Seasmoke’s New Rider Introduces a New Targaryen Problem in ‘House of the Dragon’

Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Season 2 Episode 7 of House of the Dragon.

It’s always nice to see the little guy winning once in a while, and that’s what Addam of Hull’s (Clinton Liberty) story in House of the Dragon Season 2 is all about. He is literally chased by Seasmoke, a dragon that chose him to be its new rider, and, because of that, is all of a sudden elevated to heights a bastard-born commoner would never dream of reaching. When Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) gets wind of this, she is livid. Who is this man who claimed a Targaryen out of the blue? But Addam immediately bends the knee to her. Still, despite his sworn allegiance, a change in a key aspect of his character may represent a far bigger problem for all of House Targaryen in the future, and Rhaenyra should be worried about it.

House of the Dragon

The reign of House Targaryen begins with this prequel to the popular HBO series Game of Thrones. Based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon is set nearly 200 years before Game of Thrones, telling the story of the Targaryen civil war with King Viserys.

Release Date

August 21, 2022

Creator

Ryan J. Condal, George R.R. Martin

Main Genre

Drama

Seasons

4

Distributor

HBO

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Addam of Hull Being Corlys Velaryon’s Bastard Son Changes Everything About Him

It’s impossible to faithfully adapt everything from a book onto the screen, and House of the Dragon is no different when it comes to George R.R. Martin‘s original book, Fire & Blood. Some creative decisions often have to be made about translating the story into a different medium, and, here, one of those was Addam of Hull’s parentage. In House of the Dragon, he and his older brother, Alyn (Abubakar Salim), are revealed to be bastard sons of Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint). In Fire & Blood, however, the two brothers are bastard children of Ser Laenor Velaryon (John Macmillan), and, therefore, Corlys’ grandchildren, not sons.

While there are many reasons for this change, what’s more important about it is what it says about Addam. In Episode 7, “The Red Sowing,” Corlys explains to Alyn that House Velaryon also comes from Old Valyria, just like House Targaryen, but that, unlike the royal house, they have never been dragonlords. Corlys’ children, Laenor and Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell), were only dragonriders because of the Targaryen blood they carry from their mother, Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best).

In Fire & Blood, both Addam and Alyn of Hull are considered dragonseeds for being Laenor’s bastard children and, therefore, having a small amount of Targaryen blood, whereas, in House of the Dragon, they are not even part of the conversation. No one understands why Seasmoke would choose Addam as a rider, because, in the series, Addam has no Targaryen blood at all. Perhaps Addam reminds Seasmoke of Laenor, and that’s why the dragon went after him. This is the most plausible theory, but it still means a huge paradigm change in dragonriding, since it was an exclusive trait of House Targaryen.

Addam Claiming Seasmoke Is a Direct Challenge to Targaryen Exceptionalism

The fact that Targaryens are the only house able to ride dragons is a big part of what makes them special. Dragons are unique animals in the world of Game of Thrones, and are usually perceived as gods by the smallfolk. They fly, they breathe fire, and they can change the course of any battle. Taming beasts like these takes a sort of bravery that ordinary people simply don’t have, right? So Targaryens aren’t like ordinary people — they are exceptional. That’s where the Targaryen Doctrine of Exceptionalism comes from, and a lot more has been added to this idea over the years.

During the reign of King Jaehaerys (Michael Carter), the fact that Targaryens usually marry brothers and sisters started to become an issue among the smallfolk. Jaehaerys is known to have made a series of reforms to improve the Realm and consolidate the power of House Targaryen, and addressing their incestuous relationships was important, too, especially after the reign of King Maegor the Cruel. So Jaehaerys and Septons Oswyck and Barth came up with the Doctrine of Exceptionalism, according to which Targaryens are closer to gods than to ordinary people. They are the only people in the world who can ride dragons since the Doom of Valyria, and their Valyrian heritage is unique compared to literally every other house in Westeros. If the gods made them that way, who is to judge them? That’s why an exception has to be made for them, for the need to keep their lineage pure in the eyes of the gods.

The Doctrine of Exceptionalism is one of House Targaryen’s most interesting cheats. It was initially conceived with the purpose of addressing incestuous marriages, but, ultimately, having “the blood of the dragon” became an excuse for everything bad that any Targaryen did, including many atrocities committed both before and after the doctrine was created. If dragons themselves are perceived as gods, it would make sense in the eyes of the smallfolk that Targaryens could ride them because of their special “godlike” connection, and that’s what Jaehaerys and the Faith of the Seven bet on when creating the doctrine.

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Challenging Targaryen Exceptionalism May Have Disastrous Implications in the Future

One of the most interesting things that House of the Dragon Season 2 has done is to slowly deconstruct the myth of Targaryen exceptionalism. In “Regent,” for example, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) parades the severed head of the dragon Meleys around King’s Landing. He thought it would be a show of power for the Greens and a warning to the smallfolk not to sign with Rhaenyra, but, instead, what people got from it is that dragons can actually be killed like any other animal. Now, the message that Addam of Hull claiming Seasmoke sends is that dragonriding isn’t exclusive to Targaryens either.

Addam is not a Targaryen and is also not highborn. The fact that a commoner with no Targaryen blood at all could change how the smallfolk see dragons and Targaryens themselves, since, now, there is really nothing special about them. Dragons have been proven to be just regular animals who respect strength and determination, and have their own preferences as to who they allow to ride them ‚ and, as it turns out, it’s not about blood. In Fire & Blood, this change in how ordinary people perceive dragons has disastrous implications further in the Dance of Dragons, and House of the Dragon is bound to go the same way eventually. Of course, Addam is a darling who immediately bends the knee to Rhaenyra, arguing that it was the gods who decided on what he would become — Seasmoke being a god, in this context.

But there are other commoners who have claimed dragons, too. Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) and Ulf the White (Tom Bennett) have already challenged some aspects of the Doctrine of Exceptionalism by not being trueborn Targaryens and people who lived on the lower streets of King’s Landing. They have already broken barriers imposed on the smallfolk, making even Rhaenyra’s son, Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett), angrily question his own place as her heir and bastard son with Harwin Strong (Ryan Corr). Meanwhile, Addam is a bastard, a lowborn, and doesn’t have a drop of “the blood of the dragon” in his veins. Book readers might be able to point to the fact that Corlys and the Velaryons have Targaryen blood in them, but for the smallfolk, it simply proves that Targaryens are just people and th dragons, as Hugh says, are just meat.

Season 2 of House of the Dragon is streaming on Max.

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