---
title: 'House of the Dragon, Season 3 Premiere FULL SPOILER Review'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=__W_ye3dLIU'
video_id: '__W_ye3dLIU'
date: 2026-06-22
duration_sec: 1066
---

# House of the Dragon, Season 3 Premiere FULL SPOILER Review

> Source: [House of the Dragon, Season 3 Premiere FULL SPOILER Review](https://youtube.com/watch?v=__W_ye3dLIU)

## Summary

IGN reviews the *House of the Dragon* Season 3 premiere, praising its spectacular naval battle, the Battle of the Gullet, as a return to form. The reviewer highlights the high-stakes action, character drama, and a major dragon death, while discussing the show's pacing and the challenge of adapting a historical chronicle.

### Key Points

- **Battle of the Gullet** [0:08] — The season opener features a major air and naval clash between Lord Corlys Velaryon's fleet and the Triarchy fleet led by Lohar. It includes pirate battles, flaming missiles, and hand-to-hand combat, surpassing expectations.
- **Corlys vs Lohar** [1:28] — Lohar attacks Corlys' home to distract him, but Corlys lures her away, sinks two of her ships, and fights her hand-to-hand. The battle is practical-effects-driven, with massive ship sets at Leavesden Studios.
- **Dragon Action and Loss** [2:40] — Prince Jace and Baela ride dragons to decimate the Triarchy fleet. However, Rhaena's half-feral dragon attacks friend and foe, leading to Vermax being harpooned and Jace killed by arrows after surfacing.
- **Political Intrigue** [3:21] — Rhaenyra is locked in her room by her son Jace for her protection. She is convinced by Alicent's offer to surrender King's Landing, but her team remains skeptical. Aemond and Aegon are absent from the capital, creating tension.
- **Alicent's Return and Aemond's Power** [4:57] — Alicent returns to King's Landing to find Aegon missing and Aemond in control, undercutting her deal with Rhaenyra. Aemond manipulates Alicent with a disturbing kiss to send Aegon to Harrenhal.
- **Season 3 Promise** [5:22] — The episode is described as a 'feast' of action and drama, suggesting the show has finally matched and could outshine Game of Thrones' best episodes. The reviewer gives it a 10/10 score.
- **Interview with Helen O'Hara** [6:52] — Helen O'Hara discusses her history with the franchise, the challenge of adapting a 'faux historical chronicle', and the pacing issues of season 2. She notes the death of Jace is impactful but not at the level of the Red Wedding.

### Conclusion

The premiere is a thrilling, action-packed return that delivers on the promise of the *Dance of the Dragons*, with spectacular battles and high-stakes drama that could make the series challenge its predecessor's legacy.

