Who is Hugh's mother in House of the Dragon? (Saera Targaryen explained)

The penultimate episode of House of the Dragon season 2 is here, and it’s a big one. Among other exciting developments, "The Red Sowing" featured a massive dragon sequence that is among the most breathtaking ever put to the screen. After discovering that the dragon Seasmoke had chosen a new rider in the form of Addam of Hull (Clinton Liberty), Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) puts out a call for bastards with Targaryen blood to try their hand at mounting some of the other dragons kicking around Dragonstone.

This opened the door for some of our smallfolk characters in King’s Landing to finally cross paths with Rhaenyra and the dragons. Among them is Hugh, the blacksmith played by Warrior’s Kieran Bew. After Rhaenyra puts out her call for dragonriders, Hugh reveals to his wife Kat (Ellora Torchia) that he is in fact a Targaryen bastard, known as a “Dragonseed.”

"I never knew my father, that much is true. But I did know my mother. I hid it from you, and I'm sorry for that. She worked in a pleasure house. She was granted more freedom than most because of who she was...and because rich men paid more to fuck a woman with silver hair. She used to tell me I was no different to her brother's boys, Viserys and Daemon."

- Hugh in House of the Dragon Episode 207

This brings up an obvious question: who exactly is Hugh’s mother? If we refer to the source book, Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin, there’s really only one Targaryen princess Hugh could be referring to…and it makes his role in the story even more interesting.

The scandalous tale of Saera Targaryen

Jaehaerys the Conciliator, the king who proceeded King Viserys on the Iron Throne, ruled the Seven Kingdoms for 55 years, and during that time he and his wife Good Queen Alysanne had a lot of children; 12 to be exact. Not all of them lived to adulthood, and barely any of them actually outlived their parents, but of the lot there’s only one who matches Hugh’s description: Saera Targaryen.

Saera was the ninthborn child of Jaehaerys and Alysanne, and the cause of much drama in the Red Keep. As a young girl, she was manipulative and cruel, knowing full well that she was a princess of House Targaryen and abusing her station at every turn. When she was a teenager, she gathered a group of several knights and other young noblewomen around her. It eventually came out that Saera was engaging in sexual acts with all of them; when she was questioned about which knight she gave her maidenhood to, she scoffed at King Jaehaerys and proclaimed that all three who she spent time with each thought they were her first.

The saga of Saera Targaryen was a black spot on King Jaehaerys’ reign, not only because of her behavior but because of how unapologetically she defended it. She went so far as to compare herself to Maegor the Cruel, who had taken multiple wives. Maegor was the king that Jaehaerys fought to overthrow after he usurped the Iron Throne, so needless to say Saera’s words were poorly received.

Saera’s misdeeds were many in the days that followed. When she was confronted with her scandals and how they affected both the crown and other nobles involved, Saera tried to lie and manipulate her way out of consequences. When Jaehaerys confined her to her rooms, she escaped and attempted to steal a dragon to flee King’s Landing. When he banished her to serve a penance with the silent sisters, she injured one and disappeared. After Jaehaerys’ men scoured cities like Oldtown and King’s Landing for her, it eventually came out that Saera had gone across the Narrow Sea to Lys, where she was working in a pleasure garden.

And there Saera Targaryen stayed. It was one of the worst scandals of King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne's reign, and it took a huge toll on the royal family. It was only after Saera Targaryen went into exile that people started referring to Jaehaerys as “the Old King” instead of Jaehaerys the Conciliator, because of how much the ordeal drained him.

Saera Targaryen being Hugh’s mother is a genius choice for House of the Dragon

Hugh’s story that his mother was one of Jaehaerys’ children who “worked in a pleasure house” could really only be referring to Saera, unless House of the Dragon is making up a whole different Targaryen. Fire & Blood accounts for all of Jaehaerys and Alysanne’s children, and she’s the only one who remotely fits that description.

It also fits perfectly with Saera telling her bastard son Hugh that he’s just as much a Targaryen as “her brother’s boys, Viserys and Daemon.” Their father, Baelon, was the heir to the Seven Kingdoms for a time, while Saera was way down the line of succession. She’s described as being extremely entitled and resentful of her family, so these words absolutely fit with what little we know of her.

It also makes Hugh claiming Vermithor even more impactful. Vermithor was King Jaehaerys’ own dragon, and if Hugh’s story about his mother is true, that makes Jaehaerys his grandfather. Now, Vermithor is being ridden by the bastard son of the daughter who went into exile after dragging the crown into one of the worst scandals of Jaehaerys’ reign. The fact that Hugh is riding that dragon and related to Saera could make later events of the Dance of the Dragons even more thematically resonant. We already saw that he has his own dark streak when he punched out a fellow peasant to steal their bag of lettuce in Episode 206; what else lies in Hugh’s future now that he’s a dragonrider?

More than likely, we’ll find out more about Hugh and Saera’s commonalities and differences in future seasons. Until then, only one more episode remains in House of the Dragon season 2. It airs next Sunday on HBO and Max.

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