7 deaths in 'House of the Dragon' that were completely changed from the book

House of the Dragon adapts George R. R. Martin's Fire & Blood, a fictional history framed as an overview by maesters and court observers rather than as firsthand accounts. That retrospective, often contradictory narration leaves gaps and unclear motives, giving the HBO writers room to create a consistent on-screen canon and alter how several deaths occur.

The show makes Queen Aemma's final moments especially brutal: Viserys chooses a medieval C-section without telling her, she is restrained while the maester cuts her belly, and she bleeds to death as the baby is born. Fire & Blood, by contrast, only notes that Aemma died in childbirth and gives no detail about Viserys' involvement or the procedure.

Other deaths are reshaped for television as well. Rhea Royce is murdered by Daemon after a hunting fall in the series, while the book calls her demise a tragic mishap with no suspicion.

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