Ulf the White and Hugh Hammer have joined Team Black as dragonriders. And that's not all the firepower Rhaenyra is expecting in the future.
Warning: This post contains spoilers for Episode 7 of House of the Dragon Season 2.
Rhaenyra has spent the bulk of Season 2 of House of the Dragon in desperate need of new dragonriders. Now, in the penultimate episode of the season, she’s finally got what she needs.
The addition of Ulf the White and Hugh Hammer to her dragonriding crew bolsters a growing fleet that also recently welcomed Addam of Hull. How did we get there? Let’s take a step back:
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Midway through the season, as her desperation grew after the deadly Battle of Rook’s Rest, Rhaenyra counted up the dragons on Team Black. In addition to Rhaenyra’s own Syrax, Daemon’s Caraxes, Jacaerys’ Vermax, and Baela’s Moondancer, Rhaenyra is waiting for her sons’ dragons, Joffrey’s Tyraxes and Aegon’s Stormcloud, to grow. But Rhaenyra—as the rightful queen—cannot risk dying in battle. Daemon has gone M.I.A. And none of the other dragons are nearly big enough to take on Team Green, especially with Aemond’s gigantic Vhagar in play.
Rhaenyra’s son Jacaerys suggests that they search the Kingdom for nobles with even a little Targaryen blood who might be able to mount the riderless dragons that live underneath Dragonstone. Unfortunately, the first noble to try to mount one of these dragons burned to a crisp. (RIP Ser Steffon Darklyn.)
But in Episode 6, Rhaenyra learned that a (supposedly) lowborn rider, Addam, has been seen riding Seasmoke, Laenor’s old dragon. Viewers know that Addam is the bastard son of Corlys and thus, technically, descends from Old Valyria. In a handy aside in Episode 7, Corlys tells Addam’s brother, Alyn, that their mother might have a Targaryen connection. (More on that later.)
Addam’s ability to tame Seasmoke inspires Rhaenyra’s Mistress of Whispers Mysaria to tell Rhaenyra about just how many Targaryen bastards were fathered in the brothel where Mysaria used to work. Rhaenyra sends out a call for Targaryen bastards to try to mount her two tamed but riderless dragons, Silverwing and Vermithor.
Jacaerys doesn’t take too kindly to this new plan: He is (quite obviously) a bastard himself. His father was not Rhaenrya’s husband Laenor (who was part Targaryen and part Velaryon) but the knight Ser Harwin Strong. He argues that the only thing that convinced the common folk that Jacaerys was a legitimate Targaryen was his ability to ride a dragon. Now, if Rhaenyra lets any Targaryen bastard mount a dragon, there’s a chance that any of those new riders could challenge Jacaerys’ claim to the throne.
Rhaenyra, though empathetic to her heir’s plight, forges ahead with her plan as she believes adding dragons to her side will intimidate Team Green and deter them from all-out dragon war. She hopes that the conflict can end peacefully. Whether that plan is sound or not—Prince Regent Aemond isn’t exactly one to back down from a challenge—Rhaenrya does end up adding considerable fire power to her side. Plus, the show hints she could expect even more wild dragons to join her soon.
Here are all of Rhaenyra’s new dragonriders—and who might still join Team Black.
Ulf has been hanging out in the pub in King’s Landing throughout Season 2, boasting of his Targaryen parentage and vocally supporting Rhaenyra—at least, that is, when King Aegon isn’t around to overhear him. When Ulf’s friends tell him about Rhaenyra’s call for new dragonriders, he tries to make excuses not to go. He admits that he can’t know for certain that his mother’s tale about his conception—that he’s the bastard half-brother of King Viserys and Prince Daemon—is actually true. Fearing for his life, he pretends that his leg is too injured for dragon-wrangling.
Read More: Why New Targaryens Keep Popping Up on House of the Dragon
But his friends say he’ll never live down the embarrassment of avoiding this call to arms after trading on his Targaryen blood for so long. So Ulf half-heartedly joins the rest of the white-haired bastards on the boat to Dragonstone.
When Vermithor, the first dragon that Rhaenyra introduces to the crew of bastards, begins to burn everyone alive, Ulf courageously—OK, not so courageously—runs away. He stumbles further into the dragon’s caves where he encounters Silverwing. Silverwing, known to be a pretty friendly dragon as fire-breathers go, was last ridden by Alysane, the sister-wife of Jaeherys Targaryen, king before Viserys. To Ulf’s surprise, Silverwing seems to take to him.
We then see Ulf clumsily riding Silverwing over King’s Landing. (It’s lucky they didn’t get that dragon-piercing ballista working in time to stop him.) When Aemond mounts Vhagar to pursue them, Ulf and Silverwing flee to Dragonstone where Rhaenyra watches with her new dragon crew behind her. Aemond, usually not one to admit defeat, is forced to turn Vhagar around.
Another suspiciously blonde character that House of the Dragon introduced early in Season 2 was Hugh Hammer, a blacksmith who is done dirty by King Aegon II. Early in the season, Hugh points out to the king that the blacksmiths are not being compensated for working overtime to arm Aegon’s soldiers for war against Rhaenyra. Aegon promises to pay the blacksmith but, we learn later, never does.
We watch Hugh and his family struggle to find food because of Rhaenyra’s blockade on King’s Landing. They attempt to flee the city but are stopped when Prince Aemond closes the city gates. And Hugh physically fights another man for sustenance when Rhaenyra secretly sends food to the common folk of King’s Landing in order to curry their favor. We also watch as his young daughter struggles for her life and find out in Episode 7 that she has died.
Read More: Every Character Who Has Died on House of the Dragon
When Rhaenyra puts out the call for Targaryen bastards in that same episode, Hugh reveals to his wife that his mother worked in a brothel and was popular among the highborn customers because she had silver hair, implying that she herself was of Targaryen or Velaryon blood. Hugh’s father was Prince Baelon Targaryen, the father of Viserys and Daemon.