## Transcript

You've gone full Shaun Bean, man. Sorry,
you're not coming back.
>> Never go full Shaun Bean. I mean,
especially in Westeros.
>> The new season's opener finally brings
us the action we've been waiting for
with a naval clash for the ages. High
stakes, high seas, high treason. This
season's opener has everything. This is
the Battle of the Gullet, and it is
every bit as spectacular as we could
have hoped. all pirate battles and
flaming missiles and hand-to-hand
combat. It's surrounded by the sort of
scheming seduction confession and
devastation that makes for good
character drama, too. If the rest of the
season is anything like this, this Game
of Thrones spin-off might finally have a
way to outfight its predecessor.
We'll come back to the character stuff.
The centerpiece of this episode is a
hugely exciting air and navy clash
between Lord Corus Valyrian's fleet and
the Troshi fleet led by Shurako Lohar.
For Lahar, it's a grudge match. For
Corus, it's only part of his blockade of
King's Landing on behalf of Rea and her
blacks in the civil war called the dance
of dragons against her cousins, the
Greens. Lowhar is determined to hit the
sea snake where it hurts, sending half
her fleet to burn his home. Lord Corus'
castle.
>> We will require the full strength of
your fleet if we avenge.
>> My tie is a monument to the sea snake
himself.
>> Do you think his focus will hold when he
sees his treasure room of flame?
>> She's right. It's another devastating
blow to a man who has already lost a
wife and two children. Happily, he's
also a badass. He lures Lohar away from
the fleet, sinks two of her companion
sheets thanks to some fancy pants
sailing through a narrow channel, and
then fights hand-to- hand against the
ferocious Troshi captain. Abigail Thorne
is great as Lowhar here, absolutely
convincing as a leader of men and a
serious threat to Corass. She's already
come close to taking down a dragon
before getting to this personal
vendetta. Given that Corass begins the
episode having a moving heart-to-heart
with his formidable, illegitimate son
Allen, and that he earns Allen's respect
as a sailor and a captain during the
battle, you have to wonder if he'll
survive this fight. He's missing at the
end of the episode. If this is how he
goes out, fair play. It's an
exceptionally wellshot, almost entirely
practical battle. The ship tanks and
sets were so massive at Leaveson Studios
that they overshadowed the new Harry
Potter's Private Drive. The battle in
the air, however, goes less well. Yes,
Prince Jiharis and Bala ride into the
fight and decimate the Troshi fleet.
Jace's dragon Vermax is almost taken
down by Lowhar early on, and then Raina
joins the battle to devastating effect.
In this episode, we see that she's
finally wooed a dragon of her own, but
in one of those rabbit foot scenarios,
her half feral beast refuses to obey her
and attacks friends and foe alike in the
heat of the moment. Her attempts to help
contribute to the battle's biggest loss
as Vermax is harpooned in the chest and
drags Jace into the drink with him. It
is a devastating finale.
On the bright side, at least it saves
Rea from having to confront her son's
high treason. The reason she's not there
on her own dragon is because he locked
her in her room for her own protection.
She's been on a high this episode,
convinced by Allison's offer to
surrender King's Landing and confident
in her new dragon riders who are waiting
grumpily near Harrenhal to ambush awful
Aemon and his massive dragon Vagar. So
oversized. What is he compensating for?
Of course, this follows two seasons of
dithering on Rea's part, so you can
understand why her team aren't so
convinced. It's a bit late for her to
start quoting Elizabeth the First now.
Rea's line,
>> "I may appear to have the weak and
feeble body of a woman, but I possess
the heart and spirit of a king," is a
historical lift from a speech that also
preceded a major naval encounter.
Anyway, she sends her husband, Damon,
who's just destroyed a green aligned
Lannister army at Redfork with the help
of the Riverlords. And enjoying the
blood splattered look, the late arriving
Starks bring Damon ahead of Lord Jason
Lannister while his fully armored twin,
Thailand, tries to keep control of his
Tyroi allies on the Gullet. So much for
one green army, but the spoiled and
rather prissy Orund High Tower has
another on the way, including the Dragon
Tarion. Oh, and Sir Christristen Cole is
out there with his forces alongside Sir
Gane High Tower, who's increasingly
horrified by Cole's nihilism and his
lack of control of his thuggish men.
That is a lot of potential fighting men
still on the board. Then there are the
main members of the Green Royal family.
Allison is horrified on her return to
King's Landing to find Aegon missing and
Amond all too present when she had
promised Renea precisely the opposite.
Aegon's run for it is interrupted by
Rea's troops and Lord Laris' scheming
unbeknownst to his mother, but it takes
all of Allison's considerable powers of
persuasion and a hint of something
closer to seduction on Aean's part, ew,
to send her son off to Harrenhal and
clear the way for the deal she has made.
As for that kiss he gives her, we needed
something to really turn the stomach
this episode, right? In summary, we've
got dragons in action, ships burning and
sinking and firing, armies clashing,
Laris and Aemon and Aegon and Cole being
awful, and Allan and Corus and Damon
being badass. If the show were always
like this, it wouldn't just match Game
of Thrones. It would outshine all but a
handful of episodes. Two years ago,
rounding up season two, I speculated
that showrunner Ryan Condell had held
back on the action last season to build
a war chest for this time. I thought I
was joking, but this episode makes me
wonder if this signals the path for
season 3. It is going to be a feast.
>> You'll all join me as I sit the
Driftwood throne and dine on the sea
snakes.
Last season was talky to a fault, but
this feels like the show we hoped to see
all along. Thrillingly dramatic,
action-packed, and full of Targaryians
