Why did Seasmoke claim Addam as the new driver if Laenor is still alive?

• Addam of Hull becomes the new rider of the dragon Seasmoke in the second season of “House of the Dragon”.
• This shouldn’t be possible, because the last we heard, Seasmoke’s rider, Laenor Velaryon, is alive.
• Laenor faked his death in the first season, which deviates significantly from the books.

Warning: Spoilers for season 2, episode 6 of “House of the Dragon” follow.

House of the Dragon hasn’t shied away from taking some liberties with the source material, but one of those changes has caused a lot of confusion among some fans.

The HBO hit is based on the fictional history book “Fire and Blood” of House Targaryen by “Game of Thrones” author George RR Martin. Its biggest deviation from the book so far came in the first season, when the fate of Laenor Velaryon changed.

Laenor was Rhaenyra Targaryen’s first husband. In the book, Laenor is killed by Ser Qarl Correy, who is described as his “friend and companion.” This allows Rhaenyra to remarry her uncle Daemon Targaryen. However, in the series, Laenor survives; in a twist, he fakes his own death (with help from Rhaenyra and Daemon) in season one, episode seven.

The episode initially leads viewers to believe that Rhaenyra and Daemon paid Qarl to kill Laenor, as portrayed in the book. Instead, Daemon kills a random servant (RIP, that guy) and burns his body while Qarl and Laenor reenact a confrontation. Qarl escapes, and the burned body is brought as “proof” that Laenor was killed in battle. The final shot shows both Laenor and Qarl on a ship to Essos.

This is a much happier ending for Laenor, but it leaves one important loose ends: his dragon Seasmoke.

Dragons should not be able to form a bond with another rider as long as their current rider is still alive.

We don’t learn anything else about what Laenor and Qarl are up to in Essos or where they ended up. To be honest, Rhaenyra is pretty busy in season two. We do get a hint of Laenor, however, when Rhaenyra and Mysaria observe a seemingly disturbed Seasmoke in season two, episode two. Rhaenyra notices that Seasmoke has been acting strangely lately, and Mysaria suggests that he may be lonely.

Then, in episode six, Rhaenyra accepts her son Jacaerys’ suggestion to find new dragonriders to reinforce her army for the war against her half-brother Aegon and the Greens. She initially chooses the Lord Commander of her Kingsguard, Ser Steffon Darklyn, to ride on Seasmoke, but the dragon kills him and rides off to find Addam of Hull instead.

Addam and his brother Alyn were introduced early in the second season, amid hints that they would eventually become important. And the series finally explains exactly why they’re important in episode six, where it’s explicitly confirmed that the two men are the illegitimate sons of Corlys Velaryon, making them dragonseed (a term used to describe bastards of Valyrian descent who can therefore potentially lay claim to dragons) and the half-brothers of Laenor.

It’s a tense moment because it looks like Seasmoke is going to kill Addam before claiming him for himself. But it’s also confusing: Seasmoke should know that Laenor is still alive, even though Laenor faked his death in front of everyone else.

Some fans believe Laenor died off-screen

The bond between a dragon and its rider is portrayed in all of Martin’s books as sacred and, as far as we know, unbreakable.

There are similarities in dragon lore throughout the text. First, no rider can have two dragons (Daenerys, for example, only claims Drogon in Game of Thrones, even though she technically has three dragons), and second, no dragon can be ridden by two riders at the same time. This means that the first rider must be dead for another person to ride a dragon. (There are exceptions where the dragon rider can bring a passenger, but that second person must be accompanied by the rider.)

After Sunday’s episode, fans questioned the logic behind Seasmoke’s claim that Addam was his new rider, saying it shouldn’t be possible while Laenor was still alive.

At this point, there are two plausible possibilities: either Seasmoke’s ability to select a new rider while his existing rider is still alive is a plot hole in the series, or Laenor’s gay retirement was ended prematurely and he is now actually dead.

Some viewers have already theorized that Laenor died off-screen earlier this season after Mysaria and Rhaenyra noticed Seasmoke’s distress.

This is of course completely uncertain and HBO has not responded to our request for comment.

As the series reveals, Laenor is still alive, so this will remain an obvious plot hole until the writers address it one way or another or give us information about some kind of loophole – perhaps the fact that Addam is pretty closely related to Laenor was taken into account?

Another possibility is that dragons just aren’t that smart, and Seasmoke was just as tricked by Laenor’s death as humans were. Or that he simply saw another handsome man with Velaryon blood and decided that had to be Laenor (or decided that he was close enough to be New Laenor).

The second season of “House of the Dragon” airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and is streamed on Max.