FULL SPOILERS for House of the Dragon season 3, episode 8, "The Treasons at Tumbleton," ahead!
House of the Dragon season 3's finale, "The Treasons at Tumbleton," takes some notable deviations from George R.R. Martin's source material, but one of the biggest changes to Fire & Blood results in a pretty interesting parallel to a key storyline from Game of Thrones season 5. While the prequel series' most recent episode features a very important reveal regarding the HBO-original backstory of Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), the installment makes a far more immediately violent course correction when held up against how events occur in Fire & Blood.
One of the most narratively charged moments in "The Treasons at Tumbleton" is when Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) gives the order for the High Septon (Simon Chandler) to be executed after refusing once more to anoint her as Queen. This isn't something that happens in Fire & Blood, which means House of the Dragon season 4 will be especially unpredictable, even for those familiar with Martin's literary works.
That being said, Game of Thrones featured a very similar twist back in 2015, which could give us a clearer idea of how House of the Dragon will progress.
House of the Dragon just mirrored Cersei's removal of the High Septon in Game of Thrones
Game of Thrones season 5 follows a pivotal storyline that sees the High Septon (Paul Bentley) disgraced after being found in a brothel. Cersei (Lena Headey) uses this opportunity to have him removed from his post as the head of the Faith and replace him with the High Sparrow (Jonathan Pryce). While it seems like an understandable change of leadership, given the previous High Septon's conduct, Cersei's real motivation is to weaponize the ever-growing following that the High Sparrow has been amassing.
After also reviving the Faith Militant to give the High Sparrow even more power, Cersei feels especially confident that the church's new anti-nobility rhetoric will protect her from those inside and outside of King's Landing who seem intent on stripping her of her position, influence, and power. Of course, this quite famously backfires, and Cersei herself finds herself in the High Sparrow's crosshairs after he turns out not to be the malleable, mild-mannered figurehead she assumed him to be.
When comparing this Cersei plot with Rhaenyra's in "The Treasons at Tumbleton," it's somewhat similar. Just as Cersei is paranoid that there are those who can and want to remove what relatively little power she has left, Rhaenyra's rash actions stem from a psychological state of the same ilk. Surrounded by claims to the Iron Throne that could trump her own, especially in the wake of Aegon's (Tom Glynn-Carney) supposed "resurrection" galvanizing the smallfolk, D'Arcy's character also takes action to remove the High Septon, albeit in a more violent manner.
The main differences between Cersei & Rhaenyra's High Septon schemes
Cersei's wily intelligence is one of her core character traits. She always seems to be several steps ahead of those who oppose her, and it takes the High Sparrow to make her feel like she has her first real chance of being taken down. There's a dark irony in it, considering why she orchestrated his ascension to the head of the Faith. Still, the entire subplot between Cersei and the High Sparrow was like a game of chess. Cersei weighed up the options carefully before acting and was simply caught off guard when she misinterpreted what she could get away with while the High Sparrow was in power.
Rhaenyra, on the other hand, acts out of passionate fear that the smallfolk will turn against her in the face of alternative claims to the Iron Throne and that she has left them to starve. She doesn't seem to have much of a plan beyond killing the High Septon for refusing to anoint her as Queen of the Seven Kingdoms. It's a reflexive, anger-fueled order that she gives to have him impaled, and all she's left with are words to try and convince everyone why she is the Prince That Was Promised—a prophecy that the downtrodden people of King's Landing probably care very little about, or are even aware of.
Finally, Cersei's replacement of the High Septon in Game of Thrones was the catalyst for a storyline that permeated season 5. By contrast, Rhaenyra's very similar action serves as a cliffhanger that not even the source material can fully resolve. It remains to be seen if she will try to appoint a new High Septon who is more responsive to her demands, but if she does, then House of the Dragon could easily see her regretting that decision, just as Cersei did with the High Sparrow in Game of Thrones.
House of the Dragon season 3 is streaming now on HBO Max.
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