The Westerosi Primer - A Song of Ice and Fire Podcast
Jun 24, 2026 · 31 min · 9 segments
This episode of the podcast delves into the 'House of the Dragon' Season 3 premiere, 'Salt and Sea, Fire and Blood.' The host Liz praises its solid execution but suggesting it would have been more…
So we have just a few storylines.
The bulk of the episode is about the Battle of the Gullet, which in case any of you are new listeners to this podcast, I actually discussed pretty much everything that happens during the Dance of the Dragons and the whole time period of Rhaenyra versus Aegon all the way back in season two of this podcast.
Just in case you're curious and you don't care about spoilers, head over to episode 207 and 208, which covers pretty much everything that House of the Dragon covers, although I do discuss a lot of details and events that George wrote about that may or may not be depicted in House of the Dragon, which I'm gonna get into a little more detail in just a little bit.
But anyway, so my general thoughts of the episode is that while there are a few details that I am not a big fan of, I would say overall this was a very solid episode.
It actually covered pretty significant things that George did actually write about, which again, I did discuss in particular in episode 207, which covers this part of the whole conflict.
I also wished that in reality, this episode was actually part of season two, because from a pacing perspective, this episode would've made a lot more sense as episode nine of season two versus having this be the season opener, which it's not a bad episode for a season opener.
I mean, it's very exciting, which you do want to see in a season opener, don't get me wrong.
But given how typically HBO handles the pacing and the story beats that happen across a season of any of these shows for the Ice and Fire universe, I would say this should have been an episode nine of season two.
This would've made a very incredibly dramatic episode nine, which again, if you watched Game of Thrones, presumably you have watched Game of Thrones if you're listening to this podcast, but you would know that typically the second to last episode of a season would have a very dramatic battle happening in it.
And yeah, I wouldn't honestly be surprised if originally this was intended to be an episode nine, but for various reasons it got shifted over to season three.
But at any rate, so I will get to the Battle of the Gullet towards the end of the episode.
So we have just a few storylines.
The bulk of the episode is about the Battle of the Gullet, which in case any of you are new listeners to this podcast, I actually discussed pretty much everything that happens during the Dance of the Dragons and the whole time period of Rhaenyra versus Aegon all the way back in season two of this podcast.
Just in case you're curious and you don't care about spoilers, head over to episode 207 and 208, which covers pretty much everything that House of the Dragon covers, although I do discuss a lot of details and events that George wrote about that may or may not be depicted in House of the Dragon, which I'm gonna get into a little more detail in just a little bit.
But anyway, so my general thoughts of the episode is that while there are a few details that I am not a big fan of, I would say overall this was a very solid episode.
It actually covered pretty significant things that George did actually write about, which again, I did discuss in particular in episode 207, which covers this part of the whole conflict.
I also wished that in reality, this episode was actually part of season two, because from a pacing perspective, this episode would've made a lot more sense as episode nine of season two versus having this be the season opener, which it's not a bad episode for a season opener.
I mean, it's very exciting, which you do want to see in a season opener, don't get me wrong.
But given how typically HBO handles the pacing and the story beats that happen across a season of any of these shows for the Ice and Fire universe, I would say this should have been an episode nine of season two.
This would've made a very incredibly dramatic episode nine, which again, if you watched Game of Thrones, presumably you have watched Game of Thrones if you're listening to this podcast, but you would know that typically the second to last episode of a season would have a very dramatic battle happening in it.
And yeah, I wouldn't honestly be surprised if originally this was intended to be an episode nine, but for various reasons it got shifted over to season three.
But at any rate, so I will get to the Battle of the Gullet towards the end of the episode.
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