Hugh Hammer Claiming Vermithor Was ‘House of the Dragon’ Being Poetic, Again
It's a hugh deal!
We’ve just seen the penultimate episode of House of the Dragon season 2, and the Sowing of the Seeds has taken shape beautifully for the Blacks (or so it would seem). King Jaehaerys’ old dragon Vermithor has finally been claimed by Hugh Hammer, and it’s quite poetic.
Spoilers ahead for HOTD and Fire & Blood!
What happens during House of the Dragon season 2 episode 7?
While we the audience are know-it-alls, the true parentage of Addam of Hull, the new rider of Seasmoke, has not yet been revealed to Rhaenyra and her court. And this, along with a little nudge in the right direction by Mysaria, convinces the Queen of the Blacks that she needs to expand her search for new riders beyond highborn lords and knights with Targaryen lineage. Rhaenyra must now look “under the sheets and in the woodpiles” (a direct quote from the book, FYI) for more dragonseed.
We were already introduced to Hugh Hammer early on in season 2. A blacksmith, Hugh had a sick daughter, who he was unable to provide for or save due to the blockade of the Gullet causing a scarcity of resources in King’s Landing. He and his family even tried to escape to his wife’s brother’s home in Tumbleton, but the guards stopped them from leaving the city. And then, his little girl died.
The death of his daughter weighs heavy on Hugh, and that’s why he chooses to join the host of dragonseed that travel to Dragonstone to attempt claiming a dragon and fighting against the Greens. An epic sequence occurs next, where Rhaenyra flexes her dragon queen swag, and Vermithor loses his sh**, burning half the group of dragonseed assembled before him.
But as Rhaenyra said, the dragon must choose. And finally, Vermithor bends the neck to Hugh. The scene tells us quite a bit about How to Claim Your Dragon 101, in that there’s no fixed way to do it. Each dragon clearly has a different personality and must be wooed accordingly. As the House of the Dragon showrunners have revealed in interviews, Vermithor wants to be challenged, and when Hugh tries to stand up to him to save the life of a girl he is about to flambée, Vermithor senses power (and his Targaryen blood, of course) and decides Hugh is The One for him.
But why is it so poetic that Vermithor chose Hugh as his rider? Well, it’s all about Hugh’s mommy, and Vermithor’s dragonrider daddy!
Who is Hugh Hammer’s mother?
In an earlier scene in the episode, when Hugh’s wife tries to dissuade him from going to Dragonstone, he tells her something he previously hid from her—details about his mother, once a Targaryen princess. He doesn’t reveal her name exactly, but he does mention that his mother always believed that her sons were just as deserving of the Iron Throne as her brother’s sons, Viserys and Daemon Targaryen. Oh cool, a hint!
So, of course, we hit the lore, and we can almost certainly confirm that Hugh Hammer is the son of Princess Saera Targaryen, a daughter of Queen Alysanne and King Jaehaerys I Targaryen, and sister to Baelon Targaryen and Alyssa Targaryen, the parents of Viserys and Daemon. That makes Hugh Viserys and Daemon’s …
Who is Saera Targaryen?
Saera was the ninth offspring and fifth daughter of King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne, who, FYI, had quite the brood. And, well, she was a brat—not the current meaning of the term, more like a literal brat, and quite the pain in the royal backsides of her parents. That’s just another way of saying that she was a free-spirited, sex-positive woman who acted like a man would, but because of her gender, got reprimanded for it.
As per Fire & Blood, Saera Targaryen has plenty of notorious shenanigans to her name, including drinking from the early age of 12, losing her maidenhead outside of marriage, taking three lords as lovers, frolicking with her friends and lovers at brothels, and so on. She was so unabashed and uncouth that her father practically disowned her. As a punishment, he sent her to Oldtown, where one of her sisters was a septa, in the hopes that she would get disciplined.
However, Saera escaped and boarded a ship to Lys, where she found employment at a pleasure house and had many patrons. As Hugh had earlier mentioned, there were many men who paid a lot of money to bed a Targaryen woman. Saera became rich enough to buy her own pleasure house in Volantis, and there she stayed, even after her mother, the queen, tried to bring her back after her three sisters had died.
The lore mentions that Saera had three confirmed bastards, who attended King Jaehaerys’ Great Council where Viserys was crowned heir, to stake their own claim on the throne. But Hugh being the son of Saera Targaryen is a show decision, not mentioned in the books.
Why is Hugh claiming Vermithor a big deal?
Vermithor was the dragon of King Jaehaerys, who technically would be Hugh’s grandfather. It is said that when Jaehaerys found out about Saera becoming a sex worker, it broke his heart. He may have been angry and refused his wife’s pleas to bring his daughter back home, but the book says that the king was never the same after this.
Vermithor has previously been approached by many, including Daemon and Ser Steffon Darklyn. But the fact that he chose Hugh suggests that he sensed some strong kinship in the man whose grandsire was his previous rider. It’s poetic that Vermithor’s previous rider disowned Saera, and now her son has laid claim on his dragon!
Vermithor is the second biggest claimed dragon in Westeros right now, and can pose a real threat. And this makes Hugh a powerful player in the dance of the dragons. Vermithor has mated with Silverwing, the dragon of Jaehaerys’ queen Alysanne, and she was claimed by another King’s Landing bastard, Ulf the White.
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