Rhaenys Targaryen
The Queen Who Never Was: the Old King's eldest grandchild, passed over twice for being a woman. Rider of Meleys, the Red Queen ÔÇö half the realm's best claim and all of its best judgment, married into the richest fleet afloat.
A soul of House Targaryen, born at King's Landing, sworn to The Blacks ÔÇö the Queen's Party.
The fuller tale
Season One
In The Heirs of the Dragon ÔÇö 'The Queen Who Never Was.' She has made her peace with it. Mostly. The Old King's council at Harrenhal chose Viserys over Princess Rhaenys ÔÇö a woman would sit no throne. The realm remembers. The lords of the realm, Corlys and Rhaenys among them, kneel and swear to Rhaenyra Targaryen, first of her name. Corlys and Rhaenys offer Viserys their daughter Laena, aged twelve; the king chooses Alicent Hightower instead, and the Sea Snake leaves court cold.
In The Lord of the Tides ÔÇö Backs Rhaenyra's sons for Driftmark ÔÇö for Laena's daughters' sake. In The Green Council ÔÇö Has the whole green court under Meleys' jaws ÔÇö and chooses not to start the war herself. Rhaenys is locked in her chambers, courted for Meleys ÔÇö and escapes with Ser Erryk through the crowds being herded to the Dragonpit. Aegon II is crowned before the mob with the Conqueror's crown and blade ÔÇö until Meleys bursts through the pit floor, and Rhaenys, with the greens at her mercy, spares them and flies to Dragonstone.
In The Black Queen ÔÇö Holds the Gullet for Rhaenyra ÔÇö the realm's finest admiral answers to a queen at last.
Where they stand. King's Landing, Driftmark and Dragonstone.
Season Two
In The Red Dragon and the Gold ÔÇö Flies to a small castle's defense and into the war's first dragon-fall. Rhaenys and Meleys answer Rook's Rest; the trap closes: Aegon comes half-drunk on Sunfyre, and Aemond brings Vhagar for both dragons. Rhaenys, clear of the fight, turns Meleys back into Vhagar's teeth rather than run. The Queen Who Never Was dies a queen's death.
Where they stand. Rook's Rest.
How it ends for them
On the screen. Fell at Rook's Rest, refusing to run (S2┬ÀE4)
The Queen Who Never Was answered Rook's Rest's ravens and flew into a trap set for any dragon that came. Clear of the fight, she turned Meleys back into Vhagar's teeth rather than leave the sky to them ÔÇö and fell with her Red Queen, refusing to the last to run.
On the page. Fell at Rook's Rest with Meleys (F&B, ch. 4)
At Rook's Rest the Queen Who Never Was met two dragons laid in ambush. Meleys the Red Queen locked jaws with Sunfyre and near killed the king before Vhagar broke them both. Rhaenys died as she had lived ÔÇö owed a crown, paying its price anyway.
Both tellings put Rhaenys's death at Rook's Rest, and both agree on its essential shape even where they differ on detail. In the show, Rhaenys and Meleys engage Sunfyre directly, wounding Aegon's dragon badly and Aegon himself nearly fatally, before Vhagar ÔÇö vastly larger, ancient beyond any dragon then flying ÔÇö closes on the Red Queen from above. Rhaenys has a clear window to flee; she turns to fight instead, and Vhagar's jaws take Meleys out of the sky in a single, devastating strike, rider and dragon falling together into the battlefield below.
Fire & Blood's account agrees on the outcome and disputes some of the choreography ÔÇö Mushroom's version has Rhaenys actively pressing the attack out of fury rather than tactical necessity, while Eustace frames her engagement as reluctant and honorable. Both sources agree that her death, whatever the exact sequence, took Sunfyre and Aegon effectively out of the war for its middle stretch, and both sources agree that she died owed a crown the realm never gave her, and paid its price regardless.
Their chapters, book by book
Fire & Blood ÔÇö The Dance of the Dragons 2 chapters that name them
Where the page and the screen part
The show stages Rhaenys's Dragonpit restraint as a deliberate, almost mythic beat ÔÇö Rhaenys and Meleys looming over Aegon's coronation with the power to end the war in its first hour and visibly, consciously choosing otherwise, a scene invented for the series to dramatize what the book only implies was possible. Fire & Blood is considerably more matter-of-fact about the same morning, treating her presence and restraint as one detail among many rather than as a staged confrontation, and gives Rook's Rest itself in sparer, more contested terms ÔÇö Mushroom and Eustace disagree on tactical particulars the show resolves cleanly on screen.
Their journey
Where the two tellings send them to the same place the road runs whole; where they part, the screen keeps the left and the books the right.