Young Rhaenyra is haunting Daemon Targaryen on House of the Dragon. But why? Is his own guilty conscience the reason for his nightmares? Is his last meeting with his wife, where she challenged everything he’s ever done or wanted, weighing so heavily on his mind that self-doubt is keeping him up at night? Or are those terrible dreams really the work of cursed Harrenhal’s ghosts? It could be all three. Or it could be none of them, because it’s possible the mysterious Alys Rivers is causing Daemon on that grief on House of the Dragon.
King Consort Daemon Targaryen arrived at Harrenhal during House of the Dragon‘s third episode in season two. His nightmares in that cold, wet, ruined castle began immediately. He had a dream—or was it a waking vision?—of his wife as a young woman (played once again by Milly Alcock). She was sitting by a fire sewing the head of little Jaehaerys back onto his body. The young, innocent prince was the victim of Daemon’s despicable Blood and Cheese assassination plot. “Always coming and going, aren’t you?” said Rhaenyra. “And I have to clean up afterwards.”
That scene clearly upset Daemon in the moment. It also reflected his own guilt. He’d caused Rhaenyra a problem and then left her to deal with it herself yet again. He’d also murdered a child and now had to literally face what he’d done. Yet what happened next troubled him even more.
After seeing the dead Jaehaerys, Daemon suddenly found himself outside standing near a dying weirwood tree at night. Was he still dreaming? Had he ever been? Or had he slept walk to this eerie place where he was now awake?
Those questions didn’t matter as much when he realized he wasn’t alone. Below him stood the woman he’d seen earlier during his arrival, the only person at Harrenhal who didn’t kneel to him. She then delivered the most ominous of messages: “You will die in this place.” In episode four, he learned exactly who she is. Maybe.
Before that Daemon had another nightmare about his wife as a young woman. In this dream he entered an otherwise empty throne room in King’s Landing. Alcock’s Rhaenyra was there, sitting on the Iron Throne wearing her father’s crown and speaking High Valyrian. A frustrated Daemon could not understand her. When she came down to talk to him directly she said he “created her” as heir yet was now “intent on destroying her.” And all because Viserys loved her more. An agitated, scared Daemon kept telling her to “stop it” but when she wouldn’t, he decapitated her with his sword.
Rhaenyra’s disembodied head, streaming blood from its neck, then opened its eyes and said, “This is what you always wanted, is it not?” When Ser Simon Strong then woke Daemon up, Daemon saw blood on his hands. It quickly vanished, once again blurring the lines between Daemon’s dreams and real life. By the episode’s end, they felt like one-in-the-same.
Is Daemon’s subconscious simply relaying thoughts his waking self won’t dare admit are true? Or is he merely afraid he’s the monster Rhaenyra said he might be when they last spoke? Might these nightmares simply be the manifestation of guilt—guilt borne from being a terrible, selfish husband (and before that uncle)—he’s harboring but won’t acknowledge? It’s possible his dreams are a sign he’s not sure who he really is and what he really wants. Daemon’s own wife, the person he crowned and swore to take as his Queen, questioned all of his motives as a husband, brother, Targaryen, and man.
No matter the ultimate meaning of his dreams about Rhaenyra (which almost certainly have many layers he’ll never understand and we’ll only ever be able to debate), they show some obvious truths. Daemon is not at ease with himself, his marriage, or his station in life. He’s battling insecurity on many personal fronts. His own mind is holding him account from a lifetime of mistakes and selfish, reckless behavior.
Those questions about whether he serves himself or his own ambition took a backseat during his next nightmare. This one was about who he fears and why. In this dream, he chased his nephew Aemond through Harrenhal. Only when Aemond turned around it was Daemon himself with an eyepatch. Like his other dreams there are multiple meanings to this dark vision. For one the King Consort fears himself, as well he should. Daemon has always been his own worst enemy. But he also fears Aemond because he knows deep down just how alike he and his nephew are.
Both Targaryen princes are skilled warriors with a desire to rise above their station and rule. The two dragonriders are both fearsome and fearless, and each will do whatever it takes to destroy the other. Aemond is Daemon’s only equal. Aemond might even be his better.
