---
title: 'House of the Dragon | Battle of the Gullet REACTION'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=4s89m3l9Zfk'
video_id: '4s89m3l9Zfk'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 777
---

# House of the Dragon | Battle of the Gullet REACTION

> Source: [House of the Dragon | Battle of the Gullet REACTION](https://youtube.com/watch?v=4s89m3l9Zfk)

## Summary

Eric Voss of New Rockstars reacts to the House of the Dragon Season 3 premiere, focusing on the Battle of the Gullet. He provides a recap of the episode’s key events, compares them to George R.R. Martin’s text, and highlights major changes in the adaptation.

### Key Points

- **Rhaena and Sheepstealer** [01:38] — Rhaena bonds with the wild dragon Sheepstealer in the Vale, though the dragon is uncontrollable.
- **Aegon II's Flight** [01:47] — Ailing King Aegon II flees King's Landing with Larys Strong, fearing Aemond will kill him. He is captured by House Staunton soldiers loyal to Rhaenyra.
- **Daemon in the Riverlands** [02:05] — Daemon, with Oscar Tully's forces, defeats Lannister troops in the Battle of the Red Fork, killing Jason Lannister.
- **Dragonseed Sidelined** [02:33] — The three Dragonseed recruits (Hugh, Ulf, Addam) are sidelined at Harrenhal, waiting for Aemond, instead of joining the Battle of the Gullet as in the book.
- **Alicent's Counsel to Aemond** [02:56] — Alicent sends a letter to Aemond, counseling him to fly to Harrenhal to draw out Daemon, a significant change from the book. Aemond kisses her, adding a disturbing family dynamic.
- **Battle of the Gullet Setup** [04:52] — The Battle of the Gullet features 90 Triarchy warships led by Sharako Lohar (played by Abigail Thorn) against Corlys Velaryon's fleet. Corlys uses his knowledge of the Dragonstone pass to trap the enemy flagship.
- **Jace's Death** [08:57] — Jace and Baela fight together on their dragons, but Jace is killed by Myroshi arrows after his dragon Vermax is brought down by a grappnel. Rhaena's wild Sheepstealer causes chaos, burning both sides.
- **Battle Conclusion** [09:30] — Addam of Hull kills Sharako Lohar. Corlys's fate is left ambiguous, but in the book he survives. The episode makes no mention of the Gay Abandon or Rhaenyra's younger sons.

### Conclusion

The episode delivers a visually stunning and emotionally charged Battle of the Gullet, with significant changes from the source material that set up future conflicts and character arcs.

