House Of The Dragon Season 3's Battle Of The Gullet Changes The Book In Major Ways

The night is dark and full of spoilers. This article discusses major plot details for the Season 3 premiere of "House of the Dragon."

You're not going to believe this, "Game of Thrones" fans, but a fantasy series based on George R.R. Martin's world of Westeros is once again making some big changes to the source material and it's bound to stir up debate. In fact, when it comes to "House of the Dragon," it already has — as proven by Martin himself, when he made his problems with Season 2 known to the world. We all knew more deviations were afoot, considering the trajectory of the prequel series and that pesky little butterfly effect that the fantasy author likes to talk about so much. But few of us could've anticipated just how much that Season 3 would shake things up even more, even as early as the premiere.

The Battle of the Gullet we've been waiting years to see has finally arrived, and the results are rather eyebrow-raising. Characters have met tragic ends, dragons fell from the sky, and nothing will be the same again after some seriously shocking plot turns. That applies to both casual viewers and diehards alike, both of whom couldn't have foreseen the directions that showrunner and writer Ryan Condal would take things next. Episode 1 alone took the broad strokes of the events as told in Martin's "Fire & Blood" and added many new flourishes.

Whether it be character motivations, the circumstances of the battle, or entire characters present in (and absent from) the action, "House of the Dragon" took some major liberties ... and we're going to be busy making sense of them for the next several weeks to come.

When the season begins, Team Black is preparing for their planned invasion of King's Landing, blissfully unaware of the threat sweeping down upon them in the form of the Triarchy navy. Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) is quick to leap into action — a welcome change from most fans' problems with the normally-passive queen. She appears set to ride her dragon Syrax into the thick of battle, until her son Jacaerys (Harry Collett) abruptly orders her knights to keep her locked in her room.

It's a jarring and unexpected move for the stubborn prince, but one that's nowhere to be found in "Fire & Blood." In the book, Jace has already taken command of the war campaign by this point in the story and so it stands to reason that he'd naturally be the first to enter the fray from dragonback. Instead, the show somewhat understandably opts for a push-and-pull dynamic between the Queen and her heir. That way, it (theoretically) hits harder when this directly leads to Jace's own death. Would Rhaenyra have been able to prevent catastrophe had she been able to act as she intended? We'll never know, and that only makes it all the more tragic.

It could've been even worse, however, had the episode followed the book in another aspect. Jace isn't meant to be Rhaenyra's only casualty. His younger brothers Aegon the Younger (to differentiate from Team Green's deposed King Aegon, played by Tom Glynn-Carney) and Viserys are actually caught in the middle of the conflict, as they sail for safety in Pentos. Aegon only narrowly escapes the Triarchy while Viserys is missing and presumed dead — an added gut-punch to an already-disastrous outcome.

This pales in comparison to the most sweeping changes made to the premiere of "House of the Dragon" Season 3, however. It begins as early as the opening sequence, when we witness Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell) continuing her efforts to claim the wild dragon Sheepstealer far away in the Vale. (This marks one of George R.R. Martin's biggest sticking points with Season 3, as he previously explained.) As we learn, this was meant to set up her inadvertent actions in the Battle of the Gullet when she flies Sheepstealer into the action ... only to make things worse, thanks to her unruly dragon.

This entire plot line is invented for the show, as it turns out. "Fire & Blood" introduces a young, random peasant girl named Nettles who manages to claim Sheepstealer as her own when Team Black desperately tries to recruit dragon-riders. Symbolically, her significance is meant to represent the idea that one need not be of special lineage in order to claim a dragon — a massive hit to the "Targaryen supremacy" image cultivated by the conquerors and a stark contrast to (presumed) royal bastards Hugh (played by Kieran Bew), Ulf (Tom Bennett), and Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty). Speaking of which, these latter three originally play a huge role in the Battle of the Gullet, as well. The trio all ride their dragons (alongside Nettles) and drastically sway the outcome of the battle in favor of Rhaenyra, whereas they're off on some side mission to find and kill Aemond (and his dragon Vhagar) in the show.

As diehards debate over these changes for the foreseeable future, new episodes of "House of the Dragon" air on HBO every Sunday.