Who Is Ser Qarl Correy in House of the Dragon? What Happens to Him & How He Dies?

The seventh episode of the first season of House of the Dragon ended and left the viewers shocked and satisfied once again. Many interesting things happened after the farewell of Laena Velaryon and her funeral. With Aemond Targaryen connecting with Vhagar and Rhaenyra and Daemon together, it will be interesting what happens next. However, the ending of the episode also provided us with a shocking twist where Daemon Targaryen talks with Ser Qarl Correy and persuades him to commit a deception that would lead everyone to think that Laenor Velaryon is dead.

So, this article will be dedicated to Qarl Correy and you can read about who is Ser Qarl Correy in House of the Dragon, what happens to him, and how he dies in the books.

Ser Qarl Correy is a knight and is in service of House Velaryon. He is Laenor Velaryon’s lover and a veteran of the War for the Stepstones. In the show, he is last seen taking off in a boat with presumably dead Laenor Velaryon. The books provide different interpretations of what happens with Ser Qarl, but, in the books, he actually kills Laenor because of a quarrel. Some say he escaped after and was never heard from him again and some say that Daemon Targaryen killed him to shut him up because he ordered Qarl to kill Laenor.

As this usually goes, TV shows are prone to change some bits when they base their storyline on books or real events. It is nothing new and it has the purpose of adaptation of the story to get the most out of it. Even though the events somewhat differ in the show and in the books, we’ll take a closer look into Ser Qarl Correy’s life.

What we know about Ser Qarl Correy so far

The audience of the show met Ser Qarl Correy in Season 1, episode 6 called Driftmark. Qarl enters with a drunk Laenor into Rhaenyra’s chambers who recently gave birth to a child. Laenor explains to Rhaenyra that war is afoot again in the Stepstones and that he knows that because Qarl told him that and that he’s been fighting over there. So we know that he is a war veteran who fought in the War for the Stepstones.

Later in the same episode, Laenor and Ser Qarl are fencing in the yard. Rhaenyra approaches Laenor and says to him that they are going to leave King’s Landing and go to Dragonstone. She also says to Laenor that he has permission to bring Qarl along implicating that she knows how much Qarl means to him. So, at that point was certain that Qarl is Laenor’s lover.

When Laena Velaryon committed suicide, Rhaenyra and Laenor went to pay their respects at the funeral and Ser Qarl accompanied them. After the funeral, Laenor’s grief is so great that he goes into an ocean to mourn. Lord Corlys sees that and sends Qarl Correy to retrieve his patron. Qarl complies with this command and goes to retrieve Laenor.

After the funeral, some major events happened as Aemond connected with Vhagar and is now finally in possession of a dragon which makes Alicent Hightower an even more dangerous opponent to Rhaenyra. Aemond lost an eye in the process due to a fight between him and Rhaenyra’s sons and Daemon’s daughters. Rhaenyra is aware that her position and claim of the crown are more threatened than ever, and that Laenor most likely won’t be of any use anymore.

Daemon and Rhaenyra come to the conclusion that the only way for Rhaenyra to enforce her claim is to marry Daemon. But, in order to do that, Laenor would have to die. So, Daemon pays a visit to Ser Qarl and says to him that he heard about his exploits at the Stepstones and that he knows that he is a remarkable knight. However, Daemon knows that Qarl is common born and with no lands to his name.

So, he offers him money if he were to commit a quick death with witnesses around. Qarl goes to Lord Corlys’s halls and attacks Laenor. However, it was all staged because the main purpose of this was to fake Laenor’s death so the two could flee together across the Narrow Sea and start a new life together. At the end of the episode, Qarl and Laenor are in a boat and rowing toward a ship that will take them away.

What happens to Ser Qarl Correy and how he dies?

In the books, there are different interpretations of what happened with Ser Qarl. What we know for sure is that in the books Qarl kills Laenor for real at a fair in Spicetown. After that, he fled and was never heard from him again. Corlys offered a reward of ten thousand golden dragons to anyone who finds him, but they never did.

Speculations about Laenor death are different. Mellos said that Laenor was in a quarrel with one of his knights and that he was killed in the process. Septon Eustace claimed that Qarl killed Laenor because Laenor found himself a new lover, so it was out of jealousy. And the third interpretations of these events are that Daemon paid Qarl to kill Laenor so that he and Rhaenyra could marry each other, and the ship was waiting to carry Qarl away, but before that happened, Daemon decided to shut him up, so he cut his throat and threw him in the sea.

The third interpretation of what actually happened with Ser Qarl is the most similar to the events in the show. However, in the show, Qarl staged Laenor’s death and they fled together on a ship. This is actually a smart call from the producers of the show because now Laenor is presumed dead and we can only speculate whether he will return to King’s Landing somewhere in the future and whether will he support Rhaneyra and her family if he returns.

Liked this article? Join us on Reddit for the latest Marvel & DC news!