What Rhaenyra Targaryen's White Stag Meeting Means in 'House of the Dragon'

Everything has meaning in Westeros and Episode 3 of House of the Dragon featured a moment of importance for Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock).

During a royal hunt to celebrate her step-brother Aegon's name day, Rhaenyra runs away from the festivities, frustrated with the way in which the nobles look down on her as the heir to the Iron Throne.

It is during her escape into the wilderness that she is faced with a white stag, the king of the wood. This scene means more than meets the eye.

What Rhaenyra Targaryen's White Stag Meeting Means in 'House of the Dragon'

Over the course of Episode 3, Rhaenyra's father King Viserys I (Paddy Considine) is told that the white stag has been sighted, and that their party are sure to find it and kill the beast.

To the king's men, the white stag is a sign of his son Aegon's right to the throne. Killing the king of the wood would surely be a good sign for the child's rule if he were to slay it.

The people of Westeros, it seems, don't believe that Rhaenyra can be queen and feel that her father should favor his male heir, despite him arguing that he had already chosen Rhaenyra as his successor and he would not change his mind.

Despite his protestations, Viserys still heads into the wood to kill the stag, except it is not the white stag that they were looking for but a different one that the royal slays with a spear.

The king of the wood comes across Rhaenyra while she is travelling through the woods with knight Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel).

Upon seeing the white stag Ser Criston tries to kill it, but Rhaenyra stops him and allows the creature to escape.

There are several meanings behind this encounter, the first of which is the most obvious: Rhaenyra is the rightful heir to the throne.

Given the way in which Viserys' subjects felt the killing of the white stag would be a good omen for his son Aegon, it can be surmised that the creature's meeting with Rhaenyra is a sign the king of the wood acknowledges her as ruler.

Rhaenyra's encounter with the stag stands in contrast to her father's killing of the creature's kin and is an apt metaphor for the patriarchy and how it will impact her journey to the throne.

The fact that Rhaenyra spares the white stag, unlike her father and the men around him, also suggests that she would be a just and kind ruler, something that could be seen as a weakness because she is a woman.

House of the Dragon airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.