Does House Of The Dragon Need Nettles?
The prequel’s most polarizing change kind of works... until it doesn’t.
When Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) fashioned a small army of dragonriders out of Targaryen bastards in House of the Dragon Season 2, one particular “Dragonseed” was missing in action. Some fans took umbrage with the absence of Nettles, a favorite from George R. R. Martin’s original book, Fire & Blood, and a crucial cog in the Dance of Dragons. At the time, showrunner Ryan Condal played coy about the chances of yet-unseen book characters making their way into the HBO series, but by the time Season 2 came to an end, it was pretty obvious that Nettles’ role had been handed off to Princess Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell).
Beyond the dubious choice to conflate one Black female character with another, it was too soon to see how Rhaena’s new story would unfold in House of the Dragon. Season 2 came to a close just as Rhaena encountered Sheepstealer, the wild dragon that Nettles tames in Fire & Blood. After two years of waiting, however, we’ve finally got a front-row seat to Condal’s plan in action... and it might hurt the series as much as it helps.
Spoilers ahead for House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 4.
What was Nettles’ role in Fire & Blood?
Nettles was proof that dragonriders didn’t need the blood of Old Valyria to claim a dragon.
Nettles was a crucial part of Fire & Blood by virtue of her common birth. Unlike Ulf the White (who apparently really was a Targaryen bastard) or Addam of Hull, the illegitimate son of Corlys Velaryon, Nettles was the only dragonseed with zero ancestral ties to the Targaryens. She claimed her dragon, Sheepstealer, simply by feeding him sheep until she gained his trust. The pair fought in the Battle of the Gullet and later joined Daemon Targaryen in the hunt for Prince Aemond. Nettles eventually grew close to Daemon, with some accounts claiming they became lovers.
Given that Nettles would have been a teenager — and the small matter of his established marriage to Rhaenyra — their bond irrevocably shattered Team Black’s resolve. Not only did it expose Rhaenyra to the same grooming tactics that Daemon once used on her, but it drove her mad with jealousy and paranoia, pushing her closer to her fate as a “Mad Queen” while also pushing Daemon to his eventual demise.
How does House of the Dragon change Nettles’ story?
There won’t be a love triangle in House of the Dragon, but Daemon could still betray Rhaenyra.
In an interview with IGN, Ryan Condal explained why it made sense for Rhaena to absorb Nettles’ role. “It felt more apt, as this is a family story… to involve one of the family members in the storyline,” the showrunner said. From the very beginning of House of the Dragon, Condal and his writers had positioned Rhaena as the lone “Targaryen kid who doesn't have a dragon.” She’s defined by her failure to claim one, even suggesting that her father Daemon (Matt Smith) thinks less of her for it.
“We had already set this long runway for that,” Condal continued, “[and] it could be very satisfying for the TV audience that didn’t have an experience with the book at all to see that character… reap the consequences of having her wish come true.”
Condal likewise didn’t seem interested in using Nettles in a contentious love triangle between Daemon and Rhaenyra. “It did not feel like, to us, an infidelity story was someplace that we wanted to go with Daemon and Rhaenyra, given everything they had been through to this point,” he told IGN. “I think the audience really wants to see this couple work out, but they both have inextricable natures to them that they can only get so far away from.”
The Nettles change makes Daemon a better dad, but is that enough?
We see Daemon’s “selfish” and rash nature rise to the surface again this season, but it’s made all the more interesting by the fact that his daughter is now the source of all this “strife.” It was because of Sheepstealer that Prince Jacaerys (Harry Collett), Rhaenyra’s firstborn son and heir, perished in the Battle of the Gullet. In Episode 4, Daemon is charged with finding the dragon and his rider and bringing them to face justice. He’s shocked when he finds Rhaena in the Vale, long hair sheared off and covered in ash. Her fall from grace is the complete inverse of Nettles’ rags-to-riches story, and it tests Daemon’s loyalties in a way long overdue for the character.
Past seasons of HotD dropped the ball when it came to Daemon and his eldest children, Rhaena and her sister Baela (Bethany Antonia). It’s hard to remember, at times, that they’re even related, given that Condal and his team never saw fit to pair them on-screen. And though they seem close with their stepmother, Rhaenyra, they’re treated less like princesses (and full-blooded Targaryens!) than ladies-in-waiting, there to care for the children that Daemon later sires with Rhaenyra. It’s a little late to see Daemon exhibit some loyalty to his firstborns, but better late than never. And we can already see how his choice to protect Rhaena will drive a wedge in his marriage. That said, is this what House of the Dragon — or Rhaena, for that matter — really needs?
Why The Nettles change works... until it doesn’t
Rhaena’s original story would have been thematically relevant.
The idea of “pairing a wild dragon with a lady of noble blood [who] then becomes somewhat feral herself” was a far more interesting thread for Condal to pull than the journey Rhaena goes on in Fire & Blood, and it’s easy to see why. In Martin’s source material, Rhaena spends the Dance of Dragons hidden away in the Vale as a ward of Lady Jeyne Arryn. She enjoyed a life fit for a princess, and it wasn’t until the very last days of the Dance that Rhaena claimed a dragon of her own. Hatched from a batch of eggs in Lady Arryn’s custody, it was the first dragon born after years of destruction and one of very few dragons remaining after the dust settled. Rhaena named it Morning, a fitting embodiment of a new beginning for the realm.
Rhaena’s role in the books is certainly subtler than most would expect from a show filled with bloody battles, but it served a purpose as important as Nettles did in Fire & Blood. Rhaena could have been to House of the Dragon what Sansa Stark was to Game of Thrones (minus the shoehorned sexual assault plot), but the writers’ need to make her “feral” leaves that potential on the table. No matter how you look at it now, her autonomy has been swapped out for a story that mostly serves a male character. It also defangs Daemon himself, a lifetime groomer who used the same playbook on Rhaenyra and Nettles alike. And again, it can’t be stressed how icky it feels to see Rhaena replace the source material’s only Black woman. She and Nettles both deserved to take up space in this adaptation, and that won’t change even with the small improvements this change might offer.
