House of the Dragon: The Battle of the Gullet explained

The second season of HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon is at an end, and now the long wait begins for season 3. Rather than tie everything together, "The Queen Who Ever Was" largely served as set up for the battles still to come. We saw the Lannister army roll up to the Red Fork river, the Starks cross the bridge of the Twins, the Triarchy sail to the Gullet, the Hightower host march beside the Honeywine river, Criston Cole march for Harrenhal, and Daemon with an army of Riverlords. There are a lot of battles on the horizon in House of the Dragon.

But out of all them, the most devastating is the Battle of the Gullet. This naval battle is the first of the bunch I just mentioned to occur in Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin, and it sets the stage for a few other conflicts. "The Queen Who Ever Was" brought us right up to the brink of that battle, with Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) and the Lyseni ship commander Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn) sailing a fleet of Triarchy ships from the Free Cities to attack the blockade which Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) has had stationed around King's Landing for the entirety of season 2. Meanwhile, Corlys himself is setting out to sail with his bastard son and firstmate, Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) to strengthen his forces.

But Corlys and the Triarchy aren't the only players who will be involved in the Battle of the Gullet. If the season 2 finale made you curious about what's in store when ships finally clash in the waters outside of King's Landing, you're in the right place. Let's discuss what happens during the Battle of the Gullet in the book. There will be MAJOR SPOILERS for the fates of several important characters.

What happens in the Battle of the Gullet?

The Battle of the Gullet is not only one of the worst naval battles in Westeros' history, but in the entire recorded history of Martin's fantasy world. Essentially, the forces of the Triarchy — that's the Free Cities of Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh — launch a surprise pincer attack on the Sea Snake's blockade at the Gullet, which had been starving King's Landing of food and supplies. The northern Triarchy force falls directly onto the opposing ships, using the weather to disguises their approach. The southern force avoids them entirely, and invades the island of Driftmark.

As the fighting grows deadly, Prince Jacaerys Velaryon joins the fray on his dragon Vermax. The Triarchy doesn't balk, since many of their sailors once fought against Daemon's dragon Caraxes in the Stepstones and aren't as afraid of dragons as Westerosi lords might be. But when the other Dragonseeds join the fight, things turns. Hugh Hammer flies Vermithor, Ulf White flies Silverwing, Addam of Hull flies Seasmoke, and the lowborn girl Nettles flies a wild dragon named Sheepstealer. We've seen all of these riders in House of the Dragon except for Nettles, who appears to be getting replaced by Rhaena Targaryen in HBO's adaptation.

The overwhelming force of the dragonriders ultimately breaks the Triarchy fleet, but it comes at great cost. Jace's dragon Vermax is hooked by a grapnel which is tied to one of the ships and dragged down into the water with a terrible wound. The dragon crashes into the wreckage of another ship, gets tangled up, and is pulled into the depths when the ailing vessel sinks.

Jace, meanwhile, manages to jump free of Vermax's saddle and cling to some wreckage to stay afloat. He then dies a horrible death, with Triarchy sailors shooting him full of crossbow quarrels before he too sinks into the ocean and is never seen again.

Jace is by far the biggest casualty of the Gullet, but there's a lot of other fallout too. Spicetown on Driftmark is sacked so brutally that it's never rebuilt, and Corlys Velaryon's castle of High Tide is put to the torch along with all the treasures he gathered on his Nine Voyages. As for the Triarchy, they enter the fight with around 90 ships and leave with just 28. Sharako Lohar is accused of sacrificing the ships of Myr and Tyrosh first, while largely saving his own fleet of Lyseni vessels; that accusation festers until it leads to a war in the Free Cities later on and the dissolution of the Triarchy.

Suffice to say, there's a whole lot of loss and grief wrapped up in the Battle of the Gullet. Fire & Blood notes that when Corlys Velaryon is congratulated on his victory over the Triarchy, he replies "If this be victory, I pray I never win another."

We won't know exactly how House of the Dragon will bring the Battle of the Gullet to life until season 3, which will probably air sometime in 2026. Whenever it does, expect the Battle of the Gullet to be a set piece that gets viewers talking, just like the Battle of Rook's Rest did this season.

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