That ‘House of the Dragon’ Death Went Down Differently in the Book
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The following story contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 1, Episode 6, "The Princess & the Queen," and George R. R. Martin's Fire & Blood.
Have you noticed that in the opening sequence for HBO's House of the Dragon, there are two names listed when the words "created by" come on screen? Yep. And those two names are Ryan Condal and George R. R. Martin. Martin's name making it into that lofty spot is a major step forward for both him (who has said that at times he felt "out of the loop" during the later seasons of Game of Thrones) and for an HBO production that wants to convince viewers that the revered author is involved to a significant degree.
So it's a bit surprising when events in the show make a significant departure from how they went down in Martin's book upon which House of the Dragon is based, Fire & Blood. But that's exactly what happened in Season 1, Episode 6, titled "The Princess & the Queen," which saw the death of Lady Laena Velaryon happen in a way that deviates in a pretty significant way from the source material.
When "The Princess & the Queen" picks up, following a 10-year time jump, Laena (Nanna Blondell) is now married to Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) with two daughters and a third, presumably, on the way—when the episode opens, she's quite pregnant. But presumably is never a good word when talking about the Game of Thrones universe, and after much back and forth throughout the episode, Laena's pregnancy is unable to be brought to term.
With Laena's life unable to be saved, Daemon faces the same question his brother, Viserys (Paddy Considine) faced in the show's first episode with his wife, Queen Aemma—attempt a c-section to try to save the child, or give up? While Laena is doomed, Daemon goes the opposite way of his brother. And while Laena is unable to go on, her death comes by her own choosing, unlike that of Queen Aemma.
It's a bit troubling to see House of the Dragon once again create a major dramatic and violent moment in the form of a failed pregnancy. This is a show about politicking and battles in a fantasy world—maybe let's stick to politicking and battles? I think most people would rather see Larys Strong scheme his way to consolidated power and cut guys' tongues out ten more times before another death-by-childbirth.
But it was interesting, nonetheless, to see how Daemon reacted differently when facing the same choice that his brother did all those years earlier. And it's also interesting to know that House of the Dragon changed the way this all went down from Martin's book origin.
How did Laena Velaryon die in the Fire & Blood book?
In the Fire & Blood book, Laena is in a similar place to where she is in House of the Dragon Episode 6: very pregnant with a third child after previously having given birth to twins, all with Daemon. However, this is where things differ.
Fire & Blood depicts Laena as having struggled through a day and night of labor, only to give birth to a disfigured child who died within an hour of being born. Laena lost all of her strength and now weighed down with heavy grief after the death of her third child, came down with childbed fever; she died after three days of sickness.
It's said that at the very end, she attempted to ride Vhagar one last time, but collapsed on the Driftmark tower steps on her way there. Daemon found her there, and brought her back to bed where he and Rhaenyra (much closer with Laena in the book) sat over her following her passing.
How Laena's death changed for House of the Dragon—and why?
Anyone who saw "The Queen & the Princess" knows that House of the Dragon took a much less elegant approach to Laena's death. Giving Daemon the same choice as his brother was an interesting touch, and allowing Laena to make her own choice to order Vhagar to burn her to death gave the character a lot more agency in her final moments. And it actually creates a fairly strong character moment for Vhagar the dragon in her final moments; it takes several pleas of "dracarys" from Laena's desperate, pain-filled voice before the dragon finally does it's thing. It's undeniably clear that there was a strong bond between woman and fire-breather—and one led to the latter mercifully helping out the former.
"Laena’s a valkyrie. She’s a dragon rider. We met that little girl back in Episode 2; that little girl went on a couple years later to claim the biggest dragon in the world. It felt like she wouldn’t want to go out the way that the history book said," Condal said in an interview with Variety. "We wanted to give her a memorable out that felt active and in her character. Even though we’re only with Nanna Blondell’s portrayal of her for a very brief time, within that moment, it tells you a lot about who Laena is and was."
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