#nettles tamer of dragons

[lady-clouves]

I want nasty uncontrollable horrible women this season. I want Nyra to go batshit crazy and be hell bent on getting her throne back, I want her to show just how deep a mother’s rage can really go. I want Alicent to really commit to supporting Aegon, I want to see her be selfish for once and take and keep taking. I want Baela to be the badass dragon rider she is, I want her to be a character we know and feel for and I want her fight with Aegon to be the coolest thing in the entire show. I want Rhaena to show just how political savvy she can get. I want Helaena to be more than just the mad woman stereotype. I want Mysaria to really be the one that’s team smallfolk and actually look out for them and their best interests, especially commoner children. I want Nettles to BE THERE and I want her to wow everybody and put targ stans into an early grave; I want to see her claim sheepstealer, I want to see her interact with the blacks, I want to see her ride her dragon, and be the coolest hottest person there. And I want to SEE Alys and all her freaky witch stuff, while making self insert girlies angry. And by god I want Rhaenys to have the best ending scene a character could ask for.

[greenqueenhightower]

To answer your question there is a handful of examples of non-Targaryen's taming and claiming dragons. Nettles being the biggest example of that.

GRRM has hinted more than once throughout the books and other extended material that it's not about Valyrian blood but something else that bonds Rider to a dragon. Don't get me wrong Valyrian blood helps, but its not the only or end all be all factor in dragon riding.

With Nettles possibly - probably - being left out of the show, they could use Daeron as a way to explore that thread of a common born - cause that is what Daeron would be if he is Criston's son - taming a dragon hatchling and raising it in his own way, away from the Valyrian dragon tamers. If anything it would challenge Daemon and Rhaenyra's beliefs in Targaryen Supremacy by divine right of Dragon power.

Yes but don’t forget that Nettles was one of the dragonseeds, who Jacaerys specifically chose because they had Valyrian ancestry and could bond with a dragon. Also it would be utterly stupid to combine the stories of Daeron and Nettles. They are two separate characters and their story has no connection whatsoever. I hope we get to see both Daeron and Nettles in the show.

[ride-thedragon]

Targaryens being so entirely self-absorbed with the notion of their own power that Rhaenyra questioning Nettles legitimacy as a dragonseed genuinely seems more deranged that an actual question to be raised is my favourite question raised in her narrative.

Had it not been for Jaehaerys and his laws, it probably would've seemed a bit more plausible to question whether or not she's a dragon claimer or dragon tamer but instead we get to call Rhaenyra almost insane for the question of their power.

Even her theory calls back to magic and binding spells instead of their own history, showing how far gone they were from the origin of Valyria and Dragonriders.

(Me to George)

[sillyzombiedelusion]

the way I’m gonna go from a nettles fan to #1 nettles stan, head of the fan club, when the show airs and she’s gone is gonna be very hectic; prepare yourselves. Down with the Valyrians! Nettles, dragon-tamer! The people’s choice!

[aygozineproduction]

Guest Contributor: OCTOMAIDLY

Master of words and tamer of fire, here comes yet another guest contributor, Octomaidly!

Twitter: @octomaidly | Ao3: mizael

Introduction:

I am very good at spinning the Aluber and Albaz models around in my head very fast

Excerpt: 

This is what she must remember: the politics of the dragon prince's palace, the seasons Yuudias spent within its walls—it is irrelevant. Yuudias had returned changed, his face sharper, his eyes deeper, his iridescent scales covered beneath layers of fine silk and expensive golden embroidery.

When the dragon prince drank deep of Yuudias' blood, he instead tasted poison and sharp nettles, the kind that grew at the side of the lake. Yuudias had chased the prince after he fell, hysterical and in disbelief, mouthing endless apologies into the creeping coldness of his talons.

And in the dark of the night, when all else faded and there was no more blood, Yuudias took the dragon prince's body to the river where it disappeared into the mud.

LAST WEEK TO APPLY! [HERE]

[fromtheboundlesssea]

By the way possible cameo role for Nettles, maybe have she one of the Dragon tamers that got hired to handle Cannibal when he is being held in his own pit ?

Maybe. We’ll see.

[warsofasoiaf]

I saw the post about Rhaenys. If you are willing, my headcanon that I love is that she use Targaryen dragon taming on the cat by instinct and that it is why the cat have hard time in having a new master. To be more precise. I believe dragon tolerate other (dragon or other prey :) ) and love their master. If they lose their rider, they just are more accepting of other rider, but still just tolerate other. What does it had to the story? almost nothing except dragon taming can be use for other stuf

(Follow up)f,. What do you believe this can help on the worldbuilding? My headcanon still make me believe it just help Jon know better that it is a targaryen and/or make it more happy to have one more animal in is live. Sorry for my grammar, english is not my first language. Hope your still continue your blog :)

Again, no one should feel the need to apologize to me for using their second (or higher) language to communicate. If I don't understand, I'll just say so.

