Black Targaryens?!?!?

​
    How exciting and equally tragic to see people of African-descent as members of the aristocracy in HBO’s newly imagined House of the Dragon (HotD), a spinoff from Game of Thrones (GoT).  Obviously, in watching previews, which shared visuals akin to what is pictured above, it is ever so clear that HotD integrates People of Color into the GoT world.  Thus, in sitting through the first episode, I had a visceral reaction to the image of a Black Targaryen: brown-complexions with blond/white dreadlocks standing next to their kinsmen with pale white-skin and ashen-blond tresses.  As a matter of fact, I sat on the edge of my seat, picking at my fingernails—akin to a young Alicent Hightower as she is so often seen doing in the initial episode.  For, as minutes passed in Episode #1-“The Heirs of the Dragon,” I recalled split-second images of Corlys in previews (second from the left), and I was anxious to learn more about him and the other faces that quickly flashed across the screen in the lead-up to the debut?  What would his relationship to Daenyrs (GoT) be?  


    As the opening credits rolled and the new series began, it became clear that Corlys is a distant, blood relation to Daenyrs, and as we will learn, he is the patriarch of the lost family of Black Targaryens.  He is husband to Rhaenys, “The Queen Who Never Was," and arguably, the fall of the House Targaryen began with her, or with her partriarch, Jaehaerys I.  What goes awry?  Being the eldest granddaughter and the only child of of Jaehaerys I’s first-born, Aemon, who is deceased, Rhaenys was the rightful heir to the throne. However, as the King’s Council would not support seating a woman on the Iron Throne, Rhaenys is displaced by her cousin, Viserys I, the eldest child of Aemon’s brother, Baelon, who has also died.  Thus, Corlys, the Black man, fathers an estranged monarchal line.  For, clearly, had the Targaryen succession progressed properly, Rhaenys would have been Queen of Kings Landing, and upon her death, the crown would have passed to either her daughter Laena (the elder of the two--cut out of the frame above but depicted below in the caption to the left) or her son Laenor (standing behind Coryls above in the middle of the shot), should Laena have not wished for or accepted her duty.  Then, if Laena was still wed to Daemon, the line of succession would have fallen to Baela or Rhaena—their children (the two girls pictured below on the right).  Cool!!  Right?  Long before Daenyrs, viewers could have met, possibly, three dragon-riding, Targaryen Queens, powerful women and rightful inheritors of the “Game of Thrones”—two of them being Black or Mix-“raced” Women of Color—based on the HotD rendering airing on HBO, which does differ from George R.R. Martin’s original vision--although they are referred to as "The Blacks," which becomes indicative of Rhaenyra's Black and Red as opposed to Aemon II's Green dragon sigils (Kawakami).   


    Thus, for me—someone intrigued with how women/girls of African-descent are captured in SF material—I find it curious that the above outcome never came to—could not come to—fruition in our visualized GoT dimension.  For it is a fact that no “African-blood” appears to run through the veins of any surviving Targaryens, when we meet them in Game of Thrones.  So, I am wrestling with the bittersweet positioning of characters like Laena, Baela, and Rhaena in House of the Dragon.  First, in a rather exciting way, Rhaenys is the matriarch of a line of Black Targaryen Queens.  Wow, let’s wrap our minds around that thought and, remember images of Laena riding the back of the biggest dragon, Vhagar (captured in Episode 6-“The Princess and the Queen”).  Yet, as the rules of the Old World would have it, no one is ready for such a contingency, and quickly the monarchal line is disrupted.  Is it paranoid to think that part of the realm’s unease with supporting Rhaenys’s bid for the throne, was a realization that the power would pass to a Person of Color, moreover, quite possibly, another woman/women?  Albeit that there is no evidence of George R.R. Martin penning these characters as Black women, HotD forces viewers to contend with such an option as a result of the casting choices.  Second, if gender remained a primary concern and people grew wary of a woman’s leadership, especially following Rhaenys’s leadership, the throne could have passed to her son, Laenor.  However, placing a Black gay man in the line of succession complicates the matter further.  Again, this reading is based on the televised/streaming HBO Series.  Even though Laenor is a reputable fighter, avid adventurer, able seaman, and dragon-rider (as shown in the Battle with the Crab-King (Episode 3-“Second of His Name”), within the hyper-masculine, masochistic, patriarchal society of this imagined world (the brutal tournament scenes, knights, princes, a Kingsguard, and plenty of swords-play and other fight-scenes), the failures of Laenor’s rule are only all too obvious.  Unlike his virile father, Corlys—the “Sea Snake, known for his strategic mind, wealth, and masterful leadership (“Character Guide”), who Rhaenys charges with being obsessed with legacy (Episode 7-“Driftwood”)—Laenor is not interested in the power or position that he inherits when marrying Rhaenyra.  As shown from the start of the season and elucidated so well in Episode 7—when Rhaenyra talks with her betrothed and decides to free him from this obligation—viewers learn that the couple consummated their vows, but Rhaenyra does not get pregnant.  Moreover, aware of her own sexual appetites and a need for males heirs, she pursues a relationship with Ser Harwin Strong--heir to Harrenhal, giving birth to Jacaerys and Lucerys, her surviving sons.  Laenor is too busy cavorting with friends, fellow seaman, or guards, thus not only disinterested in but, possibly, unable to procreate with his wife.  Herein is where the introduction of  “race” in these characters becomes exceptionally problematic.


