House of the Dragon season 3 is already signaling a notable departure from established Game of Thrones lore, with a new teaser confirming a major shift in how Rhaenyra Targaryen reclaims King’s Landing. The development directly contradicts the version of events presented in George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, the in-universe history book that serves as the show’s source material.
In the trailer for House of the Dragon season 3, Rhaenyra reveals to her council that Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower secretly visited Dragonstone and agreed to open the gates of the Red Keep when Rhaenyra arrives with her dragons. If carried through, this would mean Alicent plays an active role in handing King’s Landing—and effectively the Iron Throne—back to Rhaenyra, undermining her own son Aemond and the Greens’ hold on power.
In Fire & Blood, there is no indication that Alicent assists Rhaenyra in retaking the capital. The text describes Rhaenyra’s seizure of King’s Landing as strategically timed, with Aemond Targaryen and Criston Cole away from the city and Corlys Velaryon’s fleet offering support. Alicent is present in the city but does not aid the invasion. In fact, she attempts to call for help, though too late to prevent Rhaenyra’s takeover.
The show’s version reframes Alicent’s role in the Dance of the Dragons in a significant way. Earlier seasons of House of the Dragon already softened elements of her motivations, portraying her initial decision to back Aegon as rooted in a misunderstanding of Viserys’ final words rather than calculated ambition. Season 3 appears to extend that reinterpretation, positioning the civil war less as a deliberate power grab and more as a cascading series of misjudgments.
The creative team has long relied on the “unreliable narrator” structure of Fire & Blood to justify changes. The book is framed as a historical account compiled by Archmaester Gyldayn, who reconstructs events from conflicting sources and secondhand testimony. That narrative device allows for unseen private conversations and alternative motivations that would not appear in an official chronicle. It gives the adaptation room to reinterpret character dynamics while remaining technically within the bounds of ambiguous history.
However, altering Alicent’s involvement in Rhaenyra’s return to King’s Landing carries broader implications. In the original canon, Alicent’s survival after the Dance of the Dragons is marked by confinement and regret, a stark contrast to the devastation around her. If the show presents her as actively facilitating Rhaenyra’s victory, it reshapes the moral calculus of her arc. A character defined by fierce protection of her children would, in this version, be seen risking—or even sacrificing—their political survival.
The shift could provide a new explanation for why Rhaenyra does not immediately execute Alicent upon taking the throne, but it also raises questions about long-term narrative consistency. In a conflict as interconnected as the Dance of the Dragons, even a single altered allegiance can ripple outward.
Whether this lore change ultimately strengthens or complicates House of the Dragon will depend on how season 3 resolves the fallout. What is clear from the teaser is that the adaptation continues to treat Fire & Blood as a flexible framework rather than a fixed blueprint, a choice that may keep the story unpredictable but also invites scrutiny from long-time readers of the Game of Thrones saga.
