Spoilers follow for both House of the Dragon and the book Fire & Blood.
Season 3 of House of the Dragon has come to an end, and with it so too has any chance of Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) being the hero of this show. While her heel turn wasn’t as abrupt as and was far better developed than how Game of Thrones handled Daenerys’ descent into villainy, it seems the Iron Throne truly does corrupt, physically or morally, every Targaryen who occupies it.
By the final moments of this episode, Rhaenyra has fully gone over to the Dark Side. She ultimately chooses to sacrifice her humanity in pursuit of power and to win the war against the Greens.
Series co-creator and showrunner Ryan Condal joined D’Arcy in a virtual press conference for the season finale, where they spoke about Rhaenyra’s descent into tyranny. “We had always looked at Rhaenyra being torn between Viserys’ philosophy, which is somewhat embodied by Mysaria. It’s somewhat embodied by Alicent in her conversations with them. And then Daemon, which is the fire and blood, rule by dragons, uncompromising. It’s very, very black and white to him and his empire building and his dreams and ambitions and all the reasons that Viserys passed him over to be king,” Condal explained.
“And Rhaenyra is torn between those two avenues, asking herself, ‘Can I rule as a woman during a time of war and still be true to the reasons that Viserys chose me to rule? Or do I simply just have to become Daemon in order to win and to hold this whole thing together?’ I think from Rhaenyra’s perspective, [it] wouldn’t be to be an authoritarian. It would just simply be to keep control, to hold the center. And she has to make all these compromises as she goes along.”
Read the Season Finale Review:
House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 8 Recap and Review
For their part, D’Arcy said, “I really, really wanted to make sure that that journey was a legible one. I think broadly, if we’re to be more practiced at protecting democracy, which seems increasingly fragile at times, we have to be smarter about understanding the behaviors of dictatorial leaders… This was an opportunity to attempt to try and make a certain type of behavior at least understood by an audience. And from an acting perspective, it felt much more playable to think about empathy and the sort of empathetic machine, and how that gets damaged and affected by events, than it did to solely think about her relationship with authoritarianism or something.”
Rhaenyra breaking bad comes just as her foe Aegon’s “resurrection” stuns the public and his brother Aemond seeks to atone for coveting his brother’s crown. Although neither brother can be considered a good guy now, this season has nevertheless revealed more layers of complexity to Aegon and Aemond as well as a growing self-awareness for both of them, as Condal explained:
“Even though he’s still angry with his brother and has agendas, I think what [Aegon] realized in his evolution is that he does deserve a lot of the things that happened to him probably in some way and had to learn how to be a better king, and perhaps that he needed to be away and walk amongst the people as a pauper. And the irony of the season is that Aegon now, not in the proximity of the throne, goes on this incredible character evolution where he becomes a much more dimensionalized man who is more sympathetic and possibly more suited to rule. And then Rhaenyra in the proximity of the throne is turned and altered and somewhat corrupted by being in its orbit.”
Featuring some major deaths and a whole lot of devastation, the House of the Dragon Season 3 finale leaves fans with a lot to think about over the next few years before the show returns for its fourth and final season.
So let’s break it all down, including how the season finale differs from the show’s source material, George R. R. Martin’s Targaryen history book Fire & Blood.
Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra. (Photo: HBO)
Rhaenyra: “I Am the Prince That Was Promised”
Rhaenyra is incredibly high on her own supply by the time she arrives with her Kingsguard at the Great Sept of Baelor, demanding that the High Septon finally anoint her in public. When he refuses her, as he previously did, she labels him a traitor and orders Alyn of Hull to slay him right there on sacred ground.
Rhaenyra convinces Alyn to do it by reminding him that he has Valyrian blood and their gods are more powerful than those of the Faith of the Seven. Afterward, Rhaenyra, with her heir Joffrey and her guards and councilors at her side, addresses a crowd of smallfolk gathered outside the Great Sept.
She reveals what has thus far been a Targaryen monarch’s biggest secret: Aegon the Conqueror’s prophecy about the great evil from the north that will one day attack the realm. She declares herself Rhaenyra the Chosen, and that only her line and not the Hightower faction can save Westeros from this vague, looming danger. She even mutters to herself in High Valyrian: “I am the prince that was promised.”
It’s unclear how the people will respond to her Chosen One proclamations, but that glance between Ser Torrhen Manderly and Grand Maester Orwyle suggests they think she’s gone loco, which certainly doesn’t bode well for the Queen maintaining their loyalty in the series’ homestretch.
