On House of the Dragon, Rhaenyra Has Always Been Daemon’s Means to an End

In the most recent episode of HBO’s House of the Dragon, Daemon (Matt Smith) finally put plainly the intention that’s been lingering in the background of all his scenes since the very first episode of Season 1: when King’s Landing is up for grabs, he intends to be the one to take it, expecting Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) to fall in line next to him. While some viewers have taken to social media to express their belief that these actions are completely out of character for “wife guy” Daemon Targaryen, this intention becoming textual culminates his arc as one of the series’ most conniving characters, and further highlights House of the Dragon’s commentary on gender in this society. 

Since Season 1 of this Game of Thrones prequel, Daemon’s quest for power and dominance has been abundantly clear. From the actions he employed as commander of the City Watch to his constant grooming and manipulation of Rhaenyra, his primary motivation throughout the entire series has been to spit in the face of the brother who refused to make him heir as he attempts to forcibly take that power for himself. His movements across this chessboard have always positioned him as an opportunist, and that quality is what defines the relationship he shares with Rhaenyra in particular, especially as she grows from a child into a woman throughout the series. 

While Daemon and Rhaenyra dance around each other during Season 1’s pre-time jump setting, the tension and attraction finally comes to a head when Daemon takes his young niece to a brothel in King’s Landing, insisting that she experience something beyond the walls of the Red Keep for once—with his guidance, of course. When the two finally share a kiss in the middle of the brothel, Daemon indulges Rhaenyra until he finally pulls away, denying her the “pleasure” he insisted she witness with her own eyes. In doing so, he’s set his trap: he sought to ensnare Rhaenyra, to make her chase after his admiration for the rest of her life. By making his attention a challenge in that moment, Daemon sets a plan in motion that he’ll reap years down the line. Because even after Viserys (Paddy Considine) denies his plea to wed a now “sullied” Rhaenyra to him—Daemon insists that he will accept her “as she is,” like she’s a TV someone posted on Facebook Marketplace—he settles in to play the long game instead. He travels back to the Vale, where he kills his current wife and waits patiently for Rhaenyra to come running back to him, denying her his presence for nearly a decade so that she’s just as eager to leap into his arms as he expects. 

And Rhaenyra does. Upon their first meeting in years, Rhaenyra and Daemon consummate their relationship on the beach at Driftmark while Rhaenyra’s husband, Laenor (John Macmillan), mourns the loss of his sister (and Daemon’s second wife), Laena (Nanna Blondell). Rhaenyra insists that she needs Daemon by her side because her claim would not be so easily challenged if she were to wed within her house, and while that may be true, it also plays right into Daemon’s hand. From the moment Viserys affirmed Rhaenyra’s claim to the throne, Daemon consistently ensured his niece saw him not only as a beacon of strength, but as an ally who would be in constant support of her actions; playing the cool uncle to Viserys’ overbearing father. And it’s with that influence that Rhaenyra marches headlong into her own undoing—at least in Daemon’s eyes. He has crafted, groomed, himself a scared little girl trapped in a ruler’s body, believing that she needs the gentle hand of her uncle-husband at her back to make any and all decisions. 

Rhaenyra played the role of the doting wife and loyal companion admirably, but Season 2 finally allows her to see and understand just how manipulative Daemon has always been, and Season 2 Episode 2 provided the first crack in Rhaenyra’s trust in her husband. As Rhaenyra presses Daemon on his role in the slaying of Aegon’s (Tom Glynn-Carney) young son, she finally sees plainly what has been transpiring under her nose since she was small: as she laments Daemon for weakening her claim to the throne, for hindering her ability to raise an army, and for splattering an innocent child’s blood on her hands, she understands that this outcome has been his intention all along. Rhaenyra breaks and says, “I have never trusted you wholly, much though I wished to, willed myself to,” with a weary resignation of the fears that have clearly been brewing in the back of her mind for years. Because, as much as Daemon would prefer her to be the wide-eyed and eager girl he once controlled, this grown Rhaenyra is strong and cunning in her own right, eager to prove herself worthy of the throne her father insisted she sit upon. She confronts Daemon about his loyalties and calls him pathetic, all before he storms out of her chambers and away from Dragonstone to Harrenhal, where he has been ever since. 

At Harrenhal, under the influence of its haunted halls and seemingly the mysterious Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), Daemon continues to dream of Rhaenyra, but not in her current form. Instead, she is just a young girl once again (portrayed by a returning Milly Alcock), wearing the necklace he laid upon her in the very first episode of the series and cleaning up his mess by sewing the young child’s head back onto his body. Here, House of the Dragon makes crystal clear what has been obvious from the very first episode: Daemon’s preferred version of Rhaenyra will always be the impressionable young woman he seduced and manipulated, all to his own means. In Episode 5, he tells Alys that he hopes Rhaenyra will accept her fate willingly and that she’s welcome to “take her place” by his side when he takes King’s Landing for himself. In finally speaking his intentions aloud, Daemon becomes just another obstacle for Rhaenyra to cross on her way to the Iron Throne, another villain she must slay (either figuratively or literally) to claim her birthright. 

As House of the Dragon implements its commentary on misogyny and sexism into its storylines in a more meaningful way than just reminding the audience every few episodes of “The Queen That Never Was,” Rhaenyra’s journey out of Daemon’s violent grasp allows the series to examine just how close to home her challengers lie, forcing her to confront the ways she was manipulated and abused as a child in order for her to move forward in the season’s remaining episodes. She reclaims her power as she makes Daemon’s once-paramour her master of whispers, and as she sends one of her council members to check up on her Lord Husband at Harrenhal. These power moves grant Rhaenyra agency in both this war and the series’ overarching storyline, finally allowing her to be something more than a figurehead moving at others’ whims. 

Daemon showing his cards and Rhaenyra seeing through his facade runs a brilliant parallel to Alicent’s (Olivia Cooke) storyline in King’s Landing as well, as she becomes nothing more than a wall ornament in the small council she once ruled. House of the Dragon is finally committed to its overt commentary surrounding the ways in which Westerosi rule refuses to bend and break to a woman, on both Team Black and Team Green. The series removing Daemon’s facade is the first step in House of the Dragon‘s expansion towards a more nuanced, mirrored examination of this regressive society, allowing a reinvigorated Rhaenyra (and, by extension, Alicent) to confront these challenges head on—and (hopefully) overcome them. 

Anna Govert is the TV Editor of Paste Magazine. For any and all thoughts about TV, film, and her unshakable love of complicated female villains, you can follow her @annagovert.

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