Episode 4 of season 3 of House of the Dragon diverges almost entirely from the source material, Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin. However, many changes stem from past episodes, and it looks like the show may be tying some loose ends to merge back with book canon. Let’s look at how this episode altered and sometimes echoed the story.
In King’s Landing, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) is shown to be struggling. Despite having recovered some goods from the nobles and sending Daemon (Matt Smith) to collect taxes from the Vale, she is still plagued by other issues: their resources are still low, her council is thin, her Hand has deserted her to spite her because he can.
At the end of the day, the series wants to portray Rhaenyra as not fully capable to rule… why else would the writers make her go to Alicent (Olivia Cooke) for intel or ask basic questions such as how entangled the Hightowers are with the Faith? If it was just mere exposition they needed, I'm sure the writers could find more clever ways.
To replenish her Small Council, Rhaenyra reinstates Orwyle (Kurt Egyiawan) as Grand Maester and makes newcomer Lord Torrhen Manderly (Dan Fogler) her Master of Coin. Both these appointments are changes from the book, where Orwyle becomes a prisoner during Rhaenyra's reign, with her own Dragonstone Maester Gerardys instead being appointed as Grand Maester, and Lord Bartimos Celtigar of Claw Isle becoming Rhaenyra's Master of Coin.
Tumbleton
Similarly as in Fire & Blood, Lord Ormund Hightower (James Norton) has seized the market city of Tumbleton. Rhaenyra knows she cannot attack a city that raised her banners, so she sends her dragonseeds, Ser Ulf (Tom Bennet) and Ser Hugh (Kieran Bew), to take watch over the city without intervening, while the Rivermen and Winter Wolves arrive from the Riverlands to take the battle to Tumbleton.
Since season 2, House of the Dragon has taken great care to build a small backstory for Ulf and Hugh. While Ulf’s compass points only to himself (though he does ask Rhaenyra for favors and pardons for his drinking friends), Hugh prioritizes his family. Last season, his daughter dies partly because of the blockade on King’s Landing.
This season, his wife Kat (Ellora Torchia) goes to stay with her brother in Tumbleton, which will undoubtedly lead Hugh to make hard choices. In fact, Kat is directly in danger from the green army this episode. The green soldiers have occupied their house and one of them, a man named Garrick (Douglas Russell), assaults Kat, her brother, and her sister-in-law. The show’s obsession with unnecessary sexual abuse angers me more and more every episode, particularly after that gratuitous scene of Alicent and Ser Jasper (Paul Kennedy) in episode 2.
Kat’s brother is eventually killed at the end of the episode by Daeron (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth), who is essentially manipulated by his uncle/father figure Ormund to do so against his will. This death will undoubtedly have direct repercussions on Kat and Hugh, although I do not see how the Greens killing his family can make Hugh switch his allegiance and betray his oath to Rhaenyra.
In the book, Hugh does not have a wife or family, so this entire plot line is original to the show.
Ormund and Daeron
In the book, Prince Daeron, the youngest of King Viserys and Queen Alicent’s children, is raised in King’s Landing alongside his siblings and Rhaenyra’s children, for which he inherits a dislike from his older brothers. The picture of Valyrian coloring, at the age of 12, Daeron is sent to foster with his uncle Ormund at Oldtown, along with his she-dragon Tessarion.
Daeron is never taken hostage by the Blacks, so the feigned Daeron plot does not exist. The show has altered Daeron’s story: this episode, Alicent admits to Rhaenyra that she wanted Daeron to be raised a Hightower, not a Targaryen, so he was sent to Oldtown as an infant. His coloring, resembling Alicent and not his Targaryen siblings, is telling of this. Ormund has raised Daeron as his — through years of abuse, possibly — and this episode he decides to switch up his allegiance and raise Daeron as king. This never happens in the book.
Team Green declaring three kings in the span of a dozen episodes reveals how fragmented they are. Will this cause a split of the team in different factions? Or will the characters be victims to the lack of instant messaging again — like Criston (Fabien Frankel) and Gwayne (Freddie Fox) only just finding out about Rhaenyra taking King’s Landing — for the remaining four episodes of the season? Who will people even be rooting for?
