Dragon House return to HBO with one from Westeros The most important battles in history.but not each The shocking moment of “Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood” involved war-related violence. As the smoke clears and the dust settles following the season three premiere, two of the show’s stars explain what it was like filming the scenes that made viewers gasp.
Probably the most pivotal moment of the episode, the one that will no doubt resonate throughout the season, is one that readers of George RR Martin’s book were already anticipating: the death of Jacaerys Velaryon, aka Jace, aka Rhaenyra’s eldest son and heir to her throne. Before meeting his end, Jace makes the decision to lock Rhaenyra in her room, preventing her from participating in the battle.
Onlookers scream at the betrayal, but Jace is convinced it’s the right decision.
“I think it all came from a very good place,” Harry Collett, who plays Jace, explained at a recent conference. Dragon House press day attended by io9 and other media. “It’s all to protect his family. So I think it was a good decision. I know he lost his life, but his mother could have lost hers.”
Jace’s dramatic death comes after his dragon becomes entangled in mid-air with an out-of-control wild dragon (ridden by his cousin, Rhaena, who is high above his head). Once in the water, Jace is hit by arrows fired from a nearby Triarchy ship. Again, if you read Fire and bloodyou knew Jace wouldn’t make it out of Gullet alive. Still, it was a moving farewell.
“They told me what would happen in the first season,” Collett explained. “So I’ve been preparing for this, and I’ll always be grateful for being on this show in the first place… I filmed all the battle stuff before, and then I quit.” Dragon HouseI went and shot a movie, came back and basically replayed all the dead parts, and my last day on set I was dead. But what a great way to do it. “It’s a really impactful episode… it’s done incredibly well, so I’m very, very happy.”
Elsewhere in the episode, tensions rose in the Red Keep as Alicent (Olivia Cooke) desperately tried to get her troublesome son, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), to remove his dragon from King’s Landing before Rhaenyra’s return. She strokes his ego and taps into his deepest fears, using every tactic in her well-honed set of manipulation tools. Finally, he declares that he will leave, but also plants a persistent Kiss on Alicent’s lips.
It crosses the line of the usual kind of affection a son might show toward his mother, and Dragon House makes sure we can see it from Alicent’s point of view. He keeps his reaction hidden from Aemond, but his eyes reflect as much revulsion as one would expect.
““Aemond is (the boy) over whom she has the least control and influence, so it is already difficult enough to get him to listen to her and pay attention to her,” Cooke explained at the conference. Dragon House press day “But the relationship changes in that instant when he kisses her, and I think she’s trying to calculate what this means (and trying) not to show any rejection on her face because that could mean his death. She’s trying to act very, very carefully. And then, ultimately, I think she’s left with, well, ‘I can only try and use this to force him to leave the castle.’ But yeah, it sure comes out of nowhere for Alicent.”
a new Dragon House The episode arrives Sunday on HBO.
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