House of the Dragon hasn’t been shy about deviating from Fire & Blood in Season 3, having already made major changes to the Battle of the Gullet, Rhaenyra’s coronation, and more. But there’s an argument to be made that Episode 4, “Tumbleton”, is making the riskiest gambit with the source material yet, reinventing Daeron’s arc as a story of abuse and proxy manipulation by Lord Ormund Hightower.
This is kind of a big deal. It’s less defensible than a details change that suits television better; it’s a complete reworking of a fairly major character who has significant knock-on effects on the macro narrative. There are many more moving parts to consider. The potential implications might be more significant. We’ll have to wait and see, of course, and thus far I’d say this season – and the show in general, to be fair – has accumulated enough goodwill for us to trust the process, but it’s worth highlighting all the same.
Risk = Reward
Any change to the source material always runs the risk of alienating fans of the original novel, and that’s likely going to happen here. But when the deviations are considered and have a positive potential payoff, there’s usually a strong justification for change. It’s naïve to assume that a text will be translated across media without anything being lost.
The reveal of the real Daeron Targaryen after the whole business with the decoy was a satisfying moment for those of us who picked up on the clues. But “Tumbleton” also puts the audience on Daeron’s side. He’s clearly a victim of the real villain, Lord Ormund Hightower, and in a way his TV arc is more thematically consistent with stuff going on elsewhere in Westeros.
The risk is obviously alienating fans and mishandling the Daeron character. However, if the showrunners can pull it off, it’ll make for a much more coherent story arc across the whole season (and potentially into Season 4).
Daeron the Daring
In Fire & Blood, Daeron proves his battle bona fides in the Battle of the Honeywine, saving Hightower’s army on his dragon, Tessarion, the Blue Queen. This seems to have been excised entirely from the show.
There are possibly budgetary issues to consider here. Rendering a large-scale battle in HBO quality is extremely expensive, and the season already opened with one, so cost-cutting measures had to be taken somewhere. But trimming this means not allowing Daeron to establish himself as a prized Green military asset and earn his “daring” moniker, which mandated a change in the character’s essence.
As a consequence, Daeron has also lost a lot of the qualities – bravery, chivalry, smarts and charisma – that seemed to define him in the text. And that, away from a single battle, is potentially the biggest cost.
Ormund Hightower Is A Proper Villain
The positive consequence of Daeron being neutered in this way is that Ormund is able to come to the fore as a proper villain. Daeron has been mistreated as his ward under the guise of parental responsibility, but his Green loyalty now seems like Stockholm Syndrome. “Tumbleton” is careful to depict Ormund as a smarmy, clever manipulator with a pronounced sense of superiority, bordering on supremacy; these are universally disliked traits, but effective ones for a bad guy.
It also positions Daeron as a potential hero of sorts down the line, at least in the sense of being a viable antagonist to Ormund. House of the Dragon is very careful to show that Tessarion’s loyalty is to Daeron, not Ormund, and since Tessarion is a significant advantage in the coming battle against Rhaenyra, that could be significant.
For now, though, Ormund very much controls Daeron, which is highlighted when he has him execute an innocent man to prove himself as a viable successor to the Iron Throne. The question is whether he will see through the manipulation or become attached to the idea of being king.
The Benefit of the Doubt
House of the Dragon Season 3 seems to be prioritising broader thematic goals over one-to-one accuracy, and this change seems to be in service of that. However, it’ll probably take a while for its true ramifications to really be felt.
It certainly adds more texture to Ormund’s plot to unseat Rhaenyra and install a Hightower-controlled puppet king on the Iron Throne, backed by the Faith of the Seven. He’s not fighting out of loyalty to Aegon; he has his own agenda, which makes him a more interesting antagonist.
The changes also give Daeron more contours. In the book he was presented thinly, as a rather flawless knight, which was another consequence of the book’s dry historical approach. Here, he’s a victim of abuse, which adds psychological complexity to the character in a show in which psychological complexity is basically the stock in trade.
It might all go wrong, of course, and it’s certainly a major risk given its implications for the wider story. But we’re going to have to wait and see how it all shakes out in the end.
