Image via HBO
Published Jun 23, 2026, 11:06 PM EDT
Julio is a Senior Author for Collider. He studied History and International Relations at university, but found his calling in cultural journalism. When he isn't writing, Julio also teaches English at a nearby school. He has lived in São Paulo most of his life, where he covers CCXP and other big events. Having loved movies, music, and TV from an early age, he prides himself in knowing every minute detail about the things he loves. When he is older, he dreams of owning a movie theater in a small countryside town.
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Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1.
When it comes to Game of Thrones, everyone loves a good dragon battle, but, as much of this as there is in the House of the Dragon Season 3 premiere, it's actually Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), the Sea Snake, who steals the show. During the Battle of the Gullet, he has a personal confrontation against Captain Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn) of the Triarchy, including some of the best naval battle scenes in recent pop culture. The thing is, we once had the prospect of seeing many more such battles and adventures, as HBO once announced the development of the Sea Snake's own series, 9 Voyages. Now, House of the Dragon proves how massive a mistake it might be to not see that series released.
HBO Once Had a Live-Action Project About the Sea Snake’s Adventures Before ‘House of the Dragon’
Between May 2019 and August 2022, fans of A Song of Ice and Fire didn't have much to watch on TV, but that doesn't mean things weren't happening. In March 2021, for example, HBO announced the development of three spin-off shows, including 9 Voyages. It would follow Lord Corlys' adventures as he sails around the world in his epic voyages. This is one of the most important parts in the character's story, when he collects most of House Velaryon's treasures and earns the Sea Snake title, and something fans have long wanted to see.
Collider Exclusive · Game of Thrones Personality Quiz Which Game of Thrones House Do You Belong To? Stark · Lannister · Targaryen · Baratheon · Tyrell
Five great houses. Five completely different answers to the same question: how do you hold power in a world that will take it from you the moment you stop paying attention? Eight questions will determine where your loyalties — and your nature — truly lie.
🐺Stark
🦁Lannister
🐉Targaryen
🦌Baratheon
🌹Tyrell
FIND YOUR HOUSE →
01
Someone powerful is acting dishonourably and everyone knows it. What do you do? In Westeros, the answer to this question has ended more than one great house.
ACall it out, openly and on the record. If honour means anything, it has to mean something when it's costly. BUse it. Information about someone else's dishonour is leverage — and leverage is power. CAct decisively to correct it — with or without the approval of those around me. DChallenge them directly. Strength settles disputes more honestly than courtroom manoeuvring. ENavigate carefully — build alliances, apply quiet pressure, and create a situation where the right outcome becomes inevitable.
NEXT QUESTION →
02
What is the source of your power? Every house endures because of something. What is it for yours?
AThe loyalty of people who trust me — earned over generations, not bought with gold. BWealth, intelligence, and the willingness to use both without sentiment. CA legacy so fearsome and a vision so total that opposition becomes unthinkable. DPhysical strength, military force, and the respect that comes from being the kind of person nobody wants to fight. ECharm, connection, and the ability to make powerful people feel that my success is also theirs.
NEXT QUESTION →
03
Who do you truly fight for? Strip away the banners and the words. The honest answer tells you everything.
AMy family and my people — those who depend on me and have kept faith with me through everything. BMy family — the ones who share my blood, even when they exhaust me, even when they disappoint me. CMy cause — a vision larger than any single person, including me. DMyself, and those few who've proven themselves worth fighting beside. EMy house — its name, its future, the position I intend to leave it in when I'm gone.
NEXT QUESTION →
04
How do you deal with your enemies? A house's method reveals its character as clearly as its words ever could.
AHonestly — I face them directly, and I give quarter when it's warranted. BThoroughly — I don't leave loose ends, and I don't make the same enemy twice. CDecisively — fire answers questions that diplomacy only delays. DHead-on — I'd rather meet a threat on the battlefield than behind closed doors. EElegantly — I prefer to make former enemies into allies, or at least into people who owe me something.
NEXT QUESTION →
05
What kind of ruler do you believe in? Westeros is full of answers to this question. Most of them end badly.
