At this point, Viserys, who is drugged on milk of the poppy only replies to Rhaenyra by calling her his only child.
After mourning his beloved's tragic death (which in part was inflicted by his decision to let her undergo the fatal labor procedure), he opted to crown his only child from his first marriage as the heir to the Iron Throne instead of allowing his brother to take on the post.
Rhaenyra was King Viserys I's only living child by his first wife, Queen Aemma of House Arryn. At the age of eight, she was made her father's heir, and grew up expecting to become the first ruling Queen of Westeros. Rhaenyra was a dragonrider whose mount was Syrax.
Rhaenyra names her second child with Daemon, Viserys, honoring her late father and Daemon's older brother. Her third child was Visenya, named after one of the most powerful queens of the Targaryen dynasty. This shows that the couple wanted to honor their ancestors.
While they struggled to get along in the early years after Aemma's death, Viserys seemed determined to show Rhaenyra his support in every situation. His love for his daughter was more powerful than the love he had for any of his other children, and he seemed to truly want little more than to see her happy.
Her husband, King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine), was forced to make the choice between saving his wife or his son or lose them both. Viserys chooses his son — the potential future heir to his throne — over his beloved wife.
Daemon uses Rhaenyra for her position, and by being the first man to be intimate with her, he ensures that no other man would want to marry her. In the books, however, Rhaenyra was in love with Daemon and had always been besotted with him.
It is you. You are the one. You must do this. You must do this." In many ways, for Rhaenyra who has always felt the pressure of the realm preferring her younger half-brother over her, this would have been a solid confirmation that even in his last moments, Viserys does not regret naming her as his heir.
Earlier in the season, Viserys revealed to young Rhaenyra the dream of their ancestor Aegon the Conqueror, a secret knowledge that has been passed down to successive Targaryen monarchs.
Unlike the King's relationship with his other three children with Alicent, Rhaenyra was clearly his favorite child, consistently defending her and remaining adamant that she was his successor.
According to the accounts of Septon Eustace, prior to her turning sixteen, Rhaenyra lost her virginity to her uncle, Prince Daemon, after he seduced her.
At this point, Viserys, who is drugged on milk of the poppy only replies to Rhaenyra by calling her his only child. It's a tough look considering he has three other children with Alicent, but it's clear that, in many ways, Rhaenyra has always been his favorite child and the one he is closest with.
This includes Daemon and Rhaenyra's two trueborn kids — who have the silvery-white hair to prove it — as well as Joffrey Velaryon, the only child with a name that defies Valyrian tradition, and one unnamed and unmentioned child.
In a recent podcast interview with Entertainment Weekly, Paddy Considine — the actor portraying Viserys — revealed that his character has a kind of leprosy. “He's actually suffering from a form of leprosy. His body is deteriorating, his bones are deteriorating. He's not actually old.
In 105 AC, Aemma died in labor birthing the king's son and heir, whom Viserys named Baelon after his late father, Prince Baelon the Brave, but the infant died a day after Aemma.
So, who is the real father of Rhaenyra's children? In the show and in George R.R. Martin's Fire and Blood novel, it is heavily implied that Ser Harwin Strong, a knight and the captain of the City's Watch, is the true father of Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey.
He Mistakes Alicent For Rhaenyra
Viserys put a lot of stock in Aegon the Conqueror's dream. It's this dream that he relays to his daughter, to pass on as family lore and emphasize the importance of keeping power in the family.
WARNING: This post contains SPOILERS for House of the Dragon season 1, episode 4 and Fire & Blood! After seducing Rhaenyra in House of the Dragon episode 4, Daemon tries convincing Viserys to marry Rhaenyra to him, but the fact that he didn't actually sleep with her reveals his true intentions.
She says this to him because she believes that Viserys told Daemon about Aegon's dream, like he told Rhaenyra about it after he made her heir. Not understanding this, Daemon grabs her by the neck and tells her that Viserys was a man who was a slave to his prophecies.
This isn't the case, though: Viserys thought he was talking to Rhaenyra. "I saw him last night, before he … he told me he wished for Aegon to be king," Alicent tells her father Otto Hightower, the Hand of the King. "It is the truth, uttered with his own lips, his last words to me and I was the only one to hear it.
In fact, the show makes that abundantly clear in episode 3 when Otto (the Hand of the King) suggests that Rhaenyra marry her half-brother Prince Aegon. Sure, King Viserys was shocked at the idea—but only because of their age difference, not because they were related, which, uh, wow!
Clearly, at this point, he thinks he's talking to Rhaenyra again, and even though Alicent doesn't understand his talk of the Song of Ice and Fire, she latches on to the name Aegon when Visersy' murmurs it.
Rhaenyra will have two marriages (and two lovers) in House of the Dragon, with six children (technically three by each husband, the suspicion that the first three are by another man is a source of much violence and discord in Westeros).
It was abundantly clear in the season finale that Daemon truly values Rhaenyra as the queen, and it doesn't appear to be for his own gain. All of his actions indicate that he looks to her as his leader even before she's taken power and has every intention to get her to her rightful throne.
We last saw her find out the truth in "We Light the Way" that Rhaenyra lost her virginity to Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel).