The following article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 1, “Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood.”
At long last, the Dance of the Dragons has finally arrived. It was a large disappointment when the largely anticipated and bloodiest battle thus far was removed from House of the Dragon Season 2. The Season 3 premiere delivers on that front, perhaps a little too well. “Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood” features another devastating blow to Rhaenyra Targaryen’s (Emma D’Arcy) legacy with the demise of her eldest son and Crown Prince, Jacaerys (Harry Collett).
Book readers were awaiting this loss, but it wasn’t without a twist. In typical House of the Dragon fashion, the HBO series radically changes the Targaryen history laid out in Fire & Blood. Rhaenyra’s son makes his final flight on the back of Vermax, only to be taken down by a grappling hook. While in the water, Jace receives several arrows until one finds purchase in his neck. This is more or less in line with the events of the book, except for one crucial detail that made the Battle of the Gullet even more horrifying.
Sheepstealer Turns the Tide In ‘House of the Dragon’
This civil war isn’t called the Dance of the Dragons for nothing, and that even includes dragonriders who are not in line for the throne. Rhaenyra starts a campaign to find dragonseeds, people from the local peasantry who may have Targaryen blood, so they can master the biggest dragons. In the book, one of these dragonseeds is Nettles, a common girl of no known origin who impressively takes the most curmudgeonly dragon of all, Sheepstealer.
Collider Exclusive · Game of Thrones Personality Quiz
Which Game of Thrones House Do You Belong To?
Stark · Lannister · Targaryen · Baratheon · Tyrell Five great houses. Five completely different answers to the same question: how do you hold power in a world that will take it from you the moment you stop paying attention? Eight questions will determine where your loyalties — and your nature — truly lie.
🐺Stark
🦁Lannister
🐉Targaryen
🦌Baratheon
🌹Tyrell
FIND YOUR HOUSE →
01
Someone powerful is acting dishonourably and everyone knows it. What do you do?
In Westeros, the answer to this question has ended more than one great house.
ACall it out, openly and on the record. If honour means anything, it has to mean something when it’s costly.
BUse it. Information about someone else’s dishonour is leverage — and leverage is power.
CAct decisively to correct it — with or without the approval of those around me.
DChallenge them directly. Strength settles disputes more honestly than courtroom manoeuvring.
ENavigate carefully — build alliances, apply quiet pressure, and create a situation where the right outcome becomes inevitable.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
What is the source of your power?
Every house endures because of something. What is it for yours?
AThe loyalty of people who trust me — earned over generations, not bought with gold.
BWealth, intelligence, and the willingness to use both without sentiment.
CA legacy so fearsome and a vision so total that opposition becomes unthinkable.
DPhysical strength, military force, and the respect that comes from being the kind of person nobody wants to fight.
ECharm, connection, and the ability to make powerful people feel that my success is also theirs.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
Who do you truly fight for?
Strip away the banners and the words. The honest answer tells you everything.
AMy family and my people — those who depend on me and have kept faith with me through everything.
BMy family — the ones who share my blood, even when they exhaust me, even when they disappoint me.
CMy cause — a vision larger than any single person, including me.
DMyself, and those few who’ve proven themselves worth fighting beside.
EMy house — its name, its future, the position I intend to leave it in when I’m gone.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
How do you deal with your enemies?
A house’s method reveals its character as clearly as its words ever could.
AHonestly — I face them directly, and I give quarter when it’s warranted.
BThoroughly — I don’t leave loose ends, and I don’t make the same enemy twice.
CDecisively — fire answers questions that diplomacy only delays.
DHead-on — I’d rather meet a threat on the battlefield than behind closed doors.
EElegantly — I prefer to make former enemies into allies, or at least into people who owe me something.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
What kind of ruler do you believe in?
Westeros is full of answers to this question. Most of them end badly.
AA just one — someone who serves the realm rather than using it, who leads by example rather than fear.
BA capable one — someone smart enough to navigate the game, ruthless enough to win it, and realistic about what winning costs.
CA transformative one — someone who doesn’t just rule what exists but reshapes what’s possible.
DA strong one — someone whose authority is beyond question because the alternative is obviously worse.
EA wise one — someone who understands that the realm is fed by more than armies, and that a full stomach keeps more peace than a sharp sword.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
You suffer a devastating loss. How does your house respond?
How a house handles defeat tells you more about it than how it handles victory.
AWe grieve, properly and together — and then we endure, because endurance is what we do.
BWe adapt. We reassess. And we ensure that whoever caused this loss comes to regret it completely.
CWe burn hotter. Setbacks don’t soften us — they clarify what needs to happen next.
DWe hit back. Grief and revenge are the same motion in our house.
EWe regroup quietly, rebuild our position, and return when we’re ready — on our terms, not theirs.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Which of these truths about Westeros do you most believe?
Every house has a philosophy. This is yours.
AThe lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Nothing matters more than the people you protect.
BA Lannister always pays their debts — in gold or in kind. Reputation is built on consistency.
CI am the blood of the dragon. Some destinies are written before the person who carries them is born.
DOurs is the fury. When we move, we move completely — and we don’t stop until it’s done.
EGrowing strong means knowing when to bloom and when to wait. Patience is its own kind of power.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
The Iron Throne is within reach. What do you do?
The answer reveals not just your ambition — but your character.
AClaim it only if the realm needs me to — and rule in a way that makes it worth having.
BEnsure someone who owes us sits in it. The power behind the throne is safer than the throne itself.
CTake it. It was always meant to be mine — I feel that in my bones and in my blood.
DSeize it — with both hands, without hesitation. Opportunity in Westeros does not wait to be asked.
EPosition my house to be indispensable to whoever sits there — influence outlasts any single reign.
REVEAL MY HOUSE →
The Maester Has Spoken
Your House Is…Your answers point to the great house whose words, values, and way of surviving in Westeros match your own. Bend the knee — or don’t. That’s very much up to you.
Winterfell · The North
🐺 House StarkWinter is Coming — and you have always known it. You prepare not out of fear but out of duty, because the people who depend on you deserve someone who takes the long view.
You lead with honour even when it costs you, because you understand that a reputation built on integrity is the only one worth having.
Your loyalty to family and people runs deep — not as sentiment but as a code that doesn’t bend when things get difficult.
The North endures because Starks endure — not by being the cleverest players in the game, but by being the kind of people others are willing to follow into the cold.
You are that kind of person. The pack survives. The lone wolf dies. You already know which one you are.
Casterly Rock · The Westerlands
🦁 House LannisterYou understand the game — its rules, its exceptions, and exactly when the rules become the exception. You play it without illusions and without apology.
You are sharper than most people realise, and you have learned to use that gap to your advantage.
A Lannister always pays their debts — and you always keep your word, because your word is an instrument of power, and instruments must be kept in working order.
You love your family with a ferocity that sometimes blinds you, and you know it, and you do it anyway.
The lion doesn’t concern itself with the opinion of sheep. Neither, in the end, do you.
Dragonstone · The Iron Throne
🐉 House TargaryenYou carry a sense of destiny that is difficult to explain and impossible to ignore — the feeling that you are not simply participating in the world but meant to reshape it.
You are capable of extraordinary things, and you know it, and that knowledge is both your greatest strength and your most dangerous quality.
Fire and blood are not just words to you — they are a philosophy about what change requires and what it costs.
The Targaryens at their best were transformative rulers who broke chains and defied the limits of what anyone thought possible.
At your best, so are you. The dragon has three heads. You are one of them.
Storm’s End · The Stormlands
🦌 House BaratheonYou are a force — direct, powerful, and difficult to ignore when you enter a room or a conflict. You do not negotiate with challenges. You meet them.
Ours is the fury — and yours is a kind of intensity that commands attention, respect, and occasionally fear from those who underestimate what’s behind it.
You value strength and straight dealing. You’d rather know where you stand in a fight than navigate a web of courtly whispers.
The Baratheons built their house on the back of one of the greatest military victories in Westerosi history — and then struggled with what came after.
