![\"ewan-mitchell\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1782099370_711_0x0.jpg\")
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House of the Dragon<\/p>\n
Credit: HBO<\/p>\n
Season 2 of House of the Dragon ended where it began. Team Green (Aemond, Aegon, Allicent, the Hightowers, Ser Criston Cole etc.) and Team Black (Rhaenyra, Jace, Daemon, the new lowborn dragonriders etc.) on the eve of war. If I were to level but one accusation at the second season, it would be that very little happens betwixt its premiere and finale<\/a>. A lot of table-setting for war, positioning of pieces on the board, setup for big exciting things to come. Season 1 was also a lot of laying of groundwork for the Dance of Dragons.<\/p>\n If I were to level a second accusation at Season 2, it would be the many baffling changes from George R.R. Martin\u2019s book. The first season padded out a lot of stuff but it had a good reason to. The show spent time introducing us to Viserys I and his family in order to establish the overarching conflict, and it was done quite well. Season 2, on the other hand, made more egregious alterations.<\/p>\n One of these changes was the exclusion of Nettles, the teenage girl in the book who tames the wild dragon, Sheepstealer. In the show, Nettles is replaced with Rhaena Targaryen. This is at least an understandable change: Instead of introducing yet another new character to an already sprawling cast, they gave Rhaena \u2013 who doesn\u2019t have a dragon \u2013 her own and something to do. I\u2019m not saying I agree with this change, but I do understand its purpose.<\/p>\n House of the Dragon<\/p>\n Credit: HBO<\/p>\n Other changes were more inexplicable. The Blood & Cheese assassination was neutered entirely<\/a>, and while still a horrific moment, lacked the genuinely brutal \u201cSophie\u2019s Choice\u201d that made the original scene so powerful. The relationship between Rhaenyra and Allicent became bloated and wore out its welcome and continues to drag the story down as we enter Season 3. <\/p>\n Rhaenyra\u2019s character arc was likewise neutered, with the show\u2019s creators insistent on making her the Good Guy when, in fact, she\u2019s a lot more complicated and bloodthirsty and unhinged in the original story. Maybe they\u2019re getting to that point, but I worry that this Rhaenyra \/ Allicent friendship has made them alter both characters for the worse (by making them both far more likable).<\/p>\n Some of these changes in focus have left important characters on the sidelines. Specifically, three of Rhaenyra\u2019s sons \u2013 Joffrey, Aegon the Younger and Viserys \u2013 have spent so little time in the frame, it\u2019s easy to forget they exist. And the absence of two of these in the Season 3 premiere is quite strange.<\/p>\n The Capture of the Gay Abandon<\/p>\n House of the Dragon<\/p>\n Credit: HBO<\/p>\n In Season 2 we learn that Aegon the Younger and Viserys are to be taken to safety in Pentos by Reggio Haratis, along with Rhaena, though she absconds to find and tame Sheepstealer. Joffrey and his young dragon remain at the Eyrie. The voyage is poorly timed, however, with the Triarchy fleet on the move.<\/p>\n The Season 3 premiere focuses on the Battle of the Gullet, the largest and most devastating naval battle in the history of Westeros, and in the books it begins when the ship transporting Rhaenyra\u2019s children, the Gay Abandon, is seized by the Triarchy. Aegon escapes on the back of his small dragon, Stormcloud, though the dragon is pelted with arrows and later dies. He leaves his younger brother, Viserys behind, much to his shame. He also never flies on a dragon again. Viserys is taken prisoner by the enemy, but Aegon brings warning of the attack and Jace is able to lead an aerial assault against the Triarchy ships.<\/p>\n The show\u2019s version of this battle is vastly changed from the books. We know it will be, given the fact that Aegon and his warning and his dead dragon are all absent from the episode. Perhaps Viserys is taken captive offscreen. Perhaps Aegon will show up after the battle to bring word of this. Perhaps they will all just be shuffled off to the sidelines until the show\u2019s writers remember they exist. Here are the other big changes from the book version of this epic battle:<\/p>\n In the book, Jace is joined by the other dragonriders for Team Black: Jace on his dragon Vermax; Ulf the White on Silverwing, Nettles on Sheepstealer, Addam Velaryon on Seasmoke and Hugh Hammer on Vermithor. Notably, Baela Targaryen, Jace\u2019s betrothed, is not part of this battle because her dragon, Moondancer, was too small. In the show, only Jace and Baela fly to war. Hugh, Ulf and Addam are all stuck waiting to ambush