Warning: Major spoilers through “House of the Dragon” season three, episode two.
“House of the Dragon” has returned for its third season, continuing its tradition of expanding on the source material.
HBO’s flagship “Game of Thrones” spinoff is based on George R. R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood,” a fictional history of House Targaryen. The book is written as an overview of major events during the dynasty’s reign.
Unlike Martin’s main series (“A Song of Ice and Fire,” which inspired “Game of Thrones”), “Fire & Blood” is not told from the major characters’ points of view but is recounted in retrospect by maesters, members of the royal court, and other third-party observers.
Thus, “Fire & Blood” readers don’t get definitive causes or clear motivations for why characters take certain actions — and, in some cases, the book may be missing key in-universe information. As the “Fire & Blood” narrator frequently notes, not even eyewitness accounts are entirely reliable. His sources often disagree, each saddled with unique baggage, blind spots, and biases.
This means the TV writers hired for HBO’s adaptation had a lot more leeway with the story and an opportunity to create a consistent canon of events.
So let’s take a closer look at some of the pivotal “House of the Dragon” deaths so far, and how they compare to the details found in “Fire & Blood.”
Aemma’s final moments of life are made more brutal by Viserys opting for a C-section.
In the show: Director Miguel Sapochnik says the scene that killed Queen Aemma (Sian Brooke) was designed to show how King Viserys (Paddy Considine) “effectively murdered” his beloved wife.
When Aemma goes into labor, her baby is facing the wrong direction, and the maesters can’t get it to turn. This means Aemma will certainly die, but there’s a small chance they can save the baby by cutting it out of her.
The maester offers the choice to Viserys, who picks the surgery without consulting Aemma or telling her what’s about to happen. Instead, she’s dragged down on the bed and restrained while the maester cuts open her belly. She bleeds to death as the baby is “born.”
In the book: Death by childbirth is fairly commonplace in Westeros, and it’s treated as such in the text. “Fire & Blood” provides no details or context to Aemma’s death, and doesn’t mention Viserys being a part of the labor and delivery process at all:
Rhea’s death in the book is regarded as a “hunting accident” instead of cold-blooded murder.
In the show: In season one, Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) is married to Lady Rhea Royce (Rachel Redford), though neither is particularly happy about it.
Hoping to marry his royal niece instead, Daemon sneaks up on Rhea during a hunting trip and spooks her horse. After she’s thrown, Rhea is paralyzed from the neck down and unable to fight back. She lobs insults at Daemon until he picks up a rock and bashes in her skull.
In the book: According to the historical record, Rhea’s death was “a tragic mishap.” Daemon is not suspected of being involved:
Joffrey is killed by Criston in both the show and the book, but in “Fire & Blood,” his death happens under the guise of a tourney.
In the show: While still teenagers, Lord Laenor Velaryon (Theo Nate) and Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) agree to get married — not out of love, but duty to their families. They also secretly agree to keep their marriage open, since Laenor is gay, and Rhaenyra is having an affair with Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel).
Ser Joffrey Lonmouth (Solly McLeod), Laenor’s lover, outs himself to Criston as the future king consort’s boyfriend. Big mistake.
Cole, embarrassed and infuriated by the exposure of his own secret tryst with Rhaenyra, lashes out and beats Joffrey to death in the middle of the wedding welcome feast.
In the book: “Fire & Blood” historians recall that Joffrey was killed by Criston during a tourney, during which Criston had been “fighting in a black fury” against all his opponents. Joffrey’s relationship with Laenor isn’t mentioned as a possible motivation for his death:
Harwin and Lyonel canonically die in a fire at Harrenhal, but the show clarifies the arsonist.
In the show: House Strong controls Harrenhal, the largest castle in the Riverlands. It’s where Ser Harwin Strong (Ryan Corr) and his father, Lyonel Strong (Gavin Spokes), meet their doom after leaving King’s Landing in season one.
“House of the Dragon” makes it clear who to blame: Larys Strong (Matthew Needham), a sneaky man who wants leverage on Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke), hires two miscreants to set the castle ablaze in one of the show’s most egregious acts of kinslaying. As an added bonus, with his older brother and father both dead, Larys inherits Harrenhal.
In the book: Harwin and Lyonel are indeed killed in a mysterious fire at Harrenhal, but Larys is floated as just one of several suspects for the arson:
Like Aemma, Laena’s cause of death isn’t detailed in the book beyond childbirth. The show gives her a fiery end.
In the show: Just like Aemma, Lady Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell) is unable to safely deliver her baby. A medieval C-section offers a tiny chance for the baby’s survival, and Laena’s husband, Daemon, is given that option.
But Laena takes her fate into her own hands and opts for a dragonrider’s death. While still in labor, she orders her dragon, Vhagar, to incinerate her.
In the book: Laena officially dies of “childbed fever” and apparently doesn’t make it to Vhagar in time:
Laenor fakes his own death in a big change from the book.
In the show: Even after marrying and having children with other people, Daemon and Princess Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) are drawn to each other. They want to make it official as husband and wife, but Rhaenyra is trapped in a lavender marriage with Laenor (John MacMillan).
Daemon and Rhaenyra seem to conspire to kill Laenor so they can finally be together — and that’s what Laenor’s mother long believed — but the show reveals that Laenor was in cahoots with the couple all along.
Daemon kills a High Tide castle servant while Laenor and his lover, Qarl, stage a sword fight in the main hall. After another servant runs to get help, Daemon presumably helps Laenor dress the body of the dead servant in his own clothes, and they burn the servant’s face beyond recognition.
Laenor and Qarl sneak away to Essos with Daemon’s help, leaving the realm to gossip about the tragic and fishy death of Rhaenyra’s husband.
In the book: Qarl stabs Laenor in broad daylight. Rumors spread that it was an act of passionate jealousy, or maybe a murder plot, but no damning evidence was ever collected:
In the book, Otto Hightower is executed as a traitor. The show makes his death more climactic by having Rhaenyra swing the sword.
In the show: After he’s unceremoniously removed as Hand of the King by his grandson, King Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney), viewers barely see Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) until his death.
Otto tells his daughter, Alicent, that he’s returning to House Hightower’s seat in Oldtown, though she finds it odd that he doesn’t answer any of her letters.
Upon Rhaenyra’s return to King’s Landing, we discover that Otto never made it home. He was captured and imprisoned in the Red Keep’s dungeon by none other than Larys, Aegon’s master of whisperers.
Otto is brought before Rhaenyra, and Daemon urges her to execute Aegon’s former Hand as a traitor. “If you wish to rule,” he says, “show them you do not waver.”
Unfortunately, Rhaenyra was raised to be a lady, not a knight. She has never beheaded anyone — let alone the father of her childhood best friend. She panics and misses Otto’s neck on her first stroke, burying her sword in his shoulder blades. On her second stroke, Rhaenyra cuts off Otto’s head, choking back sobs.
In the book: When Rhaenyra takes the Iron Throne in “Fire & Blood,” it’s said that she set about “rewarding her friends and inflicting savage punishments on those who had served her half-brother.” Otto is simply listed as the first traitor to die under Rhaenyra’s rule, sans any grisly or personal details:
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