6 House of the Dragon Surprising Characters Who Will Decide the Future of Westeros After Season 4
When the Dance of the Dragons finally burns itself out, don’t expect a Targaryen to be the one picking up the pieces. That’s perhaps the cruelest irony buried in George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood: the civil war that tears House Targaryen apart leaves the dynasty too broken to govern itself. Instead, a rotating cast of lords, regents, and unlikely heroes steps into the vacuum, and most of them have already appeared on screen in House of the Dragon, often in roles far smaller than the ones history has planned for them.
As HBO gears up for House of the Dragon season 4, it’s worth looking past the obvious players and asking a different question: who actually shapes Westeros’ future after the Dance of the Dragons ends? The answer involves a northern lord with an army and no war left to fight, a disfigured Hand of the King, a queen who outshines actual royalty, and a bastard-born sea captain who might just hold the key to the realm’s next great mystery. These are the House of the Dragon surprising characters worth watching as the series heads into its final chapter.
Fair warning: what follows pulls directly from Fire & Blood, so there are major spoilers for where this story is ultimately headed.
1. Cregan Stark
Here’s the gut punch for anyone who hasn’t read the source material: both Rhaenyra and Aegon II are dead by the time the Dance of the Dragons concludes. Power brokers like Alicent Hightower and Corlys Velaryon move quickly to prop up Rhaenyra and Daemon’s young son, Aegon III, as the new king. But since Aegon III is a child, the real authority in King’s Landing belongs to whoever controls the council around him.
That’s where Cregan Stark comes in. He marches south at the head of a massive northern army, fully prepared for war, only to arrive and find the fighting already finished. Rather than turning back, Cregan takes de facto control of the capital. He throws Corlys Velaryon and Larys Strong in the dungeon for their roles in Aegon II’s death and sets about establishing a legitimate council of regents to guide Aegon III.
Cregan briefly serves as Hand of the King during what becomes known as the Hour of the Wolf, a short but pivotal period of judgment and reckoning. His steady leadership bridges the gap between the chaos of war and the fragile peace that follows. He’s only had a minor role in House of the Dragon so far, but given his outsized importance in Fire & Blood, a bigger return late in season 4 seems inevitable.
2. Tyland Lannister
Before departing King’s Landing, Cregan Stark leaves behind a council of regents deliberately balanced between Greens and Blacks, an attempt to stitch the realm back together. Leading that council is Tyland Lannister, who serves as Aegon III’s Hand of the King for years following the Dance of the Dragons.
In the books, Tyland bears the physical scars of Rhaenyra’s torturers and wears a hood to conceal his disfigurement, earning him the grim nickname “the Hooded Hand.” He’s not popular with the smallfolk of King’s Landing, but he’s remarkably effective. Few figures do more to stabilize Westeros in the immediate aftermath of the war than Tyland Lannister.
House of the Dragon season 3 toyed with viewers by staging a fakeout death for Tyland, suggesting a major departure from the books might be coming. He survived the season, though, and hasn’t yet suffered the torture his book counterpart endures. Still, all signs point to him sticking around through the end of the Dance and well beyond, making him one of the more quietly essential house of the dragon season 4 characters.
3. Jeyne Arryn
Lady Jeyne Arryn is another regent who ends up guiding Aegon III through his minority, a pattern that’s becoming clear by now. The matriarch of House Arryn made a massive impression in House of the Dragon season 3, with Amanda Collin’s performance drawing praise for outshining nearly every actual ruler on screen. It’s a fitting setup for what’s coming: Jeyne eventually travels to King’s Landing to help govern the realm directly.
Her mark on the story isn’t as dominant as Tyland’s or Cregan’s, but it’s far from minor. After resigning her regency and returning to the Vale, Jeyne falls ill, triggering a succession crisis over the Eyrie’s weirwood throne. That conflict becomes one of the first tests the regents and Aegon III must navigate together, with consequences that ripple out to affect the remaining Targaryens.
4. Torrhen Manderly
Ser Torrhen Manderly, introduced in House of the Dragon season 3, plays a far bigger role in Fire & Blood than his screen time so far suggests. His prominence in the books stems from a marriage pact that Rhaenyra’s son Jace struck with the Manderlys while recruiting northern allies for the Blacks. His appearance in the show at all strongly hints that the writers intend to carry him through to the story’s endgame.
Like Jeyne Arryn and Tyland Lannister, Torrhen serves among Aegon III’s regents, but he outlasts most of them, cycling in and out of the role as needed to help maintain whatever stability he can. In fact, Torrhen Manderly is the final Hand of the King before Aegon III comes of age and begins ruling in his own right.
