House of the Dragon's season 3 finale takes Ulf the White's storyline in a notably different direction from George R.R. Martin's source material, and he remains alive at the episode's close rather than meeting the grim fate written in Fire & Blood. This matters for viewers trying to gauge where the character, and the wider war between the Blacks and the Greens, might head in the already-confirmed season 4.

In the show, Ulf is a commoner who becomes a dragon rider for Team Black before growing disillusioned after being humiliated by Daemon Targaryen and then courted by Ormund Hightower with promises of lordship over Driftmark. During the Battle of Tumbleton in the finale, Ulf is found drunk and, feeling betrayed by both sides, turns on them and attacks indiscriminately, a marked departure from the books, where he simply sleeps through the battle and is later known as "Ulf the Betrayer" before dying from poisoned wine after a failed bid for the Iron Throne. With the show having softened his book counterpart's darker characterisation, his eventual fate, whether death, comeuppance or escape, is expected to be addressed when season 4 arrives.