10 deaths in ‘House of the Dragon’ that were significantly changed from the book

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:

“Queen Aemma was brought to bed in Maegor’s Holdfast and died whilst giving birth to the son that Viserys Targaryen had desired for so long. The boy (named Baelon, after the king’s father) survived her only by a day, leaving king and court bereft.”

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:

“The ‘bronze bitch’ of Runestone, Lady Rhea Royce, fell from her horse whilst hawking and cracked her skull upon a stone. She lingered for nine days before finally feeling well enough to leave her bed…only to collapse and die within an hour of rising.”

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:

“Cole’s favorite weapon was the morningstar, and the blows he rained down on Ser Laenor’s champion cracked his helm and left him senseless in the mud. Borne bloody from the field, Ser Joffrey died without recovering consciousness six days later.”

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:

“Shortly after their arrival, a fire broke out in the tower where they were sleeping, and both father and son were killed, along with three of their retainers and a dozen servants. The cause of the fire was never determined. Some put it down to simple mischance, whilst others muttered that Black Harren’s seat was cursed and brought only doom to any man who held it.

Many suspected the blaze was set intentionally. Mushroom suggests that the Sea Snake was behind it, as an act of vengeance against the man who had cuckolded his son. Septon Eustace, more plausibly, suspects Prince Daemon, removing a rival for Princess Rhaenyra’s affections. Others have put forth the notion that Larys Clubfoot might have been responsible; with his father and elder brother dead, Larys Strong became the Lord of Harrenhal.

The most disturbing possibility was advanced by none other than Grand Maester Mellos, who muses that the king himself might have given the command. If Viserys had come to accept that the rumors about the parentage of Rhaenyra’s children were true, he might well have wished to remove the man who had dishonored his daughter, lest he somehow reveal the bastardy of her sons. Were that so, Lyonel Strong’s death was an unfortunate accident, for his lordship’s decision to see his son back to Harrenhal had been unforeseen.”

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:

“During her final hour, it is said, Lady Laena rose from her bed, pushed away the septas praying over her, and made her way from her room, intent on reaching Vhagar that she might fly one last time before she died. Her strength failed her on the tower steps, however, and it was there she collapsed and died.”

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:

“Ser Laenor Velaryon, husband to the Princess Rhaenyra and the putative father of her children, was slain whilst attending a fair in Spicetown, stabbed to death by his friend and companion Ser Qarl Correy. The two men had been quarreling loudly before blades were drawn, merchants at the fair told Lord Velaryon when he came to collect his son’s body. Correy had fled by then, wounding several men who tried to hinder him. Some claimed a ship had been waiting for him offshore. He was never seen again.”

In the show: Sharako Lohar of Lys (Abigail Thorn) leads the Triarchy — a combined fleet of warships from Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh — into the Battle of the Gullet. The admiral had promised to break Rhaenyra’s blockade for King Aegon II, but her true motivation is revealed to be vengeance. She has a score to settle with Rhaenyra’s Hand of the Queen, Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint).

Before Lohar gets her chance, Corlys falls into the ocean. Instead, she’s attacked by Corlys’ son and first mate, Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim). Alyn kills Lohar in a desperate struggle.

In the book: Lohar survives the Battle of the Gullet, but the bloody sea battle spells the end of the Triarchy alliance. Widows from Myr and Tyrosh accuse Lohar of favoring the Lysene ships, and years later, Lohar is murdered by a rival. This causes the three cities to turn against each other in what’s known as the Daughters’ War:

“The murder of Sharako Lohar of Lys, the admiral who had presided over the Triarchy’s disaster in the Gullet, proved to be the spark that engulfed the Three Daughters in flames, fanning the smoldering rivalries of Tyrosh, Lys, and Myr into open war. It is now commonly accepted that Sharako’s death was a personal matter; the arrogant admiral was slain by one of his rivals for the favor of a courtesan known as the Black Swan. At the time, however, his death was seen as a political killing, and the Myrish were suspected.”

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:

“Queen Alicent was fettered at wrist and ankle with golden chains, though her stepdaughter spared her life ‘for the sake of our father, who loved you once.’ Her own father was less fortunate. Ser Otto Hightower, who had served three kings as Hand, was the first traitor to be beheaded.”

