This post contains spoilers from the Season 3 premiere of “House of the Dragon.” Please proceed accordingly.
Goodnight, sweet prince.
The Season 3 premiere of “House of the Dragon” ended with a major death: Prince Jacaerys “Jace” Velaryon went to that throne room in the sky after his dragon, Vermax, was felled during the Battle of the Gullet.
To add insult to grievous injury, Jace’s own relative, Rhaena, was involved in his downfall. After forming a tenuous bond with the wild dragon, Sheepstealer, Daemon’s younger daughter quickly rode the beast to King’s Landing to do what she could to help #TeamBlack win the Battle of the Gullet. But the chaos of the fight, combined with Rhaena’s inexperience and Sheepstealer’s independence, meant things quickly went south. The dragon didn’t listen to her commands, and instead rained fire down indiscriminately on the ships in the harbor.
Eventually, Jace and Vermax were close enough to tangle — but when Jace realized who was riding the mystery dragon, he pulled his beast away from the fight. Unfortunately, that diversion sent the prince directly into range of a weighted Triarchy spear, which dragged Vermax down into the water with Jace on his back. Though Jace survived the fall into the ocean, he was killed when several Triarchy arrows lodged themselves in his neck moments after surfacing. (Read the Season 3 premiere recap here.)
Given how things turned out, when I chatted with series star Harry Collett, who plays Jace, I wondered if he thought Rhaenyra’s son might’ve second-guessed his decision to lock his mother in her room — literally — and fly into the fight against her wishes.
“No,” he answered without hesitation. “I think he’s been waiting, like, two seasons for this whole moment.”
In separate interviews, TVLine talked with Collett and co-star Phoebe Campbell, who plays Rhaena. Read on to hear what they had to say about that doozy of a season-opener.
Rhaena ‘has the belief that she can do it’
TVLINE | Harry, at what point, from the time Jace decides he’s going to put Rhaenyra in her room to when he’s cascading into the ocean on the back of his injured dragon, do you think he’s like, “This might not have been my best choice ever?”
HARRY COLLETT | No, I think he’s been waiting, like, two seasons for this whole moment. He’s finally having the opportunity to go out and win the war and prove to his mother that he is her rightful heir. I don’t think he’s going to let anybody get in his way to do that. I think death was the last thing on his mind.
In the scene, when he hangs onto that last piece of wood right before he gets hit, I don’t even think he was thinking of death then. He was always looking for a way out. He was just full of adrenaline. And then, obviously, when that first arrow hits, then that’s probably when it settled in. But yeah, I don’t think it was in his mind. I wouldn’t like to think so, no.
TVLINE | Phoebe, what would you say is Rhaena’s biggest fear as she climbs on Sheepstealer’s back?
PHOEBE CAMPBELL | Biggest fear? That dragon. [Laughs] That probably is the answer, right? She’s made it this far, so there’s only one option, which is to continue. She can’t decide, “No, I’m not going to do this, I’m scared.” She’s already left her brothers. She had one job, she sacked it off. [Laughs] So I think her biggest fear is the dawning moment of, like, “Oh no, I’ve done this to myself.” But also, she has the belief that she can do it. She does.
TVLINE | And she does it! That’s the thing.
CAMPBELL | She does it. She does it badly. [Laughs] Bless her.
‘This is actually beyond worst-case scenario’
TVLINE | Rhaena has this idea of, “I’m going to ride to the battle and help,” which is sweet, but as we see, incredibly misguided. Talk to me about her mindset as she gets there and can’t even tell who’s who and what’s what.
CAMPBELL | I think, in her brain, it’s going to be this huge impact moment. The sea is going to part. Everyone’s going to go, “Ahhh, Rhaena!” When she starts getting closer and realizes she’s on a beast and she has no control whatsoever, It’s not even that she can’t see what’s happening — oh, she can — it’s that Sheepstealer can’t see what’s happening. It’s that moment when she’s like, “Ah, this is actually beyond worst-case scenario.” And she’s just stuck. She can’t stop it, she can’t get off. If she gets off, she’ll die. The stakes are so high, but she is so out of her power.
Obviously, the most heart-wrenching moment for her is when she sees Baela. That’s a real thing of, like, I think she doubts all of her life choices in that moment. [Laughs] I think she regrets everything.
TVLINE | Harry, how much would you say that the choices Jace makes at the end of Season 2 and beginning of Season 3 are informed by his feelings about how people perceive him in the Targaryen/Velaryon power structure?
COLLETT | Interesting. Because the whole thing is that Aegon and his team are a threat to what makes me powerful in my eyes: my dragon, and hopefully the crown in the future.
So I think for Jace, if that’s a threat, he’s going to be more determined than ever. Because it’ll always be in the back of his mind that he’s a bastard. I do think that a lot of it is down to that. But I think mostly it is because his mother is blatantly falling into traps in front of his eyes, and he’s like, “I’ve had the piss taken out of me all my life, I cannot let it keep happening. I’m gonna do something about it.”
What did you think of everything surrounding Jacaerys’ death? Let us know in the comments!
