On last night's episode of House of the Dragon, "The Red Sowing," Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) put out a call to all Targaryen bastards in the Seven Kingdoms: come to Dragonstone, and you will have your chance to claim a dragon. Riches and security to follow. It's part of her attempt to shore up her dragon-riding air force and better her chances of taking the Iron Throne from her half-brother Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney). Many would-be dragonriders die, but by the end of the episode, two have successfully bonded with the fire-breathing beasts: the blacksmith Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) claims the dragon Vermithor, and the barfly Ulf White (Tom Bennett) bonds with the dragon Silverwing.
Along the way, we learn about Hugh and Ulf's parentage. Ulf claims he's the bastard son of Baelon Targaryen, who's also the father of Daemon and Viserys. Meanwhile, Hugh tells his wife that while he never knew his father, his mother was a prostitute with silver hair, a Targaryen princess who was afforded certain privileges on account of who she was.
If you've read George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood, you know there's only one person this could be: Saera Targaryen, the ninth child of King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne Targaryen, grandparents to Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) and great-grandparents to Rhaenyra. Saera was a trouble-maker from early on in life. When she became a teenager, she caused a royal scandal when she admitted to sleeping with multiple men, arguing that she should be able to marry more than one of them; after all, Aegon the Conqueror had multiple wives, so why shouldn't she have multiple husbands?
King Jaehaerys didn't see it that way. He had her confined to her rooms, but she escaped and tried to steal a dragon. He sent her to train with the Silent Sisters, who are basically nuns, but she again escaped. This time she fled to the Free City of Lys on Essos, where she became a very successful prostitute, having at least three sons out of wedlock. And now we find out that Hugh is one of them.
Actor Kieran Bew didn't literally confirm that Saera is Hugh's mother when talking to Decider, but he did everything up to that. “In truth, I don’t know if I’m allowed to confirm, but it can’t necessarily be anyone else... told me who my mum is and it immediately gave me a huge backstory, huge motivation. Because I scoured the book for information...I learned quite a lot about her and her offspring and where I may fit within that. And it’s so much fuel for who he is and where he is and what you’ve been seeing of him so far. Like, to me, it’s just like the biggest gift. It was the best birthday present because I couldn’t believe it, you know?"
That's as much confirmation as anyone needs, I think. It's unlikely that Saera is still alive at this point in time, but we don't need to rule out anything.
This information does raise some questions. Saera worked in the Free Cities of Lys and Volantis on the continent of Essos, which means that Hugh would have had to migrate to King's Landing at some point. That's not at all impossible, but still quite a journey. Or maybe in this continuity Saera worked closer to home. Maybe we'll get more specifics in the season 2 finale of House of the Dragon, which airs on HBO and Max this Sunday, August 4.
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