AA just one — someone who serves the realm rather than using it, who leads by example rather than fear. BA capable one — someone smart enough to navigate the game, ruthless enough to win it, and realistic about what winning costs. CA transformative one — someone who doesn't just rule what exists but reshapes what's possible. DA strong one — someone whose authority is beyond question because the alternative is obviously worse. EA wise one — someone who understands that the realm is fed by more than armies, and that a full stomach keeps more peace than a sharp sword.
NEXT QUESTION →
06
You suffer a devastating loss. How does your house respond? How a house handles defeat tells you more about it than how it handles victory.
AWe grieve, properly and together — and then we endure, because endurance is what we do. BWe adapt. We reassess. And we ensure that whoever caused this loss comes to regret it completely. CWe burn hotter. Setbacks don't soften us — they clarify what needs to happen next. DWe hit back. Grief and revenge are the same motion in our house. EWe regroup quietly, rebuild our position, and return when we're ready — on our terms, not theirs.
NEXT QUESTION →
07
Which of these truths about Westeros do you most believe? Every house has a philosophy. This is yours.
AThe lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Nothing matters more than the people you protect. BA Lannister always pays their debts — in gold or in kind. Reputation is built on consistency. CI am the blood of the dragon. Some destinies are written before the person who carries them is born. DOurs is the fury. When we move, we move completely — and we don't stop until it's done. EGrowing strong means knowing when to bloom and when to wait. Patience is its own kind of power.
NEXT QUESTION →
08
The Iron Throne is within reach. What do you do? The answer reveals not just your ambition — but your character.
AClaim it only if the realm needs me to — and rule in a way that makes it worth having. BEnsure someone who owes us sits in it. The power behind the throne is safer than the throne itself. CTake it. It was always meant to be mine — I feel that in my bones and in my blood. DSeize it — with both hands, without hesitation. Opportunity in Westeros does not wait to be asked. EPosition my house to be indispensable to whoever sits there — influence outlasts any single reign.
REVEAL MY HOUSE →
The Maester Has Spoken Your House Is…
Your answers point to the great house whose words, values, and way of surviving in Westeros match your own. Bend the knee — or don't. That's very much up to you.
🐺 House Stark
Winter is Coming — and you have always known it. You prepare not out of fear but out of duty, because the people who depend on you deserve someone who takes the long view.
- You lead with honour even when it costs you, because you understand that a reputation built on integrity is the only one worth having.
- Your loyalty to family and people runs deep — not as sentiment but as a code that doesn't bend when things get difficult.
- The North endures because Starks endure — not by being the cleverest players in the game, but by being the kind of people others are willing to follow into the cold.
- You are that kind of person. The pack survives. The lone wolf dies. You already know which one you are.
🦁 House Lannister
You understand the game — its rules, its exceptions, and exactly when the rules become the exception. You play it without illusions and without apology.
- You are sharper than most people realise, and you have learned to use that gap to your advantage.
- A Lannister always pays their debts — and you always keep your word, because your word is an instrument of power, and instruments must be kept in working order.
- You love your family with a ferocity that sometimes blinds you, and you know it, and you do it anyway.
- The lion doesn't concern itself with the opinion of sheep. Neither, in the end, do you.
🐉 House Targaryen
You carry a sense of destiny that is difficult to explain and impossible to ignore — the feeling that you are not simply participating in the world but meant to reshape it.
- You are capable of extraordinary things, and you know it, and that knowledge is both your greatest strength and your most dangerous quality.
- Fire and blood are not just words to you — they are a philosophy about what change requires and what it costs.
- The Targaryens at their best were transformative rulers who broke chains and defied the limits of what anyone thought possible.
- At your best, so are you. The dragon has three heads. You are one of them.
🦌 House Baratheon
You are a force — direct, powerful, and difficult to ignore when you enter a room or a conflict. You do not negotiate with challenges. You meet them.
- Ours is the fury — and yours is a kind of intensity that commands attention, respect, and occasionally fear from those who underestimate what's behind it.
- You value strength and straight dealing. You'd rather know where you stand in a fight than navigate a web of courtly whispers.
- The Baratheons built their house on the back of one of the greatest military victories in Westerosi history — and then struggled with what came after.
- The lesson of your house is that winning is not the end of the story. Governing is. You are learning that too.