## Transcript

Oh man, his beach road is going to save
his ass.
Oh, nice. That is awesome. Get yourself
a wife whose dragon will save your
dragon like this.
>> What do you weigh in that armor?
>> Oh, she promised him she would do that.
>> Oh, all the Lannisters are going down.
>> The Rains of Castamere.
>> No, no, no.
Wrong ships, wrong ships.
>> Oh, damn.
>> [laughter]
>> [ __ ]
It's the Sheep Stealer's fault. Oh, it
got him in the lung. Oh, no, no, no.
>> Jace.
>> Oh, she knows what she did.
Oh, it's so sad.
What a great episode. Holy [ __ ]
Woo, I'm Eric Voss of the New Rockstars
channel and this is a reaction to House
of the Dragon the season 3 premiere. In
this video, I'm just going to give my
quick snapshot and review of this
episode and an explanation of how the
Battle of the Gullet plays out
differently in this show than it did in
George R.R. Martin's text. Tomorrow on
this channel will be our in-depth
scene-by-scene breakdown and analysis of
this episode. Any spoilers in the book
as to the future of these characters
will be in the spoiler dungeon, so don't
worry. And if you haven't seen the
episode, why did you watch this?
Spoilers for this episode to follow.
Please stop watching if you haven't seen
the episode yet on HBO. Okay, let's
recap this episode. In the season 3
premiere, Rhaena, sister to Baela and
daughter to Daemon, ends up bonding,
sort of, with the wild dragon Sheep
Stealer in the Vale. And ailing King
Aegon the Second has fled King's Landing
with Lord Larys Strong, worried that the
King Regent Aemond One-Eye will kill his
sick brother. They They getting captured
by soldiers from House Staunton from
Rook's Rest, sworn to Rhaenyra and the
Blacks. Rhaenyra meanwhile still
encouraged by Alicent's promise to
surrender King's Landing without
bloodshed and Rhaenyra plans to move in.
Daemon finishes off Lannister troops
with Oscar Tully's forces in the
Riverlands. I assume this is the Battle
of the Red Fork because it ends with
Jason Lannister, Tyland's twin brother,
dead at the hands of the Winter Wolves
from the North sent by Cregan Stark.
2,000 old men who do not plan to return
because they want to leave the resources
for their sons, wives, and grandkids for
the winter to come. They're led by
Rodrik Dustin. Now, while Jason
Lannister dies in the Battle of the Red
Fork in the text, Daemon Targaryen was
not present for that nor were the Winter
Wolves. That happens elsewhere. Another
difference from the text, the three
Dragonseed recruits, Hugh Hammer on
Vermithor, Ulf the White on Silverwing,
and Adam of Hull on Seasmoke are not on
Dragonstone like they are in the book
and ready to join the Battle of the
Gullet like they do in the text. They
have been sidelined here in this episode
by the Gods' Eye lake and Harrenhal
waiting for Aemond and Vhagar. But, the
Harrenhal woods which Alice Rivers
returns this season taking her goat form
and spooking the three of them. While
Ser Criston Cole and Larys Hightower are
left exposed in their march toward
Harrenhal, Alicent sends a letter that
Aemond and Vhagar will come support her
other relative, Ormund Hightower, in the
host that he leads from Oldtown with
Alicent's youngest son, Daeron, and his
blue dragon, Tessarion. James Norton's a
pretty big name and he chews the scenery
as this germaphobe snob, but out of
focus for most of the scene is his
green-dressed squire with bright red
hair. And in the text, Ormund's squire
is Daeron. So, I think this kid is meant
to be Daeron, son of Alicent, but he
really doesn't get any speaking lines in
this instead tells Aemond to fly Vhagar
to Harrenhal to draw Daemon out, warning
her son that Rhaenyra will come to
King's Landing with her dragon sooner or
later. This is a significant change from
the book where it's implied that Aemond
just decides to fly to Harrenhal without
any mention of his mother's counsel.
But, also probably the biggest change
that's going to be controversial with
viewers. He leans in for a kiss from his
mom and she lets it happen. This [ __ ]
family. Baela on Moondancer returns to
Dragonstone to report the arrival of the
Triarchy fleet in the Gullet. Rhaenyra
plans to fly out Syrax to aid Corlys's
fleet, but her son Jace orders Ser
Lorent of the Queen's Guard to barricade
Rhaenyra in her chambers. In the book,
this does not happen. Rhaenyra decides
just not to go to the Gullet and sends
five others in her place, including all
the other dragon riders who are at
Dragonstone at that time, including Jace
on Vermax, Hugh, Ulf, and Adam on their
dragons, and Nettles on Sheepstealer.
This is after Nettles has actually spent
