‘House of the Dragon’: Were Rhaenyra’s New Dragonriders Already Revealed?

[Warning: The following contains MAJOR spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 5, “Regent.”]

Rhaenyra is getting creative in her war efforts in House of the Dragon. Inspired by a conversation with son Jace (Harry Collett) in Season 2 Episode 5, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) is now exploring the possibility of finding dragonriders in Targaryen descendants. The episode’s final scene may have just made a moment from Episode 3, plus other new side characters introduced this season, make sense.

A new House of the Dragon character, Ulf, made his drunken debut in Episode 3, “The Burning Mill.” HBO announced Ulf as one of the new characters in Season 2 prior to the season’s release. Played by Tom Bennett, he made his debut in the third episode. While sitting in a brothel tavern, Ulf claimed to be the son of Baelon the Brave, a.k.a. the bastard brother of Daemon (Matt Smith) and Viserys (Paddy Considine) and bastard grandson of King Jaehaerys Targaryen. Ulf makes his chosen side in the Targaryen civil war clear when he tells the men at the brothel tavern that he’s “uncle to the one true queen, Rhaenyra Targaryen. The blood of the dragon runs through these veins and yes, men would take my head for it.”

He then calls himself a “dragonseed,” the name for bastards of Valyrian descent. If you haven’t read George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, on which House of the Dragon is based, you may think Ulf was just drunk and lying about his lineage. He doesn’t have the Targaryen-blonde hair, after all, and he was too eager to share this information that could have him killed if true. But Episode 5 may have just proved he was telling the truth.

With the tragic death of Rhaenys (Eve Best) and her dragon Meleys, Rhaenyra lost her best warriors. There are three full-grown dragons living in Dragonstone, Jace reminded her, but there aren’t enough adults or young adults present in their camp to become their riders. Jace wondered why the riders must be from their immediate family. Dragons will only accept those of Valyrian descent as their riders, and even then the dragon may still reject any suitor, but Rhaenyra agreed that finding Valyrian descendants that may have fallen through the cracks of their family history could be the solution to this problem. Desperate times call for “mad” measures, as the Targaryen queen called the idea. The House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 6 trailer implies Rhaenyra will be testing the dragonrider theory next week, but she hasn’t yet said “dragonseed” herself.

This last scene seems to have retroactively explained the importance of Ulf’s introduction. Why else would a Targaryen bastard be relevant? It doesn’t seem likely that Ulf would challenge Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) or Rhaenyra for a claim to the Iron Throne. In fact, Ulf cowered in fear when Aegon walked into the tavern after he loudly called Jace the throne’s “rightful heir.” “All hail the king!” he said in a panic as his “other nephew” walked by.

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Ulf isn’t the only bastard introduced this season. Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim) was introduced in the Season 2 premiere as one of Corlys’ (Steve Toussaint) sailors and revealed to be the Sea Snake’s bastard son in Episode 4 by Rhaenys. Alyn’s brother, the shipwright Addam (Clinton Liberty), was introduced in Episode 2, and they presumably share Corlys as a father. The Velaryon, Targaryen, and Celtigar houses are the only families of Valyrian descent still alive in Westeros (Lord Bartimos Celtigar serves on Rhaenyra’s council), so Alyn, Addam, and Ulf could possibly be discovered in Rhaenyra and Jace’s searches for possible dragonriders.

There’s another character whose purpose has yet to be revealed, but his hair alone could be signaling that he’s Valyrian. Hugh the Blacksmith, played by Kieran Bew, was first seen in the Season 2 premiere asking Aegon to pay the blacksmiths in advance for their work. He’s been seen with his wife throughout the season as they struggle to provide for their severely ill and hungry daughter. Hugh has the instantly recognizable silver-blonde hair of Valyrian houses, implying that he has either Targaryen, Velaryon, or Celtigar blood in his veins.

Vermithor and Silverwing are noted specifically by Jace as two riderless dragons living at Dragonstone. Their last riders were Daemon and Viserys’ grandparents, King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne. There’s also Seasmoke, Laenor’s (John Macmillan) dragon who returned to Dragonstone earlier this season. Seasmoke was seen flying above a beach where Addam was working, and Seasmoke was later said to be “lonely,” implying that Laenor, wherever he snuck off to after faking his death in Season 1, has died. That, or Seasmoke doesn’t know his whereabouts. Either way, Seasmoke is one of the three confirmed riderless dragons.

Ulf, Hugh, Alyn, and Addam, in theory, could all be viable options for dragonriders for these three creatures. Could these possible dragonseeds turn the tide of war in Rhaenyra’s favor?

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