House of the Dragon has been building to a giant confrontation. While Aegon, Aemond, Alicent, and the Greens have been trying to plan an attack on Rhaenyra, Daemon, and the Blacks, one of their biggest hurdles is right at home. A sea blockade by Corlys Velaryon’s ships has cut off King’s Landing’s food supplies, prompting the smallfolk to get rowdy.
This was brought to a head in Season 2 Episode 6, when a shipment of food courtesy of Rhaenyra turned the people against the Iron Throne. Now, in the final two episodes, this supply line issue will build into one of the biggest battles of this entire conflict — and not everyone will survive it. Spoilers ahead.
As we heard in Season 2 Episode 6, Aemond has reinstated his grandfather Otto Hightower as Hand of the King. One of Otto’s main goals this season has been to break the blockade, but the Greens don’t have much of an armada, so they plan to contact the Triarchy — the cities of Myr, Lys, and Tyrosh — and enlist their help in defeating Corlys’ fleet.
It all leads to the Battle of the Gullet, where Jacaerys and Corlys, backed by the Dragonriders recruited by Rhaenyra, will face off against the Triarchy’s fleet and Admiral Sharako Lohar. Unlike the Food Riot, victory falls squarely to the Greens: the blockade is destroyed, and a third of Corlys’ fleet is sunk.
Worst still for the Blacks, Jace rides his dragon Vermax into the heat of battle but is slain by a flurry of arrows. We’ve seen Jace recover from his brother’s demise and become a right-hand man to his mother throughout Season 2, but unless House of the Dragon rewrites Martin’s work, his story comes to an end here.
The Battle of the Gullet won’t happen exactly the way it happens in Martin’s book — Sharako Lohar has been genderswapped, and the dragonrider Nettles will probably be replaced with Rhaenyra’s stepdaughter Rhaena — but the broad strokes will be similar, which will undoubtedly make this a huge turning point for the entire Dance of Dragons.
There’s no better place to leave off this season. The Battle of the Gullet resets the balance between the two sides while deepening the bad blood. Daemon started Season 2 by demanding a son for a son, and there’s no telling what he’ll do in Season 3 to get even for the second son.
