House of the Dragon Killed Off Three Fan Favorites and the Internet Is Furious

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House of the Dragon knows how to set the internet ablaze.

The Sept. 25 episode of the Game of Thrones prequel series featured the deaths of three different characters—Laena Velaryon, Harwin Strong and Lyonel Strong—and, predictably, fans had some strong opinions.

First, Laena (Nanna Blondell) met her end, instructing her dragon Vhagar to kill her rather than bear the loss of a child, a move that had some House of the Dragon fans responding with rage.

"Nah man, they did Laena Velaryon so dirty," one viewer tweeted. "WHAT THE F--K." Another fan took issue with the way Laena's death was written, which deviates from George. R. R. Martin's Fire & Blood novel on which the show is based, saying, "At this point the writers are just writing f--king fan fiction. i'm so angry."

Harwin (Ryan Corr), the father of Rhaenyra's (Emma D'Arcy) children and the heir to the Harrenhal castle, and Lyonel (Gavin Spokes), the new Hand of the King to Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine), both died in a fire at Harrenhal, which was set by Larys Strong (Matthew Needham)—Harwin's brother and Lyonel's son.

House of the Dragon Cast in and Out of Costume

In addition to Larys emerging as a new villain, the untimely deaths of Harwin and Lyonel also elicited fervor from the House of the Dragon faithful.

"I'm literally sick to my stomach," one angry viewer wrote, "we got 3 seconds of Harwin and Rhaenyra being a happy family before his own brother killed him for some jealous, father stealing, raggedy ass ginger bitch."

Of Lyonel's death, one fan wrote, "RIP TO MY BEAUTIFUL BOY. All he wanted was peace #f--klarysstrong"

House of the Dragon, Nanna Blondell, Ryan Corr, Gavin Spokes
Ollie Upton / HBO

On a broader note, some viewers expressed that losing one beloved character in an episode was bad enough—but three is just too many at once.

"I wonder if HBO or the showrunners regret killing off so soon or not explaining a damn thing about some of the most loved characters??," one viewer tweeted, with another writing, "That episode genuinely made my stomach hurt."

If you'd like to keep your Sunday nights heartbreak-free, it's probably best not to get too attached to anybody in the Seven Kingdoms.

House of the Dragon airs Sundays at 9 p.m. on HBO.

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