The Blacks could turn the tide of war after suffering heavy losses. Here’s what they have cooking.

Warning: This article contains spoilers from House of the Dragon season 2, episode 5.

In terms of sheer dragon math, the Blacks of House of the Dragon are taking heavy hits.

Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) lost her son Lucerys (Elliot Grihault) and his drake Arrax in the sky chase above Storm’s End. She less tragically lost her husband, Prince Daemon (Matt Smith), who threw a tantrum and took his dragon Caraxes to take over Harrenhal and lay his own plans to steal the crown from his wife. In the biggest blow to her numbers yet, she then lost her chief counsel Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best) and her mount Meleys at the Battle of Rook’s Rest. Rhaenyra is in desperate need of allies, especially ones who can stand against Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and his steed Vhagar, the largest dragon in the world.

But as her eldest son, Jacaerys (Harry Collett), remarks on this week’s episode of season 2, they have “no dearth of dragons.” The island of Dragonstone, the ancestral seat of House Targaryen in Westeros, is teaming with dragons — many of them wild and untamed, and some of them the surviving companions of long-dead Targaryens.

Prince Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett) and Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) on ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2.THEO WHITEMAN/HBO

Jace mentions Vermithor and Silverwing, specifically. The former is the same dragon Daemon coaxed from his lair in the season 1 finale who was previously ridden by King Jaehaerys (Michael Carter), the ruler prior to Viserys (Paddy Considine). The latter was the dragon of Queen Alysanne, Jaehaerys’ wife. However, viewers also saw a wayward dragon roaming the skies around Dragonstone; Mysaria (Sonoyo Mizuno) remarks to Rhaenyra how Seasmoke, the dragon of the queen’s former husband, Ser Laenor Velaryon (John MacMillan), feels lonely.

The Blacks possess far more dragons than the Greens. They just don’t have riders. As Rhaenyra says, the histories of Old Valyria state not just anyone can ride one of these winged behemoths. “A dragon will only accept a dragon lord to ride it,” she says, but who knows how true that really is. “There are those of our line who never ruled, those who married into other noble houses, their children born with other names,” her son tells her. Luckily for them, Rhaenyra is sitting in the castle of Dragonstone, which houses historical documents that track the Targaryen line and those who fell out of it. “There could be schools of them,” Jace foreshadows.

Rhaenyra and Jace’s plan on House of the Dragon all goes back to something a certain character mentioned earlier in the season: dragonseeds. Here’s a quick breakdown of what this all means.

What are dragonseeds?

Tom Bennett as Ulf on ‘House of the Dragon’.OLLIE UPTON/HBO

Dragonseed is a phrase first uttered on the show by Ulf, played by Tom Bennett, in season 2, episode 3, “The Burning Mill.” “A dragonseed must watch his own neck when he has no white-cloaked guardsmen to do it for him,” Ulf tells the men around his table at the brothel that King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) crashes.

A simplification of dragonseeds is that they are Targaryen bastards. Though Targaryens typically favor incest, often wedding brother to sister and cousin to cousin, it became common for the men to bed the smallfolk. Think of it like the medieval act of prima nocta; Targaryen lords and kings would first sleep with a select number of their female subjects on their wedding nights.

George R.R. Martin’s book Fire and Blood tells us that the act of “first night” became greatly resented throughout the Seven Kingdoms and was eventually quelled, beginning with the reign of King Jaehaerys, but it’s a different matter on Dragonstone, where Targaryens are seen as closer to gods than men because of their connection to dragons. Many times the women selected by the Targaryen royals were envied and the resulting offspring were said to be “born of dragonseed.”

Ulf himself made grand declarations in that brothel bar in episode 3. He claimed to be the son of Jaehaerys’ son Baelon Targaryen, a.k.a. Baelon the Brave, which would make him the bastard half-brother to Daemon and the late Viserys. Conveniently, his claims are hard to fact check.

Warning: Book spoiler analysis below

It’s always a safe bet that these seemingly random characters in season 2 who get screen time, like Ulf, will become important later on. According to Fire and Blood, most of these folks are dragonseeds. Rhaenyra needs dragonriders, dragons need Targaryens, dragonseeds are bastard Targaryens… there you go!

Besides Ulf, who are the other crucial dragonseeds? You can probably guess based on which characters have been getting more screen time than others, but a big clue already came in the season 2 trailers. A specific scene shows Rhaenyra, wearing her father’s crown, seated at a banquet table with five individuals, all of whom make up her future court of dragonriders for Team Black.

Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) holds court on ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2. MAX

To her right is her son and heir, Jace, who rides Vermax. To her left is her stepdaughter, Lady Baela (Bethany Antonia), who rides Moondancer. (She confidently tells her father, Steve Toussaint’s Corlys in this week’s episode, “I am blood and fire.”) Ulf seemingly sits directly opposite Rhaenyra at the end of the table, while the two other chairs appear to be occupied by Hugh (Kieran Bew), the struggling blacksmith who’s been making dragon-killing Scorpion launchers for the Greens without pay, all while his daughter remains sick at home; and Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty), a shipwright for the Velaryon fleet and the brother of Alyn of Hull (Abubakar Salim). Prior to her death, Rhaenys ominously told Corlys that she knows who Alyn really is, heavily implying that Alyn and Addam are bastards of the Lord of Driftmark.

“I mean to fight this war…and win it,” Rhaenyra tells this court in the trailers.

In addition to riders for Vermithor, Silverwing, and Seasmoke, there are three other main dragons residing on Dragonstone that are listed in Fire and Blood, though all of them are wild and have never before been ridden by man. One is nicknamed the Cannibal, which earned the moniker by feasting on the carcasses of dead dragons. All who dared tame him became the drake’s next meal. Another, Grey Ghost, was so elusive that no one could seem to find him. The third was Sheepstealer, who was eventually tamed and mounted by a dragonseed named Nettles, a homeless teen girl who strategically fed Sheepstealer a sheep a day until he got comfortable around her.

Phoebe Campbell as Rhaena Targaryen speaks with Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen on ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2.THEO WHITEMAN/HBO

The rub is that Nettles is the only dragonseed from the book who has not been mentioned in any capacity on House of the Dragon thus far. Has she been completely left out of the show’s narrative, similar to Sara Snow of Winterfell? Or, because the way the character is written within Fire and Blood‘s often unreliable narration, will the true Nettles be revealed on the series? Have we secretly already met her?

One working theory among the fandom is that Lady Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) could be getting Nettles’ storyline. Rhaenyra sent Rhaena away to look after her youngest children in the aftermath of the Cargyll twin fiasco, but Baela’s sister once again emerges in this week’s episode with Lady Jeyne Arryn (Amanda Collin) at the Eyrie in the Vale. Rhaenyra even shakes off Jace’s suggestion that Rhaena could mount one of their riderless dragons, alluding to how her stepdaughter nearly died the last time she tried.

Only three more episodes remain for House of the Dragon season 2. Let’s hope the dragon math works out in Rhaenyra’s favor.