Prosthetic designer confirms: the baby was deformed
“When the babe at last came forth, she proved indeed a monster: a stillborn girl, twisted and malformed, with a hole in her chest where her heart should have been and a stubby, scaled tail. The dead girl had been named Visenya.
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.
Rhaenyra has had a tough couple weeks. First, she finds out that her half-brother Aegon II has usurped the throne and that she will have to fight for her claim as queen. Then, she gives birth to a stillborn child. And finally she loses her second eldest son Lucerys to a dragon battle.
Rhaenyra's baby did end up having scale-like defects and a malformed body in House of the Dragon, which aligns with the occasional reports of Targaryen women bearing dragon-like stillborn children. While House Targaryen professes to have the blood of the dragon, this wasn't thought to be intended literally.
Will Harwin return for future episodes? It's unlikely. By the end of Episode 6, Queen Alicent's political ally, Larys Strong, hires criminals to set Harrenhal on fire. Harwin and his father, Lyonel Strong, both die in the blaze.
When finally did give birth to the baby, it is said that the child had a hole where her heart should have been, a tail, and scales for skin—a monster, as her mother had cursed her to be. Upon her death, Rhaenyra swore yet another vow.
In a poetic end to the deadly war, Rhaenyra's son with Daemon became King Aegon III. He was also wed to his cousin, Aegon II's daughter Jaehaera. Their marriage reunited both sides of House Targaryen.
Rhaenyra's baby died during childbirth.
According to the book Visenya, like Maegor the cruel's children, was born with scaled dragon-like skin and a small tail. Apparently, she was also missing her heart and instead had a hole in her chest.
Jacaerys Velaryon Is Rhaenyra's Firstborn Son and Heir
Firstborn son of Rhaenyra and her first husband Laenor Velaryon, Jacaerys was affectionately known to his family as Jace.
Aemond killed Rhaenyra's son after a dragon chase through the rain, before which Aemond laughed and tried to cut out Luke's eye. The pursuit culminated in Aemond losing control of his dragon, which brutally chomped Luke and his dragon.
Aegon III, aka Aegon the Younger: Rhaenyra and Daemon's first child together.
Daemon and Rhaenyra share two children together: Aegon III and Viserys II.
Rhaenyra has been pregnant with her daughter Visenya since House of the Dragon's latest and last time jump, and it is heartbreaking to see her deal with this loss. The way in which the scene plays out makes it especially disturbing. RELATED: House of the Dragon: Which Dragon is Daemon Singing To?
One of the first times we see Rhaenyra as truly angry throughout the entirety of Season 1 is during the traumatic miscarriage of her daughter Visenya.
With him, she found a love so deep it filled the void in her heart, not to mention her womb. In 196 AC, the year of their marriage, she painstakingly produced a set of twins, Aegon and Aella.
Rhaenyra and Daemon both know Laenor is alive, and faked his death.
After days of complicated and agonizing labor, Visenya was stillborn, with George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood book suggesting the baby was malformed with dragon-like birth defects.
Aegon III Targaryen (131 AC to 157 AC)
He succeeded his uncle, Aegon II Targaryen, at the conclusion of the Dance of the Dragons, which saw the victorious supporters of his late mother Rhaenyra Targaryen install him on the throne. When he was a child, his dragon was Stormcloud.
As the two dragons struggled in the Battle Above the Gods Eye, Daemon plunged from Caraxes, wielding his sword Dark Sister and stabbing it into Aemond's remaining eye. Both dragons crashed into the Gods Eye, and Vhagar drowned with Aemond's body still chained to the saddle while Caraxes died on the shore.
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).
The shock of the loss of her father, combined with the Greens' ruthless betrayal sends her into early labor. Without modern medicine, a baby born so early had very little chance of survival in the best of circumstances - and in these terrible conditions the baby, a girl named Visenya, is stillborn.
Most babies born unexpectedly without a heartbeat can be successfully resuscitated in the delivery room. Of those successfully resuscitated, 48% survive with normal outcome or mild-moderate disability.
Joffrey Baratheon spoils Rhaenyra Targaryen's fate on Game of Thrones. As Joffrey tells us, eventually, Rhaenyra's half-brother Aegon Targaryen will feed her to his dragon Sunfyre. She dies as her son, Aegon III, watches. That's the bullet point version.
Like Laenor Velaryon's sexuality, it was a “known secret” in the Red Keep that Harwin Strong was the father to Rhaenyra's three children: Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey.