This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season One and George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood novel.
Jacaerys Velaryon is the firstborn son of Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen in HBO’s Game of Throne’s prequel series House of the Dragon. He is the second-in-line heir to his family throne, but the circumstances of his bloodline are threatening not only his claim to the throne, but his very life and the lives of his siblings, Lucerys and Joffrey.
With civil war brewing among the houses of Westeros, Jacaerys Velaryon and the truth behind his and his siblings’ conception may only add fuel to the growing political fire. Here’s everything we currently know about the male heir to the throne of the Targaryens.
Jacaerys Velaryon And His Siblings
Jacaerys Velaryon first appeared alongside his many siblings and half-siblings in episode 6, helping his infant brother Joffery bond with his dragon by placing its egg in his brother’s cradle while he slept. The three brothers bare no resemblance to their father, Laenor Velaryon, but they do resemble, and have a close relationship to, Ser Harwin Strong, leader of the City Watch. Their cousins and siblings — Aegon, Viserys, Rhaena, and Baela Targaryen — all more closely resemble their father’s bloodline with stark-white hair and his darker skin complexion. Jacaerys is not unaware of this, and he confronts his mother about his status as a bastard child after Harwin assaults Ser Criston Cole in public over the accusation and is sent away back to Harrenhal. Queen Targaryen only says that he is a Targaryen, and that is all that matters.
During the funeral procession for Laena Velaryon, Jacaerys comforts Baela and Rhaena while they mourn, he himself saddened that he cannot mourn the deaths of Lord Lyonel and Ser Harwin, who perished in a house fire that, unknown to them, was orchestrated by Lord Larys Strong.
Following a fight with Aemond Targaryen, half-brother to Queen Targaryen that ended with Jacaerys bleeding from a blow to the head and Aemond losing an eye to Lucerys, all the children are brought before King Viserys and their parents and families in the throne room. The accusations of their status as bastard children are laid bare, and arguing among the family ensues, culminating in Queen Alicent Hightower trying to cut one of the Velaryon sibling’s eyes out to even the damages done to Aemond, only cutting Rhaenyra’s arm before being restrained.
Following the alleged death and funeral for their legal father Laenor, which left the breaking family even more troubled, Jacaerys and Luke joined their cousins Baela and Rhaena to attend the wedding of Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen.
With the death of King Viserys and a breakaway group of the houses, called The Greens, seizing power and appointing Aegon II as king, Jacaerys and his family are on the precipice of open war, made all but certain when Aemond kills Lucerys in a bout of rage during negotiations between their factions.
Will Jacaerys Claim The Throne?
While growing political tension and his known status as a bastard child to his fellow elites, Jacaerys’ chances prior to the season one finale were shaky. With his mother, Queen Rhaenyra, taking her father’s crown and intending to keep her side of the family in power, now driven by the death of her younger son, Jacaerys’ claim to the throne is now blocked by a wall of warfare, deception, and the stability of the seven kingdoms itself. With his half of the family trying to maintain his mother’s legitimacy to the throne compared to Alicent’s placement of Aemond to the position, Jacaerys will likely have to wait a long, long time before the opportunity to claim the throne as his own becomes viable — if he lives that long.
In the George R.R. Martin novel Fire & Blood, Jacaerys does not live to see the end of the fighting. His dragon crashes over the waters of an opposing fleet of ships, and he is subsequently shot to death by crossbow bolts while clutching onto nearby ship debris. His body was not recovered, and his death only hardened his mother’s resolve to see this conflict through to the end. Whether Jacerys is destined to meet the same violent and explosive end as his book counterpart, or if something different awaits him, is something fans will have to wait and see for themselves. Season 2 of HBO’s House of the Dragon is set to begin filming in early 2023, so fans of Jacaerys and his family’s plight will have to wait until later that year or early into 2024 to see how history unfolds.