We know that dragons that have been tamed in the past do find it easier to be tamed by other riders, but is that due specifically to the taming, or socialization around people. Dragons are clearly intelligent, but how intelligent? And moreover, is that a supernatural ability or is it just the standard reward-punishment cycle. After all, Nettles tamed a wild dragon with sheep, and the only dragon she had in her was Daemon the Rogue Prince.

I don't think it would help Jon with his Targaryen heritage - after all, the Starks do have the skinchanging blood in them already and he had already raised Ghost. So it's possible that instead of attributing it to the dragon-taming of his Targaryen father, he attributes it instead to his Stark heritage.

And again, I can sympathize with wanting to spare an animal, but I don't think that's enough to craft a theory that has such significance re: the dragons and their relationships to their tamers. Plus, animals are pretty attuned to danger, so maybe Balerion will just instinctively know that stuff's about to go down and just run.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[direwolfeye]

it’s not targ blood (else, not EXCLUSIVELY targ/valyrian blood) that makes a dragon tamer, just like it’s not stark/first men blood that makes a skinchanger — arya can skinchange, ned can’t, dany could hatch and tame dragons, her great-grandfather aegon 5 couldn’t, etc. (and if we’re going by valyrian blood percentages, aegon 5 had more valyrian blood than dany does! so it clearly takes more than that)

imo i think it’s important that dany has an emotional connection to her dragons, just like the starklets each bonded with a wolf. you can see smth similar with nettles in the dance of dragons stories; she tames a dragon approximately like you’d tame a very large fire-breathing stray dog. her missing father was probably a targ, too! but she succeeds where “full” targs fail because there’s more to it than waving a whip and yelling. jon seems pretty empathetic and keen to learn, so i do bet he could tame a dragon too, but idk about young griff. he might! (someone like viserys would probably get burned to a crisp, blood of the dragon or not, because he’d piss the dragon off too much, yeah?)

good point! i always had a feeling it was more of an affinity thing between the targs and the dragons. but that makes me wonder how dany will use her dragons to "slay the lie" of young griff (unless she doesn't use her dragons).

also brings up interesting questions about how jon will react post-resurrection to her dragons since he will be more wolf-y (his soul or w/e having resided in ghost for the period he was dead). definitely wont be like the show!

also pretty sure euron will be the third dragon rider with that horn, so i wonder how the dynamic will play out there between him and (most likely) viserion :)

[lady-clouves]

Idc what anyone says but the real rulers of The Seven Kingdom’s should be Nettles and Daeron.

[lady-clouves]

I’m coming back on my bs but I’ve been thinking about it lately and I really do just have to make an Au for Nettles and Daeron. Cause you know what?I do run on my delusions and I’m quite happy.

[ride-thedragon]

Let's talk about Jace and Nettles.

Sara Snow doesn't need to be in the show if Nettles is there. I don't want anyone to think that this isn't going to be where this post is headed. That's one of the big points I'm about to make.

So, for those who do not know, Nettles is the only female dragonseed to claim a dragon during the sowing of the seeds.

Notably, she is the only one who doesn't look Valyrian. She has brown skin, black hair, and brown eyes. Similar to Jace, Luke, and Joffrey. Except she has no way of tracing her ancestry to a Valyrian, far less to a Targaryen.

Sara Snow is one character we meet in a paragraph when Jace is up North with Cregan. She is introduced to us by Mushroom, and from what he tells us, he marries her after they are caught messing around.

Now, I will be disproving the idea of her existence in another post. This is not what this is about.

A lot of the arguments surrounding why Jace and Sara should be a canon couple in the show have to do with the idea that she helps him with his bastard identity.

I think Nettles would be a better fit with that idea. As the only non Valyrian looking dragonseed that claims a dragon, a lot of eyes would be on her. We have no way of knowing if she's has any Valyrian ties, but she tames a wild dragon. The symbol of House Targaryen.

Jace would either have to have her killed or use his identity to not have her killed. Either she's witch who just bound a dragon to her, which isn't ideal after she claimed the dragon that almost killed Corlys' grand baby or she is as much Targ as Jace is.

I see a lot of Nettles' characterization boiling down to an inferiority complex because she doesn't look like a Valyrian, but I don't think that's true.

I don't think as heir, Jace would allow the idea of Targaryen Exceptionalism to be questioned through Nettles existence if it wasn't something he was ready to defend her against.

