Summary
While it starts a little scattershot and disorienting, House of the Dragon‘s Season 3 premiere eventually coalesces into the kind of operatic big-budget spectacle that it seems like only HBO can pull off on this level.
As well as starting with a slightly new opening tapestry and a rework of the classic Game of Thrones theme, Season 3 of House of the Dragon also opens with one heck of a bang. It takes a while to get there, admittedly, since the Season 2 finale left multiple plates spinning at once, but the obligatory detective work that is always necessary when returning to a complex series — especially this one, given everyone has the same haircut — gives way to a slightly slack-jawed sense of admiration for what HBO can pull off with a few million dollars. Episode 1 delivers one of the finer, more operatic battle sequences in this show’s — and perhaps even the wider franchise’s — history, kills off a couple of important characters, and feels like a reassuring mission statement after two full seasons of dramatic build-up.
We’ll get to all that, though. In the meantime, there’s a bit of political toing and froing to get through, as we try to keep track of all the pieces as they’re being shuffled across the vast Westerosi game board. Some of this is a bit of a reminder of where we left things, and some of it is a bit of a tease for later, but it’s all worth going over so we know where we stand.
Aegon’s Absconsion
In the previous season, Alicent had gone to Rhaenyra with a proposition. When Aemond left King’s Landing to hook up with Criston Cole and take the fight to Daemon’s new army, she was willing to leave the front door open and allow Rhaenyra’s forces in, convincing Helaena to surrender the kingdom and delivering Aegon’s head on a platter. Larys put paid to this plan by spiriting Aegon out of King’s Landing in secret, but Rhaenyra doesn’t know this, so she’s still weighing up the offer.
Larys and Aegon are caught almost immediately, instructed to denounce the usurper and swear fealty to Rhaenyra, but Aegon’s pride gets in the way. Their best-case scenario is to be delivered to the queen as living hostages, which Larys skilfully negotiates, but the escape plan hasn’t gone quite as expected right out of the gate.
What’s also problematic is that Jace thinks the whole thing’s a trap and doesn’t want his mother to walk into it. He also doesn’t want her to intervene in the battle that springs up in the Gullet — more on this in a minute — and decides the best course of action is locking her in a room on Dragonstone and heading off to fight the battle himself. This is a decision he will quickly come to regret.
That’s Your Mother, Dude
In King’s Landing, Aemond starts sitting on the Iron Throne and kicking his feet up because he has decided to nominally become king while Aegon is in absentia. This means that Alicent has to spring into manipulative action immediately, since she needs to compel him to jet off to Harrenhal to go after Daemon so that she can enact her plan.
After sending a rushed message to the Hightower host marching on, telling them to camp and wait for the next three days for Aemond’s arrival, Alicent gets to work on Aemond, which is where things take a weird turn. She’s obviously manipulating him from the jump, explaining how things would have been much better if he were just a little bit older and could officially be king, but reiterating the importance of relocating to Harrenhal where he — and the crown — will be safe from Rhaenyra’s rampaging dragons. It’s all normal stuff until it isn’t.
When Aemond finally relents and agrees to leave, he snogs his mum like a creepy weirdo. I know incest is kind of a thing in this universe, but it’s usually brothers and sisters with Targaryens, isn’t it? I know, I know — that’s pretty bad too, but the dude’s own mother? Even if your mother is Olivia Cooke, it’s still a pretty big red flag.
On the High Seas
House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 1 immediately cashes in on the build-up done in the Season 2 finale revolving around Tyland Lannister teaming up with Sharako Lohar and the Triarchy to break the Sea Snake’s blockade in the Gullet. The Triarchy’s fleet is thrice the size of Corlys’s, but Lohar is on a personal revenge mission, which she’s much more interested in than Team Green’s political woes. This leads her to send a unit to go and sack High Tide, the seat of House Velaryon on Driftmark, while she goes after Corlys directly.
Corlys anticipates this, though, and leads Lohar through a narrow, perilous passage in the hopes her flagship, the Bitchfist, will wreck against the jagged tooth-like rocks that line it. He’s almost successful, too. But Lohar’s ruthlessness in tossing Tyland — fate unknown — and his men overboard to make the ship more nimble gets her out of danger, and she’s able to T-bone Corlys’s ship and board it to take him on directly.
In a bloody action sequence, Lohar and Corlys fight among their duelling cohorts. When Corlys is sent overboard — fate also unknown — Alyn leaps on Lohar in his father’s honor, sends them both into the deep, half drowns her, and then stabs her to death. This whole thing is a teeny bit undermined by us not knowing much or really caring about any of these characters, but it’s nonetheless pretty exciting.
That’s Quite the Misunderstanding
While all this is going on, Jace, riding Vermax, and Baela, riding Moondragon, arrive to barbecue the Triarchy fleet. This is going quite well until Vermax gets injured and has to dip off, and then Rhaena arrives on Sheepstealer and all Hell breaks loose. Rhaena has no control of her dragon whatsoever, so she can’t stop it from lashing Corlys’s fleet with flames, nor can she talk it out of chasing Moondragon and Baela.
Jace tries to get the wounded Vermax to intervene. When he goes to unseat Sheepstealer’s rider, though, he recognises it’s his sister and backs off. But in all the confusion, Jace flies much too low, and Vermax gets hurt once again, this time fatally. The giant dragon sinks into the water with Jace still astride, but he’s able to swim down and unhook himself before it’s too late. He swims to the surface for a breath of fresh air, and then catches multiple arrows for his trouble.
So, Lohar is dead, Jace and Vermax are dead, and Corlys and Tyland might be dead. That’s an impressive potential bodycount for one battle sequence in a premiere, and it proves that in Season 3, House of the Dragon isn’t going to be pulling any punches. If this is the kind of standard we’re dealing with this time around, I’m totally here for it.
