House of the Dragon Season 3: The Shocking Book Changes That’ll Hit Like a Heavyweight—Are You Ready to Dominate the Game?
History isn’t just a story told — it’s a story shaped, twisted, and sometimes downright rewritten by those who walk away victorious. Ever wonder how much of what we believe is a polished version of the truth, shaded by the winners? Well, that’s the very puzzle that the House of the Dragon creative team wrestles with as they adapt George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood. Showrunner Ryan Condal embraces this challenge head-on, reminding us that history is riddled with contradictions and competing tales, which naturally makes bringing such a tangled narrative to screen a wild ride. So, if you thought the season 3 finale followed the book to the letter, prepare to be intrigued — because from dragon riders to epic battles, the story’s taken some dramatic detours. Curious about what’s fact, what’s fiction, and what’s just creative liberty? Let’s dive deep into the twists House of the Dragon threw into this season, and what it all means for fans who crave every shred of lore. LEARN MORE
10 min readHistory is told by the victors. It’s an old saying, but it’s not untrue. Most of what we know about the past has likely been warped a bit by those who have won the wars and were wealthy enough to know how to read and write. It’s the same reason that House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal gave Esquire when he was explaining all the changes he’s made from Fire & Blood by fantasy author George R.R. Martin, which serves as the source material for HBO’s Game of Thrones spin-off.
“Part of the thing that [writer] Sarah [Hess] and I were interested in, adapting this work, was that this is really an exploration of the true unknowability of ancient history,” Condal said, ahead of the season 3 finale. “We know certain things happened—big things like coronations, deaths, things like that—but the hows and the whys seem more up to interpretation. Individual moments could be up for debate.”
Fire & Blood is a lot harder to adapt than the Song of Ice and Fire series. The historical text contains multiple narrators, such as Archmaester Gyldayn, Septon Eustace, Grand Maester Orwyle, and a court jester named Mushroom. Each narrator provides their accounts of events based on historical documents, political letters, and salacious rumors. They often contradict each other and even lead to other wild claims. So Condal and his writing team chose which paths made the most sense for the story they’re telling in House of the Dragon, which means that not everyone’s version of Fire & Blood’s potential history will make it from book to screen. Naturally, this ruffles a lot of feathers with Thrones’s fanbase.
“I guess I wasn’t ready for how much every little individual thing was going to be scrutinized, but it’s something I came to peace with earlier in the creative process this season,” Condal told Esquire about the pushback this season. “It’s just our interpretation of it.”
But if you haven’t read the books, then you might not be aware of just how much of the story was changed in the season 3 finale. Though the larger narrative remains the same—from Rhaenyra taking King’s Landing to the Battle of Tumbleton in the finale—there are still some significant changes that you might want to know about. So let’s break down every major difference between House of the Dragon and Fire & Blood below.
Rhaena and Nettles become one composite character in House of the Dragon.
Rhaena Doesn’t Claim Sheepstealer
In Fire & Blood, Sheepstealer’s rider is named Nettles. She possesses the least-known connection to any bastard Targaryen bloodline among her fellow dragonseeds—Hugh, Ulf, and Addam. House of the Dragon replaces her character entirely and integrates her plot into Rhaena’s (Phoebe Campbell) instead, which is one of the show’s biggest changes.
House of the Dragon director Nina Lopez-Corrado later explained in HBO’s “Inside the Episode” that it made more sense to work on existing character arcs rather than add even more characters to the story. It opened up the storylines for Rhaena to confront her father about feeling abandoned and for Daemon (Matt Smith) to reckon with some of the terrible choices he’s made throughout his life.
But in the book, Sheepstealer has no connection to Jace’s (Harry Collett) death at the Battle of the Gullet. Daemon never met with Lady Arryn as he was banished from the Vale following the death of his first wife, Lady Rhea Royce. Sheepstealer also never went rogue to attack the other dragons, even if it was cool to see.
Westeros also has two more wild, unclaimed dragons in the book, named Grey Ghost and Cannibal. They have yet to appear in House of the Dragon, and they may never at this point. But at the same time, there’s also no mention of Alys Rivers’s (Gayle Rankin) chest of dragon eggs—though she apparently owns four or five of them in House of the Dragon. That is, if they’re real.
Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) fights with Aemond at Harrenhal before he dies.
Criston Cole and Aemond Have a Real Falling-out
Though the two characters were inseparable in their fight against Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) in season 2 of House of the Dragon, everything changed in season 3. Ser Criston (Fabien Frankel) and Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) didn’t share a single scene together this season. Cole arrives at Harrenhal to find that Aemond is missing in episode 4—when really he’s injured and being held prisoner by Alys Rivers—so he just moves on without him.
