oohh I have SO MUCH to say on this matter.
first off, I fully agree with this take. house targaryen signed their own death warrant by seeking power over the seven kingdoms. they doomed their culture, their freedoms, their magic, and their very dragons to an ignominous fate, all because of a prophecy that may or may not have come true without said annexation regardless.
the targaryens were the literal last dragonriders left alive after the doom - they were alone in their culture, their customs, their manner of dress, their religion, even their language. and when a community gets displaced like that, assimilation almost always carries the risk of losing all of the above.
and it started small.
visenya had to share the crown with her brother, even though valyrians practiced absolute primogeniture, where birth order carried weight, not sex. but she had to do it, because the andals and westerosis wouldn't agree to their rule otherwise.
they had to hide their religious practices behind closed doors, and visenya was later condemned for practicing blood magic - something that was very standard practice in their culture, and was actually key to them being bonded to dragons.
aegon, visenya and rhaenys had to essentially eschew their faith, upbringing and culture in public for appeasement, and even aegon's bigamy was frowned upon, even though it was, once again, very much standard in his culture.
the downward spiral continued with the succession crisis, with maegor being demonised not for his harsh ruling practices, but for his cultural and religious ones. he was called "mad" for his blood magic and his polygamy, which once again is just... their heritage.
but jaeherys was the one who truly sentenced them to death.
he sidelined alyssane and reduced her to consort, not an equal, and leaned further into the patriarchal practices of westeros, shaming - and even punishing - his daughters for sexual freedoms that were otherwise allowed in their culture. he made his sons heirs over their elder sisters, continuing to break their own familial tradition and valyrian laws.
their weddings were not conducted in valyrian religious customs and practices, and one could almost argue that it weakened the magic in their blood and their bonds with their dragons.
it is no surprise that daemon and rhaenyra, who practiced valyrian customs, married in a valyrian religious ceremony, spoke high valyrian as their mother tongue, had the strongest bonds with their dragons.
and that rhaenyra's death marked the end of the dragons.
i have more thoughts, but they are not coherent at the moment, so there may be another thinkpiece.
