House of the Dragon Season 2: Who is Alyn of Hull? The Explanation of The New Character?
House of the Dragon Season 2 has kicked off, and trenches for war are being dug across the kingdom. Set roughly 200 years before Game of Thrones, HBO’s House Targaryen spinoff is poised to chronicle the horrific civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, when rival factions of the family tore their dynasty apart to decide who should sit on the Iron Throne. On one side is Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and her Black faction. On the other, King Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) and his Greens. Who will emerge triumphant? Well, this is a Game of Thrones show, so the chances of anyone getting a clean win seem slim. And it won’t just be the Targaryens at war in the coming weeks.
The second season of House of the Dragon is ready to introduce a host of new characters who will fight for one side or the other, strengthening their chances of victory and sharing the bitter defeats. One such character we know we’ll see in season two is Alyn of Hull, played by Abubakar Salim. Alyn and her brother Addam of Hull play an important role in George R. R. Martin’s novel Fire & Blood. With the new season upon us, let’s take a minute to review everything we know about Hull’s Alyn. There will be some minor book-related spoilers for Fire & Blood when we talk about Alyn’s origins; but don’t worry, we won’t give too many spoilers about her role in the coming war.
House of the Dragon Season 2: Who is Alyn of Hull in the Book Fire & Blood?
In Fire & Blood, Alyn of Hull and his brother Addam of Hull are bastards with some intriguing ties to House Velaryon. At one point in the war, Rhaenyra finds herself with more dragons than knights and decides to make a call to the masses: anyone who can ride a dragon and fight for her in war will receive lands and titles. People come from all walks of life to try to grab one of the beasts, and many of them fail in spectacularly bloody ways. These potential dragon riders become known to history as the dragonseeds. In the book, both Alyn and her brother Addam of Hull enter the scene at this time, when Rhaenyra makes her call to find dragon riding. In the book, these two characters are teenagers: Alyn is about 16 years old and Addam is a year younger. They are originally from Driftmark, the home of Velaryon, and their mother was a woman nicknamed Mouse, the daughter of a shipbuilder who became captain of her own trading vessel.
Both Alyn and Addam helped in the family shipping business, meaning they were skilled sailors even at a relatively young age. Both Alyn and Addam are said to be illegitimate children of Laenor Velaryon… but since many in the kingdom know that Laenor was gay, few believe it. What seems much more likely – and what Fire & Blood strongly implies – is that Alyn and Addam are actually the bastard children of Laenor’s father, Corlys Velaryon. It is Corlys himself who brings Alyn and Addam to court to have them try to tame a dragon. We won’t reveal which of the two will succeed in the feat here; To find out you’ll have to watch the season! But suffice it to say, that both Alyn and Addam of Hull will have a major impact on the Dance of the Dragons.
How is Hull’s Alyn Different in House of the Dragon Compared to the Book?
While we don’t know all the details of Alyn’s story, there are already a couple of notable differences in how the series portrays the character compared to the book. The most important is the character’s age. As mentioned, in the book Alyn is a teenager, while in the show she is an adult. We don’t know the exact age difference, but it’s significant enough to alter how the character’s story plays out on screen. The broadest way this will manifest itself, that we know of, is that, in House of the Dragon, Alyn of Hull fought in Velaryon’s fleet during Corlys’ campaign against the Triarchy. Regardless, Hull’s version of Alyn will be an older, more experienced character who has fought before. There are many options for how House of the Dragon could lean into this aspect to make Alyn an even more fascinating character than she is in the novel.