The lesson of your house is that winning is not the end of the story. Governing is. You are learning that too.
Highgarden · The Reach
🌹 House TyrellYou understand that power does not always announce itself — that sometimes it arrives with flowers, good wine, and a smile that doesn’t quite reach the eyes.
Growing strong is your house’s motto, and you live it: patiently, strategically, always investing in the relationships and resources that will matter most when it counts.
You are charming by choice and calculating by nature — a combination that makes you one of the most effective players in any room you enter.
The Tyrells fed King’s Landing and shaped its politics without ever sitting on the Iron Throne — and they were arguably more powerful for it.
You know that the person who controls the food controls the kingdom. And you always know where the food is.
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House of the Dragon replaces Nettles with Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell), who had yet to claim a dragon. The moment of celebration ends quickly after Rhaena claims Sheepstealer and, in a naive attempt to help, rides him untrained into battle. Unlike her sister Baela’s (Bethany Antonia) dragon, Moondancer, and Vermax, who had bonded to their riders since they were hatched, Sheepstealer is not a warrior dragon. Incredibly wild, he turns the tide of the Battle of the Gullet in a direction no one wants.
Sheepstealer attacks all ships, no matter what their banner, and when Vermax and Moondancer descend to combat the rogue dragon, he defends himself. The mutton-loving dragon undoubtedly alters the course of events of the battle. His distraction allowed the bolt that brings Vermax down and puts Jace in dangerous waters (literally). Rhaena’s lack of control over Sheepstealer proves to be a less noble death for Jace, who dies to save his brothers in the book. Without Sheepstealer entering the fray, it is likely the prince would have survived. This is something that did not go unnoticed by Campbell, who laments her character’s decision that led to disastrous consequences.
“I think, rightly so, [Rhaena] feels dreadful, and she knows that because of her appearance into the fight, that is the reason that has caused all this, and that doesn’t pass her by,” Campbell acknowledged in a recent conversation with Collider.
It was naive to think that a freshly bonded dragon would be able to do what dragons who have years of training still struggle with. This little detail changes a scene that could have been a heroic coming together into a tragedy. Rhaena has to rein in Sheepstealer from attacking her own sister and cousin, though to no avail. This contradicts the Battle of the Gullet in the book, where five dragons enter the fight without any infighting. Budgetary constraints are always at issue when it comes to the Game of Thrones universe, but regardless of why this decision was made, the result is the same.
Sheepstealer Shows Just How the Dance of Dragons Will Get Out of Hand
House of the Dragon changes the circumstances of Jace’s death, but the fact remains that the Crown Prince was always destined to die. The fantastical war drama has already made clear just how unpredictable and dangerous dragons are with the death of Lucerys (Elliot Grihauld) at the end of Season 1. Even with a rider as accomplished as Aemond One-Eye (Ewan Mitchell), accidents still happen.
Jace’s death mirrors his brother’s because it was unjust, though ultimately unavoidable. This fact makes the death of Rhaenyra’s eldest even more painful on top of the extremely stressful scene between the three dragons. Sheepstealer’s rampant carnage could have resulted in anyone’s death, but it is eventually Jace. This tension continues up until the heartbreaking moments where Vermax fails to get into the air again, and the mere seconds fans have hope that Jace will make it out alive.
“I think it makes it 10 times more tense, as well, because you see [Jace] try to unbuckle everything,” Harry Collett said about the moment. “He’s trying to get the dragon up. It just makes people want to scream at their TVs and go, ‘Just get up!’ or whatever they’re feeling at that point in time.”
Regardless, when Jace surfaces in the sea, he is picked off by arrows. This end is a gut-punch of a first episode and hints as to where the season will go from here. Unlike the big battles that typically occur at the end of the season in Game of Thrones, Episode 1 of the season hints at the savage anger that Rhaenyra will feel at losing her firstborn.
Release Date
August 21, 2022
Network
HBO
Showrunner
George R.R. Martin
Fabien Frankel
Ser Criston Cole