a lot of time working with Sheepstealer.
Sheepstealer's not the chaos monster
that it is in this episode. Meanwhile,
Baela on Moondancer is elsewhere. But,
the show rearranges things to sideline
the three dragonseed recruits and
instead pair Jace on Vermax with his
betrothed Baela on her dragon
Moondancer. And since Nettles was just
removed from the show, they give
Sheepstealer to Rhaena and have this
untamed dragon act unpredictably in the
Battle of the Gullet. The Battle of the
Gullet is a remarkable achievement of
filmmaking. I think the most impressive
naval battle I've ever seen on
television and the best looking battle
we've seen in any Game of Thrones title
since Hardhome. Yeah, I'm putting this
one above the Battle of the Bastards,
maybe just cuz I'm a navy brat. The
basic setup and results of the battle go
down mostly as they do in the text. 90
warships from the Triarchy, the combined
forces of Lys, Tyrosh, and Myr,
represented by the banner of the Three
Daughters, led by Sharako Lohar, played
by the unhinged and very entertaining
Abigail Thorn in this episode, facing
off against the naval wits of the Sea
Snake, Corlys Velaryon. But, this
25-minute battle in this episode gives
us way more context to the personalities
of the two commanders. How Sharako
rejects the more sensible strategy
suggested by Tyland Lannister to avoid
direct conflict with the Sea Snake and
the Velaryon fleet, and she chooses to
engage the Sea Snake head-on out of
bloodlust and vengeance for what Corlys,
with Daemon, has done to the Triarchy
fleet in the past. And she chooses to
raid High Tide on Driftmark to cut to
Corlys's heart. But, Corlys, knowing
that the smaller Triarchy ships are much
faster, wisely leads Sharako's flagship,
the [ __ ] Fist, amazing name, on a chase
through the Dragonstone pass, a narrow
channel that only he knows the exact
course through, including the exact
arrangement of the rocks, the exact
depth and tidal rhythm, and precise
weight of his ship and crew and cargo.
It is awesome to see how good he is at
this. In fact, he eventually takes the
helm and it's one of the coolest
displays of nautical wisdom and
experience I've ever seen. It's kind of
like Maverick in Top Gun: Maverick
showing the young bucks that the mission
can be done. And watching it, I felt
like Warlock doing that fist pump meme.
But as the tide goes out on the [ __ ]
fist, we see how Shirako has some skills
of her own doing what Corlys is not
willing to do, sacrifice her own men to
lighten the load. She warned Tyland
Lannister that his heavy armor would end
up sinking him in the drink, and she
personally delivers on that promise. So,
doing this, she's able to escape the
channel with even fewer forces in order
to engage Corlys and Allen of Hull. June
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go through anything alone. BetterHelp is
here with you. We intercut with this
with an amazing aerial feeder of this
battle. And here I really love the
adaptation change to limit the Dragon
Riders to Jace Vermithor and Jace's
betrayer Baela on Moondancer and Baela's
sister Rhaena on a weapon of mass
destruction that she cannot control. We
go from seeing future Targaryen spouses
in this healthy non-incestuous coupling.
Their dragons gracefully saving each
other to snap the scorpion-fired
grappnel chain to free the other to the
voice-breaking screams of Rhaena begging
Sheepstealer to obey as this confused
wild dragon torches both Triarchy ships
and her grandfather Corlys's beloved
fleet and then just starts clawing at
her own sister. The whole episode
smartly sets up Rhaena's shaky bonding
with Sheepstealer so that when she
eventually flies the dragon across the
Blackwater, it's kind of like watching
Lois in Mad Men get on that lawnmower.
If you know, you know. But with Rhaena
on Sheepstealer and Aemond shouting
Vhagar, no when Luke and Arrax were
killed over Storm's End, this show
definitely wants to convey how these
Valyrian blooded humans are not
magically in control of their dragons.
The [ __ ] fist rams the Sea Snake Corlys
and Sharako engage in some intense messy
swashbuckling, but as Corlys's mind is
distracted on all of its goofy pirate
treasures and high tide burning up,
Addam of Hull has to step up to command
the defense and ultimately defeat
Sharako in the blood-soaked, shattered,
flooded hull of his father's ship. This
episode leaves Corlys's fate a mystery,
but no ambiguity for Jace. Thanks to
some distractions from Sheepstealer,
another scorpion-fired grappnel hooks
Vermithor and brings the dragon down.
Jace frees himself and seems okay for a