In Fire & Blood, the former friends are driven apart when they disagree over how to handle retaking King’s Landing. Meanwhile, another one of the book’s narrators, Mushroom, suggests that Aemond and Cole fought over their affection for Rivers, who used love potions and other spells to inflame their passions. Either way, Cole leaves and Aemond remains in Harrenhal. From there, Aemond is never paid a visit by his mother, Alicent (Olivia Cooke), like in episode 7, nor his brother Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) in the finale, before going on to the next part of his story.
Cole, however, does die in almost exactly the same way as was portrayed in the show. He’s killed by an archer named Red Robb Rivers instead of Alysanne Blackwood, but the Riverland host does play dead and surprise the former Hand of the King before wiping out the rest of his army.
We don’t know where Aegon II is during this time in the book.
Aegon II’s Journey Is Mostly Made-up
We don’t know much about what happened to Aegon II after he escapes King’s Landing in Fire & Blood. That mystery is part of what makes his reappearance much later on in the story so exciting. But I guess the TV series didn’t want to lose the character for an entire season, so the writers filled in the gaps.
The series picked up his story following the aftermath of Rook’s Rest—where Aemond turned his dragon on Aegon II and left him for dead. In Fire & Blood, Lord Mooten retakes the area instead of a band of petty criminals. Mooten’s army attempts to slay Aegon II’s fallen dragon Sunfyre, but he rises and kills most of his attackers, Lord Mooten included. House of the Dragon depicts these events at the end of episode 7, when Sunfyre and Aegon II reunite.
Readers likely didn’t expect Helaena’s (Phia Saban) death until the series finale.
Helaena’s Death Occurs Much Later in the Story
We won’t spoil what happens right before Helaena (Phia Saban) jumps from her window in Fire & Blood, but it’s an event that likely won’t take place until the series finale of House of the Dragon. By then, she’s given birth to her third child, Maelor, whom she actually has in the book before the events of season 2.
Maelor’s removal from the TV series was one of author George R.R. Martin’s largest grievances when he complained about season 2 on his personal blog. Since then, he hasn’t been involved in the storyboarding process for House of the Dragon. Plus, both Maelor and Helaena are now dead in the TV series, much sooner than he wrote in Fire & Blood.
Ormund Hightower (James Norton) is a new villain in season 3.
We Don’t See the Battle of the Honeywine
Ormund Hightower (James Norton) just sort of shows up out of nowhere in season 3. His army is teased in the season 2 finale, alongside Alicent’s son Daeron Targaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) and his dragon, Tessarion, but the new characters become Rhaenyra’s most pressing new threats in season 3 as if they had never existed until now.
Before the events of season 3, and around the same time as the Battle of the Gullet in the premiere, Ormund and Daeron are introduced following a win for their side at the Battle of the Honeywine. The Hightower army defeats Ser Alan Beesbury and Lord Alan Tarly. The latter you might recognize as Samwell Tarly’s ancestor. The Beesburys, however, were purely fighting against the Hightowers because Ser Criston Cole beheaded Lord Lyman Beesbury, the former Master of Coin, which was depicted back in season 1, episode 9.
It’s here, before the Battle of the Honeywine, that Ormund becomes enraged over the status of King’s Landing. He asks for help from Aegon II and Aemond only to learn that Aegon II has fled the city and Aemond is nowhere to be found. Daeron saves his small army from defeat thanks to his dragon. The battle provides some much-needed backstory for the characters—including Bold Jon Roxton (Joplin Sibtain), Ormund’s right-hand man—before they wind up at Tumbleton.
Gwayne (Freddie Fox) lives!
Gwayne Hightower Is Dead by Now
Alicent’s cousin, Ser Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox), is actually killed in the book when Rhaenyra takes King’s Landing. Though he’s nowhere near the castle in House of the Dragon, he’s assigned to the city’s gold cloaks to protect Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) from treachery in the book instead of accompanying Criston Cole in battle. So when Rhaenyra takes King’s Landing, she’s challenged by Gwayne instead of the queen’s guard. Then, when Luthor Largent (Tom Cullen) of the gold cloaks arrives, he slays Gwayne with the line, “Daemon gave us these cloaks, and they’re gold no matter how you turn them.”
