Otto Hightower's Cause of Death In House of the Dragon Books, Revealed (2024)

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Otto Hightower's Cause of Death In House of the Dragon Books, Revealed? ›

In the books, Otto suffers a brutal fate as he's executed when Rhaenyra takes the throne. Considering that, it might be that the person Otto saw outside his cell was not his captor but a liberator.

FYI, Otto's story comes to an end soon after the battle, when Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) takes King's Landing and quickly beheads him for being a traitor.

Alicent remains in a small fortress within the Red Keep in King's Landing but suffers from mental illness because of her isolation. She eventually dies from what's called winter fever around the age of 45.

Otto Is Executed By Rhaenyra

Eventually, when Rhaenyra takes King's Landing, Otto is in the city, and she executes him upon capturing the Red Keep. Season 2's finale indicates Rhaenyra taking King's Landing could happen sooner rather than later, so this could occur very shortly.

Jaehaera Ends Up Marrying Aegon III, Ending The War

Ultimately, neither Aegon II nor Rhaenyra wins the Dance of the Dragons, though the latter's bloodline winds up on the Iron Throne.

He accompanies the royal family to Driftmark to attend the funeral of Laena Velaryon. Otto, sincerely or otherwise, offers his condolences to Daemon for his wife's passing, but Daemon, angrily assuming Otto is mocking him, denounces Otto as a leech whose hunger for power will never satisfied and storms off.

As Aegon II Targaryen continues to prove himself as a disastrous king, Alicent and Otto Hightower suffer from the consequences of their actions. Both Alicent and Otto seemingly regret putting Aegon on the Iron Throne so hastily after Aegon takes his anger out on the smallfolk.

Despite Alicent Surviving, House Hightower Struggled In Subsequent Years. Following the Dance of the Dragons, House Hightower comes into opposition with the Faith of the Seven. Lyonel Hightower intended to marry his father's widow, Lady Samantha Tarly, but the High Septon forbade the union due to incest.

After Aerea's death, Rhaena gave up ruling Dragonstone and spent the rest of her life in Harrenhal with the sickly Lord Maegor Towers. Upon his death, she took his household into her own and would rule the castle until her death in 73 AC. Her body was burned at the castle, and her ashes cremated therein.

Alicent was bound in golden fetters, but while her father, Ser Otto, and co-conspirators on the small council were beheaded for treason, Rhaenyra spared her life "for the sake of our father, who loved you once".

What happens to Aegon Targaryen? ›

For those curious about how Aegon meets his end in “Fire & Blood,” it's by poison. It happens after Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake, makes a plea to Aegon to surrender his crown and abdicate in favor of Aegon III, Aegon's nephew and Rhaenyra's son.

In the book, Rhaenyra takes over King's Landing, taking Helaena and her mother as prisoners. Helaena eventually dies after jumping from a window onto spikes below a few days after Aemond dies in a battle over God's Eye Lake.

Daemon dies in an epic dragon fight with Aemond in the Riverlands. His dragon, Caraxes, and Aemond's Vhagar clash in the sky before Daemon jumps onto his nephew's dragon and drives his sword through Aemond's “blind eye, so hard the point came out the back of the young prince's throat.” Both dragons crash into a lake.

So What *Specifically* Happens to Rhaenyra? According to Fire & Blood (the source material for House of the Dragon by George R. R. Martin), Aegon II has Rhaenyra killed and eaten by his dragon. Classic sibling behavior!

Rhaenyra declared war over the succession, dividing the kingdom and killing thousands of men and several dragons. She was defeated, however, by Aegon II who fed her to his dragon Sunfyre. Aegon betrothed his daughter, Jaehaera, to Rhaenyra's eldest surviving son, Aegon the Younger, and named them his heirs.

Rhaenyra does claim her throne back for a short period of time, but the “Dance of the Dragons” doesn't end there. King Aegon II gets his own revenge. Both parties suffer immense casualties—and only the youngest members of our story survive. In the end, Rhaenyra's youngest son, Aegon III, ascends to the Iron Throne.

It seemed obvious that Larys was trying to nab the Hand of the King position by sidelining Otto after portraying him as being too "soft" to take necessary actions in war. Accepting the King's decision, Otto decides to leave King's Landing and go to Hightowers' main base, Oldtown.

According to the book, Criston ultimately gets killed in a battle called the "Butcher's Ball" In "Fire and Blood," Cole survives the Targaryen civil war until a battle known as the "Butcher's Ball." The green army gets ambushed south of the Gods Eye, the biggest lake in the seven kingdoms.

Otto perpetually undermines Daemon, distancing him from the crown with appointments that end up backfiring for the prince. In addition to making arrangements to stagnate Daemon's rise, Otto also enacts another plot to advance his own ambitions for power.