Diksha Sundriyal
HBO’s ‘House of the Dragon‘ returns for a third season, setting the stage for the war and bloodshed with its violent and shocking first episode. The second season ended with Alicent making a deal with Rhaenyra: Alicent will open the gates so the Blacks can take King’s Landing without bloodshed, and she, her daughter Helaena, and her granddaughter will remain unharmed. The third season opens in the aftermath of this deal, but certain pieces have already been put in place. The Triarchy finally shows up to battle, and this is where Jacaerys Velaryon meets his end. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Jace’s Eagerness to Join the Battle Leads to His Downfall
Since Aegon claimed Rhaenyra’s throne and incited the civil war, Jace has been eager to help his mother get back her birthright. He and Aegon and their brothers had been at each other’s throats since childhood, and Jace sees this battle as the opportunity to prove himself worthy. However, his enthusiasm for being involved in the war leads him to make decisions that ultimately don’t turn out well. First, he asks his mother to let him and Lucerys take her message to their allies. While he returns home victorious, his brother is not so lucky. He dies after Aemond loses control of Vhagar, killing Luke and his dragon.
His brother’s death makes Jace even more adamant about doing some bloodshedding of his own. But his mother’s restraint makes him increasingly frustrated. We see this throughout the second season, where he tries to serve as Rhaenyra’s counsel and push her towards making bolder decisions. He offers to ride his dragon into battle, but she holds him back. He loses his patience with his mother in Season 3 when she reveals that Alicent came to Dragonstone and made a deal. Jace warns his mother that the Greens cannot be trusted, but she has too much faith in Alicent. The fact that Rhaenyra completely ignores him infuriates him.
So, when the battle at the Gullet ensued, he decided to take things into his own hands. With the Triarchy at their gates, Rhaenyra’s first instinct was to ride into battle herself. But Jace had her locked in her room and went in her stead, joined by Baela. Initially, things went fine. Vermax was struck, but Baela’s Moondancer freed him. They succeeded in razing the Triarchy’s fleet, while the Sea Snake lured away their leader. And they likely would have won, but then the wildcards enter the picture. Rhaena, who had been dragonless all these years, finally claimed Sheepstealer.
She planned to take the dragon back to Dragonstone, but on the way, she saw the Battle of Gullet unfolding and decided to help. She didn’t stop to consider that Sheepstealer was too wild to listen to her order. While it may have warmed up to her and let her be its rider, it wasn’t going to follow all of her demands. The wise course of action would have been to take the dragon to Dragonstone, but she thought she could help, and so she rode the wild, untrained dragon straight into the heart of a battle that was on the verge of being won. Sheepstealer has no idea which side it is fighting for, so when Rhaena tells it to burn the ships, it starts burning everything.
Rhaena’s Mistake Proves Fatal For Jace
Things get worse when Sheepstealer sees the other two dragons and attacks them. It doesn’t know that they are friendlies. It hasn’t been around other dragons for a long time, so when told to attack, it attacks everything it sees. When Jace sees Baela being pursued by an unidentified dragon, he flies to help her. But then he sees that Rhaena is the rider, which means he cannot attack and must keep himself away from Sheepstealer until Rhaena takes control or it flies away on its own. Eventually, the rogue dragon and his rider leave, but by then, things have become too chaotic.
In an attempt to save himself from Rhaena’s dragon, Jace flies low towards enemy ships. They take advantage of his distracted state of mind and take another shot at Vermax. This time, the dragon is shot in the chest, which, on top of its previous injuries, slows it down to the point that it cannot keep flying anymore. Baela tries to help, but Moondancer doesn’t get the window to cut off the rope this time. Moreover, emboldened by the fall of Vermax, the Triarchy targets Moondancer as well. If Rhaena went too low, she, too, would be hit. Meanwhile, Jace succeeds in freeing himself from his dragon, which goes underwater.
For a minute, it seems he will survive, but then an arrow strikes him in the back. He turns around to realize that he is close to the enemy ships. When they saw him fall, they took their chance. Before he can even think about escaping, they send two more arrows: one hitting him on his chest and the other on his neck, killing him on the spot. Had he let his mother go, perhaps things would have turned out differently. Perhaps, Syrax would have been better able to handle the situation. Or perhaps, it would have been Rhaenyra who died. All of that, however, doesn’t matter anymore because this is where Jace’s story comes to an end.
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