In House of the Dragon episode 7, we discovered that Queen Alicent Hightower wanted her eldest son Aegon II Targaryen to marry her daughter Helaena Targaryen instead. This was after Rhaenyra proposed marriage between Helaena and her eldest son Jacaerys Velaryon. Aegon is not very willing to go ahead with this idea as he supposedly finds Helaena to be an idiot. Moreover, they have nothing in common. However, Queen Alicent has already made up her mind and insists they get married. But why is she so adamant about this match? Here are the reasons that seem plausible to us.
Strengthen Aegon’s claim to the Iron Throne
Aemond and Aegon talk about Alice deciding to marry Helaena
When Aegon complained about having to marry Helaena, Aemond seemed to be the smarter one. Aemond himself says the marriage would strengthen Aegon II Targaryen’s claim to the Iron Throne. After all, having two Targaryens married and producing children would further strengthen their Valyrian blood. However, that reason has now been undermined by Rhaenyra and Daemon. With Princess Rhaenyra marrying Daemon, she further solidified her claim. This is keeping in mind Daemon’s military experience, his victory in the Stepstones, and the reputation that precedes him. Also, the children of Rhaenyra and Daemon would be even purer in blood than the children of Aegon and Helaena.
Prevent Helaena and Jacaerys’ marriage proposal
Rhaenyra proposes the marriage of Jacaerys and Helaena to Alicent in House of the Dragon
During Episode 6 of House of the Dragon, Rhaenyra proposed marriage between her eldest son Jacaerys and Alicent’s daughter Helaena. It was an attempt to mend the broken relationship between her and Alicent and bury the hatchet. However, it was also a calculated game made by Rhaenyra to try to prevent any opposition to her request. After all, Jacaerys was her heir, which would make Helaena the princess consort. This would have at least reduced the tension between greens and blacks.
Not only Queen Alicent didn’t want that, but she didn’t want a union between her and Rhaenyra either. She refused to bury the hatchet and her hatred for Rhaenyra would not relent. Another reason why she refused this proposal was because of the questionable parentage of Jacaerys Targaryen. So the only way to prevent such a proposal from happening again was to marry off Helaena to one of her sons.
Make sure the offspring of Aegon and Helaena will have the Targaryen and Valyrian characteristics of silver hair
Queen Alicent wants to make sure her grandkids have silver hair in House of the Dragon
The final reason was that Alicent Hightower wanted to ensure that Aegon’s son would have the signature Valyrian features of platinum silver hair. Alicent had seen how the black hair of the children of Rhaenyra had greatly threatened her claim to the Iron Throne. She wanted to avoid such incidents with her children, especially Aegon who hopefully would one day sit on the throne. Moreover, there was a good chance that Aegon would pass on his mother’s genes to his typical children of House Hightower. These genes would result in darker brown hair. However, if Aegon were to marry Helaena, the union of their blood would have a much better chance of producing pure Valyrian offspring with silver hair.
Helaena may be a dragon dreamer
Helaena Targaryen can predict the future as a dragon dreamer in House of the Dragon
Although Alicent doesn’t seem very aware that Helaena Targaryen is a dragon dreamer, she might have an idea. Having a greenside dragon dreamer would be a great advantage for Alicent and help advance Aegon’s claim. However, this reason is not foolproof as Helaena herself does not know that she is making prophecies. If she knew, she probably would have warned Aemond about losing his eye by claiming Vhagar.