second when he grabs some driftwood, but
nope. Myroshi archers bring him down
with arrows. This is exactly Jace's fate
in the book. Though there is some debate
over how exactly Vermithor went down,
whether it was a grappnel hook or
whether he crashed into the rigging of a
ship and just got tangled before it
died. But seeing Jace get plugged with
arrows is especially reminiscent of the
way Catelyn Stark had watch her son Robb
die in the Red Wedding. This hits
arguably just as hard. This episode
gives a conclusive ending to Sharako
Lohar and the text the Triarchy fleet
breaks rank when five of the Blacks'
dragons show up and open a fireworks
display over the Gullet. In the retreat,
only 28 of the 90 Triarchy ships return,
and 25 of those were from Leas, leading
the widows of Tyrosh and Myr to accuse
Ser Addam Velaryon of sparing his own
men and ships and letting the others
die, leading to the War of the Daughters
among the Free Cities. Another big
change in the text is the involvement of
Rhaenyra's youngest two sons, her sons
with Daemon, Aegon the Younger and
Viserys. Remember in season 2, we saw
them and Aegon's little dragon
Stormcloud and four dragon eggs leaving
the Vale for Pentos? They were headed
toward a ship called the Gay Abandon.
Rhaena was supposed to accompany them,
but she took off like a horse girl after
Sheepstealer. In the book, the Gay
Abandon's running with the Triarchy
fleet is actually the prelude to the
Battle of the Gullet with major
consequences to what's to follow. But
this episode makes no mention of the Gay
Abandon and the two younger princes.
Maybe future episodes will, I don't
know, I haven't seen them yet. So let's
end here in spoiler dungeon. If you
don't really want to know what happens
after this in the text, you can stop
watching now. So in the text, we know
that the Gay Abandon gets stopped by a
Tyroshi ship that's part of the Triarchy
fleet. Nine-year-old Aegon the Younger
barely escapes clinging to a small
dragon Stormcloud and barely makes it
back to Dragonstone. And according to
Mushroom, the poor kid has wet himself,
and this Targaryen kid will never fly a
dragon again in his life. Meanwhile, his
younger brother, young Viserys, only has
a dragon egg and becomes a captive,
though will eventually reunite with his
family after several interesting years
in the Free Cities. Still, Rhaenyra
thinks she lost two sons in this battle,
but it seems like in the show she's
going to think she just lost one, a son
she did not listen to, a son who locked
her in a room to take her place in this
battle. So we'll see how the HBO series
explains the fates of Aegon the Younger
and Viserys and why the show gave them
four eggs in that season 2 episode. I'm
thinking maybe it's one for Viserys and
then three others sold off in Pentos
that could later be given as a wedding
gift to Daenerys. So if you've read the
text, you know that Corlys does survive
the battle, but losing Driftmark, his
home, and Spicetown, Spicetown that will
never be rebuilt after it's raided and
pillaged, it's going to lead him to not
celebrate this survival and lament,
"Quote, if this be victory, I pray I
never win another." But while the three
Dragonseed recruits were sidelined from
the Gullet, this premiere episode does
have them complaining about them being
knighted instead of being given the lord
status, something that will matter a lot
when it comes to their shifting
loyalties. Though I think the show may
limit that motivation to just Ulf the
White and rather give Hugh Hammer other
reasons for flipping sides to the Greens
related to his wife who has family in
Tumbleton and will be there when that
battle goes down. House of the Dragon is
so [ __ ] back. This was the best
episode of the series thus far. Now
again, this is just my initial review
and reaction and book comparison. My
in-depth scene-by-scene breakdown is
coming to the channel tomorrow. A
special thanks to one of our In Our
Underground subscribers, Tam, for
supporting us at the executive producer
level. You can get all of our exclusive
bonus content by clicking the link in
the description below or going to
inourunderground.supercast.com.
Big thanks to studio tech Brian Kim, New
Rockstars editors Joshua Stephen Hurd
and Abby Friel, and all of our
supporting editors for their work on
this video. It's especially hard to
upload these videos the same night on
Saturday night. So big thanks to Joshua
for putting in the extra effort on this.
[music] Follow me at @eaboss. Hit that
subscribe button. Thanks for watching
and I'll see you tomorrow. Bye.
>> [music]
[music]