House of the Dragon: Will Daemon Die in the Dance of the Dragons? This Is What The Books Say!
The factions in House of the Dragon are already established and ready for the civil war to come, with Daemon and Rhaenyra Targaryen plotting to marry and Alicent and her father plotting for more power. The civil war in the Seven Kingdoms will be fought by the Greens and the Blacks, with the former supporting Queen Alicent Hightower and her son Aegon II Targaryen as the true heir to the Iron Throne. On the other hand, the Blacks are loyal to the crown princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, who has the dragon and the support of her husband/uncle Daemon.
Daemon Targaryen’s Story In House Of The Dragon
Prince Daemon, played by Matt Smith, has had an arc of personal discovery in the series and along with his great red dragon, Caraxes is one of the most feared characters in Westeros. In the series, he began as a bratty and rebellious man who did not accept the wife he had been given, in addition to seeking acceptance and respect from Viserys by declaring war against the Crab Feeder for control of the Stone Steps. Years later and after a costly war, Daemon is victorious and returns to King’s Landing, but after sneaking out and seducing Rhaenyra he is exiled by King Viserys. Since then, Daemon causes the death of his wife Lady Rhea Royce, then he marries Laena Velaryon and they have two daughters together.
But when trying to give birth to her third baby, the delivery is complicated and Laena dies by ordering her dragon to burn her. It is at Laena’s funeral, after a decade, that Daemon and Rhaenyra meet again and the passion between them is reborn. In addition to making a union to increase their political forces, they marry for love. Daemon’s personality has made him a favorite in the series, but, being a lover of war, death is always around him, and sooner or later Daemon will meet a fatal end.
House of the Dragon: How Does Daemon Targaryen Die?
After the wedding between Rhaenyra and Daemon, there will be a time jump of eight years, which will start the Dance of Dragons, a civil war that will face the Targaryen House in search of control of the throne. According to George RR Martin’s books, this union allows them to have a very large force and take King’s Landing by force from the Greens, whereupon Rhaenyra becomes queen and Daemon her adviser and companion. But her enemies still hadn’t given up, so Rhaenyra focuses on assassinating Aegon II and ending the debate over who is the true heir. Daemon confronts Aemond, the rider of the dragon Vhagar.
Daemon took control of Harrenhal and from there challenged his nephew Aemond to combat. His battle is known as one of the largest and most violent in the Dance of Dragons. Mounted on Caraxes and Vhagar, the two Targaryens face each other in the air. As both dragons were intertwined, Daemon jumped onto Vhagar’s back and plunged his sword through Aemond’s eye. However, Vhagar and Caraxes had been mortally wounded, so both dragons fell into The Gods Eye Lake. Only Caraxes emerged from the water, but he died upon reaching the gates of Harrenhal.
Years later, the bodies of Aemond and Vhagar were found, with Alicent’s son still having Daemon’s Dark Sister sword buried in his eye. No trace of the prince was found. In the official story that was the moment Daemon Targaryen died, but since his body was never found, rumors spread that he managed to escape and start a new life with his alleged lover Nettles. This opens the possibility that in House of the Dragon Daemon is one of the characters that survive and has a happy ending different from the book, as happened to Laenor Velaryon with her faked death.
House of the Dragon: What Will Happen To Daemon Targaryen?
Daemon had already been exiled from his kingdom in the past when he celebrated the birth and death of his brother’s son by calling him “heir for a day”. The feud between the chieftains of the Targaryen clan was resolved with the younger brother bringing the crown of the Stone Steps to Viserys. But this time, the offense seems much more serious, since Daemon even suggested marrying Rhaenyra, so the monarch may not forget the grievance so easily. In the book ‘Fire & Blood’, on which the House of the Dragon series is based, Daemon decides to go to the Stepping Stones after being expelled from the kingdom for trying to seduce Rhaenyra. Without his brother’s inheritance and with a nearly broken relationship with the princess, Daemon’s only option is to find another way to amass power in Westeros: join Corlys Velaryon, the “sea serpent.”
If the series follows the events of the novel that inspired it, Daemon will be on the Stepping Stones for a few months, until he learns of the death of his wife Rhea Royce. Following that event, the prince uses this opportunity to meet with the Velaryons. Some weeks later, he falls in love with Laena, the daughter of Corlys and Rhaenys. But as seen in the fourth episode of ‘House of Dragon’, this girl was already engaged to one of the sons of House Braavos, the most powerful family in the Free Cities.
It has already been confirmed that in the fifth episode the series will have another time jump, a time that will be used by Daemon to convince Corlys to break his daughter’s engagement. In the novel ‘Fire & Blood’, Corlys reveals to Daemon that he had already tried to break the marriage pact, so he asks the prince to challenge the Braavos to an owner for Laena’s hand. Thanks to his great skill in combat, Daemon wins and manages to marry the Velaryon heiress, with whom he has two children. It is possible that after that, the series will advance its plot at least 10 years in the future, showing the beginning of the war that will be known as the Dance of the Dragons.
