What Will Happen on 'House of the Dragon' Season 3, According to the Books

Now that House of the Dragon Season 2 has come to a close (and a fairly quiet one at that), it’s time to start speculating about what could happen in Season 3. HBO renewed the show in June 2024 shortly after Season 2 premiered that same month, but there’s been no further word on when it might start filming or airing.

Based on the two-year gap between Seasons 1 and 2, fans could be in for a long wait, but the good news is that the source material — George R.R. Martin’s novel Fire & Blood — offers plenty of clues as to what might happen in Season 3. Spoiler alert: a lot more Targaryens are going to die.

Speaking about early conversations regarding Seasons 3 and 4, Martin said he’s happy with where things are going. “They were lively, fun discussions, and we got some good work done … though two days was not nearly enough,” he wrote in a December 2023 blog post. “There is so much ground to cover that I am not sure 20 days would have been enough.”

Keep reading for a list of the biggest Fire & Blood events that are likely to happen in Season 3 of House of the Dragon.

House of the Dragon Season 3 Book Spoilers

The Battle of the Gullet

While we'd expected Season 2 to conclude with the bloody Battle of the Gullet, we instead ended with Alicent seemingly surrendering on behalf of the Greens (complete with okaying the death of her son). However, there are far too many pieces at play for this deal to stand. This is House of the Dragon after all.

All signs point to Season 3 opening with the Battle of the Gullet, which in the book is one of the bloodiest sea battles in Westerosi history. As you may recall, Corlys Velaryon’s fleet has been leading a blockade of the Gullet, which is a channel connecting Blackwater Bay to the Narrow Sea. This blockade has kept ships from entering the bay and thus delivering food and other provisions to King’s Landing (which has in turn made the smallfolk resentful of Aegon and the Greens for refusing to acknowledge Rhaenyra as the rightful heir).

In the book, the Greens attempt to end the blockade with help from the Triarchy, but it doesn’t quite go according to plan. While both sides suffer tremendous losses, the Velaryon blockade ultimately holds, keeping King’s Landing cut off from the Narrow Sea.

While thousands die in the Battle of the Gullet, there’s only one character of note who doesn’t make it out alive: Jacaerys, who dies alongside his dragon, Vermax. His death represents a turning point for Rhaenyra, so it seems unlikely that the show will stray too far from the source material here.

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The Fall of King’s Landing

After the Battle of the Gullet, Rhaenyra, infuriated by the death of her eldest son, Jacaerys, flies to the capital on the back of her dragon, Syrax. Daemon, having secretly left Harrenhal, joins her on Caraxes, and they successfully intimidate the remaining members of the Green Council into surrendering. Aegon, however, is not there, because Larys Strong has the foresight to smuggle him out of the city along with his daughter, Jaehaera.

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The Death of Otto Hightower

Apologies to Rhys Ifans stans, but the erstwhile Hand of the King is probably not long for this world. In the book, Rhaenyra has him executed almost immediately — along with Jasper Wylde — after taking King’s Landing.

The one problem here is that Otto doesn’t seem to actually be in King’s Landing on the show. After Aegon dismissed him as Hand, he told Alicent he was planning to head back to Oldtown and mentor her youngest son, Daeron. She asked him instead to go to Highgarden and get House Tyrell in line, but either way, he hasn’t been seen around the Red Keep in quite a while. If he’s going to meet Rhaenyra’s executioner, then House of the Dragon’s writers may have to pull off some clever maneuvering to get him back to King’s Landing.

The Introduction of Prince Daeron

Viserys and Alicent’s youngest child, son Daeron, has barely been mentioned on House of the Dragon, but he does exist. In Season 2, Alicent asked her brother Gwayne for an update on Daeron, who’d been sent to Oldtown to live with his great-uncle. While Daeron hasn’t yet been on the show, he and his dragon, Tessarion, eventually become bigger players in the action. Season 3 would be the perfect time to introduce him, especially given that Aegon will likely remain sidelined thanks to the injuries he sustained at the Battle of Rook’s Rest.

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Butcher’s Ball

The thing to remember about the Dance of the Dragons is that it’s a civil war, so even though there was tons of carnage in Season 2, there’s still plenty more where that came from. After the Battle of the Gullet, one of the next major skirmishes to come in the book is the Butcher’s Ball, which is so named because Ser Garibald Grey (on Team Black) declared, “Today was butchery, not battle.”

The battle represents a major victory for the Blacks because the Greens lose hundreds of men — one of whom is Ser Criston Cole, who finally meets his end after his brief tenure as the most annoying man in Westeros.

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The First Battle of Tumbleton

If Season 3 of HOTD adopts the old Game of Thrones model of “major battle in the penultimate episode,” then the First Battle of Tumbleton would be a great option for the finale. In the book, it’s notorious for being the battle where two dragonseeds — Hugh Hammer and Ulf the White — commit treason by turning against Rhaenyra and burning the town of Tumbleton with dragonfire. Daeron also makes an appearance in this battle on Tessarion, but his dragon is still too small to make much of a difference.

In the book, it’s not specified what caused Hugh and Ulf to turn their backs on the Blacks, but their treason causes everyone else to worry that the other dragonseeds, Addam of Hull and Nettles, will also betray Rhaenyra.

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The Battle Above the God’s Eye

This one seems like a long shot to happen so soon, but — truly, major spoilers ahead — it could also make for a killer Season 3 finale. After playing hide and seek all over Westeros, Aemond finally finds his uncle Daemon, and they clash in a brutal battle that also leaves both them and their respective dragons, Vhagar and Caraxes, dead. In the book, the narrator Maester Gyldayn notes that Daemon’s body was never found, leading some people to believe that he survived and lived the rest of his days in secret with his lover Nettles. Gyldayn, however, believes this to be false and very unlikely.

Next, Everything We Know About 'House of the Dragon' Season 3