Phoebe Campbell as Rhaena in "House of the Dragon."
Theo Whiteman/HBO
Warning: Spoilers ahead for the "House of the Dragon" season three premiere and the book "Fire & Blood.""House of the Dragon" season three opens with Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell) face-to-face with a wild dragon.For many characters, this encounter would spell their end. In the "Game of Thrones" 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.
