Why do Targaryens have silver hair and purple eyes?
It is a Valyrian trait rather than a Targaryen one, and the family kept it on purpose. What it does not come with is fireproof skin.
The short answer
The pale silver-gold hair and light violet eyes belong to the dragonlord families of the Valyrian Freehold, not to House Targaryen specifically. The Targaryens were one dragonlord family among forty, and they were not even a particularly grand one until everyone else died in the Doom.
What made the colouring survive three hundred years in Westeros is the family’s marriage policy. Valyrian dragonlords wed brother to sister to keep the blood pure, and the Targaryens kept doing it long after there was any Valyria left to keep it pure for. The look is a direct product of that decision, and so is everything else that came with it.
Four things people get wrong
Are Targaryens immune to fire?
No. This is the most common misconception about the family and the books go out of their way to correct it. Viserys was killed by molten gold. Aegon II was burned so badly at Rook’s Rest that he never fully recovered. Rhaenyra was eaten by a dragon. Daenerys walking out of the pyre unburnt is treated in-world as a singular event, not a family trait.
Does silver hair prove Targaryen blood?
It proves Valyrian blood, which is not the same thing. House Velaryon, House Celtigar and House Dayne all carry Valyrian features without being Targaryens. Plenty of Free Cities families in Lys and Volantis have them too.
Does every Targaryen have silver hair?
No, and the exceptions matter. Rhaenyra’s first three sons were brown haired and brown eyed, which is precisely how everyone at court worked out who their father actually was. Baratheon and Martell marriages diluted the look in later generations.
Can anyone with Valyrian blood ride a dragon?
Apparently so. During the Dance, the Blacks put out an open call and four smallfolk with Targaryen bastard ancestry claimed dragons: Hugh Hammer, Ulf White, Addam of Hull and Nettles. Two of them changed sides within the year.
The other side of the trait
Keeping a bloodline that narrow for that long has a documented cost in the histories. Maegor the Cruel married six times and produced three stillbirths described as monstrosities. Roughly half of all Targaryen pregnancies ended badly. Aerion Brightflame drank wildfire believing it would turn him into a dragon. Aerys II burned men alive in his throne room.
The family’s own saying is that every time a Targaryen is born, the gods toss a coin and the world holds its breath. That is not a metaphor about temperament. It is what the maesters wrote down after watching it happen for three centuries.
Common questions
Why do Targaryens have white hair?
It is a Valyrian trait, not a Targaryen one. The dragonlord families of the Valyrian Freehold had pale silver-gold hair and light eyes, and the Targaryens preserved it by marrying within the family for three hundred years.
Why do Targaryens have purple eyes?
The same reason. Valyrian eyes come in shades from light lilac to deep indigo. Like the hair, it is a marker of Valyrian descent that the Targaryens kept deliberately through close marriage.
Are Targaryens immune to fire?
No. Targaryens burn like anyone else. Viserys died of molten gold, Aegon II was crippled by dragonfire, and Aegon V died in the fire at Summerhall. Daenerys emerging unburnt from Drogo’s pyre is treated as a miracle precisely because it should not happen.
Does silver hair mean someone is a Targaryen?
It means Valyrian ancestry. The Velaryons, the Celtigars and the Daynes all show the colouring, and so do many families in Lys and Volantis. It is a clue, not proof.
Why did Rhaenyra’s sons have brown hair?
Because their father was almost certainly Ser Harwin Strong rather than Laenor Velaryon. Two silver-haired Valyrian parents producing three brown-haired boys is what made the rumour impossible to ignore.
What is the Targaryen madness?
The in-world explanation for the family’s instability, attributed to centuries of close marriage. The saying is that every time a Targaryen is born the gods toss a coin. Aerion Brightflame and Aerys II are the cases usually cited.