House of the Dragon: Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood

“Was this not always our purpose?”

We start things off with a bang. Yet, this still feels less like a premiere, less like a “we’re back” and more like a penultimate episode or season finale. Which is apparently what it was supposed to be before last season’s budget ran out. We were left with an ending meant to feel like a cliffhanger, but it mostly felt like a huge tease after a lot of buildup.

The episode picks up at about where everyone left off. Though we skip past the big battle between Daemon and Oscar Tully’s forces and the Lannister army in order to introduce the Winter Wolves, that army of old northmen Cregan Stark promised.

I think the main touchstone of the episode is Princess Rhaena’s arduous efforts to bond with Sheepstealer, the wild dragon she found in the Vale. Her seeming inability to bond with the family dragons has been Rhaena’s main character struggle, so her irrational determination to tame this one makes some sense. She risks death in her attempts to ride the beast and when it briefly leaves her stranded on a mountaintop. I have mixed feelings about this arc for a few reasons, but overall I think I like where it’s going.

I do like the way this episode builds upon the theme of characters unwittingly escalating the tragedy. We once again see how nothing goes as planned, especially when everyone seems to be going off-script.

As expected, Rhaenyra and Alicent’s peace deal falls apart right away due to Aegon fleeing King’s Landing. This leads Aemond to stay in the capital and take the throne, delaying his attack on Harrenhal. Addam, Hugh and Ulf were meant to ambush Aemond at Harrenhal, but are convinced by Alys Rivers to leave for Dragonstone.

Speaking of Aegon, he and Larys are quickly found and interrogated by soldiers loyal to Rhaenyra, and Larys immediately gives up his king’s identity. Though, it's implied that he only does it as a strategy to negotiate their survival for the time being. And because the proud and stupid Aegon was about to blow their cover, leaving Larys no choice.

As the climatic sea battle begins, Sharako Lohar betrays Tyland Lannister and the Greens in favor going all out for revenge against Corlys Velaryon. She divides her forces to sack High Tide, and then leaves the rest of her men rudderless when Corlys draws her ship away from the battle.

When Rhaenyra decides to finally join the fighting, Jace locks her in her room and goes in her place with Baela. It’s somewhat ambiguous as to how pragmatic or selfish this decision was; yeah, he’s robbing his mother of agency and going against the queen’s will, but he wasn’t wrong about the risk she’d be taking, since Jace himself falls victim to the pirates’ anti-dragon weapons. That poor Kingsguard knight he ordered to keep her confined is probably going to lose his life for that.

Crucially, Rhaena ditched the protection detail for her younger brothers to go tame a wild dragon, then brought that dragon to the Battle of the Gullet. Even more crucially, Sheepstealer doesn’t obey Rhaena, attacking friend and foe alike, adding to the chaos. Instead of helping her family, her new dragon nearly kills her sister and contributes to the death of her cousin, Jace.

Jace’s death sequence was almost as hauntingly beautiful as it was shocking and tragic; his brother’s death was the same way. The entire Battle of the Gullet was insanely well-produced, animated and choreographed. A lot of people are citing the film Master and Commander, and it definitely felt like it was going for that level of detail.

I appreciated that this centered the action on Corlys Velaryon, reminding the audience why this guy is a big deal. Particularly good was his navigation through the narrow and rocky passages around the island of Dragonstone, attempting to trap Lohar. The battle also acts as a bit of a bonding experience for Corlys and Alyn. Early on, Alyn continues to solemnly dismiss his father's poor attempts at apology for leaving him, his brother and his mother to live in poverty. Later on, when it appears Lohar may have just killed Corlys, Alyn is enraged enough to personally fight and kill Lohar. That'll likely earn him some honors.

Corlys appears to be alive in the next episode, so it may be that the Velaryon family will grow a little stronger in the aftermath of this battle. But sadly, more relevant, is the fact that the Targaryens just got a little weaker for Team Black. Rhaenyra has lost her firstborn son and heir, and she will surely blame Rhaena (maybe Baela as well) for his death. And just when she and Daemon were starting to get along again. It's good of the show to reiterate the theme of the vaunted Targaryens not really knowing what they're doing and overestimating their ability to control their dragons, this time through Rhaena and Sheepstealer.

