House of the Dragon season 2: What's next for Daemon Targaryen?

Daemon Targaryen is the brother of King Viserys I Targaryen and the uncle and husband of King Viserys' daughter Rhaenyra Targaryen, now one of two monarchs competing for the Iron Throne on HBO's Game of Thrones prequel show House of the Dragon. Played by Matt Smith, Daemon was arguably the breakout character from the first season of the show; fans loved his cavalier attitude, loose grasp of morality, and swaggering sex appeal.

House of the Dragon is based on the book Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin. Having read that, we have a good idea of what Daemon will get up to in the second season of House of the Dragon, which will arrive on HBO and Max sometime this summer. It's possible HBO could change some things on us, but here's what to look out for:

Daemon Targaryen will capture the castle of Harrenhal

In Fire & Blood, as the war between Rhaenyra and her half-brother Aegon Targaryen gets underway, one of the first big things Daemon does is mount his dragon Caraxes and fly to the castle of Harrenhal in the Riverlands. Harrenhal is of strategic importance to Rhaenyra's war effort, so Daemon makes a beeline for the place. In the book, he captures it without violence; seeing a man mounted on a dragon has a way of taking the fight out of would-be resisters.

Daemon then turns Harrenhal into his base of operations, successfully getting lords in the Riverlands to declare their loyalty to Rhaenyra and taking Stone Henge, the seat of House Bracken, for his queen. Later in the story, Rhaenyra's enemies will march on Harrenhal and Daemon will abandon the place, essentially leading them on a wild goose chase, but it's unclear if we'll get to that point in the story by the end of season 2.

Daemon Targaryen is instrumental in the Blood and Cheese incident

Another big thing Daemon does in the near future is put into motion a plot that will result in the murder of someone very close to Aegon Targaryen, Rhaenyra's main rival to the throne. The first season ended with Aegon's brother Aemond Targaryen killing Daemon's stepson Lucerys Velaryon. Daemon and Rhaenyra both want revenge, but in the books, it's Daemon who reaches out to contacts in King's Landing to take, as he puts it in Fire & Blood, "an eye for an eye, a son for a son." We won't spoil the specifics, but things get very bloody and very upsetting. Expect what is known about fans as the Blood and Cheese incident to go down early in the second season.

Daemon will also factor into the season in more oblique ways. In the first season, we saw him fight a man known as the Crabfeeder, who was working for an alliance of cities on Essos known as the Triarchy. The Triarchy hasn't forgotten what a thorn in their side Daemon was. Aegon's grandfather Otto Hightower will use this lingering enmity to his advantage by drafting the Triarchy into helping King Aegon in his war against Rhaenyra. This will lead to an event called the Battle of the Gullet, which will likely happen towards the end of the season, if it happens at all.

One of the final things we can see happening in House of the Dragon season 2 is for Daemon to team up with Rhaenyra and attempt to take King's Landing from King Aegon and his supporters, but it's very possible we don't get into that until season 3.

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