House Of The Dragon Season 3 Finale Explains Why GRRM Was So Annoyed (& Proves Him Wrong)

Warning: Contains SPOILERS for the House of the Dragon season 3 finale, “The Treasons of Tumbleton.”House of the Dragon season 3 ends in devastating fashion, and does so in a way that connects back to author George R.R. Martin’s criticisms of the show. Going back to 2024, the second season of the Game of Thrones prequel had proved a little divisive. Certain adaptation choices had split book readers, and there was also consternation over its rather abrupt conclusion, with it clear there should have been more after the eighth and final episode (which eventually arrived with the Battle of the Gullet and Fall of King’s Landing in season 3).

Much bigger, though, was a quickly-deleted blog post from Martin, titled “Beware the Butterflies.” In it, the Fire & Blood writer went into great detail about the changes House of the Dragon had made to Blood and Cheese, focusing on the decision to cut Maelor Targaryen. In the book, he’s the youngest child of Aegon and Helaena Targaryen, and the latter is forced to choose between Maelor and her eldest son, Jaehaerys, by Blood and Cheese. In the TV show, she chose between her only two children, Jaehaerys and Jaehaera.

Martin went on to discuss the “toxic butterflies” of this change, in reference to the butterfly effect that removing Maelor would cause. This would not only mean Maelor’s death wouldn’t happen in the show, but also significantly alter the fate of Helaena. Martin wrote at the time that she was set to die in the third season, but that in the outline he’d seen, she took her own life “for no particular reason.” Now, after House of the Dragon season 3’s ending, it’s not hard to see why Martin might’ve been unhappy, but also clear to see he wasn’t right either.

How House Of The Dragon’s Season 3 Ending Fits With GRRM’s Criticisms

Helaena’s fate is revealed at the very end of House of the Dragon‘s season 3 finale, as she is shown to have jumped from her window onto the spikes below. And to the points Martin raised in his blog post specifically, one could argue there still wasn’t an “inciting incident” or “fresh horror” that led to her death in the same way as the brutal murder of another one of her children, and at that, one whom she already felt a great deal of guilt over (in the book, Helaena chooses Maelor to die, but Blood and Cheese kill Jaehaerys instead).

This isn’t to take away from Helaena’s death, but that Martin obviously felt Maelor’s role in it was crucial. Indeed, given her pregnancy in season 3, I had expected that House of the Dragon would still have that play into her suicide, such as it coming after she had a miscarriage (with the idea that “the childbed is our battlefield” something the show has used since the very beginning). And if Martin sees that guilt and grief over Maelor as being so tied to Helaena’s suicide that it cannot be removed, then the finale makes his frustrations more apparent.

House Of The Dragon Season 3’s Helaena Targaryen Story Actually Works

Image via HBO

It should be noted that it’s almost a guarantee things changed after Martin wrote his blog post. That was in September 2024, and House of the Dragon season 3 didn’t begin filming until six months later. He’d also only seen an outline, not finished scripts of each episode. So he would not have had the full view of things when he wrote that Helaena took her own life “for no particular reason,” but it’s certainly not the case with the finished product.

Of course, suicide should not be attributed to one single cause anyway (and it isn’t explored in real depth in Fire & Blood, because it’s a history book), but the show has clearly been setting up this endpoint for Helaena in ways big and small. It’s had lots of moments of foreshadowing, with her looking out of and/or standing close to the window, but more so a major part of her arc has been about her feeling trapped. She is stuck in that room, and as Mysaria warns her, she’s never going to be allowed to leave, nor will her children.

House of the Dragon season 3 has done a good job of building it up in terms of Helaena’s arc (conversely, I think the shift with Rhaenyra that happens within this episode is too sudden). This is both in the reality that we know it, where she has lost so much already, is still grief-stricken, and lives in fear for the safety of herself and her daughter, but also in her dreams, where she sees nothing but death and destruction no matter what. And, as the embroidery confirms, she saw her own death, too.

I think the finale could have focused even more on Helaena, though the scene of her being force-fed was very uncomfortable to watch, but Phia Saban has done her best work yet with the character this season. She’s struck a fine balance between her as a more distant dreamer who so often exists on another plane while making her more grounded. You constantly feel for her plight, to the point that I don’t think what happens in the finale is a shock (though, to the point on screen time, that’s limited in part to make it one).

As one of the only good and innocent characters involved in the civil war, this is one of the show’s greatest tragedies yet, and while it isn’t perfect, and it’s not a pleasant story, it has been well done. Further, it’s clear what the ramifications of this might be in House of the Dragon season 4. It’s easy to imagine Rhaenyra being blamed for the death by the smallfolk, many of whom are already uncertain about her. And when Alicent discovers it, there will be a final, irreparable fracture between the two former friends.

House Of The Dragon’s Season 3 Finale References GRRM’s Blog Post

Image via HBO

As viewers learn of Helaena’s death, House of the Dragon includes what can only be seen as a very cheeky, very knowing reference to Martin’s blog post. This is something it’d flirted with earlier, as Helaena saw a caterpillar and remarked it’s not the season, which could have been a reference to the criticisms. But with this, there’s no doubt. Right as Helaena’s death is happening, it cuts to Alicent in a grassy location, where she suddenly sees a kaleidoscope of butterflies.

Narratively, this suggests that Alicent actually feels Helaena’s death. Probably not literally, but it gives her a sense that something is wrong. But when viewed with the context of Martin’s blog post, which had butterflies in both the title and the text, and honed in on Helaena’s death as a key point of criticism, then it feels like House of the Dragon referencing that, at the exact same time it’s showing the author didn’t have it exactly right.

Whether that’s a good thing to engage in is another matter, and Martin is more than entitled to his opinion on a show based on his works, and his own viewpoint is certainly understandable. But, two years after he “spoiled” it, House of the Dragon got to Helaena’s death, and as devastating as it is, it handled the story much better than it seemed like it was going to back in 2024.

Release Date

August 21, 2022

Network

HBO

Directors

Clare Kilner, Geeta Patel

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  Fabien Frankel

  Ser Criston Cole