Forget about breaking the wheel, Daenerys Targaryen may be breaking a Game of Thrones rule when The Winds of Winter releases. It’s been seven years since her ultimate fate was revealed in Game of Thrones‘ ending, where she was killed by Jon Snow when the Iron Throne was finally within her reach. Although she styled herself queen, Dany never actually got to sit on the seat made by her ancestor, Aegon the Conqueror, and his dragon, Balerion, and it was then melted down after her death by Drogon.

However, like many other Game of Thrones characters, Daenerys will get a second chance, because she’s in a very different place in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books, and, crucially, still alive. However, it’s not all good news: with the delays to The Winds of Winter, it means Dany has been stranded in the 15 years since A Dance with Dragons was released, having diarrhea in the Dothraki Sea (some less generous folks might say it’s a better fate than Game of Thrones season 8).

There is also the small matter of The Winds of Winter‘s release, which currently does not seem close, but I live in hope because sometimes that’s all we have to cling to in this world. And when Winds does come around, there’s a good chance Dany will finally be making her way over to the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, ready to take what she believes is rightfully hers with fire and blood. And if she does that, she will be making history.

Daenerys Becoming Queen Would Be A First For House Targaryen

Aegon the Conqueror established a dynasty that spanned almost 300 years, and it’s one Daenerys is looking to reestablish. Fom Aegon I, to Aegons II, III, IV, and V(!), all the way through to Aerys II, aka the Mad King, there were a total of 17 Targaryen rulers across more than 280 years. Unfortunately for Dany, not a single one of them was a woman.

While there have, of course, been plenty of women married to kings and styled as queens, there hasn’t been a single one who has served as the ruling monarch in that capacity, meaning Daenerys would be the very first. And, yes, that includes Rhaenyra Targaryen, despite her claiming the Iron Throne in both Fire & Blood and House of the Dragon.

Rhaenyra does claim the Iron Throne and serve as queen, but the issue is she is not officially recognized as such in the history of Westeros’ kings and queens. Because Aegon II was seen as the rightful ruler by many, and Westeros is a deeply patriarchal (and sexist) society, the history was written to be that Rhaenyra was the usurper and her rule was delegitimized. Thus, in the line of succession, it simply moves from Aegon II to Aegon III.

So, if Daenerys is able to restore the Targaryen line, she would be the first ever true Targaryen queen. This actually makes sense with how Martin has established her as someone who is special and a figure of greater destiny. That may also play a part in her eventual downfall, but it is fitting that she would do what no Targaryen has ever done before.

There is also the chance that Daenerys becomes Westeros’ first true ruling queen, period. In Game of Thrones, that honor belongs to Cersei Lannister, but it remains to be seen whether that happens in the book prior to Dany’s arrival. However, she does become Queen Regent following the death of Tywin Lannister, so she technically has filled that role in her own way.

Will Daenerys Actually Become Queen In The Winds Of Winter?

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While Daenerys’ arc is very much about her eventually becoming Queen of Westeros, there’s still a long way to go before that happens. Her story in The Winds of Winter should loosely align with that from Game of Thrones season 6, which is: deal with the khalasar, return to Meereen, finish up business there, and eventually set sail for Westeros. This will also include Dany’s first meeting with Tyrion Lannister, which hasn’t yet happened in the books, and much more besides.

Then there’s the matter of rival claimants. Depending on how the book handles Tommen’s fate, it’s possible Cersei will become queen for a brief time, but it’s perhaps more likely that another Targaryen will take the Iron Throne before Daenerys: Aegon. In the books, the firstborn son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Elia Martell is ostensibly still alive, under the moniker Young Griff, having been switched with another baby during the Sack of King’s Landing and smuggled to Essos.

Now, machinations are in place for Aegon to take the Iron Throne. He’s been raised as the perfect Targaryen ruler, he’s arriving in Westeros with an army – including the Golden Company, the finest group of sellswords known to man – and Varys has killed Kevan Lannister and Grand Maester Pycelle to cause chaos in the realm and weaken Tommen’s reign. It would be quite a powerful idea for Dany to finally arrive in Westeros, to come so close to the thing she believes is hers, only to find another Targaryen beat her to it.

Still, Daenerys taking the Iron Throne at some point feels likely. It’s quite possible we’re headed to another civil war, this time with her vs. Aegon (who may or may not be a fake, and it may or may not even matter), and there’s no way Dany, one of the two main characters of the series, is going to lose to someone introduced in the fifth book.

When that’s done, then I do think we will see her on the Iron Throne, in a much more concrete and official way than we got in Game of Thrones, but it might not be until A Dream of Spring, or at least the very end of The Winds of Winter.

Daenerys As Queen Would Also Break GRRM’s POV Rule

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This would also, actually, break another long-held rule. So far, Martin has resisted having the monarchs be point of view characters. None of the characters who have been crowned king and sat the Iron Throne – Robert, Joffrey, and Tommen Baratheon – have been POV characters. Nor were those involved in the War of the Five Kings: Robb Stark, Stannis and Renly Baratheon, Balon Greyjoy. The closest is Cersei herself, who becomes a POV character in A Feast for Crows, though, again, she is Queen Regent, not just Queen. Dany, meanwhile, is styled as Queen of Meereen, but there are none in Westeros.

It’s an interesting choice, meaning we don’t get insights into how they think, but it’s more interesting to view them from those around them. Inevitably, however, that has to break at some point as the pool of characters narrows down, and the series approaches its endgame. Whether it is with Bran Stark, Jon Snow, or someone like Sansa Stark as Queen in the North, we’ll have to get a POV chapter or two from a ruling Westeros monarch, and it could well begin with Daenerys.