The central tenet of the Targaryens’ power has always been their dragons and the mystique created by that boiling blood. Yes, the preternatural silvery blonde hair and violet eyes (at least in the book) has always given most Targaryens an ethereal appearance, but it is dragonfire which causes people to bend the knee and allow this family to indulge in nearly any depravity or social taboo.

The Targaryens are of course aware of this privilege and guard it jealously, a fact which becomes integral to the ending scene of “Regent” as Queen Rhaenyra and her heir discuss who else could they get to ride a dragon. However, what’s striking about the Greens’ cause at this point is that it barely qualifies as a traditional Targaryen claim.

By the end of “Regent,” we learn that King Aegon II’s younger brother—and also his attempted assassin—has assumed the titular power of regent while the badly injured king hangs between life and death in his bed. They are both Targaryens, yes, with Prince Aemond especially modeling himself after living legends in the family like his uncle Prince Daemon. However, they grew up in the shadow of an enfeebled and dying King Viserys and were essentially raised by everyone around them except other Targaryens. There was Criston Cole who served as their master at arms and proverbial big brother, and then there’s their mother Queen Alicent and their grandfather, Ser Otto Hightower, Hand of the King.

Aegon and Aemond are so beholden to their maternal line that they even began adopting the Hightower colors after their mother—replacing the red and black Targaryen sigil claimed by Aegon the Conqueror in favor of an emerald green. This color honored their mother, but it also in retrospect betrays a growing distance from the source of Targaryen power. It aligns them closer to Oldtown than Old Valyria.

This transition in aesthetics turned out to be a harbinger of a transition in values as well. One of the most interesting additions to George R.R. Martin’s lore in House of the Dragon is the revelation that Aegon the Conqueror invaded Westeros at least partially because of a vision he had of the coming War for the Dawn. He foresaw the coming army of the dead and thought the future of the world depended on dragons being in firm control of Westeros. This hidden motive has apparently been passed down from every king to his heir in the more than a hundred years that followed, including from Viserys to Rhaenyra, and then Rhaenyra to Jacaerys. 

This guarded responsibility has been reflected in the public admiration the Targaryens have cultivated for their dragons too. These fire-breathing beasties might be glorified magical WMDs, but the Targaryens have carefully cultivated awe from the Westerosi citizens for their majesty, as well as treated them as much as beloved family pets as they did political superpowers. They convinced the Westerosi smallfolk to see these creatures with centuries-long lifespans as “gods,” and most of the greatest Targaryens in turn had greater bonds with their dragons.