House of the Dragon season 3 episode 1 ending explained: How that big death differs from Fire and Blood

In many ways, the Battle of the Gullet is when the Dance of Dragons shifts from a civil war into a full-on tragedy. Sure, there have been plenty of deaths already in House of the Dragon, like that of young Prince Lucerys Velaryon, who was killed by Aemond Targaryen and Vhagar. That incident fully ignited the war. The season 3 premiere of House of the Dragon however, opens with one of the biggest battles in Game of Thrones history — and it includes one of the franchise’s more heartbreaking deaths.

Spoilers for House of the Dragon’s season 3 premiere follow.

House of theDragonseason 3's big death, explained

What’s interesting about House of the Dragon, more broadly speaking, is that, unlike the original Game of Thrones series, it’s not adapting a novel. The source material, Fire & Blood, is a fictional historical analysis written by the scholar Archmaester Gyldayn. He’s essentially an unreliable narrator, an old historian who collects various primary sources — many of which conflict with each other — to describe a version of history as he sees it.

The challenge of HBO’s House of the Dragon series is to take those conflicting historical accounts and turn them into a single, cohesive narrative. Like Game of Thrones before it, the story deviates from the source material in many ways, some small, and others more significant. When it comes to the Battle of the Gullet depicted in June 21’s season premiere, things become so much more tragic when you look at how the show depicted the death of Prince Jacaerys “Jace” Velaryon. Because the specifics are kind of a mystery in the source material even if all the broad strokes lead to the same conclusion.

Image: HBO

Archmaester Gyldayn wrote Fire & Blood shortly before the events depicted in Game of Thrones, roughly 170 years after the Dance of Dragons. He cobbles together the historical record from the first-hand accounts of survivors of the battle and what previous historians wrote. The conflicting nature of these accounts confirms what we all know having watched it on-screen: the Battle of the Gullet was intensely chaotic.

Here’s what it does say: Jace attacked the Triarchy fleet atop Vermax. At some point, they flew too low, and the dragon was wounded. They may have crashed into or near a burning ship. Jace might have survived the crash, but was soon struck and killed by crossbowmen. Nobody really knows the specifics. His body was never recovered.

Because the show depicts these actions on-screen, things get a lot more personal. After locking his mother in her room at Dragonstone, Jace flew out to battle with his cousin-stepsister-betrothed Baela Targaryen and her dragon Moondancer. Almost immediately upon seeing the dragons enter the battle, the Triarchy’s naval commander, Sharako Lohar, calls for her crew to bring out the grapnel scorpion weapon. She fires a massive bolt attached to a long rope with an anchor at the end — and connects with Vermax on the first shot.

Baela is quick to intervene, severing the rope with Moondancer’s wing. After this incident, the two appear to be much more careful, flying high above the battle to avoid getting hit. Meanwhile, however, Baela’s younger sister Rhaena is having a rough time taming the feral dragon Sheepstealer. Upon returning to Dragonstone with her new dragon, Rhaena sees the battle in the distance and flies over to help. When her wild dragon begins indiscriminately burning ships on both sides of the battle, Baela moves to attack the mysterious rider. Sheepstealer, however, is much larger than Moondancer, so Jace flies over to help. Rhaena wails at Sheepstealer to stop, but the dragon continues its rampage. In the commotion, Vermax is flying too low while avoiding Sheepstealer and takes a large bolt to the abdomen.

Baela is unable to get close enough to help them as Vermax sinks into the Gullet. Jace successfully unfastens his harness, but as soon as he clings to a piece of driftwood on the surface of the water, he’s shot multiple times by crossbow bolts and dies.

It’s a heartbreaking and frustrating death for a young prince who had proven to be one of Team Black’s strongest and most capable leaders. Had he survived and won the war, Jace could have made an exceptional king one day. Fire & Blood presents his death as just another part of a chaotic battle gone wrong, but House of the Dragon adds so much personal turmoil layered over it by changing several key details.

How House of the Dragon changes Fire & Blood

Sheepstealer is potentially a powerful asset, but so far he's just been a major liability.

Image: HBO

For starters, in the book, it is a lowborn teenager named Nettles who tames Sheepstealer and participates in the battle. Rhaena doesn’t get a dragon until a hatchling named Morning is born sometime later. House of the Dragon also sidelines the three dragonseeds — Addam of Hull, Hugh Hammer, and Ulf White — for pretty much the entire battle as they wait to ambush Aemond Targaryen, expecting he will head to Harrenhal. Archmaester Gyldayn’s account indicates that five dragons participated in the battle, and we’re led to believe that it’s Jace and those four lowborn riders.

Fire & Blood presents Jace’s death as the result of a tactical error in the midst of a chaotic naval battle, yet House of the Dragon’s version is anything but. That early hit from Sharako Lohar’s grapnel made Jace more careful throughout the rest of the battle. Had Rhaena not shown up with Sheepstealer and wreaked havoc, he never would have descended low enough for Vermax to take another hit. In his final moments, he wasn’t fighting for glory. He was trying to help Baela and Rhaena.

It’s easy to imagine that, moving forward in House of the Dragon season 3, Team Black isn’t going to forget the real reason why Jace died in this battle. It wasn’t because things were chaotic and he acted foolishly. It’s because Rhaena brought an untamed dragon to the biggest and most important battle thus far in the war — and things turned out disastrously as a result.