Whereas Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) battle for management of Westeros, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) resides in his personal private horror film.
His troubles began in episode 3 of Home of the Dragon‘s second season, when he acquired a haunting imaginative and prescient of younger Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) after conquering Harrenhal. Episode 4, “A Dance of Dragons,” kicks these visions up a notch, as Daemon receives not one, not two, however three haunting guests. Plus, a nightcap with witch-in-residence Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) gives up an evidence of why Daemon could also be getting these guests within the first place.
Let’s break it down.
Daemon’s Harrenhal imaginative and prescient in ‘Home of the Dragon’ Season 2, episode 3, defined
What does Daemon’s episode 4 imaginative and prescient of younger Rhaenyra imply?
Milly Alcock in “House of the Dragon.”
Credit score: Ollie Upton / HBO
“A Dance of Dragons” opens with Daemon’s imaginative and prescient of the Nice Corridor on the Purple Maintain. As soon as once more, he comes head to head with younger Rhaenyra, who now sits on the Iron Throne. However one thing’s shifted. In Daemon’s imaginative and prescient of younger Rhaenyra in episode 3, she was carrying the identical gold costume as within the first half of Season 1. Nevertheless, this manifestation of younger Rhaenyra is dressed similar to grownup Rhaenyra; she’s carrying an extended black and crimson robe and the crown of Jaehaerys the Conciliator.
As episode 3 director Geeta Vasant Patel stated, Daemon views younger Rhaenyra as somebody who actually knew him, who cherished him and worshipped him when his personal brother Viserys (Paddy Considine) scorned him. In the meantime, present-day Rhaenyra forged him apart following the reveal that he was complicit in younger Jaehaerys’ homicide. Seeing adolescent Rhaenyra tackle the clothes and perspective of grownup Rhaenyra destabilizes Daemon proper off the bat.
Making issues worse is what this imaginative and prescient of Rhaenyra really says to Daemon. As of their episode 2 argument, she needles at considered one of his biggest insecurities, that Viserys by no means cherished him as a lot as he cherished Rhaenyra. And regardless that Daemon “created” Queen Rhaenyra — actually crowning her within the Season 1 finale — is he actually supportive of her? Or is he hellbent on destroying her and taking energy for himself? Rhaenyra delivers these phrases in Excessive Valyrian, a language that she and Daemon usually spoke alone collectively early in Season 1 and that holds fairly a little bit of intimacy for the 2 of them.
The mixture of that intimate language getting used to hurt him and the mixing of younger and grownup Rhaenyra proves an excessive amount of for Daemon. On this imaginative and prescient, he beheads younger Rhaenyra with out hesitation, an act that recollects the beheading of Jaehaerys at his behest, and his beheading of Vaemond Velaryon (Wil Johnson) in Season 1. However even then, the horrors aren’t over: Rhaenyra’s disembodied head asks Daemon whether or not that is what he is all the time needed. Is he actually that monstrous?
Mashable High Tales
What do Daemon’s visions of Aemond Targaryen and Laena Velaryon imply?
Ewan Mitchell in “House of the Dragon.”
Credit score: Ollie Upton / HBO
Daemon continues to reckon along with his worst fears as “A Dance of Dragons” continues. His subsequent imaginative and prescient is considered one of Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell). Properly, type of. Daemon sees somebody who seems loads like Aemond Targaryen strolling via Harrenhal. From behind, he can see that this determine has lengthy, Targaryen-blonde hair, in addition to an eyepatch. Nevertheless, when the determine turns round, we see that it is really Daemon, made to appear like Aemond.
There are a number of layers right here. First, Daemon and Aemond act as mirrors to one another. Each are youthful brothers of kings, and each are considered as extra harmful than their siblings. However because the Dance of the Dragons will get underway, the 2 achieve a horrible new commonality. Within the Season 1 finale, Aemond’s actions led to the dying of Lucerys (Elliot Grihault), a toddler. Daemon’s retaliation, whereas initially focusing on Aemond, additionally results in the dying of a kid: Jaehaerys. So when Daemon sees Aemond in Harrenhal, he is not simply seeing somebody with the same life path to him. He is seeing himself as a fellow child-murderer and a fellow kinslayer. Plus, followers of George R.R. Martin’s Hearth & Blood may even know that Daemon and Aemond’s fates are each intertwined with the citadel of Harrenhal, so the Daemon-Aemond connection right here is very prescient.
In spite of everything that, Harrenhal nonetheless is not accomplished with Daemon. Throughout a gathering with Home Blackwood, a imaginative and prescient warps a serving lady into Daemon’s late spouse, Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell). As soon as once more, this ghostly apparition is a reminder of what Daemon has misplaced, in addition to his doable monstrosity. Whereas Laena died by suicide, commanding Vhagar to burn her throughout a painful, seemingly deadly labor, there was an opportunity that Daemon would have compelled a C-section upon her to avoid wasting his baby, simply as Viserys did to Aemma Arryn (Sian Brooke) in Home of the Dragon‘s premiere.
Why is Daemon getting these visions within the first place, and what does Alys Rivers must do with it?
Gayle Rankin in “House of the Dragon.”
Credit score: Ollie Upton / HBO
Daemon’s nightmarish sleepwalks lead him to Alys Rivers, a bastard lady who’s overtaken the duties of Harrenhal’s Maester. You could keep in mind her as the girl who tells Daemon, “You will die in this place,” on his first evening in Harrenhal. What a heat welcome!
In Hearth & Blood, numerous accounts describe Alys as “a serving wench who dabbled in potions and spells,” “a woods witch,” and “a malign enchantress who bathed in the blood of virgins to preserve her youth.” Evidently, she’s a robust lady in her personal proper — though Home of the Dragon is to date protecting no matter mysterious skills she could have considerably secret.
Alys gives Daemon a historical past lesson that hints at why he retains getting unusual visions. Harrenhal is cursed, she says. When Harren the Black constructed it, he lower down the sacred weirwood timber that used to develop the place Harrenhal now stands. “Heart trees imbued with the spirits of those who lived long before he came,” Alys explains. “It’s said their whispers can still be heard sometimes.”
Daemon is fast to dismiss Alys’ account as a midwives’ story. However on condition that his mattress was constituted of a weirwood tree, and that his first imaginative and prescient of younger Rhaenyra led him to the one weirwood tree that also stands in Harrenhal’s courtyard, it is clear that her phrases maintain extra reality than he would possibly suppose.
Is the curse of Harrenhal all that is affecting Daemon, although? Or is a few of Alys’ witchcraft at work as properly? She offers him a draught that she claims will assist him sleep, but he seems disoriented — and nonetheless sees Laena! — whereas ingesting it. Alys additionally pokes at Daemon’s insecurities about Viserys passing him up as inheritor, one thing his imaginative and prescient of Rhaenyra introduced up in the beginning of the episode. Can she see Daemon’s visions too? Or is she instantly chargeable for them? Both manner, one thing supernatural is certainly afoot.
New episodes of Home of the Dragon air Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and Max.
