Daemon’s House of the Dragon Plan links him to an important Targaryen tyrant

During Daenerys Targaryen’s rise to power in game of Thrones, the specter of her father, the mad king Aerys, looms afar. Throughout the series, as Daenerys experiences setbacks and successes in her quest for the Iron Throne, numerous characters, from Barristan Selmy to Tyrion Lannister and Varys to Jon Snow, question whether they will ultimately show greatness or succumb to the insanity genetically predisposed to their lineage .

Similar, house of the dragon uses the memory of a previous king known for his brutality and ferocity to inform the characterization of one of his central characters, Prince Daemon. King Maegor the Cruel’s repeated invocations regarding Daemon throughout the series are no coincidence. But who exactly was Maegor the Cruel and what is the show trying to say about Daemon by making this connection between the two?

The Abomination on the Iron Throne

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

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, and his elder half-brother Aenys was the heir to Aegon’s throne. Where Aenys went into cerebral pursuits, Maegor was more of a jock. When he turned 13, his mother Visenya gifted him her Valyrian steel sword, the 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 tastes, Aenys and Maegor got along well enough. When Aegon died, Aenys declared to his brother, “We will rule this realm together, you and I”, but in reality only Aenys was crowned. Maegor helped his brother (brutally) put down several rebellions and was named Hand of the King. But the brothers fell out over a marriage. After 13 childless years with Ceryse Hightower, Maegor decided to take a second wife, an act so insulting to the faith of the Seven and so angering the common people that King Aenys gave him an ultimatum: put his second wife aside or go to the exile . Maegor chose exile.

He returned when Aenys suddenly died, but instead of bending the knee to Aenys’ heir, Maegor’s nephew Aegon, Maegor claimed the Iron Throne for himself. Eventually, Aegon began to gather forces to make his claim, prompting Maegor to meet him in battle on Balerion the Black Dread – the largest of the Targaryen dragons in Westeros. He slew his kin (and the true heir to the Iron Throne), earning him the nickname “Maegor the Cruel” and a black mark as a kinslayer, believed to be one of the most cursed and dishonorable things anyone can do in Westeros can be.

Maegor’s conflict with the Church and capacity for cruelty escalated when he took a third wife, leading to a religious uprising led by the Warrior’s Sons and the Faith Militant (the Church’s military arms). The uprising ended when Maegor used Dragonfire to burn the Sept of Remembrance and all within. He then ordered the construction of the Dragon Pit where the church once stood. In other construction-related atrocities, Maegor celebrated the completion of the Red Keep by throwing a huge three-day festival for all who worked on its construction; When the festival was over, he had all the workers executed to make sure he was the only one who fully knew the many hidden chambers and secret passages.

Maegor’s reign of six years and 66 days ended when his gruesome and mysterious death gave birth to one of the great urban legends of the Seven Kingdoms. It ended up as it existed, drenched in blood.

Maegor reborn

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

Just as the Mad King looms over Daenerys throughout game of ThronesMaegor is consistently compared to Prince Daemon in an obvious and subtle way house of the dragon. In Episode 1, Otto Hightower openly warns that appointing Daemon heirs risks giving the realm another Maegor the Cruel. Much of that sentiment comes from Otto running his own long game to gain control of the succession, but there are grains of truth that underscore the comparison that helps him resonate.

Like Maegor, Daemon is a second son, and like Maegor, his claim to the throne is usurped by his brother’s child. Both wore Dark Sister. Both achieved military fame and glory fighting pirates in the Stepstones. Both are considered warriors compared to their more literal brethren. And both were banished by their royal brethren for their transgressions. But despite Otto’s claims, Maegor remains more of a worst-case scenario for Daemon’s development than a reflection of who he is and when house of the dragon begins.

In Episode 2, however, Daemon apparently leans into the comparison for his own ends: banished from the courthouse, perched atop Dragonstone, desperate for his brother’s attention, he steals a dragon egg for his unborn child via a woman he announces that he wants to get married – although he is already married to another woman. While it is the dragon egg that ultimately ignites the spark among Viserys, Daemon’s (ultimately false) explanation of his intention to take a second wife is immediately reminiscent of Maegor’s history with polygamy and the manner in which his desire to marry and reconcile marrying led to significant fighting with the church and massive bloodshed throughout the empire. The standoff in Dragonstone is perhaps Daemon’s most Maegor-esque.

Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

While house of the dragon reinforces the Maegor/Daemon comparison – the Dragonstone patch is almost entirely a creation of the show, adding heightened drama and cinematic panache to what is quickly brushed aside Fire & Blood – Showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik ultimately pick up on what George RR Martin wrote down, as the parallels between Maegor and Daemon come from the text of the book itself. Like the showrunners, Martin clearly wants readers to keep Maegor on their mind as they read about Daemon (and readers of Fire & Blood knowing the Maegor/Daemon comps aren’t done yet) to worry alongside Otto Hightower and the rest of the empire that Daemon is leaning too much into that comparison.

Thankfully, Rhaenyra is able to defuse the situation in Episode 2 – and Daemon proves better than his great-granduncle at not slaying his niece, the person above him in the line of succession. In Episode 4, Daemon returns to court and fixes things with Viserys, only to be thrown out again after being caught almost getting involved with Rhaenyra (important note: one of Maegor’s six wives was his Niece). But Daemon Targaryen’s story is not over yet, and the specter of Maegor will continue to hover over him as he progresses deeper into the Dance of the Dragons.

Just like the narrative tension created by wondering how Daenerys’ coin would land, house of the dragon conjures up the memory of the cruellest Targaryen ruler to tease the worst-case scenario for Daemon’s character sheet.