Different from Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon is based on Fire & Blood, which covers the entirety of the conflict between Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower’s children. Although the book lacks the emotional depth of A Song of Ice and Fire, narrated like a fictional history book, it offers an array of possibilities for House of the Dragon to reach a satisfying conclusion. With that said, how will House of the Dragon end?
Will House of the Dragon Adapt Fire & Blood Faithfully?
Fire & Blood tells the history of House Targaryen from 114 years before Aegon’s conquest to 136 years after Aegon’s conquest, detailing the rise and fall of the dynasty that ruled the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros.
Fire & Blood was published in 2018. An upcoming second volume is currently in development.
The Winds of Winter, the sixth book in A Song of Ice and Fire series, is yet to be released.
Fire & Blood is a whopper of a book; a 700-page volume telling the story of House Targaryen over the years. It starts with the conquest of the Seven Kingdoms by Aegon and ends with King Aegon III, Rhaenyra’s son, taking over his King duties as a man grown on the Iron Throne. The events are collected through assumptions and plain gossip from Westeros scholars and the Court’s Fool, but the spotlight clearly goes to the section on the Dance of the Dragons, detailing King Viserys’ ascension to the throne and the civil war that fell upon Westeros following the day of his death. The entire first season of House of the Dragon is a prologue to the war, detailing the power struggles between the opposing sides and the characters pulling the strings.
As a fictional history book, Fire & Blood features no dialogue and little character development. Things just sort of happen in the book, and characters are reduced to brief, alleged profiles. House of the Dragons truly shines when it comes to addressing the events of the source material through politically charged arguments and nuanced dialogue. Most importantly, it gives fans of the books a chance to follow the journey of multilayered characters with much more depth: Daemon’s turbulent nature is put at stake, Alicent’s true motivations are laid out, and Rhaenyra gradually evolves from a rebellious young lady to a fierce ruler. These are real humans onscreen, not just names that went down in Westeros’ history.
House of the Dragon has no excuse for repeating Game of Thrones’ mistake, especially with the array of possible endings Fire & Blood offers to the showrunners.
Despite taking its share of liberties with the source material to develop the characters (Rhaenyra and Alicent are not childhood friends in the books, and Aegon’s dream is not mentioned once), House of the Dragon is a faithful adaptation of Fire & Blood, doing justice to the events that shake up the war between Blacks and Greens. However, there’s still a lot more ground to cover, and it’s difficult to imagine key events of Fire & Blood making it to House of the Dragon untouched. One of them is the Storming of the Dragonpit, when thousands of smallfolk storm the Dragonpit and successfully kill off five Targaryen dragons.
Another major Fire & Blood event likely to change is the circumstances of Rhaenyra’s death. She’s brutally eaten alive by Sunfyre, Aegon II’s dragon, in front of her son Aegon III. Rhaenyra’s tragic end was already spoiled by Joffrey in Game of Thrones, so her actual death will probably be the same, but given how House of the Dragon is making this Rhaenyra’s story, the show might follow a different direction toward Rhaenyra’s imminent demise. Game of Thrones also ended with the death of a Targaryen Queen, and few people were happy about it. House of the Dragon has no excuse for repeating Game of Thrones‘ mistake, especially with the array of possible endings Fire & Blood offers to the showrunners.
Rhaenyra’s Death Isn’t the End of House of the Dragon’s Story
Aegon II is murdered shortly after Rhaenyra’s death. Her son Aegon III inherits the Iron Throne.
In the books, Aegon III marries Jaehaera Targaryen and becomes Lord of the Seven Kingdoms. Different from his Targaryen ancestors, Aegon is terrified of dragons because of his traumatic childhood.
House of the Dragon turned the one-dimensional characters of Fire & Blood into people worth caring about, no matter how vicious they might be. It does justice to two of Game of Thrones‘ most distinctive trademarks: no one is truly safe in Westeros and no one is completely good or evil. House of the Dragon currently paints Rhaenyra as the rightful Queen; a fierce woman determined to take back what’s hers. That makes the Greens the “villains” of the story, though this ideal of right or wrong is likely to become more ambiguous as the show progresses.
