The penultimate episode of House of the Dragon season 3 is here, and while it brought about many important developments for HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series, one of the most intriguing is that we finally got to see inside the dreams of Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban). It was established all the way back in the show’s first season that Helaena has prophetic dreams, but until now we’ve only heard about them second-hand, often in the form of cryptic statements or art she creates, like the tapestry she’s been weaving this season. With “The Dragon in Winter,” however, we finally get to experience Helaena’s dreams as she does.
The result is as beautiful as it is unnerving. That’s largely because Helaena’s dreams in House of the Dragon season 3 episode 7 all point toward the inevitable end for her, her family, and Westeros at large. Often in the past she’s mentioned dreams about others; here, at last, Helaena’s dreams are firmly focused on her own fate. But hey, on the bright side it was cool to finally see her riding on her dragon, Dreamfyre!
Let’s break down each of Helaena Targaryen’s dreams from House of the Dragon season 3’s penultimate episode. In order to fully discuss them and what they might mean, we’re going to break out FULL SPOILERS from the book Fire & Blood, as well as House of the Dragon season 3 episode 7.
Phia Saban as Helaena Targaryen in House of the Dragon season 3 episode 7. | Photograph by Ollie Upton/HBO.
Dream 1: The pale mare
The Dream: Helaena is in the courtyard of the Red Keep as dawn is breaking. She wanders over to a gray mare hitched to a cart, petting it and smiling as though she is glad to see it. Her attention is drawn toward the castle gates, which open before her, spilling golden light over her face. Helaena’s eyes glisten with unshed tears, before her half-sister Rhaenyra’s voice intrudes on her dream. She looks away from the light, and awakens.
This Meaning: Whether it happens in the season finale or early in season 4, the end draws near for Helaena Targaryen. In George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, it’s not much farther ahead in the narrative that Helaena dies by leaping from a tower of the Red Keep. This has already been heavily foreshadowed in the show; often when there’s mention of Helaena standing near a window, or an open window in the scene behind her, it’s a subtle nod to her eventual end.
The pale mare is a symbol of death which has been used in Game of Thrones before, and that light coming through the gateway could very likely symbolize Helaena facing the great beyond. I think she knows what this dream represents, knows it means her time is close, and is reckoning with what that feels like. From the expression on Helaena’s face, those feeling are certainly more complex than simple fear. As for the location, I would not be at all surprised if Helaena’s jump lands her right in this very courtyard.
Phia Saban (Helaena Targaryen) in House of the Dragon season 3. | Image: HBO
Dream 2: The birth of Maelor
The Dream: Helaena is screaming in childbirth. She gives birth, presumably to her and Aegon’s son, Maelor. The baby is immediately given to the Queensguard, who mindlessly walk away with the child while Helaena watches helplessly from a bed, tended by midwives. She watches them go, before her eyes shift from the child and awareness blossoms. Helaena seemingly realizes she’s in a dream a split second before she jolts to the next.
The Meaning: Helaena’s pregnancy has been a major plot point in House of the Dragon season 3, and a huge part of that is the question of what will happen to the child if it’s a boy — and thus, a rival claimant to the Iron Throne that could threaten Rhaenyra Targaryen’s legitimacy. In the book, she and Aegon do indeed have another son, Maelor, and it’s likely that this is the child she now carries in the show.
This scene foreshadows how that would play out, with Helaena giving birth to the child, only for him to be immediately handed over to the Queensguard, who heartlessly and almost mindlessly carry out Rhaenyra’s will by taking him from her. Whether they’re bringing the child to an immediate death or some other cruel fate, the symbolism stands that Maelor’s doom is sealed from the second he’s born.
Dream 3: Helaena riding Dreamfyre at the Storming of the Dragonpit
The Dream: Helaena Targaryen sits on the back of her dragon Dreamfyre, dressed in riding leathers. They are in the Dragonpit, the massive building where Targaryen dragons live in King’s Landing. As a screaming mob rushes through the great gates toward her, Helaena gives the Dracarys command to Dreamfyre, who burns them all.
