In less than two weeks, HBO will premiere the third season of House of the Dragon, its gargantuan Game of Thrones spinoff where rival branches of House Targaryen tear each other apart in their quest for the Iron Throne. Season 2 left off on a massive cliffhanger, with Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) preparing to take King's Landing while a fleet of pirates from the Free Cities set sail to break Corlys Velaryon's (Steve Toussaint) blockade of the city. The upcoming naval battle, known as the Battle of the Gullet, should be one for the books.
Those who've read George R.R. Martin's novel Fire & Blood know the Gullet as one of the bloodiest naval battles in the history of Westeros. A number of important characters take part in it, and not all of them make it out alive. In the sky, dragonriders set fire to ships while dodging scorpion fire from below. And on the decks of the ships themselves, we have characters like Corlys, his first mate and bastard son Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim), the Triarchy pirate captain Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn), and the Greens' Master of Ships, Tyland Lannister (Jeffrey Hall).
While House of the Dragon always keeps a strong focus on the dragonriding Targaryens at the heart of the show, the Battle of the Gullet will see a different rivalry come to the forefront between Corlys and Lohar. These two seafarers have a long history together, but it has the strange burden of being a history that has mostly transpired off screen. How much detail viewers will get about the source of the grudge between them remains to be seen.
“I have my own answers in my head of what exactly happened between her and Corlys to make her so dedicated to the task of bringing him down,” Thorn said at SXSW London (via Variety), “and, also, I was really inspired this season by ‘Moby-Dick.’ I read the novel, and I watched every adaptation that I could, because she’s Captain Ahab this season. She’s on this quest to bring down her white whale, and we’re going to see how far she goes to achieve that.”
“Yes, I think we both have that thing, this inexorable draw to each other, that this has to be a final phase," Toussaint added. "It’s been going on for years and years, and then if they get to me, it’s going to be quite something.”
While I like that Thorn and Toussaint have clearly fleshed out the bitter past between Sharako Lohar and Corlys Velaryon in their own minds, I do hope that House of the Dragon states some of it explicitly. Is Lohar out to get Corlys simply because he is the most accomplished sailor of his day, and gathered treasures from all around the world on his famed nine voyages? Does she want revenge for the years of warring the Sea Snake and Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) did in the Stepstones, which occurred during House of the Dragon season 1? None of this is from the source material, where Lohar is a much thinner character, so only time will tell.
Regardless, it's one more layer giving the Battle of the Gullet extra weight. Knowing that Corlys Velaryon — one of the few characters who is genuinely good and consistently likable in this story — has an adversary preparing to cut his throat is a good bit of tension as fleets collide. And that's before any dragons even enter the mix!
Corlys Velaryon "desperately" wants to connect with Alyn of Hull
Toussaint also spoke a bit about Corlys Velaryon's overall arc on the series, which is fairly tragic. Corlys began in a place of absolute power: the richest man in Westeros, married to a powerful dragonrider, with two children who each claimed dragons of their own and a booming island holdfast filled with rare artifacts gathered from all around the world. Corlys is much closer to rock bottom at the start of season 3, and he's grasping at the few connections he has left, including his estranged bastard son Alyn of Hull, played by Raised By Wolves star Abubakar Salim.
“When I first met [showrunner Ryan Condal], he said we’re going to start with a character who has everything, and we’re going to take it all away from him," recalled Toussaint. "Well, he’s on that journey. When we meet him at the beginning of Season 3, he’s still grieving his wife [Rhaenys Targaryen] and trying desperately to make links with his illegitimate son [Alyn of Hull], who doesn’t want anything to do with him, and so he’s having to deal with that, basically, and that’s a tough sell.”
After a lifetime of pretending Alyn and his brother Addam (Clinton Liberty) don't exist, it's no surprise that Corlys' bastard first mate isn't in a forgiving mood. Alyn pushed Corlys away throughout season 2, and while Salim doesn't see his character "softening" this season, he does believe there's a journey of growth ahead for him as well.
“I think we see him mature," Salim said. "It’s really interesting because we left Season 2 with him very volatile and angry, and having a go at Corlys. So, I feel like we’re entering with that kind of vulnerability and rawness from the get-go. So, yeah, I think we see him mature through this season and kind of evolve with what’s going on.”
With both Alyn and Corlys in the line of fire right from the start of House of the Dragon season 3, I just hope they get the chance to make whatever reconciliation they're going to, before the Dance of the Dragons heaps even more tragedies on House Velaryon.
House of the Dragon season 3 premieres June 21 on HBO and HBO Max.
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