Aemond who Rhaenyra thinks is heading to Harrenhal. (More on all that in a minute). Also, Rhaena and Sheepsteeler join the fray in a very different manner, with Sheepstealer not only attacking Valeryon ships, but the other two dragons as well. (More on that in a minute also).In the show, Jace orders the Kingsguard to confine Rhaenyra in her chambers in order to prevent her from going to the aid of the Valeryon ships blockading King\u2019s Landing. This never happens in the books. As far as we know, Rhaenyra and Jacaerys worked together on battle plans and it was on her orders that he and the others joined the battle, not the brash and petulant impulsivity of the princeling. (I am also left wondering why they wouldn\u2019t just all go, since three dragons is better than two, as Mushroom might say, and why they didn\u2019t send for the other dragonriders immediately since the Triarchy fleet was a more clear and present danger than Aemond and Vhagar).Both book and show do clearly paint how devastating the battle was for both sides. I suspect we will see more fallout from the battle next week, but at least by the end of Episode 1 it\u2019s not entirely clear that Team Black won and the Triarchy fleet nearly destroyed. Or what happened to Corlys.The show vastly dramatizes the conflict between Lord Corlys Velaryon and the Triarchy admiral, Lohar. There\u2019s an entire \u201csteer through a narrow rocky passage\u201d sequence followed by a brutal battle aboard Corlys\u2019s ship. Meanwhile, the actual sacking of Driftmark takes place offscreen. None of this happens in the book.<\/p>\n House of the Dragon<\/p>\n Screenshot: Erik Kain<\/p>\n The Sheepstealer bit is my lesser of two big complaints about these changes. I don\u2019t think it would have bothered me that much, but Sheepstealer is now directly responsible for the death of Jacaerys and Vermax. The problem with this is the fact that Lucerys died because Aemond\u2019s dragon, Vhagar, defied his rider and killed Lucerys and his dragon Arrax. The two deaths are now strikingly similar. Both Rhaenyra\u2019s eldest sons die because a large dragon defies its young rider and loses control. If the connection is meant to be profound \u2013 he who lives by the dragon dies by the dragon, or something \u2013 it misses the mark, and instead comes across as unimaginative, repetitive even.<\/p>\n Otherwise, the death of Jacaerys and Vermax happens pretty much like it does in the book: Vermax flies too low, is injured and crashes into the sea. Jace gets free but is shot to death by enemy crossbowmen. It\u2019s a horrific and tragic death, though I think the show has largely treated Jacaerys rather poorly, making him a much less important and likable character than he deserved to be, ever in his mother\u2019s shadow until he brashly defies her and goes to war and then dies; not a hero, but a fool.<\/p>\n Lohar The Lousiest<\/p>\n And now let\u2019s talk about the worst character in House of the Dragon, and quite possibly the worst character in all of Game of Thrones television:<\/p>\n Lohar is one of those made-for-TV villains that has no place in a serious television program like House of the Dragon. She is a cartoon villain who, I suspect, we\u2019re meant to like because she\u2019s such a girlboss baddie. She commands the unwavering loyalty of her troops. She\u2019s smarter and better at naval tactics and sailing and battle than the Sea Snake. When she meets him in battle, her ship splits his in twain in the first broadside. She then leads her troops against heavily armored knights and men-at-arms who they cut through with ease. <\/p>\n Lohar\u2019s slashing blades apparently have the Ignore Armor perk, because she cuts through these heavily armored foes like butter. She kills half a dozen before meeting Corlys in battle, and she shows him who\u2019s (girl)boss. When his son Alyn joins the fray, she fights them both off single-handedly despite wearing only cloth and leather, up against men in plate, both trained, one an actual legend.<\/p>\n It\u2019s just so tiresome. I hate when characters are written this way. Lohar reminds me of a dimestore version of Euron Greyjoy from Game Of Thrones, he of the infamous magic fleet, but somehow even more annoying. <\/p>\n Characters like this show up late in the game but they\u2019re just wildly good at everything they do. Great leaders, tacticians, perfect fighters, driven and ambitious and far more clever and ruthless. She even throws Tyland Lannister and his men overboard to lighten the ship, and of course those silly Lions don\u2019t stand a chance against Lohar! <\/p>\n The only consolation prize is that Alyn stabs her in the throat, though I half-expected her to rise back up out of the waves