George R.R. Martin’s fictional world can be known for its incongruous, controversial relationships, and at the heart of it, for the moment, is the pairing of House of the Dragon’s Daemon (Matt Smith) and Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy).
Game of Thrones portrayed the incestuous affair between Cersei (Lena Headey) and Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) as something that desperately needed to be a secret. That is not the case for characters in House of the Dragon. In the universe of A Song of Ice and Fire, Targaryens famously marry within the family to keep their bloodlines pure and their dragons from falling into non-Targaryen hands.
In fact, the custom is so commonplace during the time period of House of the Dragon that, at one point, King Viserys’ (Paddy Considine) Hand, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), suggested that he should marry his daughter, Rhaenyra, to his infant son, her half-brother, Aegon.
That does not happen, and instead, Rhaenyra marries her uncle, Daemon, after the “death” of her first husband, Laenor Velaryon, to strengthen her claim as the heir to the Iron Throne. But that, of course, does not come out of nowhere. It becomes quite clear early in the show that, as uncle and niece, Daemon and Rhaenyra share an intimate relationship — one that would be considered inappropriate in the real world.
Ryan Condal did not like the audience’s reaction to Daemon and Rhaenyra
Speaking with Esquire earlier this month, House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal admitted that the way the audience embraced “Daemyra” right from season 1 bothered him.
“In the first season, I thought the text would be controversial,” he said. “We’re having a guy marry his niece, and she’s underage. I thought, ‘Is anybody going to watch the show?’”
“People were really into it in a way that really upset me. I mean, talk about controversy,” Condal added.
Rhaenyra is in her 20s in the books and in her 30s in the show when she marries Daemon, but she is underage during their season 1 dalliance.
In season 1 episode 4, Daemon sneaks a young Rhaenyra, then played by Milly Alcock, out of the Red Keep into the Street of Silk, the entertainment and brothel district in King's Landing, and they share a kiss and more at a pleasure house. Daemon stops before things turn more intimate, but when Viserys confronts him later, he urges his brother to marry Rhaenyra to him.
Many who came into the show unaware of the pairing were shocked and grossed out, and some said that Daemon was “grooming” her niece to gain a political upper hand. However, a lot of people also signed up for it pretty quickly, giving them the ship name “Daemyra.”
The pairing reportedly ranked at No. 17 on popular fanfic website Archive of Our Own’s top 100 popular ships list in 2023, the year after season 1 aired.
The brothel scene was written to be “traumatic”
Condal has previously discussed audience’s reactions to the couple. “I mean, nothing surprises me these days,” he told Variety in 2022 when he was asked for his opinion on fans shipping Daemon and Rhaenyra.
“I really didn’t know what people were going to make of that at all. Look, it’s part of the story, and I think that’s what makes it fascinating, because it sort of is taboo in a way and in our modern sensibility,” Condal stated.
He admitted that it was “pretty taboo” even for Game of Thrones standards, and attributed the success of the pairing to Smith and Alcock’s performances.
However, Condal clarified that, as a showrunner, he wrote the incident as damaging to Rhaenyra — one that would significantly impact her future arc. “What Daemon does to young Rhaenyra is, in modern terminology, an act of abuse. And, as a traumatic event would, it shapes who Rhaenyra becomes,” he said.
After season 1, viewers have noticed a lack of intimate scenes between Daemon and Rhaenyra, which seems to be an intentional choice by the writers. There was even a filmed kiss in season 3 that ultimately was cut, leaving Daemyra shippers confused and frustrated.
House of the Dragon’s fourth and final season is set to release sometime in 2028.
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