Rhaena Targaryen and Alysanne Targaryen

Rhaena Targaryen and Alysanne Targaryen are sisters whose bond is tested when Alysanne travels to Dragonstone to comfort Rhaena after a devastating loss. Alysanne offers practical help and tries to reach both her sister and her niece, but Rhaena’s grief turns those efforts into a source of conflict, ending with Alysanne’s return to King’s Landing without Aerea.

A Visit Made in Grief

While Jaehaerys and his council considered a new Hand, Alysanne was away from King’s Landing, having flown Silverwing to Dragonstone to be with Rhaena. The visit was an act of family care, but Rhaena was in no state to receive it easily. The loss of her friends and companions had plunged her into deep melancholy, and even the mention of Androw Farman provoked fits of rage. She tried three times to send Alysanne away and, on one occasion, screamed at her in front of half the castle.

When Alysanne remained, Rhaena withdrew to her chambers and barred the doors. She came out only to eat, and did so less and less often. Her sister could not draw her into conversation or offer the solace she had come to give; Rhaena’s withdrawal made even continued presence feel unwelcome.

Care for the Household, and a Niece’s Rejection

Unable to comfort Rhaena directly, Alysanne tried to restore some order to Dragonstone. She arranged for a new maester and a new captain for the garrison, and her own beloved Septa Edyth came to take the place of Rhaena’s much-mourned Septa Maryam. These measures show Alysanne responding to the household’s losses through practical care even as her sister kept her at a distance.

Alysanne then turned to her niece, Aerea Targaryen, but found anger there too. Aerea resented the deaths of Rhaena’s companions and accused her mother of replacing them easily. When Alysanne recalled that Rhaena had once placed a dragon’s egg in her cradle and cared for her as if she were her mother, Aerea contrasted that tenderness with her own experience: Rhaena had given her no egg, she said, but had left her behind when she flew to Fair Isle. Aerea also resented Alysanne’s love for her own daughter and said that she, not Alysanne, should be queen.

That anger eventually gave way to tears. Aerea asked Alysanne to take her back to court, where she hoped to be among singers, fools, lords, and knights. She said that Elissa Farman had promised to take her but had gone away and forgotten her. Alysanne promised only to raise the request with Rhaena; she could not take her niece without her mother’s consent.

A Sisterly Bond Under Strain

When Rhaena next emerged for a meal, she rejected the proposal. She accused Alysanne of having everything, including her throne, and now wanting to take her daughter as well. That response turned Alysanne’s attempted care for Aerea into a fresh injury in Rhaena’s eyes. The scene places their sisterly relationship under competing pressures: Alysanne was trying to comfort Rhaena and respond to Aerea’s distress, while Rhaena, isolated by grief, experienced the proposed separation from her daughter as another loss.

That same night, Rhaena summoned Aerea to her chambers and berated her. Their argument could be heard through the Stone Drum, and afterward Aerea refused to speak to Alysanne. Unable to reconcile mother and daughter or bring her niece with her, Alysanne returned to King’s Landing, where Jaehaerys and their daughter Daenerys awaited her. The episode leaves the sisters’ bond intact but painfully exposed: Alysanne’s persistence could keep her beside Rhaena for a time, but it could not overcome the anger and grief that shaped their encounter.