The remaining beheadings of Otto and Jasper Wylde (Paul Kennedy) follow just as they do in the show, but Gwayne’s death is rewritten out entirely. Partly, I assume, because Luthor Largent is killed in season 3, episode 5, by Ormund’s assassins. So whatever happens to Gwayne from here on out is all-new!
What’s next for Corlys (Steve Toussaint) in season 4?
Corlys Is Never Kidnapped
In Fire & Blood, Rhaenyra arrests Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) after he asks her to name his bastard sons—Addam and Alyn—true Velaryons. She suspects him of conspiring to unseat her by announcing that his sons have the blood of the dragon flowing in their veins. But in House of the Dragon, Corlys is briefly kidnapped by Ormund. Then he’s returned to the Targaryens as a hostage, before escaping the Battle of Tumbleton in the finale alongside Daemon.
Daemon never fights at Tumbelton in the books, but I’m sure Rhaenyra is glad to have him there!
Daemon Isn’t at Tumbleton
Speaking of Tumbleton, Daemon doesn’t lead an army to take the city in the book. The battle occurs between the Hightower army and a host fighting for Rhaenyra made up of the Riverland lords and Roderick Dustin’s (Tommy Flanagan) winter wolves from the north. Many of the events still play out the same in the season 3 finale. Dustin dies from his wounds after slaying Ormund. Ulf almost misses the battle because he’s drunk. But as Condal explained it to Esquire ahead of the finale, “Daemon had to be put at the center.
“In a television show where you’re completing a story arc [each season], that was absolutely necessary,” he said. “In a previous season, I would’ve really stressed against it because I understood that it was so different from the book. But, undoubtedly, it’s just better for Daemon’s arc, and it’s better for television storytelling.”
Septon Eustace (Simon Chandler) is one of the book’s narrators.
Rhaenyra Doesn’t Kill the High Septon
If you thought Rhaenyra’s struggles with the religious sect of the city in season 3 felt a bit too similar to Cersei Lannister’s plot in Game of Thrones, you might take some solace in the fact that none of it is in the book. While it’s true that the city is in a state of unrest after Rhaenyra discovers that there’s no gold and taxes the kingdom, she never orders Alyn (Abubakar Salim) to murder the high septon.
Septon Eunance also doesn’t refuse to anoint Rhaenyra, as he doesn’t live in King’s Landing. The center of the church was in Oldtown at the time, and it didn’t relocate to King’s Landing until the Great Sept was built during King Baelor I Targaryen’s rule about 30 years later. Septon Eustace (Simon Chandler) is one of the book’s narrators. So it’s assumed that he lives through everything. Not here!
Why does Ulf betray Rhaenyra?
Ulf’s Betrayal Is up for Debate
Before the fight at Tumbleton, which is later referred to as “the Treason of Tumbleton” in Fire & Blood, Corlys and Alicent suggest to Rhaenyra that she break up the kingdom and offer pardons to lords Baratheon, Hightower, and Lannister. Alternatively, Daemon suggests that she dethrone them and hand claims of their cities over to Ulf (Tom Bennett) and Hugh (Kieran Bew). “Half the lords of Westeros will turn against us if we are so cruel as to destroy two such ancient and noble houses,” Corlys responds. So it’s assumed by the narrators that the two dragon riders jumped ship because the other side offered them higher rewards.
Still, the truth remains unknown in Fire & Blood. “As neither man could read nor
write, we shall never know what drove the Two Betrayers (as history has named
them) to do what they did,” the book states.
This is another gap in history that House of the Dragon fills in. Ulf is slapped around and disrespected in season 3, as if every character forgot that he rode a dragon. So he turns on both Daemon and Ormund in the finale, with the consequences to follow in season 4. Hugh also turns in the books, which is only teased in the season 3 finale. Instead of riding his dragon into battle, he joins the ground troops and attempts to save his wife from the fighting. Sadly, he finds her dead in the finale—which may lead him down the path of betraying Rhaenyra in the show as well.
What lies in store for Rhaenyra in season 4?
Rhaenyra Doesn’t Declare Herself “the Prince That Was Promised”
House of the Dragon has long tied itself to the prophecy that works its way through Game of Thrones. It doesn’t occur once in Fire & Blood, but it makes sense for the prequel series to continually hark back to its much more successful predecessor. After all, the writers likely thought that Rhaenyra needed a little more push into becoming a despot in season 3. What better way than to declare herself a ruler chosen by destiny? It won’t change anything that happens to her from here on out, most likely. So for now it’s just a big moment in the finale meant to help carry us into the fourth and final season.
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