8 ways House of the Dragon changed Rhaenyra Targaryen from the book

7. Visenya’s birth goes slightly differently

In the book, Rhaenyra suffers in labor for three days when giving birth to her daughter Visenya. She goes into early labor after hearing about her father’s demise and Aegon’s coronation, something that House of the Dragon adapted more or less faithfully. However, the show left out how Rhaenyra “shrieked curses” to “call down the wrath of the gods” on the greens, “detailing the torments she would inflict upon them.” The show includes the part where she yells “get out,” though.

The show also doesn’t mention that the stillborn baby was a girl — Rheanyra’s only daughter — and that she was named Visenya, the same name she picked out when Aemma was pregnant with the child that killed her.

In the book, after Visenya’s death, Rhaenyra makes this pronouncement: “She was my only daughter, and they killed her. They stole my crown and murdered my daughter, and they shall answer for it.”

8. Daemon never chokes Rhaenyra

The much-talked-about strangling scene, where Daemon chokes Rhaenyra after she brings up Aegon’s prophecy — a prophecy that Rhaenyra’s father Viserys never shared with his brother Daemon — is not in the book. Many fans argue that it is part of a deliberate attempt by the showrunners to demonize Daemon and show that he does not care much about his children or his wives.

In both the show and the book, Daemon does some questionable things. Sometimes the show makes him look better, and sometimes worse. For instance, Daemon’s first wife Rhea Royce is said to die of an accident; no where is it suggested that Daemon personally bashes her head in with a rock as he does on the HBO series. In the book, he has a more loving marriage with Laena Velaryon than shown in the series. Then again, the books mention that he may have married Laena as a means to safeguard his social position. Also, in the book, Daemon duels and kills the man Laena is betrothed to before marrying her.

Many of these scenes are private, so it’s understandable why an Archmaester wouldn’t know or leave them out while compiling a “history” book about House Targaryen. We can expect House of the Dragon to continue to spin things in its own way when season 2 premieres on HBO and Max sometime in the summer of 2024.

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