🌹 House Tyrell
You understand that power does not always announce itself — that sometimes it arrives with flowers, good wine, and a smile that doesn't quite reach the eyes.
- Growing strong is your house's motto, and you live it: patiently, strategically, always investing in the relationships and resources that will matter most when it counts.
- You are charming by choice and calculating by nature — a combination that makes you one of the most effective players in any room you enter.
- The Tyrells fed King's Landing and shaped its politics without ever sitting on the Iron Throne — and they were arguably more powerful for it.
- You know that the person who controls the food controls the kingdom. And you always know where the food is.
↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ
At the time, it was announced that 9 Voyages was being developed by Bruno Heller, creator of another HBO epic series, Rome. It felt like a no-brainer, given the very nature and scale of Corlys' story before settling down in Driftmark, but the project lost momentum to the point where it seemed like it was about to get cancelled entirely. Now, following the most recent news, the series has been pivoted to an animated format and is now called The Sea Snake, with Genndy Tartakovsky at the helm. However, it is still in development, so let's hope it eventually sets sail for real.
Corlys Velaryon’s Voyages Are Teased Multiple Times in the ‘House of the Dragon’
Corlys' confrontation with Lohar is nothing short of epic, and it really does steal the spotlight from the dragons on many occasions. His leading her into the narrows for an ambush is easily one of the highlights of the episode, a chase sequence unlike any other in Game of Thrones television so far. There are other moments, however, that tease the Sea Snake's glorious past as a warrior and explorer — he wields a Dothraki arrakh in battle, drinks wine from Ib with Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim), and Lohar mentions he has been killing her mates for 20 years.
In total, Corlys is said to have made nine voyages as the captain of his flagship, the Sea Snake, going to the furthest corners of the known world and, in many cases, becoming the first Westerosi to ever do it. Although his feats were later recorded by Maester Mathis in his book, The Nine Voyages, there aren't many details about the trips themselves, making them perfect for a series to explore. What is known is where he went: Yi Ti, Leng, Asshai, the Shivering Sea to the north, Qarth, and much more. Before that, he had already been to most of the Free Cities, Ib, and even Hardhome beyond the Wall.
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It was during this period that Corlys multiplied the wealth of House Velaryon and turned it into one of the richest in Westeros. On his ninth and final voyage to Qarth, he returned to Driftmark with ships filled with gold, silk, and spices, and even attempted to bring elephants. He then built High Tide and filled it with the treasures from his voyages, and that's why seeing it burn under Lohar's orders hurts him so much. The scene in the Narrows is only a fraction of what Corlys truly is as a captain and sailor, which begs the question: just how good was he in his prime? That's what we want answered.
‘The Sea Snake’ Is Currently Being Developed as an Animated Show, but It Deserves the Spotlight
Image via Ollie Upton/HBOIn January, HBO chief Casey Bloys confirmed that The Sea Snake is being developed as an animated series, not live-action, contrary to what was believed. It would make this the first-ever Game of Thrones animated show, which is exciting for the franchise, but, given the treatment the industry tends to give animated projects, it's also a little concerning. They usually aren't among most studios' priorities, and, when a project is pivoted to animation, it's frequently a bad sign, as if executives have lost faith in it.
Hopefully, though, Corlys' incredible scenes in the third season premiere of House of the Dragon are enough to convince HBO executives not only to keep The Sea Snake in active development but also to make it a priority. It wouldn't just be about delivering similar naval sequences every episode, but about fleshing out the history of one of Westeros' most interesting characters. His relationship with Alyn, for example, feels very reminiscent of the naval action classic Master and Commander, as does the way he commands his ship.
An animated series really sounds great, an opportunity to develop a new visual language for Game of Thrones and bring the Sea Snake's stories to life in a unique way. He encounters creatures that are infinitely stranger and, some, even more dangerous than dragons, which might work better in animation rather than live-action. Recently, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms proved the franchise can greatly benefit from different tones and fresh approaches, so something like a Master and Commander in Westeros would be perfect for Corlys and the fans of this massive franchise.
House of the Dragon is available to stream on HBO Max. New episodes air weekly on Sunday nights.
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