when he turned his back. Lohar doesn\u2019t die in the book, of course, nor is Lohar a woman. Or a pirate. Lohar is an admiral and tactician and brings the Triarchy to ruin with his loss, leading to The Daughters War. <\/p>\n So why do I focus on these changes? This is a TV show! It\u2019s an adaptation! A critic ought to judge it based on its own merits, not be such a stickler over changes. Well, some changes work and others don\u2019t. And there are plenty of critics you can read who haven\u2019t read the book and don\u2019t care one whit about the changes. <\/p>\n I am not one of theses, and so I present to you the alternate version of:<\/p>\n The Battle Of The Gullet, Actually Adapted From The Book<\/p>\n House of the Dragon<\/p>\n Credit: HBO<\/p>\n We open to the Gay Abandon sailing across the Narrow Sea. The waters are calm. Viserys and Aegon play at pirates, clanking practice swords on the deck of the ship, while Stormcloud lounges nearby watching. They seem like good kids. We get to know them a little bit in this opening sequence. The ship\u2019s crew seems fond of them. One ship\u2019s boy, we\u2019ll call him Scully, seems to dislike the princelings, however. We see him watching them with hatred in his eyes. Maybe a noble burned his house down and killed his parents. Maybe he\u2019s just a bad seed.<\/p>\n The sun is bright on the horizon, so bright that the crew doesn\u2019t notice the enemy ships until it\u2019s too late. Swords are drawn. Aegon tells Viserys to hide, to disguise himself as a ship\u2019s boy and hide his white Targaryen hair. Scully tells Viserys to come with him, and they run belowdecks. Then, as battle breaks out across the ship, Aegon mounts his dragon for the very first time and, gripping it tightly, flies aloft. Tyroshi bowman fire at the dragon, catching it in the stomach and wings, but the young dragon manages to flap beyond their reach and Aegon escapes. Aboard the Gay Abandon, the battle is lost. Scully betrays Viserys to the enemy and the princeling is taken prisoner.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Velaryon fleet is taken by surprise and suddenly finds themselves greatly outnumbered. The Triarchy admiral, Lohar, is a canny leader and has the Velaryon ships in dire straits. Things aren\u2019t looking good. Corlys bellows commands and Alyn rallies the troops.<\/p>\n Aegon flies to Dragonstone. Stormcloud collapses, bleeding from countless arrow wounds. Jace and Rhaenyra find the boy, sobbing over his dying dragon and begging forgiveness for leaving his little brother behind. He tells them of the Triarchy fleet and Rhaenyra quickly organizes her dragonriders, telling Jace to lead them to Lord Corlys\u2019s rescue. \u201cBurn them all!\u201d she tells her son, \u201cAnd find your brother.\u201d She\u2019s a queen, after all. She must make hard choices, including sending her eldest son into battle. She knows she must remain at Dragonstone to man its defenses in case Aegon has other tricks up his sleeve.<\/p>\n Off they fly, five dragons and their riders. Make it six if you want Baela and Moondancer there or, since in the show Rhaena has only just tamed Sheepstealer, leave that pair out. Whatever the case, off they go. Meanwhile, Triarchy corsairs have boarded Corlys\u2019s ship (awkwardly renamed The Queen Who Never Was for Corlys\u2019s dead wife, Rhaenys, in the TV show) and a desperate battle has ensued. Similar battles have broken out elsewhere, and other ships are engaged in crossbow fire. Sails burn. Sailors fall to the waves. We have to feel how desperate this fight is, not because Lohar has some personal grudge against Corlys, but because they\u2019re badly outnumbered and so much is at stake.<\/p>\n House of the Dragon<\/p>\n Credit: HBO<\/p>\n At the same time, we see a dozen Triarchy ships land at Driftmark and begin burning and pillaging the village, making their way up to High Tide where they dispatch the few soldiers manning the castle. We watch as Corlys\u2019s treasures, from all across the known world, are set to flame, and his servants slaughtered. (Maybe before all this happens, we establish a loyal and likable steward character who we get a scene with, bidding Corlys farewell, so that when the castle is burned we have a character to anchor our sorrows to).