In the show: In season three, Queen Rhaenyra is faced with significant opposition after she takes the Iron Throne, even within the walls of her own city.

Although he’s stationed in Tumbleton, a market town southwest of King’s Landing, Lord Ormund Hightower (James Norton) is puppeteering bloodshed and chaos using his allies in the capital. Ormund’s group of mercenaries systematically murders the knights of the City Watch, known as the gold cloaks, as part of their attempt to paint Rhaenyra as incompetent.

In episode five, “Unbowed and Unbent,” Daemon sets out to discover who’s behind these killings. Instead, he discovers a gruesome scene: the corpses of several gold cloaks, including the Commander of the City Watch, Ser Luthor Largent (Tom Cullen), gutted and staged at a long table. “A feast for traitors” is scrawled on the wall behind them, apparently in blood.

In the book: The “feast for traitors” is never mentioned, although Rhaenyra does face strong opposition in King’s Landing. The unrest in the city eventually devolves into a full-blown riot, spurred by an anarchist and religious fanatic known only as the Shepherd.

When Ser Luthor leads the charge to arrest the Shepherd, the gold cloaks are overwhelmed by thousands of enraged commonfolk. Ser Luthor is brutally killed in the struggle:

“Battle turned to riot turned to slaughter. Surrounded on all sides, the gold cloaks found themselves hemmed in and swept under, with no room to wield their weapons. Many died on the points of their own swords. Others were torn to pieces, kicked to death, trampled underfoot, hacked apart with hoes and butcher’s cleavers. Even the fearsome Ser Luthor Largent could not escape the carnage. His sword torn from his grasp, Largent was pulled from his saddle, stabbed in the belly, and bludgeoned to death with a cobblestone, his helm and head so crushed that it was only by its size that his body was recognized when the corpse wagons came the next day.”

In the show: After taking over Tumbleton with the Hightower army, Ormund conspires with Ulf the White (Tom Bennett), one of Rhaenyra’s sworn dragonriders, to betray the queen. Ormund promises that once the war is over, Ulf can take over Driftmark and become Lord of the Tides.

Ormund is probably lying, and anyway, Ulf is too unruly and self-interested to be trusted with a battle plan.

When Rhaenyra’s army arrives to retake Tumbleton, Ulf gets drunk and passes out in a privy. Ormund finds him mid-battle and berates him, calling Ulf a “useless, baseborn stump.”

Once Ulf finally takes to the sky on his dragon, Silverwing, he decides to betray both Rhaenyra and Ormund.

Ulf burns Rhaenyra’s army in the field while Ormund is attacked by Ser Roderick Dustin (Tommy Flanagan), the Lord of Barrowton, known to history as Roddy the Ruin.

Roderick commands a group of Northern soldiers known as the Winter Wolves, and he’s determined to die fighting for the dragon queen. Despite losing an arm, he overpowers Ormund in one-on-one combat and stabs him from behind.

Ormund, bleeding out, lives just long enough to watch Ulf turn Silverwing toward the walls of Tumbleton. Both he and Roderick are burned alive by dragonflame.

In the book: Ormund is killed by Roddy the Ruin during the Battle of Tumbleton. There’s no mention of Ormund striking a deal with Ulf, or having anything to do with Ulf’s violent defection:

“In the chaos that ensued, the northmen fought their way through ten times their own number to where Lord Ormund Hightower sat his warhorse beneath King Aegon’s golden dragon and the banners of Oldtown and the Hightower.

As the singers tell it, Lord Roderick was bloody from head to heel as he came on, with splintered shield and cracked helm, yet so drunk with battle that he did not even seem to feel his wounds. Ser Bryndon Hightower, Lord Ormund’s cousin, put himself between the northman and his liege, taking off the Ruin’s shield arm at the shoulder with one terrible blow of his longaxe…yet the savage Lord of Barrowton fought on, slaying both Ser Bryndon and Lord Ormund before he died. Lord Hightower’s banners toppled, and the townsfolk gave a great cheer, thinking the tide of the battle turned.”