“We wanted something that felt like a real seismic change, a sea change in Rhaenyra’s relationship to her people. “
But more importantly, you would think a monarch revealing to their subjects that there is a grave supernatural threat coming might have remained part of the historical record, yet by the time of Game of Thrones, which happens a little over 160 years later, no one seems to remember a thing. Was that something the Mad King went on about too? Was it another reason why Robert Baratheon and Ned Stark rebelled? It doesn’t seem so and would be one hell of a retcon if it were. It should also be noted that Fire & Blood doesn’t link Rhaenyra or her father to Aegon’s prophecy at all; that’s completely an invention of House of the Dragon.
As Condal explained: “It’s not in the book and it’s not in the history, but there is a bunch of talk about how Rhaenyra became very despotic and became a tyrant at the end and was very unpopular with the people. So we saw it as a, ‘This could just be something that happened and there was disagreement over exactly what it was,’ so it didn’t make the historical record. But my glib sort of toss-off from the historians is, ‘Oh, well, Targaryens say crazy shit all the time.’ But so much of their existence is this self-aggrandizement. And for the stone masons standing there in the crowd just looking up at this, it could just sound like somebody trying to make something of themselves because they have no idea of all the ‘real history’ that went into Rhaenyra making that speech. But we wanted something that felt like a real seismic change, a sea change in Rhaenyra’s relationship to her people. She’s seen the death of their religious leader. She’s standing outside of the church of the faith of most of the people standing there, as a member of a totally different faith, this old Valyrian faith of dragons and fire gods and blood magic, and pronouncing herself the chosen one, the leader that is going to take them through the fire and out of the darkness. And so tremendously, virtuosically performed by the great Emma D’Arcy.”
At some point, then, either Rhaenyra’s revelation of Aegon’s prophecy was scrubbed from the record, or no one bothered to mention it. Even if most people dismissed it as the ravings of a mad person, you’d still expect history to make note of it. It will be interesting to see how Season 4 handles this.
The Two Betrayers One Betrayer
This is the biggest change the finale made from the book. In Fire & Blood, dragonseed Ulf the White betrays the Blacks, defecting to the Greens where his dragon Silverwing lays waste to Rhaenyra’s army and the town of Tumbleton. But in the book, Ulf is joined in his treachery by Hugh Hammer and his dragon Vermithor, with the duo going down in infamy as The Two Betrayers.
In Fire & Blood, Ulf and Hugh are simply greedy and want power and riches for themselves. In the show, Ulf was in line to get his wish until Ormund Hightower beat him even worse than Daemon did. The show’s Ulf seems to realize he doesn’t need to serve either side since he has a dragon of his own. That certainly spells trouble for both warring parties in the final season.
While only Ulf betrays the Blacks in the show and is solely responsible for destroying Tumbleton, there’s still reason to believe that Hugh Hammer will join him in betraying Rhaenyra next season.
With his wife Kat slain by the queen’s army, Hugh has no incentive to stay loyal now. The show will almost certainly still give fans the Two Betrayers, just not at the same time.
Every Dragon in Game of Thrones: House of the Dragon
The Battle of Tumbleton
With the aforementioned exception of only having one Betrayer burn Tumbleton, the battle itself is relatively faithful to how it’s described in the book insofar as the complete destruction visited upon the market town. The show invents Ormund Hightower placing children on the battlements, and keeps the broad strokes of his final duel with Roddy the Ruin (but has him hack off the Northman’s arm instead of it being his cousin Ser Bryndon Hightower doing it).
The show adds the hilarious bit where Roddy’s blood sprays into Ormund’s mouth. It also invents Roddy stabbing Ormund through the butthole and having Ulf’s dragon kill them both. The book sees Roddy slay both Ormund and Bryndon Hightower, the latter of whom isn’t in the show but whose basic function is given to Gwayne Hightower instead.
Speaking of Gwayne, the whole bargain he and Daeron try to strike with Daemon about dividing the kingdom is actually an exchange in the book made by Alicent to Rhaenyra, one which also fails.
