Watch an Animated Exploration of the Targaryen Family Tree

Family trees in A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones can be quite confusing. What with inner-family marriages and alliances with lesser members of great houses, they often don’t have many branches. Most of the great Houses of Westeros can trace their origins back to the Andals or the First Men, but House Targaryen is unique: its members are descended from from the Freehold of Old Valyria, which once ruled over the continent of Essos.

Many people only know of famous Targaryens like Aegon the Conqueror and his sisters or Daenerys Targaryen, the Mother of Dragons and the current face of the family. But few know about Daenys the Dreamer, without whom House Targaryen would not even exist today, or other notable family members. The Targaryen tale is rich in both scope and story, and one fan has taken to YouTube to create an animated family tree that quickly explains 400 years of Targaryen history. Check it out:

As you can see, while incest is frowned upon in Westeros, House Targaryen openly practiced it in order to keep the family’s bloodline pure. I also appreciate that the creator kept the “Secret Targaryens” theories out of his video, or we’d have half of Westeros in there.

Whycreate does a fantastic job of describing in detail each of the major Targaryen high and low points throughout the family’s length history. The fact that he took the time to animate the story really helps to bring home the complexity of the great House. I also like how starts with the characters we’re familiar with and works his way back all the way through the Doom of Valyria—it gives the piece a good structure. All in all, this is a great video, and should be used as a primer for any fans who need to brush up on their Westerosi history, or are breaking into the series for the first time.