House of the Dragon Season 3 has made several huge deviations from George R.R. Martin's Fire and Blood. It cooked up Ormund Hightower's (James Norton) entire plan to crown Daeron Targaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth) from scratch, and it gave Nettles' book storyline to Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell).Now, though, it unleashes what could be its biggest change yet: sending Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) to Harrenhal.
Alicent spends the majority of her time onscreen within the confines of the Red Keep. In fact, starting in Season 2, every time she has left the Red Keep has marked a major shift from House of the Dragon's source material. She met with Rhaenyra in the Grand Sept to discuss peace efforts, took a cleansing swim in the Kingswood, and snuck onto Dragonstone to offer Rhaenyra a game-changing deal. None of these excursions are in Fire and Blood. Then again, House of the Dragon has often played fast and loose with Alicent and Rhaenyra's book dynamic, complicating it nicely by making them childhood friends.
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The show's latest installment in its "Let Alicent Hightower Go Outside" initiative doubles as an assassination attempt. Rhaenyra knows that she needs to take Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) out. She also knows that he's holed up in Harrenhal and separated from his dragon Vhagar, offering her the perfect chance to strike.
