House of the Dragon Showrunner Speaks Out on Controversial Deaths

The world of Westeros is not a kind one. Game of Thrones showed fans that any character can be killed at any time, and no one is safe from the brutality of the cruel realm. That logic has carried over to House of the Dragon. The fifth and sixth episodes of the series have been especially difficult, seeing multiple characters killed off in devastating fashion. According to showrunner Ryan Condal, none of them have been without reason.

WARNING: This article contains major spoilers from House of the Dragon! Continue reading at your own risk…

Sunday’s new episode saw Laena Velaryon, the wife of Daemon Targaryen, choose to end her life by way of her own dragon. In Fire & Blood, the book the show is based on, Laena dies during childbirth. The show’s version of the character opted to take her circumstances into her own hands.

“Laena’s a valkyrie. She’s a dragon rider,” Condal told Variety when asked about the character’s demise. “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. Unfortunately, because of the nature of the season and the storytelling, we didn’t get to spend as much time as I think we would have preferred to with Laena. We had to keep the story moving. So 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.”

Perhaps the most controversial death of the series came in episode five, when Laenor’s lover, Joffrey, was murdered by Criston Cole at a wedding celebration. In the book, Cole kills him during a tournament, making it look a little less like a cold-blooded murder. 

“I mean, people are going to react how they’re going to react. First of all, that was the story in the book. It was handled, again, slightly differently: Joffrey is murdered by Criston Cole out of a jealous, wounded rage at a tournament. We just had him do it out in the open, and watch Cole’s frustration over the slight that he feels like he’s been levied with,” Condal said. “It’s a brutal world. It’s a violent world. Cole has exposed himself, I think, as a certain kind of character. It wasn’t done without thought. I know people are going to react as they react, but, you know, that’s the story we’re telling.”

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