Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell) is the second daughter of Prince Daemon and his late second wife, Lady Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell).
Unlike her sister Baela Targayen (Bethany Antonia), who rides Moondancer, Rhaena did not bond with a dragon as a child. Instead, Rhaena’s hatchling was sickly and died young.
Throughout the show, Rhaena struggles with being overlooked and dismissed by her family, especially her father. In season two, she’s sent to the Vale to look after Rhaenyra’s three youngest sons. She’s also meant to escort the boys on their voyage across the narrow sea, to the free city of Pentos — but she decides to run away instead.
In the season two finale, Rhaena finds Sheepstealer, a wild dragon roaming the Vale.
In the book, Sheepstealer is described as “a notably ugly ‘mud brown’ dragon” with a “taste for mutton.” Despite being riderless and isolated from people his entire life, Sheepstealer almost never harms the shepherds.
In the show’s season three premiere, Sheepstealer allows Rhaena to mount his back. The dragon strands Rhaena on a cliffside, where he brings two helpings of mutton to share. They bond — but instead of Sheepstealer bending to his rider’s will, Rhaena seems to become wilder to match the dragon’s nature.
Later in the episode, Rhaena flies Sheepstealer into battle, but she can’t command the dragon as her family members can theirs. Rhaena’s attempt at heroism quickly becomes a disaster when Sheepstealer burns the wrong warships, destroying the fleet commanded by her own grandfather, Corlys, and unintentionally causing the death of her cousin, Prince Jace (Harry Collett).
This is a major change from the book, in which a mysterious young girl called Nettles is the one to claim Sheepstealer. Although it’s unclear if Nettles has Valyrian ancestry, she manages to charm the wild dragon by killing sheep and leaving their carcasses for it to eat.
It seems that “House of the Dragon” is scrapping Nettles in favor of expanding Rhaena’s role — but this change comes with its own complications. Rhaena has now unwittingly made herself an enemy of Rhaenyra, whereas in the book, Nettles is the queen’s ally.
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