Why Isn’t Nettles in ‘House of the Dragon’? Rhaena Claims Sheepstealer Instead

Warning: Spoilers forward for the “Home of the Dragon” season three premiere and the guide “Fireplace & Blood.”

“House of the Dragon” season three opens with Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell) face-to-face with a wild dragon.

For a lot of characters, this encounter would spell their finish. Within the “Game of Thrones” universe, dragons are vicious, unstable, and do not usually take nicely to strangers — particularly a dragon like Sheepstealer, who’s spent his life remoted from people, feral and riderless.

As an alternative of struggling a fiery dying, nevertheless, Rhaena manages to bond with Sheepstealer. She climbs on his scaly again and becomes a dragonrider for the primary time in her life.

In season two, as Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) seeks new dragonriders to affix her military, Rhaena is put forth as a possible choice. In spite of everything, Rhaena’s sister, Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia), her mom, Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell), and father, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Damon), all efficiently claimed dragons of their very own (Moondancer, Vhagar, and Caraxes, respectively).

Alas, Rhaenyra says, the final time her stepdaughter tried to assert a dragon, Rhaena almost died within the try.

Rhaena’s bond with Sheepstealer will come as fairly a shock to her relations — simply because it certainly will to guide readers. In George R. R. Martin’s “Fireplace & Blood,” the unique inspiration for HBO’s “Home of the Dragon,” Sheepstealer is claimed by a mysterious character named Nettles. In the meantime, Rhaena meets a really totally different destiny.

Here is what occurs to Nettles within the guide, and the way Rhaena’s story was modified for the present.

Nettles bonds with Sheepstealer in an unconventional manner

Earlier than the Targaryen civil war generally known as the Dance of the Dragons, it was accepted knowledge in Westeros that solely trueborn Targaryens could possibly be dragonriders.

That adjustments when Rhaenyra recruits new dragonriders to strengthen her military. Within the guide, the plan is credited to her son Jacaerys (Harry Collett), the Prince of Dragonstone; he points a name for bastards with Targaryen blood, generally known as “dragonseeds,” promising riches and knighthood to anybody who claims a dragon.

Seasmoke, Vermithor, and Silverwing — older dragons who’d beforehand been claimed by different riders — bond with Addam of Hull, Hugh Hammer, and Ulf the White, respectively.

Sheepstealer, considered one of three wild dragons residing on Dragonstone, poses a better problem. The “vicious, ill-tempered beast” kills many hopefuls and burns many extra, together with Addam’s brother, Alyn, although he survives.

{The teenager} Nettles, described as “crafty and chronic,” takes an unconventional method. Realizing that Sheepstealer has a style for mutton, she kills a contemporary sheep every morning and delivers it to the wild dragon, “till Sheepstealer realized to just accept and anticipate her.”

It is unclear whether or not Nettles has any Targaryen ancestry, since she’s “a bastard of unsure beginning” who grew up on the streets of Spicetown and Hull. Whoever she is, she turns into Sheepstealer’s first and final rider.

Within the guide, Nettles allies with Rhaenyra and types a detailed relationship with Daemon

Shortly after claiming Sheepstealer, Nettles pledges her dragon to Rhaenyra and fights for the longer term queen within the Battle of the Gullet, alongside Jacaerys and the opposite dragonseeds.

Whereas Ulf and Hugh appear to benefit from the bloodshed and relish their newfound energy, Nettles doesn’t.

“She had flown with the others, fought as bravely, burned and killed as that they had, however her face was black with smoke and streaked with tears when she returned to Dragonstone,” the guide reads.

The dragonriders assist Rhaenyra seize the Iron Throne from her half-brother. Later, Queen Rhaenyra sends her husband Daemon to search out and kill her different half-brother, Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell). Rhaenyra additionally sends Nettles to affix Daemon’s mission. Since Aemond’s dragon Vhagar is the largest and fiercest on the earth, they are going to most definitely want each Caraxes and Sheepstealer to convey her down.

Utilizing Maidenpool as their base, Daemon and Nettles spend months searching Aemond to no avail. Throughout this time, the 2 develop unusually shut. The fictional historians in “Fireplace & Blood” speculate that Daemon and Nettles fell in love; the maester of Maidenpool says that they had dinner collectively each night time, and Daemon “doted upon the brown lady as a person may dote upon his daughter.” (Curiously, the character who replaces Nettles within the present is actually Daemon’s daughter.)

Earlier than lengthy, Rhaenyra is betrayed by Ulf and Hugh. Regardless of pledging fealty to the queen, it appears the dragonseeds haven’t any loyalty towards Rhaenyra — solely ambition for themselves.

Shaken and paranoid, Rhaenyra sends phrase to Maidenpool that Nettles has been judged responsible of treason and have to be executed. As an alternative of capturing the lady, nevertheless, Maidenpool’s maester reveals Daemon the letter.

The subsequent morning, Daemon helps Nettles escape on Sheepstealer, and so they share a sorrowful goodbye: “Her cheeks have been stained with tears,” the maester says. After she flies away, neither Nettles nor Sheepstealer is ever seen once more.

As an alternative of returning to Dragonstone, as Rhaenyra requested in her letter, Daemon flies to Harrenhal. He tells the Lord of Maidenpool, “If my nephew Aemond dares face me, he shall discover me there, alone.”

Rhaena would not declare a dragon within the guide till a lot later

Within the present, Rhaena is tasked with escorting Rhaenyra’s three youngest sons to the Vale and defending them from the battle. She can also be entrusted with three dragon eggs. Rhaenyra tells her stepdaughter, “Ought to all come to destroy right here, you’ll bear our hope for the longer term.”

Nonetheless, Rhaena is harm by the task. She is aware of that she’s seen as much less priceless to her household as a result of she’s not a dragonrider. As an alternative of escorting Rhaenyra’s sons to their second secure location, she runs away and seeks Sheepstealer as a substitute.

Within the guide, nevertheless, Rhaena’s path to turning into a dragonrider performs out otherwise. Though she remains to be determined for a dragon, her personal having died as a hatchling, she is dedicated to her cost. The guide says she “prayed nightly” for one of many eggs to hatch.

Rhaena stays within the Vale all through the battle, even after Rhaenyra’s son Joffrey returns to his mom’s facet. Finally, Rhaenyra is compelled to flee King’s Touchdown, and King Aegon II emerges from hiding to retake the Iron Throne.

Nonetheless, the battle doesn’t finish. Girl Jeyne Arryn assembles a military to march on King’s Touchdown from the Vale, and Rhaena joins them — firepower in hand. One among her eggs had lastly hatched, and Rhaena named the dragon Morning.

Eammon Jacobs contributed to a earlier model of this story.