The Meaning: Many viewers feared we’d never get a glimpse of Helaena on her dragon, Dreamfyre, and while this may only be a dream sequence, it’s still a welcome bit of fan service to finally see her in action. The key to this part of the dream is the location. One important event that will almost certainly occur in House of the Dragon‘s fourth and final season is the Storming of the Dragonpit, where the smallfolk of King’s Landing riot and kill all the Targaryen dragons being housed there. That includes Helaena’s own mount, Dreamfyre.
We see a mob storm into the building in this dream, except here Helaena is alive to order Dreamfyre to fight them. When this fateful hour does finally arrive for her dragon, it will play out rather differently in the waking world.
White Walker (Vladimir Furdik) in Game of Thrones season 5 Episode 8, “Hardhome” | Courtesy of HBO
Dream 4: The winds of winter howl
The Dream: Helaena is tending chickens with her twin children, Jaehaerys and Jaehaera. Both are noticeably older, and they all live on a peaceful farm. The pale mare is once more behind Helaena, grazing. As Helaena stands, an eclipse blocks the sun, and cold winds howl out of the darkness. Snow begins to fall, as the wind grows louder and louder till the scene cuts away.
The Meaning: If you’ve seen Game of Thrones, you know exactly what this final dream is foreshadowing: the coming of the White Walkers, who will attempt to wipe out all life on Westeros during the main show. However, the details of this dream make it much deeper than just an Easter egg for the Others.
The tell here is Jaehaerys, Helaena and Aegon’s son who was killed during the Blood and Cheese incident in season 2. Since the boy in this dream is roughly the same age as the girl, we can make a reasonably confident guess that the two children are the twins, rather than Jaehaera and the baby from Helaena’s current pregnancy. But we never saw Jaehaerys grow up before he was murdered, so why does he appear older here?
The pale mare provides a clue. As we mentioned in the opening dream, that is a ubiquitous symbol for death. Here, I strongly suspect that it’s showing that Helaena, Jaehaerys, and Jaehaera are all already dead, and that the farmyard setting represents an idealized hope of Helaena’s which has now taken on the form of a happy afterlife. In that context, this dream may be meant to show that the White Walkers won’t blanket the land in death until after Helaena and her entire immediate family have already passed away. It shows both the greatest threat Westeros will ever face, and that whenever it arrives, Helaena and her children won’t be there to see it.
Phia Saban (Helaena Targaryen) in House of the Dragon season 3. | Photograph by Theo Whiteman/HBO.
What do Helaena’s dreams mean in House of the Dragon?
We’ve broken down each of Helaena’s dreams, but now let’s zoom back out to the big picture. Despite it seeming like these are all separate dreams, there’s one common thread that ties each of these four visions together: death.
In the first dream, Helaena sees her own death. The second represents the birth and death of her new child, while the third gives a glimpse at the horrible event which will kill her dragon, Dreamfyre. The fourth and final dream shows the death that awaits all of Westeros when the White Walkers come, and that her daughter Jaehaera will be dead by then, just like Helaena and Jaehaerys.
When you take them all together, it becomes clear that this string of dreams is showing Helaena visions of death for her and those she holds closest, leading into the death coming for every living person on the continent. Assuming Helaena ends up meeting her own demise in the season 3 finale, these dreams would be arriving at the eleventh hour to give her a glimpse of the end that awaits her, her children, and her dragon. Not all are explicitly tied to the specific death scene in the way Dreamfyre’s is, but when you view them as a whole, the descent through one death to the next and the next becomes easier to see.
Of course, that’s just my interpretation. Dreams in Westeros are as opaque as they are in the real world, and House of the Dragon was wise to leave quite a lot about these dreams ambiguous enough to fuel theories for days to come.
As for Helaena, it seems likely that her time is running short. It has me more than a bit nervous for the House of the Dragon season 3 finale, premiering Sunday, August 9 on HBO and HBO Max.
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