     Again, it is untenable for a Black woman to ascend to the throne, hence the removal of Rhaenys, preventing the inheritance from passing to Laena.  Next, even with the façade of a Black man being the Princess-Queen’s Consort, Laenor is not the young sires’s biological father.  Thus, they look nothing like Corlys and his other descendants (melaninated skin and, what has now become, the iconic bleached-blond dreadlocks that are worn so proudly by their grandfather, father, aunt, and cousins).  Consequently, Rhaenyra’s children have no blood-ties—to Laenor or Corlys, even though they carry the Velaryon name.  Do you see the trouble that I am having here?  The Black women are removed from the line of succession, and when it is doled out to the males, these individuals are not People of African-descent.  What is happening here?   


    Obviously, the creators of House of the Dragon recognized a significant oversight in the original Game of Thrones series.  Unquestionably, GoT mirrors a European-descended world,   harkening back to Arthurian themes repeatedly set on the fields and arial views of worlds like  Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit, and the like.  In this regard, it is interesting to see HotD creators aspire to remedy this oversight in their prequel.  However, as I have set forth above, the inclusion is rife with disturbing complications.  For, no matter what unfurls on HotD, viewers cannot ignore an irrefutable fact.  There are no People of Color—except, conceivably the citizens of Dorn or those living in Penthos or across the Narrow Sea in the imagined GoT timeline—certainly not within the hierarchal ruling families.  Furthermore, as displayed on Vox’s Targaryen Family Tree, Laenor, Baela, and Rhaena do not have children (Romero), and so, by the time we meet Daenerys, there are no visible Black Targaryens remaining.  Therefore, no matter how thrilling it is to see the diversity evidenced in HotD, the absence of such plurality in GoT only reinforces the problematic erasure of People of African-descent in Old World Fantasy Fiction.


Works Cited
“Character Guide.”  HBO Original.  Game of Thrones.  House of the Dragon.  Home Box Office, Inc. 2022.  https://www.hbo.com/house-of-the-dragon/character-guide.  Accessed 5 October 2022. 


“Driftwood.”  House of the Dragon, season 1, episode 7, Home Box Office.  October 2022.  HBO.  https://play.hbomax.com/page/urn:hbo:page:GYtp0KQgCF73DYAEAAAAJ:type:episode
Accessed 5 October 2022.


Game of Thrones (8 seasons).  Created by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.  Home Box Office.  Television 360, Grok! Studio, 2011-2019.


“The Heirs of the Dragon.”  House of the Dragon, season 1, episode 1, Home Box Office. October 2022.  HBO.   
https://play.hbomax.com/page/urn:hbo:page:GYsYeyA2EnHmangEAAAPc:type:episode.  Accessed 5 October 2022. 


“The Princess and the Queen.”  House of the Dragon, season 1, episode 6, Home Box Office.  October 2022. HBO.  
https://play.hbomax.com/page/urn:hbo:page:GYs1wfgSiqkqupQEAAAVB:type:episode.  Accessed 5 October 2022.


Romero, Aja.  “This Targaryen family tree explains Jon Snow’s parentage—and sets up House of the Dragon:  Untangling one of Game of Thrones’s biggest secrets.”  August 19, 2022.  Vox.  Vox Media, LLC 2022.  https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/7/17/15982450/house-targaryen-family-tree-fanart.  Accessed 4 October 2022.

Kawakami, Robin. "The Black vs. Greens in 'House of the Dragon,' explained:  who has the edge?" October 16, 2022.  Today.  NBC Universal, 2022 https://www.today.com/popculture/tv/house-of-the-dragon-greens-blacks-explained-rcna51664.  Accessed 10 November 2022,.

---