Alyssa Targaryen

	Alyssa Targaryen by © Paparinka Art
Title	Princess
Allegiance	House Targaryen
Culture	Crownlands
Born	late 60 AC; Dragonstone
Died	late 84 AC (aged 24)
Father	Jaehaerys I Targaryen
Mother	Alysanne Targaryen
Spouse	Prince Baelon Targaryen
Issue	Viserys I Targaryen; Daemon Targaryen; Aegon Targaryen;
Books	The World of Ice & Fire (mentioned); Fire & Blood (mentioned); The Rise of the Dragon (mentioned);
Played by	Emeline Lambert
TV series	House of the Dragon: Season 2

Princess Alyssa Targaryen was the fifth child of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen and Queen Alysanne Targaryen, and their second daughter. Alyssa was a dragonrider whose dragon was Meleys, the Red Queen.^[1]

In the television adaptation House of the Dragon, Alyssa is portrayed by Emeline Lambert in a dream scene.

Appearance and Character

As a baby, Alyssa resembled her deceased sister Daenerys, but this resemblance faded as Alyssa aged. She became long-faced and skinny. Alyssa did not have typical Valyrian silver-gold hair, but instead dirty blonde hair without a trace of silver. It was often tangled. She had mismatched eyes, one violet, the other green. She had big ears and a lopsided smile. At the age of six she broke her nose, which healed crooked, but she apparently did not care.^[1]

In her character, Alyssa took after her brother Baelon. She had a warrior's heart, according to Archmaester Gyldayn. As a child, she did not act like a girl, and shunned the company of girls. She would dress in boy's clothes whenever possible, and preferred to ride, climb, and duel with wooden swords, instead of more lady-like activities like sewing and reading and singing. As a child, she refused to eat porridge.^[1]

Alyssa was strong, quick, and spirited. She was not shy, and loved to boast that she was "as bawdy a wench as any barmaid in King's Landing".^[1]

History

Early life

Princess Alyssa was born in late 60 AC to King Jaehaerys I and Queen Alysanne Targaryen. She was named for her grandmother, Alyssa Velaryon,^[1] who had died six years before.^[2]

As a young child, Alyssa followed her brother Baelon everywhere since she was able to walk. Baelon, four years older, complained that she was like a puppy, and was further annoyed that she was a girl, as he preferred the company of his older brother Aemon. Soon after Alyssa's sister Maegelle's birth in 62 AC, she began to cling to Alyssa the same way as Alyssa had to Baelon, to Alyssa's annoyance and Baelon's amusement. Alyssa avoided her younger sister as well she could. When Alyssa was six years old, she was playing in the training yard when she was accidentally hit in the face by a wooden sword, which broke her nose. It healed crooked, but this did not seem to bother her.^[1]

When marriage options were being considered for Jaehaerys and Alysanne's eldest son, Prince Aemon, some thought he should marry Alyssa, as she was his eldest living sister following the death of Princess Daenerys. However, Queen Alysanne Targaryen firmly refused, saying that Alyssa was meant for Baelon, and Aemon instead married Jocelyn Baratheon in 70 AC. In 72 AC, Alyssa attended a tourney at Duskendale, held in honor of the wedding of Lord Darklyn to a daughter of Lord Theomore Manderly.^[1]

Alyssa and Baelon finally became inseparable, and by 73 AC plans for their eventual marriage were already being made. That same year, when her brother Vaegon severely insulted their sister Daella, Alyssa poured a flagon of wine over his head. Over the following year, Baelon began training Vaegon at arms; he once brought Alyssa to the training yard, dressed in a man's mail, hoping that having to face a girl would lead to Vaegon making more of an effort. Alyssa, still remembering the incident between Vaegon and Daella, mocked and laughed at Vaegon as she danced around him, humiliating him, whilst Daella watched. Vaegon, embarrassed too much to bear, threw down his sword, left the yard, and never came back.^[1]

Marriage

Alyssa married Baelon in 75 AC, when she was fifteen and he was eighteen. Their bedding sparked much ribald humor in the days after the wedding, as it was said Alyssa's "sounds of pleasure could be heard all the way to Duskendale." Alyssa was not embarrassed by the jokes, and made some of her own. That same year, Alyssa decided to claim a dragon, a year younger than Baelon had done so. The Dragonkeepers persuaded her not to claim Balerion, assuring her that she would prefer a faster dragon than the old Black Dread. Eventually, Alyssa claimed Meleys, who had never been ridden before.^[1]

When not flying on their dragons, Alyssa and Baelon spent every hour together, most often in their bedchamber. In 77 AC, Alyssa gave birth to her first child, a son they named Viserys. Although Alyssa was advised not to do it, when Viserys was nine days old she put him in swaddling clothes and took him for a flight on Meleys. Afterwards, she claimed Viserys giggled the entire time. In 81 AC, Alyssa gave birth to her second son, Daemon. Within a fortnight of his birth, she took him up in the sky upon her dragon as well.^[1]

In 83 AC, Alyssa was announced to be pregnant again, and Baelon told his brother Aemon he was praying for a daughter. However, in 84 AC Alyssa gave birth to another son, Aegon, after a long and difficult labor. Though Alyssa was optimistic about having more children, she never fully recovered from Aegon's birth. She died within a year, at the age of twenty-four. Aegon died half a year after his mother, not yet even a year old. Alyssa's death shattered Baelon, who never remarried and always continued to honor her memory.^[1]

Quotes

I mounted him and took him for a ride, and I mean to do the same tonight. I love to ride.^[1]
—Alyssa, the morning after her wedding night

Red maidens, the two of us, but now we've both been mounted.^[1]
—Alyssa, about herself and Meleys, after claiming the dragon

Baelon: They call me Baelon the Brave, but you are far braver than me. I would sooner fight a dozen battles than do what you've just done.
Alyssa: You were made for battles, and I was made for this. Viserys and Daemon and Aegon, that's three. As soon as I am well, let's make another. I want to give you twenty sons. An army of your own!^[1]
—Baelon and Alyssa, after Aegon's birth

Alyssa Targaryen had a warrior’s heart in a woman’s body, and her strength failed her.^[1]
—words of Gyldayn

Though shattered by his loss, Baelon took solace in the two strong sons that she had left him, Viserys and Daemon, and never ceased to honor the memory of his sweet lady with the broken nose and mismatched eyes.^[1]
—words of Gyldayn

Behind the Scenes

Alyssa was listed as the second child and eldest daughter of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen and Alysanne Targaryen in The World of Ice & Fire,^[3] published in 2014. However, in Fire & Blood, published in 2018, Alyssa became the fifth child and second daughter of Jaehaerys and Alysanne. Fire & Blood also introduced several other changes regarding Alyssa's siblings. On these changes, Elio Garcia, co-author of The World of Ice & Fire, has stated:

...George had some new ideas for some of the names and the stories of the children who died young, and corrected some issues that came out of his original birth order (we actually got the names of all the kids quite late in the production of TWoIaF—literally a month before we had to finalize the book—so there was not much time to interrogate it). However, the stories of those who live to adulthood, as published in TWoIaF, do remain the same (just, of course, much more detailed).^[4]