'House of the Dragon' Season 3 Finale: Ryan Condal Explains Rhaenyra’s Big Book Change
The Season 3 finale of House of the Dragon takes Rhaenyra Targaryen’s story in a direction that significantly differs from George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Blood. The biggest change comes when Rhaenyra publicly reveals the Song of Ice and Fire prophecy to the people of King’s Landing.
Ryan Condal explains why Rhaenyra’s prophecy reveal differs from Fire and Blood and teases a bigger final season.
HBO
Throughout the finale, Rhaenyra displays some major Daenerys parallels as her pursuit of power turns increasingly violent. She orders the immediate execution of a faith leader who has become a political rival. Although her wider rampage remains bloodless, the moment is still presented as deeply unsettling.
Her most significant action, however, comes when she stands before the masses of King’s Landing and declares that the White Walkers are coming and that only she can stop them as the prophesied Prince Who Was Promised.
That revelation is not found in Fire and Blood, the book that serves as the source material for House of the Dragon. Martin’s book also does not include Rhaenyra making such a public declaration of the prophecy.
The change raises an obvious question: if Rhaenyra made such a dramatic warning publicly, why would the history books not preserve it?
Ryan Condal Explains Why the Prophecy Wasn't Recorded
During a press conference discussing Season 3 and its finale, executive producer and showrunner Ryan Condal addressed the apparent contradiction.
“Targaryens say crazy shit all the time.”
Condal was joking — mostly.
“It’s not in the book and it’s not in the history, but there is a bunch of talk about how Rhaenyra became very despotic, and became a tyrant at the end, and was very unpopular with the people,” says Condal. “So much of [the Targaryens’] existence is their self-aggrandizement. For the stonemasons standing there in the crowd just looking up at this [speech], it could just sound like somebody trying to make something of themselves.”
According to Condal, the moment was deliberately created to represent a major transformation in Rhaenyra’s relationship with the people she rules.
He explains that he and the writing staff wanted “a real seismic change, a sea change in Rhaenyra’s relationship to her people.”
Rhaenyra declaring herself the savior of her people immediately after ordering the death of their religious leaders is therefore intended to mark more than a shift in her relationship with the realm. It is also designed to change how the audience views her.
Emma D’Arcy Reflects on Rhaenyra’s Relationship With Power
Emma D’Arcy, who portrays Rhaenyra, also discussed the broader political implications of the character’s transformation.
“Power turns out to be incredibly fragile, and that, seats of power — their sort of apparent stability, can also turn out to be illusory,” says Emma D’Arcy, the actor charged with bringing Rhaenyra to life. “It’s a conversation which remains very pertinent. How do you manage the ego? How do you manage the human ego in the political sphere? That feels like a pressing question.”
With Rhaenyra having now revealed her destiny to the world, the question becomes what the series will do next.
The answers remain within Fire and Blood, although it is unclear whether House of the Dragon will continue following the source material closely or make further changes.
House of the Dragon Season 4 Will Be Bigger
Whatever direction the story takes, Ryan Condal has already promised that Season 4 will be bigger than anything that has come before. The fourth season will also be the final season of House of the Dragon.
“It’s a great privilege to be able to tell a story, and to be able to control and write the ending, and to control when and where that happens,” he says. “This is not a given in making television, certainly. So, we’re very excited to get back in, and we have new characters, and new dragons and new locations all to come, that I think are gonna make it a very worthy final season.”
With Rhaenyra’s prophecy now exposed publicly and the series approaching its final chapter, House of the Dragon has positioned its final season to take the story in an even larger direction.
