Why is Daemon Targaryen so boring this season on House of the Dragon?

At the end of the first season of House of the Dragon, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) learns that her son Lucerys Velaryon (Elliot Grihault) has been killed by her own nephew Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), whose brother Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) is contesting her claim to the Iron Throne. We view Rhaenyra from behind as she buckles under the weight of this news, clearly distraught. And then see her straighten up and slowly turn around, her face a mask of rage. Next season, we think, Rhaenyra will surely breath fire.

But when the next season finally started in June, that didn't happen. Rhaenyra spent the premiere episode in mourning for her son and has been a model of composure ever since, doing everything she can to avoid plunging the Seven Kingdoms into war before finally allowing her cousin Rhaenys (Eve Best) to fight on her behalf, a suggestion Rhaenys herself first makes. Her journey has been interesting, but we've gotten none of the blood and fire promised by that powerful image at the end of season 1.

Something similar is happening with Rhaenyra's husband (and uncle) Daemon Targaryen, played by Matt Smith. In the first season, we came to know Daemon as the kind of man who would cut off the top of a guy's head in open court for speaking out of turn. He seduced and married his own niece, and attacked her during an argument years later. Daemon's actions were monstrous, but sometimes he would do something decent for his brother or for Rhaenyra and you would start to like him, only to remember that he killed his first wife by bashing her head in with a rock and snap back to reality. This back and forth, together with Smith's performance, made Daemon the most exciting, interesting character in the first season.

But then came season 2, and the fire seems to have gone out. Daemon begins the season by sending a pair of assassins into the Red Keep to kill Aemond, which seems like something he'd do. The assassins go botch the job and kill King Aegon's young son Prince Jaehaerys instead, which leads to a monster of an argument between Daemon and Rhaenyra about how irresponsible and selfish he is. After that, Daemon flies on his dragon Caraxes to the ruined castle of Harrenhal, where things have slowed down considerably.

Daemon has ostensibly come to Harrenhal to raise an army on Rhaenyra's behalf, but is actually planning to make a run at the Iron Throne for himself. But he's not doing a great job. In the most recent episode, he teams up with House Blackwood to try and pressure House Bracken into joining his cause, which backfires: on Daemon's command, the Blackwoods commit war crimes against the Brackens, which pressures them into joining Daemon's host. But another group of Riverlords is so affronted by this that they confront Daemon in Harrenhal and proclaim that they would never join their strength to one such as them.

I found this hard to believe. In the episode before this one, we saw Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) march through the Crownlands gathering strength from those houses willing to pledge loyalty to King Aegon, and sacking those that wouldn't. When he executed the lord of House Darklyn, the remaining Darklyn men were concripted into Criston's army. But when Daemon attacks what he sees as a rebel house, a group of Riverlords tsk-tsk him in the night. This attitude seems hopefully naive in a place like Westeros, which we've long learned is ruled by the sword. Even if these Riverlords have grown used to peace, their attitude seems absurdly pollyannaish.

It's worth noting that in George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood, we don't hear of Daemon having any trouble raising an army in the Riverlands. He teams up with House Blackwood and threatens to burn the families of the resisting Bracken lords, who quickly capitulate. The rest of the Riverlords follow.

The writers of House of the Dragon have changed things on purpose. They've added in dream sequences where Daemon is haunted by the specters of his past misdeeds and presented him with contrived obstacles to overcome. The result is that a character who was built up as dangerous and competent now feels foolish and ineffective, and a storyline fans expected to feel exciting feels sluggish and confusing. What happened?

Why is Daemon like this now?

Trying to think of why the writers may have pivoted like this, a few ideas come to mind. The simplest is that Matt Smith is a terrific actor and the most famous person in the cast, and they wanted to give him something to do. In the book, his story is pretty straightforward; as mentioned, he basically rolls over the Riverlands. So to fill it out, the show has him contesting Rhaenyra's throne and finding that he's way worse at it than he should be.

Given how unsatisfying this new turn has been, I'd have preferred the writers stuck closer to the book, featured a bit less of Daemon, and given the excess screentime to characters like Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban) or Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), or perhaps developed the relationship between Jacaerys Targaryen (Harry Collett) and Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia). Mileage will vary.

I also recall a quote from executive producer Sara Hess. Towards the end of the first season, she expressed bewilderment that fans had taken such a shine to Daemon. “He’s become Internet Boyfriend in a way that baffles me,” Hess said. “Not that Matt isn’t incredibly charismatic and wonderful, and he’s incredible in the role. But Daemon himself is … I don’t want him to be my boyfriend! I’m a little baffled how they’re all, ‘Oh, daddy!’ And I’m just like: ‘Really?’ How — in what way — was he a good partner, father or brother — to anybody? You got me. He ain’t Paul Rudd."

I know she's just responding off the cuff during an interview, so we don't need to give this quote too much weight, but I remember that it struck me as strange when I first read it. For as long as there's been fiction, people have been drawn to characters who are violent, unpredictable, and dangerous. Why do you think the vengeful, heartless Heathcliffe has been a literary icon since Wuthering Heights came out in 1847? We love villains, even and maybe especially when the villains are also the good guys. We see ourselves in their transgressiveness and delight in how they break taboos, and it's always been that way. Of course people were attracted to Daemon Targaryen in the first season. Few characters mix good and bad quite like him.

But in season 2, his badness is blunted. Daemon threatens to burn House Bracken if they don't join him, but when the Bracken lords refuse, he doesn't follow through on the threat, instead enlisting Willem Blackwood to do his dirty work for him in what seems like a hopelessly circuitous and complicated scheme for a guy like Daemon.

It's like the show wants Daemon to retain his claim to badness but no longer wants to show him doing anything bad, and to punish him when he manages to anyway. House of the Dragon has a habit of shielding characters like this. In the first season, Aemond Targaryen didn't actually mean to kill Luke; he just lost control of his dragon Vhagar. Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) didn't really want to put her son Aegon on the throne over Rhaenyra; she just misinterpreted her dying husband the king's final words. I see the same kind of logic at work with Daemon now, and it's as dull and frustrating as it was then.

I wonder if the writers saw how popular Daemon was becoming and figured they needed to blunt his edges in order to make him a character worthy of such esteem, to force him through a personal reckoning so the internet's problematic fave would be less problematic. While House of the Dragon's predecessor Game of Thrones understood that fans fall in love with characters precisely because they were subversive and difficult and dangerous, House of the Dragon seems to not want its lead characters to step too far over the line, whether out of fear that fans won't like them, or fear that they'll send the wrong message, or whatever.

If this is the case, I implore the writers to change course, because penning characters in like this only makes them less interesting; please, let them be as loathsome, admirable, disgusting and honorable as they need to be, and we'll love them for it.

Or maybe there's some greater design here I'm not seeing. Showrunner Ryan Condal has named Daemon's story as the one he's most proud of in season 2, saying that he thinks they "stuck the landing on it." So maybe I'll look back on this in a couple of weeks and realize it was all a part of the larger puzzle, but right now I'm irritated and bored, which isn't how I like to feel after a new episode of House of the Dragon.

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