Daemon’s House of the Dragon arc is patterned after a pivotal Targaryen tyrant
Throughout Daenerys Targaryen’s rise to power in Game of Thrones, the specter of her father, the Mad King Aerys, looms large. In the course of the series, as Daenerys experiences setbacks and successes in her quest for the Iron Throne, numerous characters, from Barristan Selmy to Tyrion Lannister to Varys to Jon Snow, question whether she will ultimately exhibit greatness or succumb to the genetically predisposed madness of her line.
Similarly, House of the Dragon uses the memory of a prior king known for his brutality and cruelty to inform the characterization of one of its central characters, Prince Daemon. The repeated invocations of King Maegor the Cruel in relation to Daemon throughout the series are no accident. But who exactly was Maegor the Cruel, and what is the show trying to say about Daemon by creating this link between the two?
Maegor the Cruel was son of Aegon the Conqueror and the third Targaryen ruler of the Seven Kingdoms. Like his descendant Daemon, he was a second son, with his elder half-brother Aenys the heir to Aegon’s throne. Where Aenys took to cerebral pursuits, Maegor was more of a jock. When he turned 13, his mother Visenya gifted him her Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister, and he was knighted by his father at the age of 16, making him the youngest knight in the realm at the time.
Despite their different proclivities, Aenys and Maegor got along well enough. When Aegon died, Aenys declared to his brother, “We shall rule this realm together, you and I,” but in practice, Aenys alone was crowned. Maegor did help his brother (brutally) put down several rebellions and was named Hand of the King. Yet the brothers fell out over a marriage. After 13 childless years with Ceryse Hightower, Maegor decided
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