Series House of the Dragon rewrote some portions of the book Fire and Blood on which it is based.
House of the Dragon takes liberties with the original material. In episode 7 of the series, the writers decided to slightly change the fate of a character. This is not the first time that the production has taken such a step aside. Already with episode 6, House of the Dragon had offered a different ending to one of the protagonists.
Warning, the rest of the article contains spoilers.
Laenor survives in House of the Dragon
The hero in question here is Laenor Valeryon, a character who is forced to hide his homosexual orientation for political purposes. He is to marry Rhaenyra Targaryen in order to tighten the bonds of Houses Valeryon and Targaryen. But Rhaenyra and Laenor come to an agreement: they will spin the perfect love in public, but each will live their life in private (and in secret).
How to see House of the Dragon ?
The series is an HBO exclusive, broadcast by OCS in France. You can subscribe to OCS by Canal+ or Amazon Prime Video.
In Fire and Blood, Laenor gets killed. It is her lover, Qarl Correy, who deals the fatal blow, after an argument. Several theories circulate on the causes of this assassination. One of them puts Daemon Targaryen (Rhaenyra’s uncle and her future husband) at the center of the plot: he would have paid Qarl Correy to kill his companion, and thus marry Rhaenyra, now a widow.
The series takes a completely different turn. Certainly, a plot is also fomented, with Daemon and Rhaenyra. But, we finally understand that Qarl Correy and Laenor Targaryen were also involved and the charred body found in the hearth turns out to be that of a poor bugger. He was killed by Daemon, who shattered his neck with a sneak attack.
We then discover Qarl and Laenor, hooded and in a boat, rowing to a boat – on their way to a new life, probably in Essos, the other continent beyond the strait. This is not absurd: even if Rhaenyra loves Daemon, she had a closeness with Laenor, if only to raise “their” children – had with someone else.
While for Laena, her death was magnified, the screenwriters of House of the Dragon wanted this time to offer a happy ending to Laenor. ” Laenor wants her freedom, that is to say to be freed from her rank, from her status as a noble. If everyone thinks he’s dead, then he can go live his life the way he wants. “, explained the showrunner Ryan Condal, quoted by Première.
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