Rhaena approached a wild dragon known as Sheepstealer in House of the Dragon's Season 2 finale, but many are wondering if she will actually bond with it.
House of the Dragon Season 2 featured many dragons (read about all of those here). Season 1 introduced some of these classic beasts, but some of them didn't make their debut until Season 2.
Most of the dragons who were unclaimed (such as Vermithor, Seasmoke, and Silverwing) finally found new riders, leaving only a couple of dragons known to roam Westeros riderless.
Does Rhaena Get a Dragon In House of the Dragon?
Warning - the rest of this article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 8.
The House of the Dragon Season 2 finale was filled with major moments, but one that may have flown under the radar was when Rhaena finally found and confronted a dragon named Sheepstealer.
In Season 2, Episode 6, Rhaena learned that a wild dragon had been roaming around the Vale. She discovered this after stumbling on an area of charred ground that was littered with burnt sheep corpses.
This dragon's name is Sheepstealer (hence all of the dead sheep), and it is one of the three wild dragons that have never been claimed in Westeros (the other two being Grey Ghost and the Cannibal).
Since Sheepstealer is wild, he has never had much interaction with humans. Therefore, he is much harder to claim, especially for someone like Rhaena who has never been successful in claiming a dragon.
Sheepstealer was only teased in Episodes 6 and 7 but finally made an on-screen appearance in the finale.
Sheepstealer's debut came at the end of the episode when Rhaena finally found him in the wild around the Vale.
When he did show up on-screen, he was lying in the grass. However, despite him being wild, Rhaena approached him, causing the beast to let out a massive roar.
Unfortunately, fans didn't get to see what happened next, so it is unclear if she actually claimed Sheepstealer or not.
However, based on Sheepstealer's role in Fire & Blood (the source material for House of the Dragon), it is safe to assume that Rhaena did claim him and that she will now replace the character who rode Sheepstealer in the book.
Who Claimed Sheepstealer in the Book?
In Fire & Blood, Sheepstealer was claimed during the Sowing of the Seeds by a young girl named Nettles. In House of the Dragon, this did not happen since Sheepstealer was not in the Dragonmont during the Sowing, and since Nettles doesn't exist (at least as of Season 2) in the show.
During the book's version of the Sowing, Sheepstealer killed more people who tried to claim him than any other dragon combined during the Sowing. That means that he killed more people than Vermithor, Seasmoke, and Silverwing.
Two notable characters who tried to claim Sheepstealer in the book were Silver Denys, who was the first character to try to claim Vermithor during the show's Sowing of the Seeds, and Alyn Hull, Corlys Velaryon's bastard son.
However, Nettles took a bit of a different approach than the rest. Instead of approaching Sheepstealer and trying to claim him by speaking High Valyrian and reaching out to him, Nettles instead brought sheep to the dragon for multiple days in a row.
After a period of time, Sheepstealer grew accustomed to her, and eventually let her mount him.
Will Rhaena Take Nettles' Character Arc in House of the Dragon?
After Nettles claimed Sheepstealer, she pledged her loyalty to Rhaenyra and fought for her on multiple occasions.
Some of the notable battles Nettles took part in were the Battle of the Gullet and the Fall of King's Landing.
Sometime after the Blacks took King's Landing, Daemon and Nettles went out to hunt Aemond and Vhagar. They stayed at Maidenpool while searching, and one of the in-universe sources who tells the tale of the Dance of the Dragons in Fire & Blood even suggested that Nettles and Daemon formed a romantic relationship.
Rhaenyra eventually named Nettles a traitor (even though she was not), causing Nettles and Sheepstealer to go into hiding.
Since Nettles does not exist in House of the Dragon, it is possible that Rhaena could replace her character arc in the show.
If Rhaena does claim Sheepstealer, and it is likely that she will, she could very well return to Dragonstone to fight for Rhaenyra.
If Rhaena does choose that path, then that could very well be one of the reasons that the Battle of the Gullet happens in the show and why Rhaenyra's children have no one to protect them on their voyage to Essos.
However, it is important to note that Rhaena likely won't end up in a relationship with Daemon, considering he is her father. Most likely, Nettles' and Rhaena's characters in the book will be combined into one for the remainder of the show.
Rhaena claiming Sheepstealer does cause one small issue with book canon, though. In Fire & Blood, Rhaena ends up claiming her own dragon, a pink-scaled beast named Morning.
Morning comes from one of the eggs that Rhaenyra sends with Rhaena to the Vale. Three of those eggs end up hatching into Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion, so it is possible that the fourth could be Morning. If so, it is entirely unclear who could claim her.
House of the Dragon is available to stream on Max.
More From House of the Dragon Finale:
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Why Is Otto In Jail: What Happened to Him In House of the Dragon Season 2 Finale, Explained
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