causing chaos in Westeros. Dragons fill
the skies and ships fill the seas, and
every one of them aims to cause maximum
destruction to the other side. That's
obviously very sad for the people
involved. Sorry that happened or
whatever, but it's bloody great as a
viewer. Score 10 out of 10. Pirates,
dragons ships fire betrayal chaos
death, and destruction. It's honestly
hard to imagine what more you could ask
of a season opener.
>> Hey everybody, that is IGN's review of
House of the Dragons season 3 premiere.
And joining me to talk about the 10 she
just gave it, Helen O'Hara. How's it
going Helen?
>> I'm good. How are you?
>> I'm good. I'm good. First of all, thank
you for taking on House of the Dragon
for us. This show is is is a real one,
right? Like it's it's a rangy show that
sort of requires, you know, knowing some
of Game of Thrones, some of the books,
but also it stands on its own pretty
well. So, before we get too into the
weeds with this episode and your review
of it, um I guess to to just bluntly ask
it, what kind of Game of Thrones fan are
you?
>> I'm uh I'm a an old school Game of
Thrones fan, I guess. I think I read the
first book in not quite very first
publication. It was probably like 2003 I
think but pretty early. Um certainly
before the show. So I was there very
excited when the show was being made.
And I think like everyone else I thought
the last two seasons were less good. But
I I do feel like there is I this is my
grand unified theory of Game of Thrones.
Do you want to hear it?
>> Yes, please.
>> Okay. So, I think as soon as you start
trying to bring that show to an ending,
it stopped feeling like Game of Thrones.
And I think even if they'd had more time
to develop some of the stuff that they
were trying to do, I don't know that
they could have dealt with that because
I think the whole show was about
somebody making a plan and then
something they didn't foresee would turn
up and knock their plans for a loop. But
you have to stop doing that if you're
trying to get to a conclusion. And as
soon as you stop doing that, it stops
feeling like Game of Thrones. So, I
think they were always going to have
trouble. And I wonder I I have other
issues with House of the Dragon, but I
wonder if the fact that because this is
a history because they can kind of
choose their end point, maybe they can
work around some of those issues. Maybe
>> it puts me in mind of was it
Littlefinger's quote from there is only
the climb like the the idea that that
you know it's it's just this non-stop
thing and then to the idea of making
that stop is sort of counter to what the
whole show is about.
>> There is a possibility that you know
through several years of essentially
low-grade civil war in the Game of
Thrones timeline maybe everybody's
exhausted and you do get one of those
periods of relative peace for Bran's you
know uh time as king. I don't know. But
I think it's interesting seeing House of
the Dragon because here we have had that
peaceful period. We have had a king who
was I mean he was a bit of a you know
Egypt but but people liked him. He
didn't do anything too terrible.
Everybody kind of got on with their
lives.
>> Life expectancy started to creep up a
little bit.
>> Maybe too high for Westeros. So now
we're bringing it down again. Yeah. One
of the lines from your review I enjoyed
hearing you say was, you know, if this
was the whole series, if the whole
series was as good as this episode, it
would have outshined all but just a few
episodes of Game of Thrones. So, I guess
the first question is what do we think
has been holding the show back from
being this all the time?
>> First of all, the fact that they are
going from a history book, right? And
it's the history of Westeros. book, if
if anybody out there hasn't read it, uh
the book that this one's based on or or
it's based on part of the book is
essentially a kind of faux historical
chronicle of what's been happening for
the several hundred years before Game of
Thrones starts. Um from Aegon's conquest
right up to it will, you know, he hasn't
actually written the second volume yet
because he's George RR Martin, but you
know, um but the idea is that he's got a
whole history of Westeros mapped out and
that this is just part of that history.
Um, and that does mean that they're not
very free to completely deviate from
cannon. There there have been things
that they have changed for the show.
They're not being slavish to the book.
Um, there have been, as well as sort of
adding things in that simply aren't
discussed in the book, they're also, you
know, finding ways to maybe change a
certain things, to maybe combine
characters to make it a little bit,
believe it or not, the there are fewer
characters than there could be in this
show. It seems impossible.
>> I believe it. But they, you know, they
are changing a few things, but generally
speaking, the sort of broad outline of
the book they are kind of tied to
because that is the story of Westeros.
And because of things like A Night of
the Seven Kingdoms and other spin-offs
that they're discussing, they can't
hugely deviate from what's supposed to
kind of happen. So, um, so that's kind
of an interesting thing here, but I
think that the the sort of slowdown of
season two, and it was slower. I think
season one was a bit faster. It had some
time jumps that that people struggled
with, including myself. But uh but
season two had stopped with the time
jumps and still struggled with just
telling this much story and and moving
all of these pieces into the right
place. And I'm hoping now that we can
just get to the good stuff. I hope
>> it's an interesting dilemma for for the
show because so much of like you say the
broadstrokes of this history are so
dialed in in in the canon and and in the
text but like within that you know you
can you know who's who dies on which day
and in which way and how emotionally
resonant is that for the show like
there's there's actually oddly a lot of
freedom there um in some ways because I
mean the history a history is so dry
sort of by its nature that that you can
kind of get away with a lot of that
stuff.
