on “House of the Dragon,” we were already waiting many shocking, violent deaths. One such character who always seemed marked for a tragic end is Laenor Velarion, Rhaenyra Targaryen’s first husband. The show, as well as the Fire and Blood source material book, made that clear her ultimate destiny is to be with her uncle Damon, which means that Laenor has to leave at some point. This time, however, the TV adaptation found a creative way to live up to expectations while also changing Laenor’s ultimate fate.
Laenor’s House of the Dragon ending explained
When we catch up with Laenor and his family in episode seven, life is something of a mixed bag. Although he and Rhaenyra are not in love (obviously), they care deeply about each other and “their” sons. They have a vulnerable conversation, during which Laenor laments not being able to be a “real” husband and promises to rededicate herself to their family.
Instead, Rhaenyra has other plans. Having already slept with Damon earlier in the episode, she approaches him with the idea of marriage and to fight Alicenta’s faction together. After the Daemon reveals that Raeniri’s husband, Laenor, is still alive, things quickly shift to a scene that appears to show the Daemon paying off Sir Carl, Laenor’s current lover, to instigate a deadly fight – “one with witnesses”.
Carl later implements the Demon’s plan. He pulls a knife on Laenor in front of the servant, starting a duel, prompting the servant to run for help. As help arrives, including Laenor’s parents, Laenor’s booted corpse is pushed into the fireplace, his head and torso charred to death. At first it seems that Rhaenyro and the Daemon have a cruel plan to kill Laenor to get him out of the way, but the major twist is revealed when the hooded man runs to get on the boat that is leaving at the end of the episode. to the sea with Carl. When he removes his hood, he is revealed to be Laenor. He’s very much alive, sporting a distinctive shaved head, and sailing off to a new secret life with Charl, far from the intrigues of Westeros.
How did Laenor fake her death?
It turns out Daemon, Rhaenyra and Laenor collaborated to fake Laenor’s death.
Before Carl approached Laenor for a duel, the Daemon was shown killing an unnamed servant. At the time, it wasn’t clear why (but most viewers didn’t think much of it because…it was the Demon, after all). But the twist ending suggests that Damon killed the servant in order to use his body as a replacement for Laenore’s. When a servant who witnessed Carl and Laenor start fighting ran for help, the Demon must have dragged the body of a random man, swapped his boots with Laenor’s, and pushed him into the fireplace, leading everyone to believe that Laenor had burned in the fire.
How does Laenor’s story end in “Fire and Blood”?
In the movie “Fire and Blood” Laenor’s fate is (apparently) much clearer. In this story, Laenor does die in a fight with Karl, this time in a more public setting: at an open-air fair, witnessed by many merchants. According to the historians of the book, Carl attacked Laenor either out of jealousy, because he believed that Laenor’s focus was waning, or because Damon paid him to kill him. In any case, as far as the universe of the book is concerned, Laenor is indeed dead, and Carl has never been seen again.
Of course, the way House of the Dragon handles this storyline means they could theoretically co-exist outside of the battle scene. The whole point of House of the Dragon’s scheme is to make sure everyone believes that Laenor died fighting Charlemagne, so the historians of the universe will probably tell a story very similar to that of Fire and Blood. TV show tweaks in history allow a very rare happy ending in a world where almost all stories end in tragedy, this is definitely a nice (and unexpected) change of pace!
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