In that sense, Rhaenyra can be the hero of House of the Dragon, but the story doesn’t end with her death. At least in the books, it doesn’t. When the Dance of the Dragons finally draws to a close, the main message is that there is no true winner. As the mightiest House in Westeros, only the Targaryens themselves could’ve destroyed each other, and they did just that. Rhaenyra conquered King’s Landing and sat on the Iron Throne, but the cost of power in times of crisis was too much to bear, and after losing almost everyone she cared about, Rhaenyra met her tragic fate. On the other hand, Alice witnessed each one of her children destroy themselves and succumb to death, all for a chance to rule over a pile of ashes and tombs. Aegon kills Rhaenyra but dies shortly after. The number of living dragons was drastically reduced at the end of the dance, bringing to a halt the supremacy of the mighty beasts.
If this is a victory, I pray I never win again. — Corlys Velaryon
Then, symbolically, a traumatized Aegon, son of Rhaenyra, marries Jaehaera, Aegon II’s daughter. The blood of the dragon runs thick in them, and the Blacks and Greens become pure red, united once again. Game of Thrones‘ biggest mistake was condensing multiple storylines and character arcs into a single fateful moment: Daenerys’ death at the hands of Jon Snow. That final event led to the ruin of the Iron Throne and a new age in Westeros. Just like that, seasons worth of character arcs colliding compressed into a single death. House of the Dragon has no excuse to discard the promising arcs at its disposal, and though Rhaenyra’s death makes for a bitter climax, the following events offer the possibility of a glorious conclusion to House of the Dragon in its entirety.
House of the Dragon Has More Than One Chance of Ending on a High Note
The Hour of the Wolf is a chapter in Fire & Blood that follows Cregan Stark, Lord of Winterfell, bringing justice to Westeros and setting the path for Aegon III’s rule.
One of the traitors executed by Cregan Stark in The Hour of the Wolf is Larys Clubfoot, the Master of Whisperers for Aegon II Targaryen during the Dance of the Dragons.
It’s not likely that House of the Dragon will go multiple episodes without Rhaenyra, let alone a full season. The main reason is that using the books as a reference, almost every major character is already dead by the time Rhaenyra is killed by Aegon II. Daemon, Aemond, Criston Cole, Jacaerys — everyone’s gone. Just like in Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon will likely keep Alicent alive until the end so she can contemplate the ruin of her ambitions, but she might not be enough to keep the show going for too long. What comes after Rhaenyra’s death, then?
Just like in Game of Thrones, the question of who sits on the throne at the end is of high importance. The original series suffered from incoherence and lack of reference in later seasons because it surpassed the books of A Song of Ice and Fire. With no source material to rely on, showrunners were forced to rush their own ideas into an original ending: the fate of a story that wasn’t theirs fell into their hands. Even if Martin’s books were to end similarly, the journey would be different, and most fans argue that Game of Thrones‘ entire final season was inconsistent. House of the Dragon doesn’t have that problem: if it fumbles the ending when a great ending already exists in the books, the fault lies with the creators.
The Hour of the Wolf perfectly wraps up the events of the Dance of the Dragons, building up prosperous, yet mournful years following the bloodiest moment in Targaryen history.
The best possible ending to House of the Dragon is “The Hour of the Wolf,” the politically charged epilogue to the Dance of the Dragons in Fire & Blood. Following Rhaenyra’s death, Aegon II prepares to unleash his fury on Westeros, only to be murdered with a strong poison. Aegon’s death may or may not be more dramatic in House of the Dragon: maybe the Sea Snake himself or Baela Targaryen avenge Rhaenyra’s death in another explosive moment, bringing the conflict between Blacks and Greens to a bittersweet impasse. What matters is that Rhaenyra and Aegon II will be dead, and Westeros will find itself shattered and in need of someone to bring justice to the Seven Kingdoms.
Enters Cregan Stark, Lord of Winterfell, who swore to fight for Rhaenyra. With an army ready to attack, he condemns those guilty of treason and welcomes peaceful years under Aegon III’s rule, ensuring Rhaenyra’s lineage lives on. Given Cregan was already introduced in Season 2, Episode, 1, “A Son for a Son,” it’s only fair that the Lord of Winterfell returns to House of the Dragon to bring justice with his sword and honor. While it’s true a lot of betrayals and conspiracies happen in the Regency period of Aegon III’s rule, The Hour of the Wolf perfectly wraps up the events of the Dance of the Dragons, building up prosperous, yet mournful years following the bloodiest moment in Targaryen history.
