Gunthor Darklyn
Lord of Duskendale, of the old Darklyn kings' line — sworn to Rhaenyra, and not the kind of man who re-swears at spearpoint.
A soul born at Duskendale, sworn to House Darklyn.
The fuller tale
Their story
Lord of Duskendale and scion of the old Darklyn kings' line, Gunthor holds his seat with the kind of stubborn pride that comes from ruling a town whose royal history predates the Targaryen conquest by centuries — and he swears to Rhaenyra's cause with a conviction that does not bend under pressure.
When the greens' forces march on Duskendale to bring the riverlands and crownlands more firmly under the crown's control, Gunthor is offered the standard mercy extended to a lord who kneels in time — and declines it, on the straightforward grounds that he has already sworn an oath and does not consider a spear at his throat sufficient cause to break it.
How it ends for them
On the screen. Beheaded by the Hand at Duskendale (S2·E4)
Duskendale fell to the Hand's host by march and by treachery, and its lord was offered his life for a bent knee. He kept the oath he'd sworn to Rhaenyra instead. Ser Criston took his head in his own courtyard.
On the page. Beheaded when Duskendale fell (F&B, ch. 4)
When Duskendale fell to Cole's host, Lord Darklyn was offered the black and chose the block. His head went up over his own gates as a lesson in the price of kept oaths.
In the show, Duskendale falls to the Hand's host, and Gunthor is beheaded by Ser Criston Cole personally, in his own courtyard, for the specific crime of refusing to re-swear an oath he had already given once.
Fire & Blood records the same outcome with the same essential cause: Duskendale falls, Gunthor is offered his life for submission, and chooses the block instead, his head raised over his own gates afterward as an object lesson in what kept oaths cost under the greens' rule.
Their chapters, book by book
Where the page and the screen part
Both tellings agree closely on the circumstances of Gunthor's death, with minimal divergence in staging — a rare point of near-total consistency between the show's dramatization and the book's chronicle.
Their journey
Where the two tellings send them to the same place the road runs whole; where they part, the screen keeps the left and the books the right.