House of the Dragon Season 3 premiered with its Episode 1, titled Salt and Sea, Blood and Fire. It picks up right where Season 2 left us: Alicent’s visit to Dragonstone. Rhaenyra believes King’s Landing is defenseless, as Aemond is reportedly dispatched to Harrenhal and Aegon is bedridden. The Iron Throne feels days away.
She doesn’t realize it, but she is fallacious on almost every count. Aegon has fled the Red Keep with Larys Strong, who keeps Aemond and Vhagar in King’s Landing. Meanwhile, the Triarchy (now allied with the Greens) has massed a fleet 3 times the dimensions of Corlys Velaryon’s blockade on the Gullet. By the point the episode ends, a battle has been won and a prince has been lost.
What Happens In The Battle of the Gullet?
This attack on Corlys’ blockade is probably the most important battle ever attempted within the Game of Thrones series. Admiral Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn) of the Greens goes against the sound strategy by Tyland Lannister and disobeys orders to pursue a private vendetta near High Tide, as she wants the Velaryon seat herself.
That obsession costs her. Alyn of Hull, Corlys’ bastard son, kills Lohar in hand-to-hand combat aboard her ship. The Blacks hold the Gullet.
But the price is steep. Corlys falls overboard in full armor and doesn’t resurface. His survival is implied (trailers show him in later episodes), but his fate stays unresolved on the episode’s end. Tyland Lannister’s fate is less ambiguous. Scratch that, it shouldn’t be ambiguous in any respect. He was thrown overboard earlier, and his armor takes him straight to the underside. Combined with Jason Lannister’s death earlier within the episode, House Lannister is effectively erased from the story. Well, for now.
Jacaerys Is Dead: How Rhaena’s Mistake Sealed His Fate
Knowing Rhaenyra would never allow it, Jace locks his mother in her chambers and flies to the Gullet with Baela and Moondancer. Their dragons initially swing the battle within the Blacks’ favor.
Then Rhaena arrives on Sheepstealer — and all the pieces collapses. After seasons of failed bonding attempts, Rhaena has finally claimed the wild dragon. But Sheepstealer is untamed and unproven, and Rhaena overestimates her control. The dragon attacks indiscriminately, including Vermax.
Jace, evading his own ally, flies too near the Triarchy ships. Vermax is caught by a grapnel and dragged underwater. Jace frees himself—and is instantly cut down by a volley of arrows, in a sequence that echoes Robb Stark’s death beat for beat.
Rhaenyra has now lost two sons to preventable deaths. Lucerys fell to Vhagar at Storm’s End. Jacaerys fell to the chaos of the Blacks’ own making.
Who Is The Green Man & Where Do Things Stand Going Into Episode 2?
Before the battle, the episode seeds one among its stranger images. The three dragonseeds (Ulf the White, Hugh Hammer, and Addam of Hull) camp on the Isle of Faces near Harrenhal, waiting to ambush Aemond. The island sits at the middle of God’s Eye Lake, sacred ground where the First Men and the Children of the Forest signed their ancient peace pact. It’s guarded, legend says, by the Green Men.
The dragonseeds spot a figure with antlers watching them silently from the trees. The show offers no explanation. But God’s Eye will matter more as Season 3 continues, and it is a detail price remembering.
As for Rhaenyra: the Gullet is technically a Black victory, but she goes into Episode 2 without her eldest son, with Corlys’ fate unknown, and with Aemond and Vhagar still in King’s Landing. Alicent’s offer to open town’s gates still stands, however the window is closing fast.
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