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Warning: spoilers ahead for “House of the Dragon” season two.
“House of the Dragon” season two has turned Daemon Targaryen, one of the show’s most beloved characters, into a joke. It does not bode well for the future of the series.
At the end of the first season, the complex and charming Daemon (Matt Smith) emerged as one of the show’s most popular characters.
The writers and Smith found the human beneath the monster, making the character fascinating to watch.
But fans have been disappointed by Daemon’s character arc in season two, which finished on Sunday, with the main complaint being that he does next to nothing.
When Daemon leaves for Harrenhal to unite the Riverlands in episode two, he must finally decide where his loyalty lies. Will he use the army he obtains to support his wife/niece Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) war for the throne or steal it for himself?
Before he can decide, Daemon is plagued by hallucinations featuring his loved ones. It seems the hallucinations are meant to help Daemon wrestle with his dilemma.
Hallucinations are a common trope in TV and film and can help reveal a character’s deepest hopes and fears.
“House of the Dragon” writer Sara Hess told Entertainment Weekly earlier this year of Daemon’s hallucination arc: “We could use it to destabilize him enough or externalize things, even symbolically, or to show what’s going on in his heart and in his mind.”
But apart from the moment in episode five when Daemon sees and has sex with his mother, his hallucinations do not delve into the character’s history or show us things about him that we don’t already know. Instead, they’re repetitive reminders that Daemon would claim the throne at any cost.
The hallucinations keep Daemon in a tedious, static position while the rest of the characters prepare for war.
Within a few episodes, the hallucinations went from an interesting plot device to an irritating distraction that fans were quick to make fun of.
One explanation for the dream arc is that the writers did not want to stray too far away from the source material, “Fire and Blood.” Apart from a few exceptions, the TV show has mostly stayed in line with George R.R. Martin’s book.
But in the chapters adapted for season two, Daemon only goes to Harrenhal and unites the Riverlands. The writers had to decide between breaking away from the original story or sidelining Daemon, one of their biggest characters.
They chose option three — giving Daemon a hallucination arc without a satisfying payoff.
The worst part is that the hallucinations seem to be a ham-fisted attempt to get Daemon to see a vision of the future.
In the season finale, Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), Daemon’s guide through his hauntings, takes Daemon to touch Godswood, a spiritual tree. Daemon sees visions of an awful future that can only be stopped if Rhaenyra rules Westeros.
Then boom, he’s team Rhaenyra. Daemon feels no anger and has no reservations before abandoning his ambitions to support Rhaenyra. He just believes the vision.
Why were there seven episodes of Daemon contemplating a decision if he doesn’t have any choice in the matter?
Ultimately, it seems the writers had no idea what to do with Daemon and picked a safe option that they hoped wouldn’t upset book fans.
The hallucination arc wasn’t completely pointless. It did give us sweet fan service moments where Paddy Considine and Milly Alcock reprised their roles as King Viserys and young Rhaenyra and Daemon’s vision replayed moments from “Game of Thrones.”
But if the show’s writers let themselves be constricted by the book’s narrative, they risk “House of the Dragon” going stale — just like Daemon’s story arc.
