HBO Is Officially Setting Up a Colossal Targaryen Betrayal After ‘Game of Thrones’

Published Jul 7, 2026, 7:42 PM EDT

Kendall Myers is a Senior Author with Collider. As part of the TV and Movies Features team, she writes about some of the most popular releases before, during, and after they premiere. In three years, she has written over 900 articles with topics ranging from classic sitcoms to fantasy epics.

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 3, Episode 3 of House of the Dragon.

Game of Thrones* *is full of betrayals, including some of its most famous moments, like the Red Wedding or Jon (Kit Harington) killing Daenerys (Emilia Clarke). This is part of what makes the HBO series so shocking, and ***House of the Dragon *is following in its footsteps as Season 3, Episode 3, “Rhaenyra Triumphant,” sets up a major rift between allies. With Targaryens featured as central parts in both series, the franchise proves that Westeros’ royals are imperfect, and their allies recognize it. Like Daenerys, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) suffers betrayals, but *House of the Dragon *Season 3 might be building to her biggest yet. **

In Game of Thrones, Daenerys is betrayed several times, from Jorah Mormont (Iain Glen) selling information on her to Varys (Conleth Hill) turning on her, but by far the biggest is Jon’s choice to kill her in the finale. Meanwhile, Rhaenyra has a few of her own, ranging from Alicent (Olivia Cooke) pushing her son’s claim to the throne to her own small council dismissing her. Yet Season 3 is setting up the biggest yet as it places a wedge between Rhaenyra and her greatest supporter, Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), which doesn’t bode well for her ongoing war. Though the betrayals experienced by Daenerys and Rhaenyra are dramatically different, *Game of Thrones *fans should find this storyline concerning.

As Westeros divides into a civil war, Rhaenyra has recruited many allies, but the Velaryons have always been her fiercest. Since she married his son Laenor (John Macmillan), Corlys has supported her by never contradicting her sons’ legitimacy and loving them as his own grandchildren. And that support has only grown stronger since the war, as he fought on the front lines, controlled her fleet, and became the Hand of the Queen, despite the personal cost of losing both his wife, Rhaenys (Eve Best), and his home of High Tide. But in Season 3, Episode 3,** Corlys asks for one thing in return: for Rhaenyra to legitimize his bastard sons, **Alyn (Abubakar Salim) and Addam (Clinton Liberty), making them his heirs. It’s not even a big ask, as the brothers have already distinguished themselves, with Addam claiming Seasmoke and Alyn were instrumental in the Battle of the Gullet, yet Rhaenyra refuses.

Your answers point to the great house whose words, values, and way of surviving in Westeros match your own. Bend the knee — or don’t. That’s very much up to you.

Winter is Coming — and you have always known it. You prepare not out of fear but out of duty, because the people who depend on you deserve someone who takes the long view.

You understand the game — its rules, its exceptions, and exactly when the rules become the exception. You play it without illusions and without apology.

You carry a sense of destiny that is difficult to explain and impossible to ignore — the feeling that you are not simply participating in the world but meant to reshape it.

You are a force — direct, powerful, and difficult to ignore when you enter a room or a conflict. You do not negotiate with challenges. You meet them.

You understand that power does not always announce itself — that sometimes it arrives with flowers, good wine, and a smile that doesn’t quite reach the eyes.

Rhaenyra fears how it would reflect on her own sons’ legitimacy if she is seen to accept bastards so early, especially Velaryon ones who look nothing like her children. Once again, she prioritizes this deception over Corlys and his family, and it seems the Sea Snake has had enough. He calls out her hypocrisy, acknowledging that her beloved sons are no different than Alyn and Addam while shouting the secret that Rhaenyra has spent so long trying to control. It’s not a lethal move, especially as no one around them seems to react, but given this divide between them, it looks like it’s only a matter of time before Corlys does something more drastic. As Corlys and Rhaenyra fall out, it’s clear that *House of the Dragon *is setting up a major betrayal for the Queen.

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