House of the Dragon returned with the bang… or rather with the loud crack of enemy ships crashing into one another. The season 3 premiere was surely a spectacular episode with its dragon flying and naval battle sequences, although narratively it felt more like the episode 9 of season 2 rather than the season 3 opener — and perhaps that’s what it was originally meant to be.
At any rate, apart from some unfortunate choices, the premiere was mostly a good watch, earning a decent B from me. As an adaptation of Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin, the show diverged from its source material in various plot points. Let’s analyze the differences between the books and House of the Dragon season 3 episode 1.
Rhaena gets Nettles’s storyline… sort of
The episode’s opening scene shows the Lady Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell) claiming the dragon Sheepsteeler who lives in the wild of the Vale of Arryn. In Fire & Blood, Rhaena hatches two dragon eggs: the first dies as a hatchling, and the second is Morning, one of the last dragons to be born. The show made Rhaena desperate enough to be a dragonrider that she would attempt to tame a wild dragon, despite the fact that she had all known dragon eggs at her disposal.
In the book, Sheepstealer was one of the few dragons to never have been ridden, nesting on the Dragonmont and earning its name due to his hunting preferences. He was tamed by Nettles, a young baseborn girl from Dragonstone, possibly a dragonseed, “who delivered him a freshly slaughtered sheep every morning, until Sheepstealer learned to accept and expect her.” Nettles becomes part of Rhaenyra’s entourage and later developes a strong bond with Daemon — while some of the sources in the book claim that the two become lovers, it is just as likely that Daemon may have been her father, which is the interpretation I’ve always favored.
While it is exciting to see the wonderful Phoebe Campbell ride a dragon and generally have more screentime, it’s hard to reconcile the ripples that the choice of cutting Nettles altogether will have on the plot, especially because the show made a daring choice in clearly writing that Rhaena is currently unable to control Sheepstealer, who does not differentiate between friend and foe, and ends up attacking the Velaryon ships as well as Baela and Jace. Sheepstealer — and, by extention, Rhaena — causing Jace’s death will have dire consequences.
The Battle of the Gullet in the book
In Fire & Blood, the battle takes place in the Gullet, where the Velaryon fleet was blockading aid towards King’s Landing to starve the greens into submission. The Triarchy is hired by Otto Hightower (not Tyland Lannister) to break the blockade; as they sail towards Westeros, Captain Sharako Lohar of Lys encounters and captures a Pentoshi ship with a prized cargo: Rhaenyra’s younger sons, Prince Aegon the Younger and Prince Viserys, who were on their way to be warded in Pentos. When the Triarchy takes over the ship, Aegon, nine years old, flies away on his barely grown dragon Stormcloud to warn his family on Dragonstone. Stormcloud was mortally wounded during their escape, but he succeeded in bringing Aegon home to safety and died soon after.
Jacaerys Velaryon, acting in his capacity as the Prince of Dragonstone, marshaled 5 dragons (his own Vermax, Silverwing, Sheepstealer, Seasmoke, and Vermithor) into battle and annihilated the Triarchy’s fleet. When Vermax is struck, Jace had a very good reason to be flying so low: he was looking for his youngest brother, Viserys, who he will never find. They do win the battle, although one third of their fleet is destroyed along with Spicetown and High Tide on the island of Driftmark, the seat of the Velaryons. No loss is greater than that of Prince Jace, however.
The Battle of the Gullet in the show
None of that happens during the episode, where Jace’s little brothers are nowhere near the battle. Lohar (Abigail Thorn) purposely attacks High Tide to wound Corlys (Steve Toussaint), an enemy of many battles. She even tosses Lannister and the Westerosi into the water, damning the Triarchy’s contract with the Iron Throne.
The scenes focusing on Corlys and his unmatched prowess in the water are epic… although it isn’t truly unmatched, if Lohar was able to sail through the Teeth after him despite having no knowledge of the area. At any rate, I appreciate the Sea Snake’s dynamic with his bastard son Alyn (Abubakar Salim).
