The much-anticipated first trailer for the second season of House of the Dragon has finally been released. I don’t know about you, but I am once again entirely obsessed with this messed-up family of terrible rulers and their fire-breathing lizards. I will be insufferable once the summer of 2024 comes and we actually get those eight episodes.
Among the many details of the trailer that made me go to my calendar to count down just how long we have to wait is that one single shot of Baela Targaryen, played by actress Bethany Antonia, screaming while flying on dragonback. So let’s do a bit of a deep dive into what might be going on in that scene and what we can expect from Baela come season 2.
Is Baela Targaryen part of the Dance of the Dragons?
The short answer is yes, of course. As the daughter of Prince Daemon Targaryen and Lady Laena Velaryon—played respectively by Matt Smith and Nanna Blondell—both Baela and her twin sister Rhaena, played by actress Phoebe Campbell, are firmly within the Black faction supporting their father’s new wife-slash-old niece, Emma D’Arcy’s Rhaenyra Targaryen. Season 1’s final episode even saw the two being called to stand at Queen Rhaenyra’s war table, a clear sign of their high-ranking position within the Blacks.
Plus, let’s not forget that both girls are engaged to Rhaenyra’s eldest sons. While Lucerys met his end above the skies of Storm’s End at the hand and fang of Aemond Targaryen and his reptile weapon of mass destruction, Baela’s intended, Jacaerys, is very much still alive—meaning that Baela is set to become Princess consort of Dragonstone and future Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, should the Blacks prevail.
So it’s safe to say that Baela will definitely fight in the Dance that is to come, even more so than Rhaena—and that’s because Baela is already a dragonrider. Her dragon, Moondancer, described as being slender and a pale green color, is young by the time the fighting starts but is described as very quick both in the sky and on the ground. While in Fire and Blood, she’s described as barely big enough to carry her rider on short rides, House of the Dragon might have made Moondancer a little bigger—because that one shot of Baela in the trailer suggests that she’s very much engaged in some aerial battle.
As for what that battle might be, there are three possible options when looking back at the source material in Fire and Blood—that is, of course, unless the HotD showrunners have chosen to add something that veers away from it. There will be spoilers ahead until the end of this article, so proceed at your own risk.
The first option is that Baela and Moondancer ride to the Battle of Rook’s Rest, where Aegon and Aemond Targaryen clash with their dragons, Sunfyre and Vhagar, against Rhaenys Targaryen and her dragon, Meleys. Rook’s Rest is the first major dragon battle in the Dance, and it’s sure to be one of the pivotal moments in season 2. So while Baela might not take part in the actual battle, she might ride to it to try and help her grandmother—and subsequently witness her fall, which would explain her screaming in the trailer.
The second option is similar in that Baela and Moondancer are present at an event that they should not be, according to Fire and Blood. In this case, it’s the Battle of the Gullet, one of the bloodiest sea battles in history, fought by a good chunk of Team Black’s dragonriders. While Baela and Moondancer aren’t mentioned, it would make sense for them to be there—especially since it’s Baela’s betrothed, Prince Jacaerys, leading the war party on his dragon, Vermax.
The third option, of course, is the only battle that Fire and Blood says Baela and Moondancer have taken part in—the taking of Dragonstone by the Greens, led by a very injured Aegon Targaryen and an equally injured Sunfyre. Baela—who has until then kept locked in her room—mounts Moondancer to meet Aegon and Sunfyre, with the two dragons clashing in the skies and eventually falling to the ground. While Moondancer is killed immediately by Sunfyre, the other dragon will also not survive its wounds for long.
Still, this last option seems the least likely to me simply because of the sheer amount of important events that should happen in between Lucerys’s death above Storm’s End and the taking of Dragonstone—so many that I think would not be possible to cram into just eight episodes. Let’s all hope this season will not bring to mind the final seasons of Game of Thrones with their “just check all plot points on our to-do list without connecting them logically and thematically” attitude.
What happens to Baela Targaryen in the Dance?
Whatever might happen, we can be sure of one thing—Baela and Rhaena are some of the few Targaryens who survive the Dance, together with their younger half-brothers Aegon and Viserys and with Aegon and Helaena’s daughter, Jaehaera.
After the marriage of the newly-crowned Aegon III with Jaehaera, with everyone still thinking Prince Viserys lost at sea, the twins spend time in King’s Landing becoming fixed members of their brother’s court and beloved by the nobles—even though everyone is worried about Baela seemingly being the new King’s heir, mainly because she’s a woman, and there has just been a very bloody civil war about the heir being a woman.
Ultimately, Baela escapes the proposal of marriage her brother’s regents would want to force on her and marries Alyn of Hull, now Alyn Velaryon and Lord of Driftmark. It will be Alyn who brings the long-lost Prince Viserys back from the Free City of Lys, and it will be Baela who introduces Aegon III to his second wife, Daenaera Velaryon, after Queen Jaehaera’s untimely death.
The Velaryon line continues through Baela, somehow fulfilling the wish that we hear her grandmother Rhaenys express to her husband Corlys in the first season of House of the Dragon—for Driftmark to pass to Baela through her mother Laena, the eldest of the couple’s children, rather than to Lucerys through his legal father, Laenor.
(featured image: HBO)
