#Hugh Hammer

[redbelles]

#how to train your dragon

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON 2.07 ⬩ The Red Sowing

[prideprejudce]

"every dragon has its own special way of choosing it's rider"

[littler3d]

I love that Vermithor was like “RAWR You must impress me with your bravery or I will BURN AND EAT you” and Silverwing was like “good morning pathetic looking man you will do”

[bbygirl-aemond]

one of my favorite things about hotd is how we get exposed to the differences in the dragons' personalities. one great way to see this is through how each dragon forms a bond with a new rider. when aemond claimed vhagar, she bucked around like a bull and tried to throw him off to make him prove his worth by staying in the saddle. when seasmoke claimed addam, he hunted addam down and basically claimed addam himself. when hugh claimed vermithor, he stood up to him and roared in his face. and when silverwing claimed ulf, she headbutted and sniffed him before deciding to take him for a joyride. each has such a distinct personality and you can see a clear dichotomy between dragons pursuing their riders and riders pursuing their dragons.

[tweedfrog]

Vermithor saw a guy with silver hair and a beard who ignored the wise advice of his wife and he was like Jaehaerys!! where the hell have you been loca??

[snow-dragon-rider]

The way we’ve gotten

Seasmoke, picking his own rider mostly unprompted and literally chasing him around and cornering him.

Vermithor, roasting everyone who dares to try it except a man brave enough to defy Vermithor’s fury to save another; a man who roars back.

Silverwing watching a lost and terrified man stumble into her lair and quietly accept his death; she bends the neck because he bent the knee.

Something something But who can presume to know the heart of a dragon?

[agentem]

Seasmoke: I have searched everywhere on Driftmark and Dragonstone and I have found the one to be my squishy -- ADDAM!

Vermithor: This one, Hugh, he is brave. I like him.

Silverwing: Eh, Ulf stumbled into my lair. He'll do. I'm an old lady and lonely.

[lilhawkeye3]

protect him at all costs 🥺

[gameofthronesdaily]

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Season 2 Episode 7 - The Red Sowing

[littlelord]

the minor characters lowkey took it this season.... gwayne, erryk & arryk, simon strong, oscar tully, tyland lannister, aegon's little frat friendgroup, maester orwyle, alys rivers, jasper wylde, larys, elinda massey, hugh hammer, rickard thorne, those 2 riverlands guys that had everyone fujoshing out i mean come ON.. let's hear it for the relatively normal people

[blackbyrenflowers]

Love how in order to claim Vermithor, you have to be all badass in the face of fiery death, wheras for Silverwing you just need to be pathetic enough for her mama dragon instincts to kick in and take you under her wing

[garnetislovegarnetislife]

jaehaerys was a piece of shit to saera and drove her away so much that she fled to another continent and now her son is riding his dragon i just-

[kvtnisseverdeen]

it really is crazy that vermithor and silverwing belonged to jaehaerys and alysanne who were the longest reigning monarchs of house targaryen and are regarded as wise and good...only to have their dragons be mounted by bastards who partook in the fall of house targaryen

[artnoonewants]

Part two of this

Delusion runs in the family

[bbygirl-aemond]

okay now that i've slept on this episode (and watched the behind the scenes) i want to talk more about this idea of rhaenyra as a cult leader who has completely drunk her own kool-aid. it's an a+ development for her character and i truly hope the writers continue to lean into it further.

hotd has built up this idea of dragons being a conduit for the divine from the very beginning of season one, when viserys and rhaenyra talk about how the targaryen's perceived proximity to the gods comes via their control of dragons. earlier in season two we also heard the smallfolk describe the dragons as invulnerable gods during the parading of meleys's head. this is a deliberate narrative that the targaryens have cultivated (as jace pointed out) to provide themselves with a divine mandate to justify their rule.

this idea of the dragons as a divine mandate is beginning to intersect with the conqueror's dream for rhaenyra in a fascinating way. rhaenyra has always placed more importance on the conqueror's dream than, say, daemon or jace, but this episode goes much further, and is full of rhaenyra talking about being given signs and instructions from the gods. i think addam claiming seasmoke was a transformation for her- she was smiling and had this look of near elation once he claimed her as queen.

i think she genuinely believes that the gods broke the rules of dragon claiming in order to give her a loyal dragon rider right when she needed one. we then see this same elated smile again when she successfully brings vermithor to heel.

each of these little moments is something she takes as confirmation that she's being aided by the gods. this is why she is so convinced that the dragon seeds who claim vermithor and silverwing will be loyal to her- she has convinced herself that all of this is the gods signaling to her and that they will bring her loyal dragon riders the way they brought her addam. the dragon tamers point out what rhaenyra is not willing to acknowledge; these are not true signs from the gods, but things that rhaenyra herself is reading into and arranging for herself. she is seeing what she wants to see. and this will be proven true when hugh and ulf betray rhaenyra, likely due to rhaenyra's own actions in locking the dragonseeds in to die. they were not loyal believers sent from the gods to serve her; they were just men, and she's given them the fantasy equivalent of nuclear missiles.

a large part of this belief in divine validation is definitely due to rhaenyra's own deep seated insecurity due to viserys neglecting her in her childhood and her small council not taking her seriously enough, but i also think this is a coping mechanism on rhaenyra's part. she has no choice but to lean into this war as fully as she can now, to describe herself as helpless in the wake of what the gods have set before her, because she needs her losses to mean something. she needs visenya's death and luke's death to mean something. she needs the loss of her relationship with alicent to mean something.

but in doing this, she is already beginning to push others away from her. she has lost the support of the dragon tamers, and she has also pushed away jace; when he confronted her about a valid concern about how this would make his own ascension even more fraught, she just parroted more of that divine mandate nonsense back to him, which he is clearly not buying. i'll be curious to see how much deeper she falls into this cultish spiral and how much more it costs her.

[galatariel]

Do you know what has happened in the last hour? The so-called Prince Regent has burnt Sharp Point down to its stones. Thousands of folk, dead or lost. Its harbour in ashes. HOUSE OF THE DRAGON — The Queen who Never Was