House of Dragons S3: Stunned fans with massive twists
- By Sarah Brohi -
- Jun 22, 2026
House of the Dragon fans get wild over the plot twists it comes with. The third sequel opened with Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell) face-to-face with a wild dragon.
Many characters encountered would have predicted the conclusion. In the dragon universe, dragons are vicious, volatile, and don’t typically take well to strangers, especially a dragon like Sheepstealer, who’s spent his life isolated from humans, feral and riderless.
Instead of suffering a fiery death, however, Rhaena manages to bond with Sheepstealer. She climbs on his scaly back and becomes a dragonrider for the first time in her life.
In season two, as Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) seeks new dragonriders to join her army, Rhaena is put forth as a potential option. After all, Rhaena’s sister, Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia), her mother, Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell), and father, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Damon), all successfully claimed dragons of their own (Moondancer, Vhagar, and Caraxes, respectively). Alas, Rhaenyra says, the last time her stepdaughter tried to claim a dragon, Rhaena nearly died in the attempt.
Rhaena’s bond with Sheepstealer will come as quite a shock to her family members, just as it surely will to book readers. In George R. R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood,” the original inspiration for HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” Sheepstealer is claimed by a mysterious character named Nettles. Meanwhile, Rhaena meets a very different fate.
Before the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, it was accepted wisdom in Westeros that only trueborn Targaryens could be dragonriders.
That changes when Rhaenyra recruits new dragonriders to strengthen her army. In the book, the plan is credited to her son Jacaerys (Harry Collett), the Prince of Dragonstone; he issues a call for bastards with Targaryen blood, known as “dragonseeds,” promising riches and knighthood to anyone who claims a dragon.
Seasmoke, Vermithor, and Silverwing, older dragons who’d previously been claimed by other riders, bond with Addam of Hull, Hugh Hammer, and Ulf the White, respectively.
Sheepstealer, one of three wild dragons living on Dragonstone, poses a greater challenge. The “vicious, ill-tempered beast” kills many hopefuls and burns many more, including Addam’s brother, Alyn, though he survives.
The teenager Nettles, described as “cunning and persistent,” takes an unconventional approach. Knowing that Sheepstealer has a taste for mutton, she kills a fresh sheep each morning and delivers it to the wild dragon, “until Sheepstealer learned to accept and expect her.”
It’s unclear whether Nettles has any Targaryen ancestry, since she’s “a bastard of uncertain birth” who grew up on the streets of Spicetown and Hull. Whoever she is, she becomes Sheepstealer’s first and last rider.