House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 6: 7 Easter Eggs And References You Missed

House of the Dragon Season 3 episode 6 delivers one of the season’s bloodiest episodes. Titled Faceless Men, it features a major death and developments that make this war and also the show uglier and more complex. Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) was ambushed at the hands of the Tullys and Winter Wolves and met an undignified death.

And while it was the biggest moment of House of the Dragon Season 3 episode 6, it was by no means the only important one. Like pretty much every episode in House of the Dragon, it is packed with Easter eggs and references to its source material, Fire & Blood, as well as to the overarching lore of this universe created by George R.R. Martin. Some reward the book readers, others are inventions, and some may be too niche for everyone save for the most dedicated fans of this universe. Here are the top 7 of them.

Quick reference:

Field	Details
Title	House of the Dragon
Creator	Ryan Condal and George R. R. Martin
Premise	Set nearly 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, the series chronicles the brutal civil war between two Targaryen factions.
Main Cast	Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke, Matt Smith, Paddy Considine, Rhys Ifans, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Ewan Mitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney
IMDb Score (as of July 27, 2026)	8.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes score (as of July 27, 2026)	88% | 73%

1 Dreamfyre’s Eggs Tie Back to Daenerys’ Wedding Gift

It has long been a popular theory that Daenerys Targaryen’s dragons that we first met as little dinosaur-like babies in the season 1 finale of Game of Thrones were birthed by Dreamfyre, Helaena’s (Phia Saban) ride and one of the most beautiful among House of the Dragon‘s dragons. In House of the Dragon season 3, it is almost confirmed. The clutch of three dragon eggs that were gifted to Dany (Emilia Clarke) by Illyrio Mopatis and that eventually hatched into Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion were indeed of Dreamfyre, only when her rider was Rhaena Targaryen. No, not the current rider of Sheepstealer, but the daughter of King Aenys I Targaryen (the son of Aegon the Conqueror) and Queen Alyssa Velaryon.

At least, that is what Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) tells a recuperating Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell). She has no reason to lie, but she also has no reason to tell the truth. Still, this seems to confirm a longstanding theory that fandom has nursed for decades. 

2 The Vulture King Is Actually Plural

Casual viewers hearing the excuse Lord Borros Baratheon gave for staying out of Dance of the Dragons that he is busy dealing with one Vulture King might have assumed it was just the show’s invention for a random outlaw. But no, not only is the Vulture King in the lore, there are multiple men who take up the mantle. They all lead rebellions against crown authority. It is the third of the Vulture Kings that is harassing the Baratheons. Even during the events of War of the Five Kings (in Game of Thrones), there is a mention of a lair of a Vulture King that Quentin Martell (a character excised from the show) visits. 

3 Aemond Repeating Daemon’s Exact Arc

The book readers know how Aemond and Daemon’s (Matt Smith) arc ends. Specifically, it ends at Battle Above the God’s Eye, which was not really a battle, but an aerial duel between Aemond riding Vhagar and Daemon riding Caraxes. It resulted in the deaths of all four (though some say Daemon survived). God’s Eye is a lake near Harrenhal, and is the largest lake in the Seven Kingdoms. In the lore, too, both Aemond and Daemon were involved romantically (if that twisted Oedipus-like bond can be called romantic) with Alys.

Like Daemon, Aemond is beset with disturbing visions while recuperating at Harrenhal, the largest Westerosi castle that is considered cursed. Aemond’s convalescence is basically the same story. Alys is the connective thread between both men’s psychological unraveling. It is an intentional repetition rather than coincidence. In both cases, Alys’ motivations remain murky.

4 Jon Roxton Ambushing Corlys Is Straight-Up Show Invention

Towards the very end of House of the Dragon season 3 episode 6, Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) is ambushed by Jon Roxton, Ormund Hightower’s lieutenant. While Corlys does end up in captivity in Fire & Blood, it is Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) herself who has him imprisoned for defying her (something the show, too, has teased). 

Rhaenyra in the book begins to lose faith in herself and the people around her and grows suspicious of Addam and Nettles (who does not exist in the show). Corlys tips off Addam, who flees. In the show, though, Jon Roxton, who in the books wields the named Valyrian steel blade Orphan-Maker, ambushes him near Tumbleton instead.

5 Ser Pate of Longleaf’s Book Kill-Line Is Entirely Cut

This is the most brutal cut in the whole episode. In the book, the final moments of Ser Criston Cole involve a very telling comment made to him by a soldier called Ser Pate of Longleaf that there would never be a song written about his valor when he had caused tens of thousands of deaths with his campaign. The line read: 

I’ll have no songs about how brave you died, Kingmaker. There’s tens o’ thousands dead on your account.

It is one of the more subtle denunciations of a character in the whole Dance of the Dragons, as it was a blunt condemnation from an unnamed soldier which took away any romanticizing of Cole’s death that the books might have attempted. This character doesn’t exist in the show at all, and with him, a whole moment of criticism of Cole is also stripped away.

6 Alicent’s Handkerchief Is a Callback Prop

This is related to Ser Criston Cole’s death. Before being shot through with arrows, he wraps Alicent’s (Olivia Cooke) handkerchief around his sword hilt. In his final moments, he remembers his secret lover. This is the show closing a loop years in the making. It stages his death explicitly as a callback to the courtly-love token that was established back in season 1 when Ser Criston rode to fight the war for the Greens. 

It serves as an emotional through-line of his entire death scene. It is a cruel death, though, and the word cruel can be used for Criston’s entire character arc. He demands to take on two warriors alone. But the Tullys and the HotD‘s own suicide squad, the Winter Wolves, instead have Alysanne Blackwood shoot him three arrows. Two strike his belly, and the third, which goes deep inside his cheek, finishes the job.

7 Rhaenyra’s ‘Field of Fire’ Comparison Is a Historical Callback

The reason why Rhaenyra is against the burning of Tumbleton, as she mentions, is that it would amount to something even more evil than Aegon the Conqueror did to the armies opposing him in the battle of the Field of Fire, below which melted stone still runs from the fallen castle of Harrenhal. It is not an abstract “dragons are dangerous” type of statement. It is an exact allusion to the bloodbath that led to the extinction of the Gardener house (which ruled the Reach before the Tyrells), and defeated the last stand against the Targaryens almost a hundred years ago. Aegon the Conqueror’s story, by the way, will be covered in an in-development Game of Thrones prequel, Aegon’s Conquest.

Did we miss a reference from Faceless Men, the sixth episode of House of the Dragon season 3? Drop it in the comments.

House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 6 is streaming on HBO and HBO Max.