House of the Dragon

Photograph by Courtesy of HBO

House of the Dragon promised one of the most epic sequences in television history with the Battle of the Gullet in its season 3 premiere. Most fans seemed to think it delivered. Spoilers follow.

The expansive battle, which included hundreds of ships in naval warfare, deck-to-deck combat and dragons strafing ships like bombers, was certainly one of the largest we’ve seen from the series, echoing epic Thrones moments like Battle of the Bastards (though I’d argue, perhaps, not quite at that level). But fans agree this is one of the show’s finest moments, according to the reviews that are coming in.

As it stands, House of the Dragon season 3 episode 1, Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood, has a 9.4/10 on IMDB. That is a record that ties just one other episode in the series, season 2, episode 4, The Red Dragon and the Gold. That featured an epic dragon battle that ended with the deaths of Rhaenys and her dragon, Meleys, and the burning of Aegon and Sunfyre by Aemond, beginning his rise to power, which sees him acting as king in season 3. That was certainly a fantastic episode as well.

This season premiere, which seems pretty clearly like it should have been the season 2 finale, also features a big death. That would be Jace, whose dragon is dragged down and drowned by the pirate ships, but as he floats to the surface, he finds himself riddled with arrows as he pops up next to an enemy boat. The heir to Rhaenyra’s throne is dead after he locked her in a room so she couldn’t go in his place. And dead because of a terrible decision by Rhaena to bring her just-mounted dragon Sheepstealer to the battle, who ends up burning friendly ships and hunting her own family’s dragons, leading directly to Jace’s death. It’s a real Ash’s Charizard situation.

As for this score, the 9.4/10 may be a tie for the House of the Dragon record, but it’s still not in the all-time Thrones pantheon. There are a full 17 episodes of Game of Thrones with a 9.4 or above, including the double 9.9s of Battle of the Bastards and The Winds of Winter at the end of season 6. Those are actually two of the highest-scored episodes in IMDB history. The very short, six-episode first season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms already has two episodes at 9.5, though one, at one point, was a perfect 10 before Breaking Bad and Seven Kingdoms fans started a ratings war. Yes, seriously.

House of the Dragon season 3 has already set the overall Rotten Tomatoes record for seasons of the show, now at a 95%. Future episodes are said to potentially be even better, so we’ll see what those individual nightly scores do.

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