House Of The Dragon And Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Are Totally Different Shows, But The New Spinoff Vindicated Rhaenyra In A Very Satisfying Way

Only two episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms have aired so far on HBO in the 2026 TV schedule, but the newest Game of Thrones spinoff didn’t even need more than the first five minutes to prove how different it is from House of the Dragon. One show is almost entirely populated by Targaryens and their relatives; Targaryens are few and far between on the other. Several generations have passed between the timeline of House of the Dragon, so the series really could be taken pretty separately.

That said, there’s one element of Knight of the Seven Kingdoms that I believe vindicates Rhaenyra in the TV version of Westeros. It feels more accurate to George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood than the show actually based on that fictional history book. For that, though, we do have to start out with a branch of the Targaryen family tree that has barely been explored just yet.

Note for spoiler-phobes: there are no spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 3 or A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms beyond Episode 2, but I will touch on George R.R. Martin’s Targaryen lore from Fire & Blood.

The Targaryens Of A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms So Far

The Targaryens rode into the tourney in the second episode, with the immediate joke of Baelor being announced as “Firstborn son of King Daeron the Good, Prince of Dragonstone, Hand of the King, and Heir to the Iron Throne,” followed anticlimactically with “...and his brother, Maekar." By the end of the episode, we had these updates on the Targaryens in the show:

King Daeron's Sons

• Crown Prince Baelor, first in line to the Iron Throne
• Prince Maekar

Baelor's Son

• Prince Valarr, second in line to the Iron Throne

Maekar's Sons

• Prince Daeron (officially missing)
• Prince Aerion
• Prince Aegon (officially missing)

While we’re certain to learn more about these Targaryens in the coming weeks of Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, there are already some things clear. For one, Baelor appears to be the responsible and respectable heir to the throne, whereas Maekar gets to be snarky and sulky as a younger son. Baelor has dark hair and a mostly dark beard, while Maekar has hair as white as any we’ve seen on House of the Dragon.

Prince Valarr hasn’t been featured much, but what we have seen of him indicates that he’s 1) brave in a joust, 2) capable on a horse, 3) less grating than his cousin, and 4) seemingly dark-haired.

Aerion is the only one of Maekar's sons openly presenting himself as such so far, with the other two MIA and – to paraphrase Dunk – hopefully not dead. He too has hair so white that it’s worthy of Daemon Targaryen on House of the Dragon. (His attitude is also reminiscent of Daemon on HOTD.)

Bear With Me: Genetics, Targaryen-Style

There’s been no indication in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms that Baelor and Maekar are anything other than full-blooded siblings with the same mother and father, with George R.R. Martin’s lore telling us that those parents are Daeron II Targaryen and Myriah Martell of Dorne.

One brother and his son have the white hair that fans have come to associate with Targaryens as far back as the pilot of Game of Thrones; the other brother and his son have dark hair they would have inherited from their Dornish mother and grandmother.

We don’t have data points for any of Daeron and Myriah’s other children to say which parent they take after, but Baelor and Maekar are enough to prove that multiple Targaryens can be born to the same parents and turn out to have either dark hair or the traditional white. Both brothers have the same amount of Targaryen blood from their father, and Baelor seems quite popular as next in line for the throne.

So where was this acceptance from the realm when Rhaenyra was the heir and had three dark-haired sons?!

Rhaenyra’s Eldest Sons Could Have Been Laenor's (In Theory)

Look, I know and you know and anybody who has watched House of the Dragon knows that Rhaenyra’s oldest three sons are actually the children of Ser Harwin Strong rather than her first husband, Laenor Velaryon. But Jace, Luke, and Joffrey were all physically born of Rhaenyra’s body, so there was no denying that they had as much Targaryen blood as any member of the family who married a non-relative, and having dark hair shouldn’t have been enough for the realm to declare them bastards.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ dark-haired heir to the throne with a white-haired younger brother is seen as perfectly valid by the time of the spinoff; the same should have been true for Rhaenyra at the time of the Dance of the Dragons. Nobody had any actual proof that Jace, Luke, and Joff were Harwin’s sons, as they were claimed as sons by Laenor and accepted as grandsons by King Viserys. Legally, they weren’t bastards, and blaming their looks wasn’t valid.

What House Of The Dragon Could Have Done Better For Rhaenyra

After his descriptions of his “abysmal” relationship with showrunner Ryan Condal (and HBO’s CEO acknowledging the “dysfunction”), I have no doubt that George R.R. Martin would agree with me that House of the Dragon could have done some things much better in translating Fire & Blood to the small screen. As far as I'm concerned, the show sabotaged Rhaenyra from the jump by not matching Rhaenys’ appearance to the book.

Because in Fire & Blood, we learn that as the daughter of Prince Aemon Targaryen and Lady Jocelyn Baratheon, Rhaenys had dark hair. That should have been true in Fire & Blood as well to match with the Game of Thrones canon about dark-haired, blue-eyed Baratheons that helped Ned connect the dots about Jaime and Cersei.

Book Laenor still had the traditional pale Targaryen hair, but if Rhaenys had been given her dark hair in the show, Rhaenyra could have gotten away with claiming that her three kids got their dark hair from their grandmother. Show Rhaenyra having an affair with Harwin Strong, and seeing from Jace that their children would likely take after their father, seems ludicrous.

House of the Dragon has done many characters dirty, but the color of Eve Best’s wig managed to sabotage Rhaenyra as an adult. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms isn’t afraid of Targaryens with dark hair (who aren't red herrings in human form like Jon Snow), and more room for doubt about Rhaenyra’s kids would have made the conflict between the Greens and the Blacks more compelling.

So, I’m going to take Baelor and Valarr’s hair from their Dornish mother as vindication for Rhaenyra, whose dark-haired sons should have been accepted as legitimate by the realm. (Also, it’s possible that the long wait for HOTD Season 3 is getting to me.)

See more of how A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms handles Targaryens with new episodes on Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on HBO and/or streaming with an HBO Max subscription.