure as another loss, while Aerea’s appeal had been grounded in her own experience of being left behind. That night, Rhaena summoned her daughter and rebuked her; their argument carried through the Stone Drum. Afterwards Aerea would no longer speak to Alysanne. Unable to reconcile mother and daughter, the queen returned to King’s Landing, leaving their dispute unresolved.

The breach soon became a physical separation. Aerea slipped into the yards at dawn, claimed Balerion, and fled Dragonstone on the great dragon associated with Maegor and with her father’s death. Rhaena arrived at the Red Keep on Dreamfyre, furious and desperate to learn where Aerea had gone. King Jaehaerys ordered ravens sent throughout the Seven Kingdoms, reasoning that Balerion’s size and appetite would make him difficult to conceal. No word came for seven days. Rhaena remained at the Red Keep during the search, at times enraged and at times shaking, and drank sweetwine to sleep. Daenerys was frightened by her aunt and cried when Rhaena came near.

Rhaena then left on Dreamfyre, saying she could not remain idle without finding her daughter. The account does not establish where Aerea went, whether Rhaena found her, or what became of their relationship after the search began. Its closing uncertainty is consequential: after a dispute in which each understood the other as taking something away, mother and daughter vanished from the record for the remainder of the cruel year. The bond is defined not by a settled reconciliation or final severance, but by the unanswered distance between Aerea’s flight and Rhaena’s pursuit.