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.
As per George RR Martin's source material, Rhaenyra's first daughter was named Visenya, after Aegon the Conqueror's wife.
House of the Dragon's season 1 finale includes quick shots of Rhaenyra's dragon Syrax during her traumatizing birth scene – here's what they mean.
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.
Out of the Targaryen dynasty, I found that Rhaenyra, Danaerys, and the wives of Maegor the Cruel gave birth to monstrous, dragon-like stillbirths. “He was scaled like a lizard, blind, with a stub of a tail and small leather wings like the wings of a bat.
Rhaenyra later makes him her first Lord Commander of her Queensguard wheere as Ser Erryk is already on Dragonstone. Princess Rhaenyra is a few months pregnant when she hears about her father's death. In the books, she is eight months pregnant. In both cases she gives birth to a malformed stillborn daughter.
The final draft, as featured in The Rogue Prince and The World of Ice & Fire, has Rhaenyra married first to Laenor Velaryon, by whom she had three sons, (Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey Velaryon) who were all rumored to have been fathered by Ser Harwin Strong.
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.
Rhaenyra Targaryen
Rhaenyra received the shock of her life when she came to know that her father had passed away and her throne had been usurped by her half-brother. That caused her to go into premature labor.
Why did Rhaenyra's baby have scales? As such, Rhaenyra's baby in House of the Dragon wasn't born with greyscale, but rather a blood-related, Targaryen-specific dragon scale defect sometimes seen in their stillborn babies.
While Daemon and Rhaenyra have been circling each other for quite some time, the finale revealed a darker and more toxic aspect of their relationship when, arguing over how to proceed against Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney), Daemon chokes Rhaenyra in order to get his point across.
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.
Eventually, it's Daemon and Rhaenyra's two sons who end up sitting on the Iron Throne, but is that for a future series? The Velaryons survive, but in recent years Ser Corlys has come to support the Greens, after falling out with Rhaenyra and being accused of treason (unfairly).
Rhaenyra doesn't just lose her baby, but this happens in an unnecessarily long and detailed scene that could have been dedicated to literally anything else. It is a mind-boggling choice, and just the first of the violences enacted upon her in the finale.
The sides — nicknamed the Greens and the Blacks — dominate the latter half of the season, and any potential future seasons. Daemon, Rhaenyra and Alicent have 11 kids among them by the eighth episode, which is set about six years after the "Driftmark" episode.
Rhaenyra and Daemon's Marriage
Soon after being widowed, Daemon and Rhaenyra marry each other in secret when he is 39 years old, and she is 23. Their marriage causes a huge scandal at court and another rift between Daemon and Viserys, but it is eventually accepted. The couple has two sons together, Aegon and Viserys.
Guinness World Records officially named Curtis Means, born at 21 weeks and one day at UAB Hospital, the most premature infant to survive. Videography: Andrea Reiber, Jeff Myers, Carson Young and Steve Wood.
Prematurity is NOT a major cause of mental retardation, but children born extremely premature are much more likely to develop mental retardation than children born healthy at term. Several conditions associated with prematurity increase a child's risk for mental retardation.
The show has got the speed of the disease correct. King Viserys has lived with leprosy for many decades and the disease has grown very slowly.
Apart from the final scene, the finale also showcased an important thing that might have been overlooked. Rhaenyra Targaryen goes into labor and after hours of agonizing pain, gives birth. However, her child appears to be a dragon.
Rhaenyra, recalling the death of her mother in childbirth, refuses help from her maidens as the pregnancy wreaks havoc on her body. Knowing something is wrong, she gives birth all by herself.
After Rhaego's father, Drogo, becomes sick from an infected wound, the sorceress Mirri Maz Duur saves Drogo's life by using blood magic. One of the effects of that magic is that Rhaego dies right before birth. According to Mirri Maz Duur, he was inhuman, hideously deformed and covered in dragon-like scales.
Rhaenyra's sixth pregnancy in House of the Dragon sets up one of the most utterly tragic moments still to come. House of the Dragon frequently emphasizes the dangers of childbirth and pregnancy for women in Westeros, with the two major characters Laena Velaryon and Aemma Arryn already dying from such complications.
It isn't explicitly stated in the show, but because we learn after episode six that all three boys have dark brown hair — and despite Rhaenyra and Laenor's matching blond color — it has been strongly implied that they are actually the children of Ser Harwin Strong, the Lord Commander of the City Watch.
With Rhaenyra's relationship with Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) seemingly over for good, it's a mystery. Until you watch Episode 6, that is. Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for House of the Dragon Episode 6! “The Princess and the Queen” opens up with Rhaenyra giving birth to her third child, another boy.