Why is Daemon having these horrible dreams where he’s not even sure if he’s awake or asleep? He might have got his answer when he continued following his eye-patch doppelganger. That’s when he found Alys Rivers. The bastard of the Riverlands is now acting as the de facto maester of the castle. The last one “fled in the night” after he “never settled in.”
Alys could tell Daemon was having the same trouble getting comfortable in that damp place. She could see he’s not getting rest at a place where sleep “can be thin.” She didn’t cite Harrenhal’s leaky ceiling as the source for his obvious torture, though. Alys claimed the castle itself is the problem.
Harrenhal’s been cursed since its first stone was laid. Black Harren felled the the grove of weirwood tress that grew on these lands. Heart trees, imbued with the spirits of those who lived long before he came. It’s said their whispers can still be heard some times….
Weirwood trees are more than just religious symbols of the old gods. The Children of the Forest carved faces into them and their greenseers could see through them across time itself. And as Alys said, those heart trees were thought to house ancient spirits within them. When Harren (Hoare) the Black, last King of Isles and Rivers who followed the Drowned God, went to build his enormous castle, he chopped down all those sacred trees. He then used the wood to build furniture in Harrenhal, including the very bed Daemon is having nightmares in.
Aegon the Conqueror killed Harren and all his children the day work on Harrenhal finished. Since then everyone who has claimed the castle as their own has died. (That’s exactly what happened on Game of Thrones. Good luck to Larys Strong, current Lord who inherited it after murdering his father and brother.) Harrenhal might very well be cursed in the most literal sense, just as Alys says. Those spirits whispering to Daemon might be real and they might be preying on his insecurities, guilt, and fears trying to drive him away. Or they could be exposing him to his deepest fears to drive him mad and bring about his ruin.
Or it might not be the castle at all. It might not even be Daemon’s subconscious causing his nightmares. Alys Rivers, the strange, alluring, insightful woman who keeps showing up in the middle of his horrible visions, might be behind everything.
She was at the weirwood just as she was working in the middle of the night when his nightmare led him right to her. And rather than being afraid of her and everything she knew about him, the man who was weary of poison when he first arrived at Harrenhal, willingly took a drink from her when she offered it to him. It was though she had a control over him he wasn’t even aware of.
Whatever that potion was it was powerful. It left him in a stupefied state. Daemon lost a huge amount of time after taking it. He went from that room at night to being in a meeting with Willem Blackwood during the day.
During that meeting, where it was obvious Daemon was not okay, he saw his late wife Laena enter the room, another blurring of reality and dreams. She was maybe the only person who ever accepted Daemon for who he is and loved him fully. Her showing up in that moment, though, was anything but comforting. It was another painful reminder of a life with little happiness.
What did Alys give him and why? Why was she at that weirwood tree foretelling of his death at Harrenhal? And how did she know so much about what’s bothering Daemon? Was her keen, spot-on insight into his marital problems, his place in Targaryen pecking order, and his ambition nothing more than a smart woman picking up clues? (She cited some of those very clues.) Or is there more to Alys? And not just because she might be manipulating Daemon?
Is she actually “a barn owl, cursed to live in human form” like she jokingly said? That’s not as wild an idea as it seems. Not in a world with wargs. If a human can enter an animal’s mind, why can’t an animal enter a human’s? Or is she exactly what Daemon called her: a witch? Witches also exist in this world, and Game of Thrones‘ fans know exactly how powerful they can be. Melisandre lived for centuries and was capable of incredible magic. Maybe Alys was actually there when Harren felled those weirwoods. (IF she was an owl Harren might have cut down her home.)
Or maybe Alys is everything and more. Maybe’s she’s a witch, an owl, a warg, and a greenseer who can see across time and space. That would explains how she knows so much about Daemon.
There’s so much we don’t know about Alys Rivers just yet, but everything is on the table for the strange bastard of Harrenhal. But Daemon better hope she’s nothing more than a wise woman who gave him something to help him sleep. He better hope she’s acutely aware of her surroundings and learns through observation and experience rather than sorcery. Because if she’s more than just an intelligent woman toying with him, Daemon might truly be cursed in more ways than one.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.