Criston and Gwayne
As told in Fire & Blood, Prince Aemond and Ser Criston Cole are in Harrenhal together at this point. This episode, Cole and Ser Gwayne Hightower arrive at the stronghold with their army, only to find Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) — apparently? – gone. In episode 2, we see Aemond and Vhagar destroy the garrison left at Harrenhal by Daemon, and Aemond takes a deep stab from Ser Simon Strong’s (Simon Russell Beale) son, then collapsed at Alys Rivers’ (Gayle Rankin) feet.
This episode, Alys seems to be the only person left at Harrenhal. While she could be hiding Aemond away — perhaps curing him, perhaps giving him the same treatment she offered Daemon last season — it would be impossible to conceal Vhagar.
Ser Gwayne is ready to give up the fight, while Criston suggests that they fight Daemon’s army men to men, no dragons, despite their odds. In the book, Gwayne is already dead at this point, killed by his brothers in the City Watch when Rhaenyra takes the city.
Aegon and Larys
Since the source material remains rather vague about Aegon II’s whereabouts after he flees King’s Landing, likely with Larys Strong, the show has built an original subplot through the Crownlands that seems out of Monty Python. This episode, notably, Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) is reunited with the body of his dragon Sunfyre, fallen outside Rook’s Rest. He claims that Sunfyre is alive, which would be consistent with the book, where Sunfyre is gravely injured after the battle but never presumed dead.
In the second part of the episode, Aegon and Larys (Matthew Needham) arrive at Rook’s Rest, and they find themselves working for the spiteful man in charge there, where Aegon has to swallow his pride to stay alive.
The Vale
Prince Daemon obtains gold from Lady Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin) this episode, on the premise that the gold will make up for the men she didn’t send, as she felt cheated out of her agreement with Prince Jace (Harry Collett) who promised her dragons, where all she got were hatchlings and eggs.
In the book, Prince Joffrey’s dragon Tyraxes is small and certainly no match for grown dragons, but still fierce enough to protect the Vale and deter a dragonless foe. This episode seems to confirm that Princes Joffrey, Aegon the Younger, and Viserys are finally sent to Pentos for their safety. This is a major plot difference in episode 1, where Prince Jace (whom we miss dearly) dies to save his two youngest brothers. This nod to their departure is a way for the season to reconcile with the book for the future of at least one of these characters: Prince Viserys is lost during the voyage and presumed dead for years.
Princess Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell)—Lady Rhaena in the book, one change I can certainly get behind—is living in a self-imposed exile at the Vale after indirectly causing Jace’s death. This episode, Caraxes takes Daemon to where Sheepstealer’s lair is and he reunites with his daughter. Upon finding the truth about Rhaena’s involvement with Jace’s death, Daemon urges her to leave Sheepstealer behind and to join her half-siblings in Pentos where she should be guarding them, or even to go to King’s Landing with him and to explain the truth to Rhaenyra, so that Rhaena might reconcile with the family. That is not her wish, and Daemon — out of love for his daughter, something the series is finally showing us for the first time — lies to Rhaenyra about killing Sheepstealer’s killer.
While I am not a fan of the show writing Nettles out of the story and giving her plot to Rhaena, I appreciated seeing Daemon’s moral dilemma here: betray the trust of his daughter who certainly did not mean to cause Jace’s death, or lie to Rhaenyra, his wife and queen, which is an act of betrayal in itself. If left to fester, this lie could be what ultimately causes Daemon and Rhaenyra to fall out. It is also an echo of Fire & Blood, where some sources say that Nettles becomes Daemon’s lover, but many fans have always interpreted the ambiguity of his loyalty to her as stemming from a secret father-daughter relationship.
Helaena is pregnant
One last loose end to tie in order to merge back with the book: Aegon and Helaena’s last child, Prince Maelor, has not yet been born on the show. This episode, in a moment of mother-daughter intimacy in their captivity, Alicent realizes that Helaena is pregnant. Helaena is barely showing and, given the state that Aegon was in when he returned from the Battle of Rook’s Rest a season ago, it’s hard to imagine that the baby could have been conceived after that. This begs the question of how much time has truly passed since the battle or if the baby is even Aegon’s to begin with.
For years, many fans have been speculating that Aemond may have sought out Helaena. Hopefully, we’ll get answers in the remaining four episodes. At any rate, Helaena being Aegon’s queen and pregnant does not bode well for the baby. Any child of Aegon’s is to be considered a potential claimant to the throne. We know all too well that Rhaenyra does not condone child murder and that, as a mother who has lost three children already, she would be against murdering a helpless babe, but she would be within her right mind to at least keep the child hostage — despite their innocence.
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