Start with the King: Viserys I
Everything revolves around one man: King Viserys I Targaryen. He's the well-meaning but tragically indecisive king on the Iron Throne. Think of him as the trunk of this very messy family tree. His biggest problem? Succession. His reign is defined by two
crucial marriages that split the realm in two. His first wife was his cousin, Aemma Arryn. Together, they had one surviving child: Princess Rhaenyra. When Aemma died, Viserys was pressured to remarry to secure the line with a male heir. He chose Alicent Hightower, the daughter of his Hand, Otto Hightower. This one decision is the domino that topples the entire kingdom.
Team Black: The Heir and the Rogue Prince
This is Rhaenyra's side of the family. After his first wife’s death, Viserys officially named Rhaenyra as his heir, making all the lords of Westeros swear fealty to her. She is the realm’s delight, the first woman set to inherit the Iron Throne.
Then there’s Daemon Targaryen, Viserys’s younger brother. He’s the classic rogue prince: a skilled warrior, undeniably charming, and completely unpredictable. He has a complicated, often inappropriately close relationship with his niece, Rhaenyra. After his own political marriages fail, he eventually marries Rhaenyra herself. Yes, uncle and niece. In the Targaryen family, this is just another Tuesday. It's a power move to consolidate their claim and bloodline. Rhaenyra’s children from her first marriage to Laenor Velaryon (Jacaerys, Lucerys, and Joffrey) are rumored to be illegitimate, a massive political weakness. Her children with Daemon (Aegon III and Viserys II) are pure Targaryen.
Team Green: The Queen and Her Sons
This is Queen Alicent Hightower's faction. Once Rhaenyra’s childhood best friend, Alicent became her stepmother and political rival. She and Viserys had four children together: Aegon, Helaena, Aemond, and Daeron. According to the traditional rules of succession in Westeros, her firstborn son, Prince Aegon, should be the heir, not his older half-sister Rhaenyra.
This is the core conflict. Alicent and her powerful father, Otto, champion Prince Aegon's right to the throne. They are the “Greens,” named for a green dress Alicent wore to a feast to signal her house’s defiance. Her key children are Aegon, a reluctant and debauched claimant to the throne, and Aemond “One-Eye,” a grim and formidable warrior who holds a bitter grudge against Rhaenyra’s children.
So, What's the Bottom Line?
Forget the distant cousins and third-tier lords. The conflict boils down to two claims on the Iron Throne that Viserys created.
On one side (the Blacks), you have Princess Rhaenyra, the named heir, supported by her uncle-husband, Daemon Targaryen. Their claim rests on the king’s formal decree.
On the other side (the Greens), you have Queen Alicent Hightower, pushing for her son, Prince Aegon, to be king. Their claim rests on centuries of tradition where a son always comes before a daughter.
Both sides have dragons, both sides have legitimate-sounding claims, and both sides are filled with family members who grew up together and now despise one another. The children of Rhaenyra and the children of Alicent are first cousins who are being pitted against each other in a bloody civil war for control of the Seven Kingdoms.
