House Of The Dragon Season 3 Premiere Kills Off A Major Character

Contains spoilers for "House of the Dragon" Season 3 Episode 1

There used to be a joke, back in the day, about "Game of Thrones" — the massively popular HBO series based on George R.R. Martin's novel series "A Song of Ice and Fire" — and its characters. This is paraphrased, but the gist was basically "Oh, this person is your favorite character? Not anymore!" Season 3 of that show's first major spin-off and prequel, "House of the Dragon," is following in that grand tradition ... with the show's first major death of the new season. So who dies?

That would be Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett), the young prince known casually as "Jace" who's the eldest son and heir of Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy), the self-declared monach of the Black faction in the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. Rhaenyra, Jace, and the rest of the Blacks stand in opposition to the Greens, led by Rhaenyra's former childhood friend turned stepmother and sworn enemy Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke). Why? Alicent believes that Rhaenyra's father and her late husband King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) gave her the green light to put their son Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) on the Iron Throne, bypassing his actual declared heir Rhaenyra. Jace, sadly, follows in the footsteps of his younger brother Lucerys (Elliott Grihault) in the Season 1 finale and is killed in battle atop his own dragon ... at the hands of his uncle Prince Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell), Alicent's second-eldest son.

So what specifically happens to Jace during the huge Dance of the Dragons skirmish known as the Battle of the Gullet, and what can we expect from Rhaenyra after the loss of her second son?

The second worst thing about Jace's death on "House of the Dragon" is that it's actually totally avoidable ... because Jace shouldn't even be at the battle in the first place. After his mother Rhaenyra hears that ships are racing towards those of their allies — led by the Sea Snake Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) — she tries to head to the battle herself, but Jace orders servants to lock the queen into her own chambers and sets off with his cousin Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia) instead. Atop their respective dragons — Jace on Vermax and Baela on Moondancer — they fly above the fray, torching enemy ships as they go.

Vermax is shot by the Green forces fairly quickly — and to make matters worse, the spear that pierces the dragon's flesh has a rope attached to it that can bind him to the ship from whence it came — but Moondancer clips the rope, and the two escape. That's when disaster strikes ... in the form of Baela's younger sister Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell). Rhaena is riding a wild dragon, Sheepstealer, that she's feebly attempting to tame — and when Sheepstealer and Vermax tangle in mid-air, Sheepstealer grows angry and starts attacking not just Jace, but ships in the Black faction in pure rage. Distracted as he tries to fly away from Sheepstealer, Jace doesn't see another spear heading for Vermax ... and this time, Moondancer isn't there to break the rope.

The moments that follow are beyond harrowing. Vermax is dragged beneath the water and drowns, and though Jace manages to untangle himself from his saddle, he's shot by Greens and fades into the water, as Baela watches in pure horror and Rhaena leaves, devastated, on the wild Sheepstealer.

The Season 3 premiere of "House of the Dragon" ends as Jace's lifeless body vanishes into the sea, so we don't know just yet how his mother, Queen Rhaenyra, will react ... but based on how she took the death of Lucerys, the understandable answer is probably "not good." Jacaerys, Lucerys, and their younger brother Joffrey are all named Velaryon, but the truth is that Rhaenyra's first husband Laenor Velaryon (John Macmillan) preferred the company of men, so they made an arrangement to both seek pleasure where they could find it; those three boys were actually fathered by Ser Harwin Strong (Ryan Corr), who dies in a fire in Season 2.

This is all to say that the legacy left behind by Jace and Lucerys, the latter of whom went by "Luke," is complicated ... because Rhaenyra stubbornly refused to ever be honest about their parentage and simply passed them off as white-haired Velaryons (despite their decidedly brunette tresses). Not only that, but Rhaenyra is a deeply loving and loyal mother whose children mean the world to her. As Season 3 of "House of the Dragon" continues, it's reasonable to assume that Rhaenyra will feel righteously furious and vengeful over the loss of her second son in a matter of years, and that she won't want to strike the Greens as hard as possible in Jace's honor.

Season 3 of "House of the Dragon," which earned a rave review right here at Looper, airs new episodes every Sunday at 9 p.m. EST on HBO and HBO Max.