This is Fantasy Aisle, a monthly column from Jackie Jennings about everything related to horny dragon books. For a show about incest and war, House of the Dragon has successfully avoided pretty much all meaningful takes on sex, power, and family. It gives us little peeks at sex acts and some glimpses of nudity, but they're absent any meaningful exploring of real-world themes (despite the point of the genre being to do just that through the lens of a fantastical setting). And, sure, the recent Mysaria twist is pretty hot, and all the Rhaincent shippers are giving us top-notch fun. But Fire & Blood (the book the show is based on) contains hints at queer characters and family dynamics that really have something to say, including—at least as I read it—a Daemon-Laena-Rhanyra throuple that I’m actively angry we never got to see. To jog your memory, Daemon is Rhaenyra’s uncle. The show and the book agree: They hooked up in some form when Rhaenyra was in her teens. Then the two went on to marry siblings; Laenor and Laena Velaryon. The Velaryon sibs die tragic early deaths (childbirth and murder), clearing the path for adult Rhaenyra to marry her uncle/twin flame Daemon. A classic love story. But because House of the Dragon insists on accelerating whole years within episodes, we miss the majority of Daemon and Laena’s marriage. They have two daughters, bop around Pentos on their dragons, and seem happy! Maybe their union lacks the twisted, chemical attraction Daemon has with his niece but that’s actually a good thing. Successful marriages are rarely built on the foundation of umbilical sexual desire and grooming! Fire & Blood offers up both rosy and cynical takes on Daemon and Laena’s union—they loved each other, and Daemon used her to stay relevant and powerful. But these reads aren’t mutually exclusive and, by all accounts, their marriage was pretty functional, which the show more or less agrees with. But what the show leaves out is that Rhaenyra was a huge presence in their lives the entire time. See, there is a great girl power, sapphic-coded friendship in the text. But in Fire & Blood, it’s Laena and Rhaenyra who are best friends. No Rhaincent at all! In the book, Games of Thrones creator George R.R. Martin writes, “Whilst Princess Rhaenyra misliked her stepmother, Queen Alicent, she became fond and more than fond of her good-sister Lady Laena.” Sorry but “more than fond”??? I know what that means. I know subtext when I read it! The book then chronicles how Daemon, Rhaenyra, and Laena all flew on their dragons together—one big, happy, incestuous, terrifying family. They betrothed their children to each other and, when Laena went into labor with her and Daemon’s third child, “the princess was at her good-sister’s side.” When Laena needed a better maester after the traumatic childbirth, Daemon flew to get Rhaenyra’s own maester. And when Laena died shortly after, “Princess Rhaenyra sat vigil with [Daemon] over Lady Laena’s corpse, and comforted him in his grief.” The entire time that these three are flying around on their dragons, Rhaenyra is fully married to Laena’s brother, Laenor. (He’s a dragonrider but he's not a cool dragonrider so he’s not invited to their little sky parties.) He’s in another relationship with a man back home; both spouses are free to participate in whatever extramarital activities they want. Fire & Blood is a textbook and it invites many readings. One reading of this three-way friendship is that Daemon and Rhaenyra were an ever-scheming, ruthless, and fated pair who used the Velaryon siblings to solidify their own strength, then…