When Baela (Bethany Antonia) brings news of the battle to the Black council, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) declares that she will fight. Convinced that she must not, Jace (Harry Collett) commands the Queensguard to lock her inside her room until the battle is over. The last words exchanged between mother and son are, “If you die—“ “Then you shall at last be king.”
It is a true pity that we didn’t get more scenes of Jace and Baela together before it was too late. Exploring their relationship would have been a better use of screen time than half of Daemon’s hallucinogenic scenes from last season. Seeing them fight together and protect each other during the battle was great, although casual watchers may not even remember that they’re betrothed.
Vermax and Moondancer alone come to the fleet’s rescue, as Silverwing, Seasmoke and Vermithor are stationed outside Harrenhal, waiting for Aemond. While Corlys leads Lohar through the Teeth, I found it weird that Baela and Jace did not stop the rest of Lohar’s ships from destroying High Tide. Why didn’t they burn the enemy ships before they landed on Driftmark?
Then Sheepstealer arrives, carrying a mysterious rider; Jace recognizes Rhaena, but Baela doesn’t, not coming close enough. Jace understands Rhaena’s lack of control and focuses on dodging the attacks, not wanting to hurt her. But Sheepstealer chafes at his rider’s commands and is to blame for Jace’s death: if Jace had paid attention to the enemy instead of Sheepstealer, he and Vermax may have missed the blow.
The sequence is heartbreaking. Jace died for nothing and indirectly at the hand of someone who loves him. When the truth resurfaces, Rhaena’s unwilling role in Jace’s death will undoubtedly drive a wedge between Baela and Rhaena and between Rhaenyra and Rhaena.
How it goes with Team Green
Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) is on the run with Larys Strong (Matthew Needham). When they are questioned by men loyal to Rhaenyra, Larys sells them out and reveals their identities to save their lives from instant beheading, and they are captured, to be delivered to Rhaenyra. At this point in the book, we only know of Aegon’s mysterious disappearance, so this is canon-compliant.
In King’s Landing, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) has declared himself King, usurping his own brother’s throne fully knowing Aegon is still alive — creating an intra-faction civil war in what is already an intra-family civil war. In the book, Aemond is simply Prince Regent in his brother’s absence. Here it’s clear Aemond has no intention of ever letting his brother return — he did try to kill him back in episode 204 at the Battle of Rook’s Rest, after all.
Alicent (Olivia Cooke) convinces Aemond to fly to Harrenhal on Vhagar, leaving King’s Landing almost defenseless for Rhaenyra’s homecoming. The show gives Alicent credit for Rhaenyra’s victory while in the book, the plan is orchestrated by Daemon, luring Aemond out to Harrenhal. The disturbing scene of Aemond kissing his mother is a weird choice written purely for shock value.
The audience meets Lord Ormund Hightower (James Norton), nephew to Otto and cousin to Alicent. He is shown to be a refined man and a determined commander.
Elsewhere in the realm, Hand of the King Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) is camped with Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox). At this point in the book, Gwayne is in King’s Landing, as the second in command of the City Watch.
Lannister slaying
Both twins Jason and Tyland Lannister (played by Jefferson Hall) died in this episode. Tyland was tossed off board by Lohar during her pursuit of Corlys Velaryon’s ship, the Queen Who Ever Was. In the book, Tyland does nor die at this point in the story, but much later, even briefly serving as Hand of the King for some time.
Lord Jason Lannister’s death is more accurate to book canon, altough it happens off screen and we learn about it in what is perhaps this episode’s most iconic scene. We are watching Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) and his Riverlands host after the Battle of the Red Fork when they hear an army approaching; as Daemon readies to meet the incoming foe, he comes face to face with the formidable Winter’s Wolves, the Northern army that Cregan Stark had promised Prince Jacaerys. Stark banners held high, Roderick Dustin tosses Jason Lannister’s head at Daemon’s feet and announces, “We have come to die for the dragon queen.”
We knew going in that this season would continue to diverge from the source material told in Fire & Blood, although some plot lines will now find a way to merge back into book canon. Moving forward this season, some things will happen in the same way but for different reasons and the other way around. That is the nature of an adaptation. All we ask is that the changes make reasonable sense.
House of the Dragon season 3 premieres new episodes Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
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