HBO finally reveals Game of Thrones' Sansa Stark replacement

Sansa Stark was once a divisive character in the first few seasons of Game of Thrones, but eventually rose in the ranks of viewers' favorite characters. What made her worth rooting for was her resilience, but also that she learned from her mistakes, as well as the lessons her very enemies taught her. But as Sansa once said, "I'm a slow learner, it's true. But I learn."

It's hard to replace the Queen in the North following her triumphant ending, but there is someone in House of the Dragon following in her footsteps. Daeron Targaryen, the youngest child of Viserys I Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, has made an impression on viewers in just his first couple of episodes. He appears to hold honorable values, and his uncle, Gwayne Hightower, has said that he shows a kindness lacking in his brothers. But as Sansa once learned the hard way, those are qualities that make someone an easy target in Westeros.

House of the Dragon's Daeron Targaryen Has Many Lessons to Learn

On the surface, Daeron is more like his mother in both good and bad ways. As Alicent Hightower's last child, Daeron represents the freedom and adolescence that was taken from her when she was forced to marry Viserys. Sending Daeron away wasn't an act of selfishness, as Alicent herself may believe it to be. Making him Ormund Hightower's ward at Oldtown saved him from a life where he'd always compete for Targaryen greatness. Sparing him from that hostile environment set him up to surpass his brothers.

But Daeron's lenience also exposes him to his greatest weakness: naivety. In turn, that makes him easy to mold and be influenced by others, much like Sansa was for Cersei Lannister and Littlefinger. By all accounts, Ormund did a fair job at raising Daeron, but the war seemed to prompt Ormund to develop a tougher love. Ormund pushes Daeron to abandon his ethics, like killing a man defending his sister from sexual assault, all in the name of a greater scheme.

Ormund's plot to install Daeron on the throne all relies on Daeron's willingness to please his uncle, out of fear of Ormund's theatrical reactions. Even winning a game against Ormund scares the boy, because he knows Ormund's obsession with winning trumps love. But the thing is, Ormund clearly loves Daeron. He's affectionate toward him and genuinely believes he's teaching Daeron the right lessons in life. He just so happens to be using his love as a means of masking his manipulative strive for power.

Daeron Could Turn the Tide for Team Green

Similarly, both Cersei and Littlefinger carried their own fondness for Sansa: Cersei saw her younger self in the Stark girl, and Littlefinger saw what he could never have with Sansa's mother. But history remembers them as her exploiters.

Any love they had for Sansa was twisted and used against her for their own benefit. Cersei kept Sansa hostage to secure a claim to the North, and Littlefinger to gain control of the North and the Vale. Ormund is only doing the same to usurp the Targaryens from the throne and to put the Andals (specifically, House Hightower) on it.

In time, one may hope that Daeron finds a voice. That voice is a whisper right now, and it's always shut down by Ormund. But it would be quite satisfying for at least one member of Team Green to find courage, not out of fear for their life like Alicent or Gwayne, but because it's the right thing to do.

Even if Daeron reaches a similar end to his Fire & Blood counterpart,it would give a relatively minor Targaryen a fulfilling ending in such a tragic story.

New episodes of House of the Dragon premiere every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.