A detailed breakdown of what Helaena’s dreams in House of the Dragon season three really mean

In season three episode seven of House of the Dragon, our favourite introvert Helaena Targaryen has three creepy dreams. What do these visions mean? Should we be scared these scenes will really happen in future episodes? Here’s a very detailed breakdown of what Helaena’s latest dreams in House of the Dragon really mean, according to the cast and the actual book.

Dream one: Helaena gives birth

What a mare
(Image via HBO)

Er, yes, that childbirth scene was just a vision, not a huge time jump. Helaena dreams she gives birth within the Red Keep. Instead of handing the baby to Helaena, the septa gives the child to a creepy-looking member of the Kingsguard.

These events seem pretty likely to happen in the near future. However, Helaena’s dream isn’t straightforward. In the OG Game of Thrones TV show, and in the numerous books by George R.R. Martin, dreams aren’t clear-cut previews of the future. Visions are mysterious, and full of confusing symbols. Like, the visions which Daenerys had at the House of the Undying in Game of Thrones season two were vague enough to kept fans arguing for seven years.

Phia Saban – who portrays Helaena in House of the Dragon – has explained how Helaena’s magic powers actually work. She told Entertainment Weekly: “How I describe it is she has this amazingly strong intuition, and things come to her as gut feelings in flashes, but they’re not always clear. She can’t always turn them into advice. It’s more of like a feeling that takes her over. That’s where some of those really abstract things that she mutters earlier on comes from.

She continued: “She has disassociated from the family reality, and maybe she has stepped in a little bit more to the other place, and she has more access because she’s gone: ‘I can’t abandon myself as well, so what is this?'”

The baby is handed over
(Image via HBO)

So, it seems Helaena won’t have her baby in the exact way she does in her vision. It’s likelier that the dream is an expression of a future she is worried about. Perhaps the vision is symbolising that Helaena feels the baby isn’t “hers”, as their fate will be decided by other royals and politicians. The child exists only to be a part of war.

This ties in to what we do actually know about Helaena’s children from the book series. In Fire & Blood, Helaena and Aegon have a total of three children. The youngest one – a boy called Maelor – meets a nasty end. Larys Strong plots for Maelor to be smuggled out of the Red Keep to the Hightowers’ home in Oldtown, but a mob tears the toddler apart.

Dream two: Dreamfyre barbecues the plebeians

She’s so prettyyyyy
(Image via HBO)

Helaena pictures herself riding a dragon in the Dragonpit, then commanding her to burn a crowd. That dragon is actually Helaena’s. She is bonded with Dreamfyre, the second-largest dragon after Vhagar. Because Helaena didn’t want to fight (and now can’t leave the Red Keep), Dreamfyre only appeared on-screen for a fleeting cameo back in season one.

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Hardcore Game of Thrones fans theorised that this dream could become a reality in the House of the Dragon show. In George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, Dreamfyre does attack a mob who break into the Dragonpit – although Helaena isn’t there.

However, the director of this episode has explained the actual meaning of this dream. The scene isn’t supposed to be taken so literally – it’s a manifestation of Helaena’s fears for the future.

Nina Lopez-Corrado told Entertainment Weekly: “Helaena has such a strong feeling about the dragons in which she’s torn because she thinks that they do change people and that they’ve changed their whole world, essentially. So when she sees herself on the dragon and sees Dreamfyre basically take out all of King’s Landing, internally for her it burns deep.

“I think she knows that deep down inside, because she is a Targaryen, there almost is no positive outcome to anything that’s happening in regards to this war in this family. And the dragons, as long as they exist, are going to keep this inner turmoil inside of the Targaryens.”

Dream three: Chickens and chills

The chickens 🙁
(Image via HBO)

In the final vision, Helaena is living out her best cottagecore life. She’s on a cute farm with two children – who seem to be Jaehaera and her unborn baby – and the longed-for chickens. A white horse is chilling behind them. This is interesting – when a random white horse inexplicably rescued Arya from the ruins of King’s Landing in Game of Thrones season eight, it was supposed to symbolise hope and innocence and a better future and whatnot.

However, there’s a solar eclipse, and the scene turns to night. Snow falls and wintery winds make Helaena shiver.

I’ll be dreaming of this dress
(Image via HBO)

Now, in wider Game of Thrones lore, death is very, very heavily associated with winter. The most obvious example of this is the scary ice zombies that try to kill everyone (duh). So, the point of Helaena’s third dream seems to be that domestic bliss won’t last, because death is inevitable for this family, just like it’s inevitable that summer turns to winter, and the White Walkers will attack everybody eventually. Winter is coming, and all that.

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Featured images via HBO.