Phia Saban on the Heart-Wrenching Demise of Helaena Targaryen and Changes to Maelor's Storyline in 'House of the Dragon' Finale

SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of "House of the Dragon," now streaming on HBO Max. The soul-shattering death of Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban) in Sunday's Season 3 finale of 'House of the Dragon' marked a profound turning point for the series. With a heavy heart, the pregnant Helaena took her own life by jumping from her window in the Red Keep after being left alone in her room, secluded from her young daughter Jaehaera in King's Landing. "It's tragic, that's definitely the arc of Helaena's story," Saban shared with Variety. "But I think, as she says earlier, 'This is my body, and this is my baby — both of those things have been forsaken as long as I've lived.' And she doesn't want to live the way she's living anymore. She feels that she wants to protect her children, even in death." Before taking her life, Helaena left behind the final piece of a tapestry she's been embroidering throughout 'House of the Dragon' Season 3 for Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) to find. After a chilling image of Rhaenyra jumping to her own death and landing on spikes, Rhaenyra saw a depiction of herself on the Iron Throne with blood streaming down from the crown on her head, surrounded by dragon flames. At a recent press conference, D'Arcy described Helaena as the "moral heart of the show" and discussed how her death will affect Rhaenyra heading into 'House of the Dragon'’s fourth and final season. "She’s maybe the only character who has a proximity to power, but remains kind of uncontaminated," D'Arcy said. "And so, I think her death condemns Rhaenyra to the path she’s chosen. There’s no way back after that. There’s certainly no route back to a more moderate form of leadership." While creator Ryan Condal has deviated from the source material in author George R.R. Martin's "Fire & Blood," Helaena's arc has undergone significant changes, including the exclusion of her youngest child, Maelor. In Martin's version, Helaena dies by suicide after Maelor — who survived the "Blood & Cheese" incident in Season 2 — is brutally murdered while she's locked up in the tower. And she is not pregnant at the time of her death. Saban revealed that these book plot points did not affect her performance of the character on 'House of the Dragon.' "I think you can only play the story that you’re telling," Saban said. "So really it's the character that I built, and the story that Ryan and Sarah [Hess] and all the writers were creating, that was really all that felt relevant. But I know that there are differences in the stories, and I think that some of those differences are really cool." For more on Variety’s interview with Saban about 'House of the Dragon' Season 3 finale, read this recap and story about the press conference with co-creator Ryan Condal and star Emma D'Arcy, as well as this interview with James Norton, who plays Ormund Hightower. This interview has been edited and condensed.