That transition isn’t smooth. Aegon dismisses Torrhen rather curtly, and the northern lord takes offense. But once the full arc of Aegon’s regency is understood, the king’s reasoning becomes a lot more sympathetic, something the next entry on this list helps explain.
5. Corlys Velaryon
No character on this list casts a longer shadow over the Dance of the Dragons than Corlys Velaryon. He’s central to the story from the start, and his influence doesn’t fade once the fighting stops. When Rhaenyra’s cause collapses and Aegon II seems intent on continuing the bloodshed until every Black supporter is dead, Corlys makes a drastic choice: he helps orchestrate a plot to poison the king and end the war.
That decision doesn’t sit well with Cregan Stark, a man whose devotion to honor rivals that of his famous descendant, Ned Stark. Cregan nearly executes Corlys for the act, but ultimately relents. Corlys instead joins Aegon III’s council of regents, where he continues serving faithfully despite the questionable means that brought him there.
Corlys Velaryon goes on to serve Aegon III loyally until his death from natural causes not long after the war ends, a rare peaceful exit in a story defined by violent ones. Whatever stain the poisoning plot leaves on his legacy, Corlys does right by the realm and the young king he helps protect, cementing his place in westeros future after dance of the dragons in a way few other characters manage.
6. Alyn Velaryon
The final name on this list isn’t a regent, but his influence may outstrip the rest combined. Alyn, Corlys Velaryon’s bastard son, has already carved out a notable role in House of the Dragon, aged up from the books to take a more active part in the war. But his true significance plays out in the years following the Dance, when he inherits leadership of House Velaryon after Corlys’ death and becomes every bit the legendary sea captain his father was.
Two threads define Alyn’s rise. The first involves his rivalry with Lord Unwin Peake, a character not yet introduced in the show but arguably essential to season 4. Unwin starts outside the council of regents but climbs his way to Hand of the King as vacancies open, using the position to enrich his own house and siphon power away from Aegon III. Alyn becomes a counterweight to that corruption, winning naval battles, negotiating with pirates, and helping stamp out the last embers of the war. His popularity with the smallfolk and the king alike only deepens Unwin Peake’s resentment.
The second thread is even bigger: Alyn Velaryon is the one who eventually discovers the fate of Viserys Targaryen, Aegon III’s brother, lost during the Battle of the Gullet. That discovery reshapes the political future of the realm in ways the source material leaves deliberately unspoiled here. Since House of the Dragon cut both Aegon and Viserys from the Battle of the Gullet and left them stranded in the Free Cities, it’s unclear exactly how the show will handle this storyline. But among all the fire and blood characters after civil war Westeros produces, Alyn Oakenfist seems destined to play a defining part.
What This Means for Aegon III’s Regents and Westeros’ Future
Taken together, these six figures reveal something important about where House of the Dragon is headed: the Dance of the Dragons doesn’t end with a clean Targaryen victory. It ends with a child king propped up by a shifting cast of aegon iii regents westeros history remembers as imperfect, politically compromised, and occasionally treacherous, yet ultimately necessary. Cregan Stark, Tyland Lannister, Jeyne Arryn, Torrhen Manderly, Corlys Velaryon, and Alyn Velaryon each hold a piece of that fragile recovery, and the show has already planted the seeds for all of them.
Whether HBO follows Fire & Blood faithfully or carves its own path, these characters are too important to sideline. House of the Dragon season 4 is expected to begin production later this year, with a premiere targeted for 2028. Until then, keep an eye on these names. They might not wear crowns, but they’re the ones who will actually decide what Westeros looks like once the dragons stop burning each other down.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the most loved character in House of the Dragon?
There is no single official consensus, but Rhaenyra Targaryen, King Viserys I Targaryen, and fan-favorite underdogs like Helaena Targaryen and Ser Simon Strong frequently rank as the most universally loved and supported characters by viewers.
Who is the prettiest dragon in House of dragons?
Sunfyre the Golden is widely considered the prettiest and most beautiful dragon in the lore of House of the Dragon and A Song of Ice and Fire.
Who is the most evil person in House of the Dragon?
There is no single official consensus, but primary candidates frequently named by audiences include Larys Strong and Aemond Targaryen.
Who is the most hated character in House of Dragons?
Ser Criston Cole is widely considered the most hated character in House of the Dragon, with other major antagonists like Alicent Hightower, Otto Hightower, and Larys Strong frequently topping fan lists as well.
