Diksha Sundriyal
The war between the Greens and the Blacks continues in the third season of HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon.’ At the beginning of the season, after experiencing a heartbreaking loss, Rhaenyra gets a major win when she takes over King’s Landing. For that to happen, Aemond is sent away to Harrenhal, with the promise of meeting his uncle, Daemon, in battle. Even as the Queen sits on the Iron Throne, she knows that Aemond, and particularly, Vhagar, remain a major threat to her. This is why, when she finally receives the confirmation that Aemond is hiding in the ruins of Harrenhal without his dragon, she sends Alicent, accompanied by Ser Adrian Redfort, to finish him off. However, their assassination attempt takes a very different turn. BOOK SPOILERS AHEAD.
Ser Adrian Redfort Meets a Different End from the Book
After Helaena has repeated visions of Aemond at Harrenhal, Alicent shares the information with Rhaenyra in hopes of regaining some freedom for her daughter, if not for herself. Instead, Rhaenyra sends her to Harrenhal to kill Aemond. Of course, she is not sent away on her own. Despite all that has transpired so far, Rhaenyra cannot completely trust Alicent, especially when it comes to her sons, who still pose a challenge to the Queen. So, to keep an eye on her and to make sure that Aemond is killed for good, Ser Adrian Redfort is sent with her. His job is to kill Aemond with his own hands as soon as the opportunity arises. As expected, when Alicent arrives in Harrenhal, she brings Aemond out of the castle and in front of Adrian under the guise of introducing them. They expect to catch the one-eyed prince off guard, but they underestimate his paranoia.
Aemond has been living in the ruins of Harrenhal for far too long by this point. Had it not been for Alys, he would have been dead long ago. He also knows that Rhaenyra has a bounty on his head, which has brought many a man to Harrenhal’s haunted halls, and they might even have succeeded in the job if it weren’t for Alys. So, when Alicent tells him that she came with a knight who somehow survived the fall of King’s Landing, he is rightly suspicious. Why didn’t Adrian die protecting the throne, or why wasn’t he at least taken captive? The question is good enough to make Aemond question the man in front of him, especially since he has never seen that man before. So, right as Alicent is making introductions, Aemond pulls out his knife and shoves it in Adrian’s throat, killing him in one fell swoop.
In the book as well, Adrian dies in Rhaenyra’s service, but he is nowhere near Harrenhal or Aemond when that happens. In fact, it is Alicent’s other son who has Adrian killed. In George R.R. Martin’s ‘Fire and Blood,’ the whole arc with Alicent going to Harrenhal never happens, and Ser Adrian Redfort remains with Rhaenyra till the end as part of her Queensguard. He is especially important in the scenes where things start to get out of control for Rhaenyra, which has been incrementally set up by every episode of the season. When the time comes for her to face the music, Adrian is one of the few people to stand by her side and die protecting her. The show changes completely rewrites Adrian’s storyline, which is a pity. However, the changed timing of his death doesn’t necessarily have a plot-altering impact on the war. Things will eventually line up in the way that is already set in stone for the Targaryens.
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