Her husband, King Viserys
While Aemma is conscious, she really doesn't get a say in what happens to her body. Viserys chooses the child, and a very gruesome caesarean procedure is done (no anaesthesia) to get the child out. Due to the extreme blood loss, Aemma dies.
Viserys was given a choice: Sacrifice the mother for the baby or leave it up to the gods to decide who will live. Overzealous in his pursuit of a son, Viserys chooses to save the baby via unmedicated cesarean.
As emotional as the scene in House of the Dragon was, it was also a scene that revealed to us just where everyone's loyalties lie. Miscommunications aside, the scene demonstrated loyalty not only to House Targaryen but also to Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) as Viserys' chosen heir.
Viserys very clearly refers to his daughter Rhaenyra as “my only child”.
Jacaerys, Rhaenyra's eldest son, and his two younger brothers have spent their short lives surrounded by whispers that their real father was Ser Harwin Strong.
Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) and Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) finally had sex on House of the Dragon. After teasing their deep connection for weeks, making out in a brothel, and flirting their way through King's Landing, uncle and niece at long last did the dirty.
Viserys tells his daughter, Princess Rhaenyra, that Aegon “foresaw the end of the world of men. It is to begin with a terrible winter, gusting out of the distant North.
Rhaenyra's Legacy
Ultimately, however, it is Rhaenyra's line that lives on: after Aegon II dies without male heirs, Rhaenyra and Daemon's oldest surviving son takes the throne as Aegon III, followed by their younger son, Viserys II.
Firstly, Rhaenyra has a purer Targaryen bloodline than Aegon, as Viserys' first wife was Aemma Arryn, who was Rhaenyra's mother and cousin to Viserys. Due to the Targaryen family's obsession with keeping the bloodline as pure as possible, they would inbreed with other family members.
Alicent later decides that Aegon should marry his own sister Princess Helaena, with the pair later having children together. Following the death of King Viserys, the Greens install Aegon as the King on the Iron Throne and he is crowned in the Dragonpit of King's Landing.
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.
He died saving the life of his brother, King Aegon IV Targaryen.
At the end of the episode – after Viserys has exerted himself attending a supper he hoped would mend bridges between the family's Green and Black factions – the King is attended by Alicent but mistakes her for Rhaenyra. Big mistake. Big. Huge.
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.
Viserys marries his cousin Aemma (Sian Brooke), who gives birth to Rhaenyra Targaryen. Unfortunately, the couple is unable to have a male heir. In the first episode of House of the Dragon, Aemma dies in childbirth after Viserys cruelly forces her to have a C-section against her consent. Their son, too, dies.
But the death of Rhaenyra's son Lucerys at the hands of Aegon's brother Aemond—mistake or not—enraged Rhaenyra and kicked off a civil war that will play out over several seasons. Rhaenyra and her husband Daemon are now scrabbling for allies.
With both Rhaenyra and Aegon gone, there's one clear person to inherit the throne: Rhaenyra's son Aegon, known as “Aegon the younger” in the books (her older sons had all died by this point).
Rhaenyra's three eldest sons all died fighting during the Dance of the Dragons, but her two youngest sons, the sons by her second husband, Prince Daemon, survived the civil war.
Flash forward a bit, and when Viserys dies in 129, Aegon is crowned Aegon II, and Rhaenyra isn't told of her father's death. This leads to an all-out civil war between the Targaryen families, and many (read: almost all) of them dying.
Viserys Confirms That He Wants Rhaenyra as Heir.
When she was 17, Daemon tried to seduce her in a brothel as a ploy to have her virtue questioned and make Viserys marry her to him. However, realizing Rhaenyra was actually excited by his sexual advances and that he actually had feelings for her, Daemon stopped and abandoned her.
We last saw her find out the truth in "We Light the Way" that Rhaenyra lost her virginity to Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel).
While House Of The Dragon episode 4 showed Daemon was able to seduce Rhaenyra by kissing and undressing her, he couldn't fulfill the act due to impotence.
1 Daemon Probably Loves Rhaenyra
However, Fire & Blood gives some insights into Daemon's character, which House of the Dragon only touches on in the last episodes of Season 1. Daemon shows his genuine care and attention to Rhaenyra several times before the two marry.