When Hugh goes to Dragonstone to try to claim a dragon, he and the rest of the aspiring riders are introduced to Vermithor, the second-largest dragon in Westeros, second only to Vhagar. He was last ridden by Jaeherys Targaryen, Viserys’ uncle who named Viserys king.
Vermithor is known as the Bronze Fury—and it turns out with good reason. He doesn’t take kindly to being introduced to new potential riders. When Vermithor decides to turn all these common folk into a crispy snack, Hugh runs away along with everyone else.
But when Vermithor is about to burn an innocent woman alive, Hugh calls to the dragon in an attempt to create a distraction. When Vermithor approaches Hugh yells, “I’m ready,” implying he’s prepared to die. The act of nobility seems to win over Vermithor, who closes his mouth and offers his face to Hugh for a caress.
The wand chooses the wizard—and, apparently, the dragon chooses his rider. Leanor Velaryon, as you may remember, faked his own death to escape from Westeros with his lover, which also freed up his wife Rhaenyra to marry Daemon. Ever since, Leanor’s dragon Seasmoke has been riderless. At one point early in Season 2, Rhaenyra tells her counselor Mysaria that Seasmoke is restless for war. “Maybe he’s lonely,” Mysaria astutely observes.
In Episode 6 of Season 2, Rhaenyra decides to try to find another rider for Seasmoke. She enlists Ser Steffon Darklyn, who has distant Targaryen relatives, to try to mount the dragon. But, sadly, Darklyn gets lit up by a hostile Seasmoke. The dragon then takes matters into his own hands, flying off to find a rider himself.
Read More: We Finally Know the Deal With Addam and Alyn of Hull on House of the Dragon
He settles—perhaps not surprisingly given his loyalty to Laenor—on Laenor’s half-brother, Addam, the bastard son of Corlys Velaryon. He hunts Addam down, at which point we cut to a scene of Rhaenyra learning that Seasmoke has a rider. At the beginning of Episode 7, the rightful queen of Westeros flies out to greet this mystery man herself. Addam tells Rhaenyra that he is low-born and doesn’t reveal that his father is Rhaenyra’s own Hand, Corlys. Rhaenyra is pleased that Addam has achieved what she had believed to be “impossible.”
It’s unclear whether Rhaenyra thought Seasmoke wouldn’t accept another rider because Laenor, as far as we know, is still alive. In the books, a dragon’s previous rider must die in order for a dragon to accept someone new. It’s possible that this is another myth spread by the Targaryens to protect their claim as the sole dragonriders in Westeros. Or the show is diverging from the books. Or Laenor died offscreen, though that seems cruel and unlikely.
Who can ride a dragon remains a mystery on the show. In the books, Addam and Alyn are the bastard sons of Laenor, not Corlys, and thus had Targaryen blood through Laenor’s mother Rhaenys. That changed in the show both because Addam and Alyn were aged up to be about Laenor’s age and because Laenor is revealed to be gay. Corlys, as far as we know, has no Targaryen blood.
During Episode 7, Corlys and Addam’s brother Alyn discuss Addam’s bloodline. Corlys points out that he is related to Velaryons who, along with the Targaryens, hail from Valyria. But the Velaryons, unlike the Targaryens, are not dragonriders. Corlys then admits he knew nothing of Addam and Alyn’s mother’s lineage. It is implied that perhaps she could have had Targaryen blood. If there was any idea in the show that random non-Targaryens can mount dragons, this discussion seems to dispel that notion.
Corlys does not explicitly ask Alyn whether he, too, would like to try to mount a dragon. But Alyn, somewhat defensively, says that his brother Addam always had higher aspirations. Alyn calls himself “of salt and sea”: He is happy to be a sailor. Sounds like he would make a great Lord of Driftmark and heir to Corlys.
Poor Rhaena has been pining after dragons ever since Season 1. She assumed she would inherit her mother’s dragon Vhagar after her mother died. But Aemond was able to claim the great beast first. Multiple characters in Season 2 allude to Rhaena trying to mount one or more dragons and nearly burning up in the process.
Since, Rhaenyra has tasked Rhaena with looking after the queen’s youngest sons during the war. But Rhaena wants to fight. The show heavily implies that Rhaena plans to go after the wild dragon who roams the Vale.
In Season 2, Episode 6, Rhaena discovers a bunch of burnt sheep bones. This is surprising given that Lady Jeyne Arryn insisted on trading her loyalty to Rhaenyra for a dragon. When Rhaena asks Jeyne about the sheep bones, Jeyne says there is indeed already a dragon in the area, but it’s wild so cannot be counted upon for protection.
Rhaena is (unsubtly) playing with dragon figurines during this conversation and gets an “I wonder” look in her eyes. In the next episode, Rhaena wanders off from her wards to check out the sheep graveyards. We can assume this wild dragon is Sheepstealer from the books and is living up to his name.
Though Rhaena hasn’t claimed Sheepstealer yet, it is likely she will soon. Then Team Black’s dragons will outnumber those on Team Green considerably.
In Season 1, Episode 10, Daemon does some dragon math with Rhaenyra, counting up how many dragons Team Green and Team Black have, and naming the free agents. Daemon mentions the wild dragon Grey Ghost, so named because he is hard to spot. The elusive dragon could, in theory, be mounted if he could ever be found. A certain character in the book does pursue Grey Ghost, so it’s possible we will at least get a glimpse of the beast on the show.
Referenced in that same Season 1 episode, the Cannibal is a wild dragon who eats dragon eggs and even newborn dragons. He’s never had a rider, and he is so fearsome that no one has been brave enough to try to claim him.
