We "get a lot more time" with Helaena Targaryen in House of the Dragon season 2

The first season of House of the Dragon was unique in that there were often large time jumps between episodes, up to 10 years. The season was constructed such that we didn't meet some of the principal members of the cast, played by the actors who will play them for the rest of the series, until the last few epiodes. That includes Tom Glynn-Carney as King Aegon II Targaryen and Phia Saban as his sister-wife Helaena.

Helaena especially felt like she didn't get much attention; a shy girl, she often sat in the corner muttering strange words that ended up being prophetic, like when she whispered that her brother Aemond would have to lose an eye in order to claim a dragon, or that there was "a beast beneath the boards," words that came to life later that episode when Rhaenys burrowed through the floor of the Dragonpit astride her dragon Meleyes and interrupted Aegon's coronation.

The proprietors of the History of Westeros podcast are wondering: is anyone paying attention to these seeming prophecies? They put that question directly to House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal: "You have to also remember that we're telling a story during a historical period where people didn't have terms for things," Condal said. "She's regarded as an oddity and thus often times dismissed or ignored or just, 'Oh, that's Helaena.' But there definitely are people who are paying closer attention."

Who those people are, we may have to wait and find out. "We actually do spend a lot of time with Helaena," Condal said. "We do get a lot more time with her in season 2."

We have some idea of what's to come for Helaena in season 2; she'll be involved in a brutal event involving a couple of new characters named Blood and Cheese. We'll save the details for you to discover when House of the Dragon returns on HBO and Max on Sunday, June 16. It suffices to say that Helaena will be put through the ringer, as so many Game of Thrones characters were before her...or after her, since this is a prequel. You know what we mean.

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