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This House of the Dragon review contains spoilers.
Am I losing my mind or are the drums in the House of the Dragon opening theme louder this season?
It’s possible that the audio on my aging iPad is shot or that the review screener HBO made available to critics was unfinished, but it really does sound to me as though the percussion in composer Ramin Djawadi’s iconic Game of Thrones intro music is faster, fuller, and more insistent. If the usual “duh nuh nuh nuuuhhs” were amplified for season 3, it would certainly make sense. Following a solid but frustratingly incomplete second season, House of the Dragon seems invested in making sure viewers know that the real action has finally arrived.
This is all to say that, yes, the House of the Dragon season 3 premiere is the “Battle of the Gullet” episode.
For those who have not read George R.R. Martin‘s source material Fire & Blood (or the countless articles about the subject on this website for that matter), the Battle of the Gullet is kind of a big deal. It’s one of the most consequential engagements of the Dance of the Dragons civil war that this show is depicting and the biggest naval battle in Westerosi history. Any episode of House of the Dragon that features the Battle of the Gullet will inevitably be reduced to “the Battle of the Gullet episode” in the cultural consciousness with little retroactive attention paid to the B-, C-, and D-plots.
The fact that House of the Dragon opts to open of its third season with the battle is bold. If done right, it has the potential to put some wind at the rest of the season’s back and imbue it with some much-needed energy. If done poorly… well, that would be a very tough look for a Game of Thrones property that has already been criticized by its creator and outshined by its fellow prequel.
Thankfully, House of the Dragon‘s Battle of the Gullet is not a tough look. It’s actually pretty great! HBO, showrunner Ryan Condal, and the rest of production clearly put real time and money into this momentous occasion and it shows. While the watery, smoke-filled melee doesn’t quite reach the same dramatic heights as Game of Thrones classics like the Battle of the Bastards or Blackwater, it’s a suitably epic and bloody affair that kicks the season off on a strong note.
A lot of that success comes down to the script’s (written by Condal) appreciation for the dual elements that make up the name of Martin’s saga*: fire and water. A naval battle is one thing. A naval battle featuring dragons flying is another thing entirely.
*Sure, it’s called “A Song of Ice and Fire” but what is water but if not ice not persevering?
As Condal noted in pre-season comments provided to the press, the Battle of the Gullet doesn’t look like the naval warfare viewers have grown accustomed to. Due to Westeros’ pre-gun powder Medieval-esque setting, there is no exchange of cannon fire here – only ships full of soldiers drifting close enough to board and then swinging swords. That reality makes the skirmishes feel bloodier and more intimate. The main combatants – Shorako Lohar (Abigail Thorn), Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall), Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim), and Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) – all have a lot more to do than gaze through nautical telescopes or spin steering wheels.* And they all end up overboard, with Lohar and Tyland dead and Alyn and Corlys unaccounted for.
*Of course, the Velaryon and Triarchy ships are operated by whipstaffs, not wheels. Toussaint noted his disappointment with not getting to play with a wheel in an interview with Den of Geek and other outlets.
For all the chaos on the waters of the Gullet, the skies above it are even more disorienting once Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett) and Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia) arrive on dragonback to provide air support for the Velaryon fleet. Jace does so after literally locking his queen-mother Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) in a room for her safety. That moment alone all but betrays that the Gullet was initially conceived as season 2’s conclusion as the “Rhaenyra wants to do stuff but can’t because she’s queen” was one of that season’s most consistent (and frankly frustrating) running bits. Still, it’s hard to argue that Jace wasn’t right to think of his mother’s safety considering the fate that befalls him…
Rhaena’s (Phoebe Campbell) arrival on the back of her untamed Vale dragon Sheepstealer is a deviation from Martin’s books in which another, more seasoned dragonrider commands Sheepstealer with ease. The fact that Rhaena’s inability to control Sheepstealer causes the confusion that leads to Jace’s death will likely annoy George R.R. Martin to no end (if he even got around to reading the script that is). But it’s also a solid narrative addition that continues the show’s shrewd exploration of the unpredictability of dragons.
Unlike the history books that recall major battles with reverent awe, House of the Dragon never loses sight of the fact that dragon warfare basically amounts to children flying around on nuclear warheads. The history books also don’t get to see what it looks like when a dragon is yanked down from the sky to the ocean to drown and its teenage rider lit up with arrows. But we do. And there’s nothing romantic about it. In fact, Jace’s ignoble end is one of the more striking images presented on the show yet.
While this premiere gets the most important thing, the Battle of the Gullet, right, the rest of the episode is hit-or-miss. The events presented – Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Larys (Matthew Needham) on the road, Alicent (Olivia Cooke) trying to ready King’s Landing for Rhaenyra’s arrival, Ser Criston Cole clearly wanting to die – are conceptually strong. The execution just often leaves something to be desired. A lot of it falls under “we’ve seen this before,” which makes sense given the episode’s likely status as a season 2 holdover, but it does rob the proceedings of some need momentum.
Gullet-included, this premiere operates at its best when presenting something wholly new to the mythos. This includes new characters like the wonderfully rowdy Northman Roderick Dustin a.k.a. Roddy the Ruin (Tommy Flanagan) and Alicent’s haughty and smell-averse brother Ormund Hightower (James Norton). It also includes some old characters revealing new tricks like Aemond’s (Ewan Mitchell) horrifying kissing of his mother on the lips and Ulf’s reveal of a tragic, fascinating backstory.
If House of the Dragon season 3 continues to allow its characters to behave in unpredictable, human ways that the history books can’t quite capture, then the drumbeat in the opener can be as aggressive as it wants to be.
New episodes of House of the Dragon season 3 premiere Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max, culminating with a finale on August 9.
The post House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 Review: Down the Gullet appeared first on Den of Geek.