>> Exactly. And we're seeing that they're
making some characters more sympathetic
or less sympathetic as they go. And
that's I hope that will pay off
dramatically. I'm I'm slightly worried
and I wrote a piece that people if
they're not worried about spoilers,
people can go back and read the piece I
wrote at the end of season 2. But I do
worry that some of that some of making
certain people more sympathetic or less
sympathetic will mitigate at the end.
Again, that will be a problem for the
history that they are kind of tied into.
And I hope they have a way through that.
I I they seem smart, you know. I'm
hoping that they've got something
figured out.
>> Is there some degree of excitement
around this particular episode uh that
is sort of more typically reserved for a
finale rather than a premiere?
>> I'd love to know why this is the
premiere and not the finale of last
season, you know. Um I think last season
was eight episodes, not the 10 episodes
of season 1. So, you know, maybe we
could have had nine and done this last
time. I think that would have sent
everybody away on a very very high kind
of a a feeling. It's also just like I
think physically the the amount of time
and preparation physical set building
that they put into this was I think off
the chart. This this one episode took
months and months of planning. So I
guess that might have been a reason for
it.
>> And obviously you know talking about
things that have to be immediately dealt
with. Uh, this episode obviously
features a pretty major death. Um, which
is almost a requirement for a Game of
Thrones show.
>> Yeah.
>> How does this one fair in terms of its
placement right here in the premiere
episode? Because sometimes these big
deaths can can feel a little gratuitous,
you know, and I think I think part of
that is like the the sputtering out of
the last two seasons of of Game of
Thrones, you know, like it got to be a
little bit like come on guys. Um, and so
there is a certain amount, this is maybe
just me, there's a certain amount of eye
rolling that comes with with these big
deaths in in Game of Thrones, but but
how did this one land for you?
>> I was really struck the second time I
watched it by just the timing of the
death. So, you know, yes, his dragon is
taken down and you're sitting there
thinking, "Oh my goodness, that's awful.
He's lost his dragon." But, you know, he
he manages to get the the clasp of his
harness loose and he swims for the
surface and you're like, "Okay, things
are still bad, but he's got to the
surface. He's not drowning. He must be
very upset. Poor boy." And then boom,
hit by an arrow. And then, just in case
you were wondering, boom, boom, hit by
two more arrows. Full Boramir style. I
mean, they're not leaving anything to
chance.
>> You've gone full Shaun Bean, man. Sorry.
You're not coming back.
>> Never go full Shaun Bean. I mean,
especially in Westeros. So, uh, so yeah,
I I thought it was I thought it was
really well well laid out, well played
as a piece of drama. Um, per Jace
though, I mean, he kind of never really
got going.
>> As impactful deaths go, this was maybe
maybe a mid-tier.
>> It wasn't the Red Wedding. Um, but but
it did hit, I think, like it needed to.
I think the the problem is that there
are not that many characters yet in this
show who would have that impact. I don't
know if we've glombmed on to some of
them in the same way because I think you
do have a there is a difference
fundamentally between the Targaryenss
and the Starks. The Starks were
immediately a likable loving semi-normal
family. I mean, okay, yes, the first
episode has their dad teaching them how
to execute a guy, but he but he's
talking about recognizable and moral
code that we we somewhat respect. We may
not understand it completely, but we
kind of were with it. this royal family
come from a completely different world
and they are far more bizarre to us than
I think the Starks were in episode one.
>> Do you think this is the season where we
finally start to care about some of
these characters in in a sense that
their deaths would would move us more
than poor Jesus?
>> There are certainly some characters here
who I really care about in this episode.
I'm really worried for Corass. Like he's
just had a heartto-heart with his son.
he might as well have shown him a
picture of his sweetheart back home. Do
you know what I mean?
>> Yeah, it's the it's the dangerous thing
to do.
>> Yeah, it's a very dangerous thing to do
right before a battle. So, that seemed
like a really worrying thing to set up.
And I do care about Corass and not just
because I keep wanging on about how
great his wig is. I just think he's he's
an awesome character. Um I think there
are people here who have, you know, who
are clearly acting from a good place. I
think Allison, for all her ambition and
all of her manipulation, loves her kids
and is trying to do her best to, you
know, rescue at least some of her
family. And she's quite cleareyed about
the fact that some of her family are
psychos. Um, and she is willing to
sacrifice those ones if it will mean
that she can, you know, hold on to the
rest. I I think that's a really a really
interesting place to be coming from and
that's a character that you can sort of
get behind a little bit more at this
point. Maybe not in earlier seasons, but
this Allison, I think, is someone who we
can maybe recognize a little bit more.
And then I think Rene almost to a fault
is is acting from often quite a good
place, but she also has her moments of
arrogance and temper and intrigence and
everything else. So, it's an she's an
interesting one. I'm not sure how how
things are going to go for her.
>> Helen, again, thank you so much for
tackling House of the Dragons season 3
for us. Uh really enjoyed this review.
Looking forward to to reading the rest
of the reviews this season.
>> I think it's shaping up to be a good
one.
>> And thank you for watching this review.
Let us know what you think of it in the
comments. And for more TV reviews,
Dragon related and otherwise, you're
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IGN wherever you like to watch.