House of the Dragon Season 3 Just Foreshadowed the Next Devastating Targaryen Death

House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 3, “Rhaenyra Triumphant” subtly foreshadows a major Targaryen death, and a pretty devastating one at that. All men must die was a mantra of Game of Thrones, and it’s carried over into House of the Dragon. This is a civil war, after all, and that means high casualties on both sides: innocent, guilty, and everything in between. The show’s third season is already racking up an impressive death toll, with Jacaerys Velaryon, Jason and Tyland Lannister, Sharako Lohar, Jasper Wylde, and Otto Hightower all killed off so far, but there’s more to come. Warning: Contains major SPOILERS for George R.R. Martin’s book, Fire & Blood.

Very few characters survive the Dance of the Dragons, and House of the Dragon has had some fun foreshadowing these deaths. One of the most notable ways it’s done that is through Helaena Targaryen, who the series has turned into a dreamer with visions and strange prophecies. Back in Season 2, she told Aemond Targaryen of his death, saying he’ll be swallowed up in the Gods Eye (in the book, he dies in the Battle Above the Gods Eye, and his body falls into the lake). Season 3, however, is foreshadowing Helaena’s own demise.

How Helaena Targaryen Dies & How House Of The Dragon Has Foreshadowed It

Helaena’s death in Fire & Blood is the culmination of several horrific events, which started with Blood and Cheese killing her eldest son, Jaehaerys. In the book, she was forced to choose between him and her youngest son, Maelor; she picked the latter, on account of him being younger and less able to understand what was happening, but the killers instead beheaded Jaehaerys. The grief and guilt served to drive her into depression and madness, refusing to leave her chambers.

After the fall of King’s Landing, she’s held as a captive by Rhaenyra. Her children, Maelor and Jaehaera, are smuggled out of King’s Landing, ostensibly to safety, but Maelor is discovered by an angry mob of Team Black supporters and brutally murdered. Then, her brother Aemond dies in the Battle Above the Gods Eye. After all of this, Helaena takes her own life, jumping from her window in Maegor’s Holdfast within the Red Keep and being impaled on the spikes below.

House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 3 sees Rhaenyra enter the chamber where Alicent and Helaena are being held, and notably, Helaena was stood right next to a window, and was staring out of it before the queen arrived. The character has frequently been shown near windows throughout the series, but this is one of the most overt examples yet. It’s then combined with a telling line of dialogue, as she says, “I don’t want to stay in this room.”

There’s often deeper meaning to Helaena’s words and, while she’s being quite literal here, the imagery and the dialogue combined make this some clear foreshadowing for her suicide. This is not the first time the series has teased her death. During the riots in King’s Landing in House of the Dragon Season 2, she was forced up against some spikes on a wall by the crowd, which was another clear bit of symbolism for her eventual fate.

Will Helaena Die In House Of The Dragon Season 3, And Will It Change The Book?

Back in 2024, after the release of House of the Dragon Season 2, George R.R. Martin wrote a blog post criticizing the show’s changes to the source material, focusing in on the omission of Maelor from the events of Blood and Cheese. Notably, when discussing the fact that showrunner Ryan Condal had changed his decision to include Maelor in Season 3 instead, the author wrote:

“In Ryan’s outline for season 3, Helaena still kills herself… for no particular reason. There is no fresh horror, no triggering event to overwhelm the fragile young queen.”

Martin revealed Helaena will indeed die in House of the Dragon Season 3, but it’s possible plans have changed further since then. There is still a lot to get through before the point of her suicide in the book, and only five episodes in which to do it. But the bigger tell is something teased in the trailers: the possibility that Helaena does give birth to Maelor after all. One shot seemingly showed the character in a birthing scene, suggesting that the prince is indeed on his way to the series, albeit very belatedly.

If, and it’s still a sizable if, Helaena does have Maelor this season, then it raises more questions about both of their potential fates. He’d only be a newborn baby, so his own fate couldn’t be the same. Perhaps he will die in childbirth, or perhaps Helaena will instead (or as well), both of which are things that have happened on the show previously. If Maelor were to die, it could still be what drives Helaena to suicide, but it might feel very compacted as an arc. It’s tricky to get right at this stage, and time will tell if House of the Dragon can pull it off (if it’s even trying to!).

New episodes of House of the Dragon Season 3 release on Sundays at 9 pm ET on HBO and HBO Max.

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