House of the Dragon Episode 6 is titled “The Princess and the Queen,” after a 2013 novella by George R.R. Martin that was later incorporated into Fire & Blood, the book that forms the basis for the show as a whole. The title refers to Princess Rhaenyra and Queen Alicent respectively, now all grown up and played by Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke.
This episode starts after a 10-year time jump. Fire & Blood likes to narrate events in a way that leaves room for interpretation, drawing as it does on multiple, sometimes conflicting sources. But on the show, we learn several things for sure, and a lot of important stuff has happened in that lost decade. The first and most important is that Rhaenyra now has three children, the last of which she has just given birth to at the beginning of the episode. Some shots remind us of Queen Aemma, Rhaenyra’s own mother, giving birth in the first episode. Aemma told Rhaenyra that her “royal womb” would one day produce royal heirs. That comes to pass here.
Now, to the matter of the father…
Harwin and Laenor and Rhaenyra and Alicent
Ser Harwin Strong has been on the periphery of the story for a while, since Episode 3. And as is suggested (but not confirmed) in the book, he becomes Rhaenyra’s lover at one point. When exactly that might have happened, or how, the show does not explore. I thought it was a good choice not to dedicate too much time to how their affair might have started, given that he ultimately represents a transitory phase in the life of the princess. Even with the few scenes Harwin got in this episode, the show effectively conveyed the intimacy and understanding shared between Rhaenyra and Harwin after spending a decade together. Was there love between them? Absolutely, and we didn’t need a kissing scene to see it. The actors’ eyes said it all.
Then there’s Rhaenyra’s husband Laenor. Just like in the book, Rhaenyra and Laenor maintain, even in private, that the three children are his, and he treats them as such, no questions asked. Harwin is Rhaenyra’s champion, after all, and fond and protective of her children. The Laenor we get on the show is different from the one in the book in that he longs for adventure, perhaps even battle; on the page, he had other priorities. I like this change, and especially how his advice inspires Rhaenyra to move her family to Dragonstone.
In the book, Rhaenrya has already left for Dragonstone by this point in her life, but on the show, Rhaenyra has made it a point to stay in the Red Keep to defend her position. This close proximity with Alicent means everyone can see the tension between them. In Fire & Blood, Rhaenyra takes active possession of her seat at Dragonstone upon her marriage, birthing her first three sons there far away from King’s Landing and Alicent’s Greens. In the show as in the book, Alicent’s allies include Criston Cole, who despises Rhaenyra because she rejected him; and Larys Strong, a chaotic figure who recalls both Varys and Littlefinger from the original series.
House of the Dragon changes Laena Velaryon’s death in a compelling way
A massive (and shocking) change comes in a different storyline. In the show, we find Daemon and Laena now married with two daughters and a third child on the way, as guests in Pentos. In the book, they only stay in Essos until the twins Baela and Rhaena are born in 116 AC and then move back to Driftmark, where they can be close to Rhaenyra and Laenor. This choice is strategic on the part of the creators, as they needed to isolate Rhaenyra and shrink her circle of allies and friends. I was sad that this distance made it nearly impossible to believe that Rhaenyra and Laena shared a strong bond as they do in the books, so much so that Rhaenyra insists to be at Laena’s side all throughout her labor and for many hours after her passing. They could have at least had Laena receive a letter from Rhaenyra herself rather than Laenor to give us a hint of their friendship, even if it makes sense that her brother would write her.
We must now discuss the unavoidable: Laena’s death. While the cause is the same, the context is completely different. In the book, we simply learn that Laena dies of childbirth, like countless other mothers, and that the babe doesn’t survive her. The show makes a daring choice: to give her agency. Her death by dragonfire is beyond painful to watch and looks like suicide, but to call it that would be incautious, when you know you are going to die in the next few hours with no modern medicine to help you. It felt more like the Valyrian version of euthanasia, the equivalent of brave soldiers in ancient times falling on their swords and dying for their principles rather than being captured by their enemies. Throughout the season, we’ve seen Laena longing for adventure (at age 12, she knew she wanted to claim the largest and oldest living dragon in the world), and this episode shows us she longs for her roots, for belonging.
Bleeding out after delivering a dead child was not the death she wanted for herself, she desired something glorious. There’s another jarring contrast to the first episode of the season: Viserys did not give Aemma a choice over how she was going to die, and lied to her about what the maester would do to her; here, Laena gets to choose for herself. Daemon probably could have stopped her, but respects her wish. Why subject her to a death she didn’t want?
Also, it must be added that this isn’t too far from the book. In Fire and Blood, Laena tries to get up from her bed of blood to reach Vhagar. Our sources presume it was so she could fly one last time, but how do we know for sure that this brave, willful woman wasn’t planning the exact same fate that she chose to meet on the show?
An arson mystery solved
Because one can never have enough fire, an entirely different blaze kills the elder Strongs: Lord Lyonel and Ser Harwin. The book suggests various options for who could have started this fire (assuming it wasn’t just happenstance), including Corlys Velaryon, Daemon Targaryen or even King Viserys. House of the Dragon shows us the real culprit, and somehow it’s the most disturbing one: Larys Strong, ruthlessly ordering the death of his father and brother (with whom he seemed to have no beef or resentment) to ingratiate himself with Alicent, since Lyonel’s death means her father Otto can once again take up his old job as Hand of the King.
What did you think? This episode made daring changes and it’s perfectly okay if you have a different opinion on them. Personally, I hated watching Laena die (she’s my favorite character, RIP) like that, but I realize I would’ve hated it in any other way. Watching her die in bed might have been even worse than watching her choose how to go.
PS: Have you noticed how Helaena Targaryen has prophetic knowledge? She hinted at Aemond losing an eye to gain a dragon, and she must have seen that in a dream. That got me so hyped!
Did you notice any other changes from the book?
To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.
Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels