Popverse's top stories of the day

• Dune: Prophecy creators promise to bring the "complexity" and "grand scale" of Frank Herbert's books and Denis Villeneuve's movies to TV
• Marvel's TV head says there's "absolutely" a future for Jon Bernthal's Punisher after his Daredevil: Born Again appearance
• Meet the Grim Reaper of The Walking Dead TV show cast, and what goes into killing someone off in the show

Spoilers ahead - we're discussing events that are coming to the second half of House of the Dragon season 2. Don't say we didn't warn you.

In case you haven't heard, there's a war on in HBO's wildly successful House of the Dragon, the prequel series to Game of Thrones. And in a fantasy realm, one of the most powerful weapons of war available to combatants is a dragon, but the problem is, not just anyone can tame one. That's why the followers of Queen Rhaenyra are going to gather together as many dragon riders as they can, an effort that, in the book upon which House of the Dragon is based, is known as the Sowing of the Seeds.

Popverse is here to explain the Sowing of the Seeds, but first, we're going to need to provide a bit of context.

Why are the Targaryens the House of the Dragon?

OK, so we know that some members of House Targaryen have a special connection to dragons. And the reason for this reptilian repertoire is that, according to the family, they've got a special kind of familial advantage flowing through their veins, a drop of dragon blood that links them to the creatures. That is supposedly the key to their power and definitely the reason for all their incest.

However, they didn't always 'keep it in the family,' as it were (and also should not be). Since the Targaryen family has been powerful for a long time, certain kings and lords in their line have practiced prima nocta on their subjects, the medieval law that gave male leaders the legal power to have sex with with new brides on their wedding night. And this means that, throughout Westeros, there are a bunch of dragon-blooded bastards, visually distinguished by the gleaming white hair passed down by Targaryens.

Now, most of the time, Targaryens are fine with just leaving those bastards alone. However, the Civil War between Aegon II's "Green" faction and Rhaenyra "Black" faction requires weaponry, and all of a sudden, those white-haired illegitimate children are in high demand.

How does the Sowing of the Seeds happen in Fire and Blood?

It's the Black faction, the followers of Queen Rhaenyra, that set the Sowing of the Seeds in motion in the novel Fire and Blood. They present several bastard Targaryen children, or "dragonseeds" as they are called in the book, to dragons that have so far been riderless, in hopes that they'll form bonds and provide Rhaenyra with more firepower (get it?). Some of those dragonseeds have already appeared on the show, here's a quick rundown of which of them we've already met:

• Steffon Darklyn
• Gormon Massey
• Hugh Hammer
• Addam of Hull
• Alyn of Hull
  

We're pretty sure that all of these characters on the show will end up claiming dragons just like their novel counterparts did. But the question we still have in that regard is: when?

When will the Sowing of the Seeds happen on House of the Dragon?

In the most recent episode of season 2, we hear Harry Collett's Jacaerys Velaryon say that other dragon riders may be found in Westeros. Knowing what we do about Fire and Blood (and what you also now know!), we can assume that Velaryon is hinting at the Sowing of the Seeds to come, potentially in the very next episode. However, adapting a novel into a TV series requires some shifting of events on the timeline, so we can't be precise about which episode will feature the Sowing. But what we do know is that there's one character we haven't met that needs to be introduced before the Sowing can happen.

That character is known in the novel as Nettles, Netty for short. A dragonseed with an important place in the Dance of the Dragons (the in-universe name for the Targaryen civil war), Netty has yet to appear on or even be listed in the cast of House of the Dragon season 2. However, her inclusion as one of the dragon riders aligned with the Black faction is a major point in Fire and Blood. With this info, we can pretty much guarantee that, when she finally appears, we'll know that the Sowing is either just about to happen...

Or is currently underway.

House of the Dragon season 2, episode 6 debuts July 21 on HBO. The rest of the season is currently on Max.

House of the Dragon season 2 may be over, but Popverse is still in the Westeros spirit, and we've got more Game of Thrones articles than could fit on a spiky chair. We'll tell you how to watch through the Game of Thrones/House of the Dragon saga in order, or if you're so inclined, read through it. We've dug through and exhumed the biggest differences between the two HBO shows set in Westeros, and gotten an inside look at them from House of the Dragon's prop designers. We've covered the history of Westeros's greatest houses & families, talked you through every single dragon in House of the Dragon so far, and peered into the future regarding A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, HBO's upcoming GoT spinoff, and we've got much, much more on the way.