Blacks and Greens:

* I was looking forward to the character Nettles, the common-born girl who bonds with Sheepstealer in the source material, since the show began. Removing her eliminates some interesting character motivations and lore implications, but the way they've combined her arc with Rhaena could lead to some good drama in the show's context.

* I appreciate that Sheepstealer is another dragon with an unconventional look, like Caraxes or Vhagar. He’s not winning any beauty pageants with that pronounced, snaggletoothed underbite and vitiligo skin.

* Poor Orwyle almost got beheaded by Aemond for no reason.

* New characters: For Team Green, we meet Lord Ormund Hightower and Prince Daeron Targaryen, Alicent’s cousin and third son respectively. For Team Black, we got Tommy Flanagan as Roderick Dustin of the Winter Wolves, a fearsome army of grizzled old northmen.

* House Lannister’s every appearance has them getting disrespected in some way. This episode is especially brutal, with the destruction of the huge Lannister army at the start and Tyland and all of his men getting thrown overboard by the Triarchy pirates later. Though it’s somewhat amusing given how they were pretty much the main villains in Game of Thrones.

* Also, a couple of Tully soldiers can be seen hacking the head off of an actual lion. I guess Jason Lannister was trying to be like the Targaryens, fighting side by side with their family symbol.

* Hugh spots one of the Green Men watching him and Addam near Harrenhal, but it disappears as quickly as it was seen. I'm liking the way they're portraying these mythical figures so far. Are the ominous horned goats in the area linked to them somehow?

* Alicent manages to convince Aemond to leave King's Landing for Harrenhal. Unfortunately, she does it by appealing to his ego and need for motherly affection, earning her a very confusing and deeply unsettling kiss on the lips from her second born. They just keep doubling down on the Greens' repulsiveness, don't they?

* It pissed me off when someone struck a dragon on their first shot with a never-before-used ballista in Game of Thrones, and it pissed me off when it happened here too.

* During the Battle of the Gullet, Corlys Velaryon fights with a Dothraki arakh. Another cool detail, illustrating his worldly travels.

* Some details I noticed on rewatch: Tommy Flanagan casts a curious gaze upward during his big closeup; it’s a nice detail, his old northman character silently marveling at Daemon’s dragon. A lot of people are reading Ormund Hightower as a dastardly villain for the way he scoffs and sniffs a vial of perfume in the presence of a ragged messenger, but he does at least order the man to be given a good tent, food and a bath. Likewise, I see people reading typical sexism into Jace going against Rhaenyra, but their first scene clearly establishes that he was starting to question her judgement, which has been building since late in the second season.

Quotes:

King Aegon II: “I’m the king of nothing. With raven shit for a throne and a cripple for a protector. Oh, I’m fucking pathetic.”

Larys Strong: “He was lustrated in dragonfire by Rhaenys Targaryen and her dragon at the Battle of Rook’s Rest.”
Lustrated, huh? Even when he’s selling his king out, he does it in a flattering way.

Rhaenyra: “I have to believe that Alicent’s offer was genuine.”
Why?

Daemon Targaryen: “Caraxes would make short work of these bodies. And burnt flesh carries no plague.”
Oscar Tully: “That is not our way. Rivermen must be returned to the mud.”
I think, more than its story or characters, I enjoy this show for how well it portrays the world of this franchise.

Roderick Dustin: “We’ve come to die for the dragon queen.”
Daemon: “Very good. We’ve got more lions to hunt.”

Ser Criston Cole: “We will all become beasts before our end.”
Ser Gwayne Hightower: “… Only if we abandon our principles.”

Ulf: “What’s a knight get, then?”
Addam of Hull: “A horse.”
Ulf: “What do I need with a fucking horse? I’ve got a dragon.”
Addam: “You’d be Ser Ulf, and men would have to show you respect.”
Ulf: “Men would have to show me respect ‘cause of the big fucking dragon!”

Bold Jon Roxton: “So Aegon’s dead, then?”
Lord Ormund Hightower: “One king is as good as another.”

Queen Rhaenyra I: “I may appear to have the weak and feeble body of a woman, but I possess the heart and spirit of a king.”

Four out of five disastrous sea battles.