House of the Dragon theory: Is Aemond the real father of Helaena Targaryen’s kids?

House of the Dragon season 1 may be over, but the fan theories are never ending. Throughout the first season of HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel we met many members of House Targaryen. Among them were the children of King Viserys I Targaryen and Alicent Hightower: Aegon II, Aemond, and Helaena. (We won’t meet Daeron, the youngest sibling of the family, until season 2 but he’s around as well.) Season 1 also introduced Aegon and Helaena’s twin children, Jaehaerys and Jaehaera, whom we see briefly in Episode 9.

While we got to know some of the dysfunctional dynamics over the course of the season, there could be even more brewing beneath the surface, at least according to one popular fan theory.

House of the Dragon theory: Aemond is the father of Helaena’s children, not Aegon

The story behind the theory is this: while we’ve met Helaena Targaryen’s children Jaehaerys and Jaehaera, we’ve also been led to believe that her husband Aegon is a total lout who neglects his family. Instead of Aegon being the father of Helaena’s children, a sector of the fandom is holding to the theory that Aemond is actually their secret parent.

Where did this idea come from? There are a lot of small, subtle moments on House of the Dragon that fans have run with. In Episode 7, “Driftmark,” Aegon mocks his soon-to-be wife over her love of insects. In response, Aemond tells him that were he betrothed to his sister, he would “do his duty” to strengthen the family.

Fast forward to adulthood and fans have pointed to the loaded look the two share when Aemond enters Helaena’s chambers in Episode 9, “The Green Council.” As Helaena learns that her father King Viserys has died, Aemond walks in, and the camera lingers on his face.

Why was he going to Helaena’s chambers in the first place, entering in such a familiar way? Well, it could be because they’re brother and sister, or it could be because Helaemond.

Fans have also pointed to Aemond giving a toast to his “strong nephews” after Jacaerys invites Helaena to dance, and the way Aemond and Helaena stand close to one another during Aegon’s coronation, with the princess even placing a hand on her brother’s arm in a way some have interpreted as romantic.

Should Helaemond prove true, it would add another dimension to the already fraught family dynamics of House Targaryen.

Helaemond would make a future Fire & Blood event way sadder

Full disclosure: I don’t particularly buy into the Helaemond theory. I appreciate a good deep dive as much as the next fan, but it reminds me an awful lot of those old far-fetched Song of Ice and Fire theories like Tyrion being a secret Targaryen or Ned Stark secretly being alive somewhere. They’re fun to imagine, but until we get something a little more substantial, it’s best not to bet the Iron Bank on them.

All that said, Helaena and Aemond being a couple that would make certain events from George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood feel more tragic. We are going to get into some BOOK SPOILERS here for a minute.

In Fire & Blood, Aemond Targaryen meets a fate befitting a dragonrider, dying in one of the most epic moments of the Dance of the Dragons. Not long after, Helaena Targaryen decides to take her own life, throwing herself from a window of the Red Keep and dying impaled on the spikes of the dry moat below. The timeline for these two events isn’t 100% clear, but CBR makes the case that it’s close enough that there could be some connection between Aemond’s death and Helaena’s.

So far as I can recall, there’s nothing in Fire & Blood that really suggests Aemond and Helaena are a couple — and Aemond has an entirely different paramour, Alys Rivers, by the time of his death. And while Fire & Blood does underline that no one really knows what led to Helaena’s terrible fall, the idea of her jumping out of grief for her brother isn’t one of the theories put forth by Grand Maester Munkun in the book.

Only House of the Dragon season 2 can really lay to rest whether this theory has any merit or not, and that won’t be out until 2024.

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