Why The Targaryens Are So Much Weaker in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

The Targaryens have been a singularly dominant force in Westeros, but that’s not quite the case in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. While the focus of the Game of Thrones prequel has been on Dunk and Egg, it is also telling another story about House Targaryen, albeit one removed from the power base of King’s Landing. Rather than featuring the king – who at this point is Daeron II Targaryen – it shows us some of his children and grandchildren, from the honorable and decent Baelor to the monstrous Aerion.

The chief reason for this, of course, is that Egg is actually a Targaryen himself, with Episode 3 finally revealing the truth about his identity. But the show also highlights how this is a very different time for the family, and the latest installment does that even before its big twist. During the tourney, when Aerion kills his opponent’s horse in the joust, the smallfolk rise up in protest. They storm the field, and even throw things at the Targaryen prince (very comically knocking down the visor on his helm). While we’ve seen riots in both House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones, the smallfolk being so bold and openly attacking royalty speaks to how the house has lost some of its power.

A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Shows The Targaryens Without Any Dragons

There are no dragons in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and that’s the biggest problem facing House Targaryen. When Aegon Targaryen left Dragonstone to conquer Westeros, uniting most of its kingdoms under his rule (only Dorne successfully resisted), he did so with three terrifyingly large dragons: Balerion, Vhagar, and Meraxes. This was why the Targaryens so easily conquered the land and were able to unify it with the Iron Throne: it wasn’t political power, it was dragon power. And holding the threat of what’s essentially nukes over the head of everyone is an easy way to keep them in line.

The Dance of the Dragons, the Targaryen civil war that plays out in House of the Dragon, was the beginning of the end. As dragons fought dragons, only four of the beasts survived the end of the civil war. The last dragon, a small, sickly creature, died around 20 years after that, and they wouldn’t be seen again for approximately 150 years, when Daenerys Targaryen magically brought them back.

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Of course, there are about 130 years between the last dragon’s death and the Targaryen dynasty’s downfall in Robert’s Rebellion, so they don’t entirely lose their power. Thanks to the fact they are so entrenched as the rulers, with some periods of peace and prosperity, as well as strong political matches (particularly with the Reach and then Dorne), they remained on the Iron Throne.

Still, the veneer of invincibility, of them being seen as closer to gods than men, has been removed. They faced several rebellions and uprisings in that time (including one just 13 years before A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ timeline), and given Raymun Fossoway feels it safe to speak to Dunk about how much he despises them, they aren’t as well respected (or feared) by either nobles or smallfolk as they would once have been. This is, in part, why Aerion acts the way he does: he’s embarrassed by how far the Targaryens have fallen, and wants to remind people of who they really are, but all he does is highlight how much weaker they are now.

New episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms release Sundays at 10 pm ET on HBO. Due to the Super Bowl, Episode 4 will release early on HBO Max, dropping on Friday, February 6th at 12:01 am PT / 3:01 am ET.

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