<\/p>\n We also see Lohar take Viserys aboard his ship. Lohar himself (or herself if they must gender-swap the character despite this being a show with lots of strong female protagonists) doesn\u2019t enter the fray, and when things take a turn, he flees, taking the Targaryen prince with him. Oh no! <\/p>\n Things do take a turn when the dragons show up and begin burning the Triarchy fleet. It\u2019s a slaughter. The Triarchy doesn\u2019t stand a chance against the combined might of the Velaryon fleet and Team Black\u2019s dragons. But the Triarchy bowmen have learned a thing or two from their battles against Daemon and Caraxes. They know how to take down a dragon and, just as victory seems all but certain, Jace flies his dragon low, too low, looking for his brother, and Vermax is hit and brought down, crashing into the waves where he\u2019s caught in a net, bleeding and struggling until he sinks below the surface and dies. Jace gets free of the harness and grabs onto some burning wreckage.<\/p>\n One of the other riders swoops down to rescue him. Baela if we decided to add her; Addam if not. Jace waves at the rider and all seems well as the dragon dives lower, a rope dangling for Jace to grab hold of \u2013 and then the first crossbow bolt hits him. Then another and another. When his rescuer gets there, Jace is already dead. The dragon burns the ship with the crossbowmen, but it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n House of the Dragon<\/p>\n Credit: HBO<\/p>\n Another of Rhaenyra\u2019s sons is dead; and another, Viserys, is presumed dead since he\u2019s not found and nobody knows what\u2019s happened to him other than Lohar who has taken him prisoner and hostage.<\/p>\n In the aftermath of all this, Hugh and Ulf sit in a tavern drinking and boasting of their great victory. They\u2019ve tasted blood and fire and it tastes good. While Rhaenyra and the others mourn, the two lowborn dragonriders drink and connive and think of their future. \u201cAfter this, Hugh old chap,” Ulf proclaims, “we deserve lordships! A knighthood just isn\u2019t enough for dragonriders like us!” He grumbles about the queen and Hugh, thinking about his family, ponders in silence. This same conversation played out in the episode itself, but not in the same context. Here, Ulf and Hugh are tasting victory and power and their resentment toward an ungrateful queen has more fuel.<\/p>\n My version here is, of course, the one from the book with a few minor embellishments. The show\u2019s version also missed something that I think is pretty important: A sense of scale. The few scenes of ships engaged in battle felt cramped. I never felt like this was the largest naval battle in the history of Westeros. There was no real flow to the battle, no way to assess what was going on. Corlys leading Lohar on a merry chase felt like time better spent showing more dragons descending on more ships, more knights battling against Triarchy raiders. Corlys sailing through the shallow passage, and his glimpse of High Tide in flames, was a wasted opportunity and a gimmick.<\/p>\n The Harrenhal Conspiracy<\/p>\n House of the Dragon<\/p>\n Screenshot: Erik Kain<\/p>\n There are other changes here, both small and not-so-small. Rhaenyra and Allicent, because of their long, strange friendship, have agreed to a deal. Allicent will open King\u2019s Landing to Rhaenyra\u2019s forces and offer up her son, Aegon, as part of the bargain. Aemond is supposed to be off looking for Daemon.<\/p>\n In the book, Aegon is spirited away by Larys Strong only after Rhaenyra\u2019s dragons appear in the skies over King\u2019s Landing. Aemond is already gone, having boasted about going to find his uncle and kill him. In the show, Allicent returns to the Red Keep to find Aemond on the throne and Aegon already absconded, having fled his own brother rather than a wrathful Rhaenyra. Aegon and Larys are captured on the road in this episode, and Larys gives him up easily enough. They\u2019re taken prisoner.<\/p>\n In the show, Allicent is part of a conspiracy to topple her own son, and sends Aemond off to fight Daemon, persuading him to go and take Harrenhal. It\u2019s just one of many ways this ongoing Rhaenyra\/Allicent friendship fundamentally alters this story. Aemond and Allicent also kiss, though Aemond is more into it than his mother. (Raise your hand if you\u2019re a little bit tired of the whole Targaryen incest stuff!)<\/p>\n House of the Dragon<\/p>\n Credit: HBO<\/p>\n I don\u2019t hate this change, necessarily, though I think they do Allicent something of a disservice by making her so much more pliable and likable in the show, when she was quite a lot more bitter and prickly in the book (and older than Rhaenyra, and not her friend). <\/p>\n Meanwhile, Ormund Hightower, head of his House and lord of Oldtown, Allicent\u2019s cousin and nephew to Otto Hightower, is marching his armies to Team Green\u2019s aid. See all that green on their shields and banners? That\u2019s where the Green in Team Green comes from. Ormund is played by newcomer to the cast, James Norton, who will always be Tommy Lee Royce, from Happy Valley<\/a>, to me \u2013 a villain who makes Ramsey Bolton look rather tame by comparison. He receives a note from Allicent and says they are to remain where they are, presumably as some part of her plan to help Rhaenyra.