‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2 Cliffhanger: Was a Dragonseed Cut?

Social media has gone wild over a major change House of the Dragon has made from George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, but the commentary online is full of presumptions. It’s true that the show excluded one “Dragonseed” character from Season 2 and gave her story arc to another character, but there’s no reason the show couldn’t introduce her late in the game in Season 3. Read on for more details, but fair warning: there are spoilers ahead!

This change snuck up on fans in the last three episodes of the season, starting with Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell) discovering the charred remains of sheep in the Vale. Lady Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin) admits that there is a wild dragon in her kingdom frightening people and living off of the shepherds, and Rhaena resolves to track down this creature, presumably to finally claim a dragon and become a rider herself. This did not happen in Fire & Blood, but instead we hear of a low-born young woman named Nettles bonding with a wild dragon named Sheepstealer, known for its penchant for stealing livestock. In the book, this happens on Dragonstone, not in the Vale, which seems to be the most important part for Martin.

Fans have been concerned about this change for months since the casting announcements did not mention Nettles at all. Back in May, a social media leak claimed that Rhaena would be claiming Sheepstealer this season, and fans became extremely wary. However, the season ended on a cliffhanger with Rhaena facing down the wild dragon, nothing more. It could be that the next season will steer the story back towards book-canon and finally introduce the fan-favorite character Nettles.

Dragonseeds

The show was not subtle in introducing us to three “Dragonseeds” in the lead-up to them becoming riders. These with some amount of Targaryen ancestry, potentially giving them the ability to bond with dragons, which seems to be passed down genetically. New cast members included Abubakar Salim as Alyn of Hull and Clinton Liberty as Addam of Hull, both of whom are bastard sons of Corlys Velaryon (Steven Toussaint). It’s worth noting that House Velaryon also comes from Valyria, but unlike House Targaryen, they were never dragon-riders, so they don’t have the requisite genes. However, after years of intermarriage with Targaryens, many Velaryons became dragon-riders as well.

We also spent a lot of time with Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) and Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) before they claimed dragons, so it’s clear that Dragonseed introductions were not kept subtle or withheld for a surprise. In the months before the premiere, fans celebrated when they saw the names of these characters appearing in the cast list, but when several announcements and trailers passed by without any sign of Nettles, fans began to fear she would not be included in the show at all.

It’s worth noting that in Martin’s book, the only reason Rhaenyra’s side is able to raise up dDagonseeds is that they have access to all the riderless dragons on the island of Dragonstone. The books make it clear that all the dragons stay close to that volcanic island unless commanded otherwise by their riders. To have a wild dragon stalking the Vale not only breaks Nettles’ story, it contradicts our general understanding of how dragons work in this world in the first place. Martin wrote about this at length in a blog post several weeks ago, when Rhaena’s story first began to take shape.

Nettles’ Story

In Martin’s book, Nettles enters the story at this time as a 16-year-old girl of mysterious origin – presumably a bastard born to a Targaryen or Velaryon father and a sex worker mother. She is described as “a small brown girl… black-haired, brown-eyed, brown-skinned, skinny, foul-mouthed, fearless… and the first and last rider of the dragon Sheepstealer.”

While other Dragonseeds approached the available dragons like domesticated animals and simply attempted to see if a magical bond spontanenously formed, Nettles was more pragmatic. She went after one of the wild dragons that had never had a rider, known by the locals as Sheepstealer. It lived in a cave on the island and subsisted off of the local herd animals – to the shepherds’ dismay. Nettles simply began approaching the cave every morning to offer the dragon a freshly slaughtered sheep. Eventually, it came to trust her, and even to expect her gifts. Finally, she was able to climb on its back.

There’s no need to spoil the rest of Nettles’ story, as her origin is the part that fans are angry to see changed. Many found it intriguing that a low-born person with no discernible Targaryen features such as silver hair or purple eyes could claim a dragon this way, and many theorized that she had no Valyrian ancestry whatsoever. They also found her perspective important to the story later on, coming from a hard life with no royal privilege or education.

Rhaena’s Story

The issue that most commenters seem to have with this change is that Rhaena is highborn while Nettles is low-born in the books, removing that aspect of the story altogether. That also means Rhaena’s role in the war going forward will go unfulfilled if she is busy riding Sheepstealer.

Rhaena and Baela (Bethany Antonia) are the twin daughters of Daemon and Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell). Both had a dragon egg placed in their cradle as infants, and Baela’s hatched into Moondancer, who grew up with her and is large enough to ride by the time war breaks out. Rhaena’s egg produced a sickly hatchling that died, leaving her heartbroken. However, in Season 1 Episode 6, Laena assures Rhaena that it’s not too late to bond with a dragon, as she bonded late in life with the oldest living dragon, Vhagar. After Laena’s death, Rhaena is furious that Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) bonded with Vhagar before she had a chance to try, and in Season 2 we saw Rhaena still yearning for a dragon of her own – especially with war on the horizon.

At this point in the book, Rhaena still longs for her own dragon and continues to sleep with an egg in her bed every night. Eventually, it hatches into the dragon Morning, who is still too young to fly into war for the rest of the story. Rhaena remains in the Vale of Arryn for the rest of the war, but her time there as a socialite is not insignificant. Morning is also an important symbol, causing some to believe Rhaenyra’s side has the more “legitimate Targaryen blood” because they are still hatching dragons.

Both Rhaena and Nettles have important moments coming up, and a single character can’t fulfill all of them. A pessimist might say this means something important will be cut from the story, but you could just as easily say that this means Nettles won’t stay off screen for long. There are many ways the character could be introduced in Season 3 and go on to play her part in the story, while Rhaena is freed to play hers.

Race

Commenters have complained that replacing Nettles with Rhaena has some unsavory connotations when it comes to race in this series. Wile Nettles is described as a person of color in the book, Rhaena is not. The Velaryon family was portrayed as Black in the TV show in an effort to increase diversity and set them apart from the Targaryens. To many fans it was a good change, especially since House Velaryon came from the multi-ethnic Valyrian empire, and still retained the silver-blonde hair and purple eyes. For others it was controversial, but mostly just because it was a change from the book.

Some fans feel that replacing Nettles with Rhaena betrays an unconscious bias, and ultimately just hurts diversity by removing one more person of color from this franchise. They argue that producers never would have thought of this replacement if Rhaena hadn’t been cast as a Black person, and that she has little in common with Nettles due to her highborn background. 

Not Too Late

It’s not at all impossible that producers held back Nettles this season to introduce her in Season 3 instead. It could be a way of setting her apart from the other Dragonseeds or delaying her entrance onto the battlefield. We can only speculate, but it’s also possible that producers felt it would be easier to depict Rhaena on a solo dragon hunt than it would have been to depict her politicking in the Vale. That would have required introducing a whole new cast of lords and nobles and somehow tying their stories into the stakes on the battlefield. It’s also possible that producers or HBO itself wanted to save Nettles in order to preserve a big surprise – those can be much harder to come by now than they were when Game of Thrones‘ infamous “Red Wedding” aired in 2013.

Whatever the reason, it’s fair to dislike how this change has impacted the story already in Season 2. Martin’s blog post made it very clear that he didn’t like the idea of a wild dragon roaming the Vale, as there are some very particularly world-building reasons for keeping his dragons close to their volcanic island and other natural habitats. Still, it’s too early to make assumptions about Season 3 or write off this adaptation altogether. Issues like this have sometimes pushed fandom discourse outside the bounds of civility, and that’s not worth it – certainly not before the story is even told.

House of the Dragon is streaming now on Max. Season 3 has been greenlit and is now in pre-production. Martin’s books are available in print, digital and audiobook formats.