House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 1 confirmed a major book change, with Rhaena Targaryen replacing Nettles as the one to claim the wild dragon, Sheepstealer. In George R.R Martin’s Fire & Blood, Nettles is a 16-year-old bastard girl from Driftmark, who becomes one of the dragonseeds – like Addam of Hull, Hugh the Hammer, and Ulf the White – fighting for Rhaenyra Targaryen. She’s able to claim Sheepstealer by gaining the dragon’s trust, leaving a freshly-killed sheep out for him each morning until finally he allows her to mount him. A fearless dragonrider, she flies the creature into the Battle of the Gullet. Warning: SPOILERS ahead from this point on for House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 1.
The House of the Dragon Season 2 finale strongly suggested the show would be cutting Nettles, with Rhaena finally coming across Sheepstealer in the Vale. The season 3 premiere not only sees Rhaena claim Sheepstealer, but fly him to help at the Battle of the Gullet – or at least, that was the plan. Things go awry when she’s unable to fully control him, and he instead tries to attack Moondancer (her sister Baela’s dragon) and Vermax (Jacaerys Velaryon’s dragon), ultimately contributing to Jace and Vermax’s deaths. That doesn’t happen with Nettles in the book, and speaking with IGN, showrunner Ryan Condal has explained the change, saying:
“It just felt to us that because again, this story is told in point of view, that it felt more apt as this is a family story to where we had the opportunity to involve one of the family members in the storyline. And because Rhaena has been set up since Season 1 as the member of this family who doesn’t have a dragon and basically her sole identity is the Targaryen kid who doesn’t have a dragon, it felt like that was a character that we had already set this long runway for that it could be very satisfying for the TV audience that didn’t have an experience with the book at all to see that character claim a dragon and then in a very, I think, Game of Thrones and Westerosian kind of way, to reap the consequences of having her wish come true. It’s a very monkey’s paw kind of moment for Rhaena. She gets her great wish and it becomes her greatest nightmare.”
How Rhaena Replacing Nettles Changes House Of The Dragon’s Story
Book Spoilers Ahead!
The Rhaena/Nettles change has already had one of its biggest impacts on the story, given the death of Jacaerys. In the book, Baela is not present at the Battle of the Gullet; instead, Jace flies into action alongside Hugh (on Vermithor), Ulf (on Silverwing), Addam (on Seasmoke), and Nettles (on Sheepstealer). The dragons destroy the Triarchy fleet, and while Jace’s death does then play out with Vermax getting caught by a grappling hook and the prince being hit with arrows, there’s no historical record of one of Team Black’s dragons accidentally playing a part in that.
That plunges us into somewhat uncharted territory, because the mystery of the dragonrider who contributed to Jace’s death is obviously going to be a plot point going forward – and that could mean Rhaenyra discovering it was Daemon’s daughter, Rhaena. That adds an entire extra story to the fallout from Jace’s death, and one that could spark division within Team Black. It’ll also be fascinating to see if Baela learns of it, and how that changes things: she was betrothed to Jace, and now he’s gone, in part because of her own sister.
This will have longer-term ripple effects, too. In Fire & Blood, Daemon is eventually sent to the riverlands to hunt down Aemond Targaryen and his dragon, Vhagar, and Nettles and Sheepstealer go with him. They become extremely close, but while some sources claim that Daemon came to view her like a daughter, more salacious accounts state that they became lovers. Such rumors are fed back to Rhaenyra, who at that point has reason to distrust the dragonseeds anyway and has had an embattled reign, and this very much plays into her paranoia, with her even wanting Nettles killed.
That story isn’t going to make much sense in House of the Dragon, given Rhaenyra would have no reason to believe such talk about Daemon and his daughter (even by Targaryen standards, that would be a bit too far). It could instead simply be that Daemon protects Rhaena from her, or it might go in another direction entirely, but the ramifications from this change will be felt throughout Season 3.
New episodes of House of the Dragon Season 3 release at 9 pm ET on Sundays on HBO/HBO Max.
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