<\/p>\n Ser Criston Cole the Never Aging (seriously, not even a little grey around the temples guys?) is on the march with Ser Gwayne Hightower, Allicent\u2019s older brother. Gwayne, an honorable man, sees a village girl crying and running, naked, from one of the knight\u2019s tents. He confronts Ser Criston about this, telling him that something must be done. They are knights and must uphold chivalry and honor. \u201cHang him if you want,\u201d Ser Criston says, uninterested, but Gwayne says that\u2019s not enough. Ser Criston must make a statement, must take a stand. Ser Criston has no interest in honor, however. He\u2019s convinced that it\u2019s all a farce. In a world with dragons that can simply destroy anything they please, what use is honor? <\/p>\n Meanwhile, in the Riverlands, we see the aftermath of Daemon\u2019s latest military victory. As they discuss what to do, another force joins the field, bedecked in grey and black, wolf banners flying. The Starks have arrived and Roddy the Ruin (aka Lord Roderick Dustin, Lord of Barrowton) tosses Daemon the head of the other Lannister twin. \u201cWe\u2019ve come to kill for the Dragon Queen,\u201d he says. (Roddy is played by Tommy Flanagan of Sons of Anarchy fame). <\/p>\n House of the Dragon<\/p>\n Credit: HBO<\/p>\n Rhaenyra spends most of the episode locked in her chambers, complaining that \u201cwhile I have the frail body of a woman, I have the heart of a king\u201d and being generally useless, which is an odd choice for this show to make. I\u2019d have preferred to see her decisive, sending her warriors to battle. <\/p>\n None of this is to say I didn\u2019t enjoy the episode. I think I might have enjoyed it more had I not read the book. The bits of battle we do get are fun, if a little lackluster. It was great to see Alyn get such an awesome kill, and I\u2019m so very happy that we don\u2019t have to suffer another Lohar appearance. It\u2019s cool to see the Starks arrive and join forces with Daemon.<\/p>\n As is so often the case with this show, there\u2019s lots to look forward to, including Aemond heading toward Harrenhal; Rhaenyra\u2019s rage when she discovers her son\u2019s death and how this will impact her choices going forward; and the war itself, as the Hightowers and Starks join the battle and Aemond and Daemon square off. There\u2019s plenty of twists and turns and bloody betrayals to come, and more dragons, including Allicent\u2019s so-far-invisible son, Daeron, and his cobalt dragon, Tessarion. Hopefully we won\u2019t have to wait too long for all the exciting bits to come, and hopefully these won\u2019t be too terribly altered, though at this point so many changes have been made that I\u2019m not sure we can ever really get the story as it happened in the book. I\u2019m no longer holding out hope for Mushroom to make an appearance, more\u2019s the pity. More than anything, I just want the changes to make sense, to flesh out the story or give us some surprises, rather than pull another Blood & Cheese incident.<\/p>\n The Battle of the Gullet was originally intended as a capstone for Season 2, but HBO cut the episodes down from 10 to 8 for Seasons 2 and 3. As a finisher for Season 2, this would have worked quite well, which isn\u2019t to say it doesn\u2019t work for a Season 3 opener, but the cadence feels off for a reason.<\/p>\n In the end, they\u2019ll make Bran king. So there\u2019s that. What did you think of the House of the Dragon Season 3 premiere? Let me know on Twitter<\/a>, Instagram<\/a>, or Facebook<\/a>. <\/p>\n P.S. I\u2019ve watched the first four episodes of Season 3 and I\u2019m mostly optimistic. This feels a lot stronger than Season 2 so far and while I clearly do have nits to pick, I\u2019m very much looking forward to the rest of the season. <\/p>\n House of the Dragon stars:<\/p>\n Matt Smith as Prince Daemon TargaryenEmma D’Arcy as Queen Rhaenyra TargaryenOlivia Cooke as Queen Dowager Alicent HightowerRhys Ifans as Ser Otto HightowerSteve Toussaint as Lord Corlys VelaryonEwan Mitchell as Prince Aemond TargaryenTom Glynn-Carney as King Aegon II TargaryenFabien Frankel as Ser Criston ColeSonoya Mizuno as MysariaHarry Collett as Prince Jacaerys VelaryonBethany Antonia as Baela TargaryenPhoebe Campbell as Rhaena TargaryenPhia Saban as Queen Helaena TargaryenMatthew Needham as Larys StrongFreddie Fox as Ser Gwayne HightowerAbubakar Salim as Alyn of HullGayle Rankin as Alys Rivers<\/p>\n And many, many more.<\/p>\n The first episode of Season 3 was written by showrunner, Ryan Condal, and directed by Loni Peristere.<\/p>\n