Now Hiring: Master of Whisperers
Given that she was truly terrible as Rhaenyra’s Master of Whisperers – here is a pretty lengthy list of her failures on the job – Lady Mysaria getting fired really shouldn’t have come as a total shocker. She tried playing Rhaenyra against her husband Daemon but, just as Alicent warned her, those two are ride or die. Once Rhaenyra accepted that Daemon’s way of dealing with Tumbleton and the Hightowers was the only viable course, she simply couldn’t risk Mysaria trying to keep messing with her head.
“I’m not sure that Rhaenyra recognizes that her leadership is becoming increasingly tyrannical, at least not for most of Season 3,” D’Arcy said. “There’s a nice thing where Rhaenyra’s constituent parts got externalized this year in some way. Daemon is the ego and Mysaria sort of the conscience. And I think Alicent is the judge, and I really like the idea of locking your judge up in the basement or whatever, but then periodically going down to check in with them about how you’re doing. Something about that feels very truthful, although it’s kind of bizarre and abstract.”
With Mysaria escaping from her escort in time to witness Rhaenyra’s big speech in front of the Great Sept, where she calls herself the people’s protector, it would seem that “Lady Misery” will find a way to influence the masses against Rhaenyra in the final season. Perhaps she will use her network to help spread word about The Shepherd?
House of the Dragon: Season 3 Official Images
Helaena’s Death
Poor Helaena won’t get her dream life in the country with her kids and chickens. After a warning from Mysaria that Helaena and the baby she’s carrying will never be free, the deposed queen is returned to her captivity in Maegor’s Holdfast. There, in the closing moments of the season finale, Helaena finishes weaving her tapestry, leaving it on the sill of the open window for Rhaenyra to find. Helaena then leaps to her death, her lifeless body seen impaled on the iron spikes below. (King Tommen also leapt to his death from Maegor’s Holdfast in Game of Thrones.)
Fire & Blood also has Helaena plunge to her death from Maegor’s Holdfast. The book’s unreliable sources suggest Helaena, devastated by the recent murder of her son Maelor, committed suicide.
Others claim she was, like her young son Jaehaerys, murdered on the orders of Rhaenyra, a rumor that takes hold among the masses and further enrages them against the queen. Perhaps House of the Dragon will see Mysaria help spread such nasty rumors to get back at Rhaenyra for firing her.
The look on Rhaenyra’s face after finding Helaena’s tapestry — which shows a mighty Rhaenyra sitting on the Iron Throne, surrounded by fire and her dragon — suggests she finally got the confirmation of her destiny that she was clamoring for all season. But Rhaenyra no longer has a Dreamer around who can see the future, so maybe she shouldn’t feel overly confident that her victory is assured.
Phia Saban and Emma D’Arcy. (Photo: Theo Whiteman/HBO)
“Helaena is the moral heart of the show, I think. She’s maybe the only character who has a proximity to power, but remains kind of uncontaminated,” D’Arcy explained. “And so I think her death condemns Rhaenyra to the path she’s chosen. There’s no way back after that. There’s certainly no route back to a kind of more moderate form of leadership. And I mean, I don’t know where we go from here, but I imagine it’s likely to be impassible in her relationship with Alicent, which I think also means Helaena’s death kind of condemns Rhaenyra to be alone in her pursuit for power… I guess I just love the simplicity of looking at a document that could be hugely illuminating, but choosing to chuck it on the floor.”
The season finale also seems to troll George R.R. Martin when all those butterflies take flight after Helaena’s death. The author infamously complained in a 2024 blog post that Condal’s deviations from the source material would create a “butterfly effect” for the rest of the series, adding that “more toxic butterflies” were ahead for the show’s final two seasons.
Sure, we had that curious moment earlier this season where Helaena commented about a caterpillar appearing out of season (and, remember, caterpillars turn into butterflies) but I feel like Condal, who co-wrote this episode, was definitely needling Martin with all those butterflies. Especially since a blog post from Martin spoiled that Helaena would die in Season 3 “for no particular reason… There is no fresh horror, no triggering event to overwhelm the fragile young queen.”
Alys Rivers’ Origin Revealed
Given that Fire & Blood never revealed the truth, fans have long wondered what the deal was with Harrenhal’s resident goth girl, Alys Rivers. Was she really a witch as some have speculated? Well, it turns out she did indeed dabble in darkness, which she says has left her even more “cursed” than her boyfriend Aemond claims he is. (They really are made for each other.)
