The show's deviation from the source material comes amid strain between author George R. R. Martin and showrunner Ryan Condal
Credit: Theo Whiteman/HBO
Warning: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon's season 3 premiere, now streaming on HBO Max.
NEED TO KNOW
- House of the Dragon season 3 premiered on Sunday, June 21
- The episode saw Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) bond with the wild dragon Sheepstealer, which marked a departure from George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, the book on which the TV show is based
- Game of Thrones author Martin previously said his relationship with House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal is “abysmal” due to creative differences
The season 3 premiere of House of the Dragon seems to have confirmed that Nettles will not appear onscreen.
In the Sunday, June 21 episode, Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) bonded to a wild dragon, which she named Sheepstealer, then rode the dragon into the Battle of the Gullet — which, in a tragic turn, is what led to Jace's heartbreaking death at the end of the episode.
In George R. R. Martin's Fire & Blood — the book on which House of the Dragon is based — the dragon Sheepstealer is bonded to Nettles, who won the wild animal over after bringing it sheep. She is also, notably, the only canonically Black character in the 2018 novel and the only female character to ride a dragon, outside of the direct Targaryen lineage.
Nettles also develops a close relationship with Daemon in the book, and it's hinted that they become lovers, which results in her ending up on Rhaenyra's hit list, and she disappears from Westeros.
Credit: Theo Whiteman/HBO
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Rhaena bonding to Sheepstealer in the season 3 premiere has many fans convinced that Nettles will not appear in the TV show, and there are mixed reactions. "This show despises and humiliates Rhaena so much and they took out the incredible character that was Nettles just to humiliate Rhaena," one fan wrote in a post on X after the episode dropped on Sunday.
Another fan wrote that not having Nettles included in the adaptation "sucks," and another fan said: "Removing Nettles was one of the biggest mistakes House of the Dragon made."
"A poor girl with no name, no power, no silver hair, who claimed a wild dragon and became a legend. Nothing will ever convince me that cutting her improved the story," the post continued.
The HBO series' departures from Martin's book have led to a falling out between the author and the showrunner, Ryan Condal. When season 2 premiered in 2024, Martin published a lengthy blog post, which he later deleted, detailing "everything that's gone wrong" in the HBO prequel series.
"There are larger and more toxic butterflies to come, if HOUSE OF THE DRAGON goes ahead with some of the changes being contemplated for seasons 3 and 4," Martin wrote in the post.
In response, Condal told Entertainment Weekly that he "made every effort to include George in the adaptation process" and "we really enjoyed a mutually fruitful, I thought, really strong collaboration for a long time."
"But at some point, as we got deeper down the road, he just became unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues at hand in a reasonable way," Condal said at the time. "At the end of the day, I just have to keep marching not only the writing process forward, but also the practical parts of the process forward for the sake of the crew, the cast, and for HBO, because that's my job."
Condal said Martin was "heavily influential on me coming up as a writer" and told the outlet he "can only hope that George and I can rediscover that harmony someday."
Credit: Courtesy of HBO
In January, Martin, 77, told The Hollywood Reporter that his relationship with Condal is "worse than rocky, it's abysmal," as he detailed where things went wrong.
“I hired Ryan. I thought Ryan and I were partners. And we were all through the first season. I would read early drafts of the scripts. I would give notes. He would change some things. It was working really well — I thought."
“Then we got into season 2, and he basically stopped listening to me," Martin said. "I would give notes, and nothing would happen. Sometimes he would explain why he wasn’t doing it. Other times, he would tell me, ‘Oh, okay, yeah, I’ll think about that.’ It got worse and worse, and I began to get more and more annoyed."
New episodes of House of the Dragon drop Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.
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