Warning: Spoilers ahead for “House of the Dragon” season three, episode six, and for the book “Fire & Blood.”
Gwayne Hightower has emerged as an important figure in “House of the Dragon” season three, though he’s following a very different arc than book readers expected.
Portrayed by Freddie Fox, Gwayne joins the action in the HBO show’s second season when he arrives in King’s Landing. He’s known as a skilled warrior, the brother of Dowager Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke), the eldest son of Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), and next in line to lead House Hightower after his cousin, Ormund Hightower (James Norton).
Unlike some of his fellow Greens (Ormund, cough cough), Gwayne is quickly shown to be unselfish, perceptive, and level-headed; when Alicent remarks that it must’ve been difficult to grow up in Oldtown with a dead mother and absent father, he replies, “You get on with it, don’t you? When there isn’t any choice.”
Gwayne decides to join Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) on his campaign to claim Harrenhal, the biggest castle in the Riverlands, in the name of King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney). He serves as both a close confidant and a voice of reason for Criston, despite their dwindling army and ever-worsening chances of survival.
Even Gwayne’s patience has limits, however. After trying and failing to convince Criston to give up their campaign — or at least to chart a more tactful course — Gwayne defects in season three, episode five, “Unbowed and Unbent.” Instead of following Criston to his doom, he joins Ormund and the rest of the Hightower army in Tumbleton, where he also reunites with his beloved nephew, Prince Daeron Targaryen (Benjamin Evan Ainsworth). In the very next episode, Gwayne saves Daeron’s life from assassins.
As Gwayne’s story unfolds, he could prove essential to the success or failure of Ormund’s master plan: to crown Daeron as King of Westeros. He may even play a role in the fate of House Hightower — but, alas, the source material won’t give us many clues.
In George R. R. Martin’s original book “Fire & Blood,” Gwayne’s survival instinct isn’t quite so sharp. In fact, Gwayne never gets the chance to reunite with Ormund and Daeron because he never leaves King’s Landing with Criston. Everything after that point has been invented for the show.
Keep reading to discover what happens to Gwayne in the book.
In the book, Gwayne is killed by a gold cloak when Rhaenyra returns to King’s Landing
Ollie Upton/HBO
In the book, as in the show, Rhaenyra returns to King’s Landing when Prince Aemond flies to Harrenhal on his dragon, Vhagar, leaving the city unprotected.
Rhaenyra is met with little resistance, since she arrives with her own dragon, Syrax, Prince Daemon and his dragon, Caraxes, plus her newly recruited dragonriders for extra firepower.
Additionally, the knights of the City Watch (aka “gold cloaks”) have remained secretly loyal to Daemon, unbeknownst to the Greens.
In the book, unlike in the show, Gwayne is himself a knight of the City Watch. When Aegon II ascended the throne and Gwayne’s father, Otto Hightower, was still Hand of the King, Gwayne was named second-in-command to Ser Luthor Largent. Otto instructed his son to “keep a wary eye on Ser Luthor for any signs of disloyalty.”
It turns out that Otto was right to mistrust Luthor. When Rhaenyra returns to take the Iron Throne, Gwayne rushes to the stables, intending to sound the alarm and shore up strength against the intruders. Instead, he is “seized, disarmed, and dragged before his commander.”
“When Hightower denounced him as a turncloak, Ser Luthor laughed,” the book reads. “‘Daemon gave us these cloaks,’ he said, ‘and they’re gold no matter how you turn them.’ Then he drove his sword through Ser Gwayne’s belly and ordered the city gates opened.”
King’s Landing falls in less than a day, Rhaenyra assumes her place as queen, and Otto quickly follows his son to the grave, beheaded as a traitor.
Meanwhile, in “House of the Dragon,” Gwayne lives to fight another day while Gwayne’s canonical killer, Ser Luthor, is dead — murdered by a group of mercenaries hired by Ormund to undermine Rhaenyra’s rule.
