Oh Daemon. That’s all I could think for the entire seventh episode of House of the Dragon, where we saw the aftermath of the death of Laena Velaryon and what happened with Daemon and their twin daughters as a result. What we ended up getting was a funeral where Daemon was so distraught by his lot in life that he laughed out loud at one point, and at the same time, Laenor was mourning his sister by standing out in the ocean.
Everyone was off the rails (understandably so), and it led to one of the most tension-filled episodes in the soap opera of Westeros yet. And who was there just watching it all unfold in the background? None other than my drama king Daemon Targaryen. In a stellar performance from Matt Smith, the episode was a lot of Daemon unpacking things in his life that he might not have been ready to think about.
Outside of the funeral, Daemon also came to terms with his connection to his niece Rhaenyra, and the two were wed after they staged the death of Laenor, and it was just, in all, a really good episode of not only House of the Dragon, but one of the best of the entire Game of Thrones franchise, too.
Apart from Daemon uniting with Rhaenyra and the two lying together, we also had a battle between the children that led to my favorite part of the episode.
The drama king in rare form
Aemond doesn’t have a dragon. It’s something that he’s teased about, and it’s a problem for him. So when Laena’s dragon is, essentially, up for grabs, he steps in front of Laena’s own children and claims the dragon late at night when everyone is supposed to be sleeping. It is truly a rude move, so when he’s confronted by the twins and Rhaenyra’s sons, I am Team Them when they start beating him up.
To be fair, Aemond starts it. He is aggressive towards Rhaena, who was meant to claim the dragon, and throws those children around him down to the ground, so the fact that they fight back isn’t really their fault. Still, the fight turns ugly when he’s about to bash in his cousin’s head with a rock, so Jacaerys and Lucerys are in the midst of fighting Aemond and a knife is used, resulting in Aemond losing an eye.
In the grand scheme of things, Aemond was going to end up killing someone, but Alicent, in her holier than thou attitude, didn’t care what happened except that her son lost an eye, and if she would have listened, it was Aemond’s fault. But as the parents are all screaming at each other and fighting is breaking out, there stands Daemon.
We keep checking in on Daemon, and it almost feels like he’s our reaction to what’s going on. He is leaning on the back wall and smirking at all the fighting breaking out, and if that’s not relatable to anyone with a larger family, I do not know what is.
Honestly? I’m kind of happy that Daemon and Rhaenyra are figuring their things out. I like that they got married and that Laenor got to have his own happy ending, and that it wasn’t a big mess. I also hope we continue to get Daemon just standing in the background reacting to things because this was great.
(featured image: HBO)