To draw a parallel, it would be in the same way he tells Luke in Episode 8 that it doesn't matter what others think. Seeing as Jace doesn't know that Luke dies until he returns to Dragonstone, it would be a better tie-in.

Jace is also learning about Valyrian history in Episode 8 at the beginning. I assume he'd try to learn things before the Conquest as well, and if he learns about the first Dragon tamers, he could draw a parallel towards Nettles even if he doesn't believe she's Valyrian.

His 'bastard' identity ties in well with her being the only non Valyrian looking or linked Dragon rider on Driftmark. I think they would form a bond over that idea. At the very least, Corlys is questioning whether it is smart to have Nettles claim a dragon.

There is also a precident for their relationship in the text.

"Nettles and Addam Velaryon were heavily affected, with the latter seeking out the Sea Snake, though what they spoke to each other remains unknown."

That could be in reaction to the mass murder and destruction she participated in but also Jace dying in front of her.

I also don't think Show Jace would break away from his betrothal to Baela.

Not just in the way their relationship is talked about by the actors who play them, but more importantly, he understands his duty as heir and why their marriage is important to his claim.

They also get betrothed later in their lives, so he understands the full consequence of stepping out of that.

Show Baela is also not touching the boys on the island yet. So it just wouldn't make sense for the characters we've been given so far.

Lastly, Jace has already accepted who he is on the show and was actively helping his brothers through that discovery. In the wake of Luke's death, after successfully bringing in two great houses to their side, I think he'll carry it on into is relationships with the Of Hull boys, but importantly, with Nettles.

I'm not pushing this to be romantic in any way but I do believe they have a good friendship. He teaches her to ride her dragon and would more than likely have to defend her from people who are rightfully concerned at the validity of her dragon bond.

I think the show has set up this route for his character better.

[ride-thedragon]

I actually want to talk about a specific scene where the show sets up Nettles introduction and the conflict she introduces.

In episode ten, when Daemon and Rhaenyra are arguing and they send everyone away to talk, the asoiaf prophecy comes up. This is the full conversation.

I think that's a big indication that the conflict would be if Nettles is introduced and the story follows closely to books. She would be viewed as a threat to Rhaenyra. Not because of jealousy but genuinely as a reminder of something her father said in that exact same conversation.

So the girl whose way of taming her dragon links back to the first dragon tamers in Old Valyria may rub Rhaenyra the wrong way.

The inverse would be Daemon and what he says, "Dreams didn't make us kings dragons did" so I don't think for a second he would question Nettles legitimacy even though she doesn't look that way. Her invoking the first dragon riders would read more like common intelligence to bond with a wild dragon, not an affront to Targaryen’s power of illusion.

I also want to note that this is a grieving Daemon, who Rhaenyra clearly isn't trusting at this point, and his reaction is to strangle her. To resort to violence to punctuate his point and anger. Unjustifiable. But a similar theme to what happens in Maidenpool. It's not an exact parallel, however.

This is where I say I think Vizzy T's line is utter bullshit and the series disproves it time and again. However, I can see Rhaenyra clinging to it when someone like Nettles claims a dragon. She wouldn't view her as a probable bastard from Driftmark with this understanding.

Without dragons, we are just like everyone else, what stops everyone else from claiming dragons.

What stops wild dragons from being tamed by locals?

I do think this belief is wrong, though. Targs did a lot of incest and blood magic to get where they are. I could never take that from them.

However, it is intentional for Nettles to be the dragonseed to claim a wild dragon, where visible bastards fail. I do think the show was spoonfeeding the audience paranoia and justifying the understanding behind Rhaenyra's dislike of Nettles.

This could also be where Jace and Nettles' relationship comes into play. He is very bothered by the fact that Rhaenyra won't say he's a Velayron in episode 6, but by episode 8, he seems to be helping his brothers understand that even if their parents are questioned no one can rake away the fact that they hatched dragons, are Rhaenyra’s sons and are the legal heirs to their seats and houses.

Do we see how he could bond with the only non Valyrian looking dragonseed who just proved to him at least that she is a dragonseed.

Do we see how he may be a tad defensive about her?

All this to say, I hope we get the prophecy talk between Nyra and her firstborn. Especially if it happens after she meets Nettles. He may have a different reaction, seeing as he has a different interpretation of the fact that a big part of his legitimacy was tied to a dragon hatching for him. This is also a post losing Luke Jace. He may be a bit more emotional than rational towards the idea because of it.

I know it's not an exact parallel, but Jace is 16 years old, and he is clearly set up to be an angry guy no matter how diplomatic he is. I can see him lashing out at the suggestion.

This is all to say, that I'm in HBO's walls waiting for my girl.