House of the Dragon’s Alys is the unnamed wife of Harren the Black, the wicked king who a century earlier built Harrenhal on forced labor and who, along with his four sons, perished there when Aegon the Conqueror’s dragon, Balerion the Black Dread, burned the castle. (Fire & Blood said Harren had no daughters, so this would make Alys his wife in order for the timing to work.)
Alys tells Aemond of a mother who found herself cursed after turning to “older cures” while trying to save her son, who was left horrifically burned, presumably by Balerion. “She uncovered incantations more ancient than the land. She treated with things that lived in the forest,” Alys reveals. But nothing could undo what the dragon fire had done to her boy.
Gayle Rankin and Ewan Mitchell. (Photo: Theo Whiteman/HBO)
After he died, she tried to kill herself, and that’s when she realized she was cursed, trapped at Harrenhal forever. She was left with nothing, “stripped of her name, her title, her castle” and doomed to serve every lowly lord who came to run Harrenhal in the ensuing 100 years.
“We wanted to give Alys a real underlying motivation. This is something we actually broke for her going all the way back to Season 2, because we knew the role that we wanted her to play in the story as this kind of guru figure for both the opposite sides of the Targaryen coin, Daemon in Season 2, and then Aemond in Season 3. But what does she actually want and what does she want from them?” Condal said. “It just felt like the best card turn that we had for her character. And if you go back and look at everything that happened in the past now, it all kind of falls into place and makes sense. It’s a very satisfying reveal.”
Alys and Aemond seem poised for a wonderfully wicked future together when his brother Aegon II and his dragon Sunfyre arrive at Harrenhal. Aemond admits to his sins and is ready to die for trying to kill his brother, but is spared (for now) because Aegon wants his help defeating Rhaenyra. But first they have to find Aemond’s dragon Vhagar, whose disappearance remains one of the season’s biggest unanswered questions.
“I think if Aegon had shown up and just killed Aemond, it really would not have marked a growth in the character. It’s him seeing Aemond’s change and then realizing where he is standing with his dragon and suddenly this incredible wind of legitimacy behind him now that … he’s experienced a messianic return,” Condal said. “I think it would ruin and spoil that for him to kill the person that’s potentially his greatest and strongest ally.”
“We’re actually watching a dynasty destroy itself from within for reasons of ego and pride and power. “
Today’s Allies or Tomorrow’s Enemies?
If there’s one thing Queen Rhaenyra excels at, it’s alienating her allies. First, she loses her hand, Corlys Velaryon, by choosing not to legitimize his bastard sons Alyn and Addam. Then she fires Mysaria and basically tells Baela tough shit when the latter asks what the rescue plan is for her grandpa Corlys.
We find out later that Baela has been grounded and confined to the Red Keep for being insolent to Rhaenyra. Baela and her sister Rhaena have precious few reasons now to remain loyal to the Queen outside of allegiance to their dad Daemon.
Baela’s plight also doesn’t seem to upset her new beau Alyn much. (Seriously, did Baela and Alyn just hook up that one time or are they a couple now? They end up married in the book.)
While Alyn is firmly on Rhaenyra’s side — he killed Westeros’ version of the Pope, for cripes’ sake! — his brother Addam seems disturbed by the Queen’s recent behavior and his brother’s rapid rise in her service while their dad lingers in captivity. Could Addam defect in Season 4? And, if so, would any attempt on Addam’s life drive Alyn away from Rhaenyra? We shall see.
Emma D’Arcy. (Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO)
Despite feeling that she’s the gods’ chosen victor, Rhaenyra definitely finds herself on thin ice by the end of Season 3. She’s driven key allies away, Aegon is back in action, and the destruction of Tumbleton and the murder of the High Septon will likely only further turn the people against her.
Condal sees House of the Dragon as being akin to a Greek or a Shakespearean tragedy: “This is a succession battle. We’re actually watching a dynasty destroy itself from within for reasons of ego and pride and power. And I think our show is just much more of an exploration of what power means and what it means to wear a crown and sit on a throne, but also to do so with nuclear weapons at your back and how and when those are deployed and how you use them. And what we’re seeing is this series is an exploration of the Targaryens in their striving and reaching for power, destroying the very thing that gives them that absolute power in the first place, which is the dragons. And that’s what makes it, to me, a very, very dark tragedy that we’re watching in increasing motion.”
We’ll have to wait a couple years to find out if the Dance of the Dragons ends the same way on House of the Dragon as it does in Fire & Blood or if there are any more “toxic butterflies” on the way to switch things up.