Aegon wasn’t written as a rapist in the books. What we actually get from reliable in-world sources is that he was a hedonist: he drank too much, slept around, had bastards, and could be handsy with the maids definitely irresponsible and definitely not good!. but not described as someone who committed outright rape. The only person who ever claims the extreme stuff is Mushroom, and Mushroom says the most unhinged, sensational things about everyone, even Rhaenyra, and he was supposedly loyal to her. If George had intended Aegon to be an actual rapist, he wouldn’t hide it behind a single unreliable narrator. George is blunt when he wants you to know a character is abusive or predatory even characters he personally likes, like Tyrion. But with Aegon, he never does that.
The show cherry-picked Mushroom’s most sensational rumor and treated it as fact. At the same time, it ignored all the equally extreme Mushroom stories about Rhaenyra, which shows how selective the adaptation was. So viewers walk away thinking book!Aegon is a serial rapist when, in the text itself, that’s simply not supported. Aegon is a messy, irresponsible hedonist but not, in the book’s actual canon, written or confirmed as a rapist.
And honestly, Sara Hess and Ryan Condal pulled a move straight out of the D&D playbook. D&D did the same thing with jaime they turned him the into a rapist *at the sept* despite the books making it clear it was something else entirely, while ignoring Tyrion’s actual canon sexual violence. They had a series full of PoV chapters that spelled out character motivations, and they still chose to invent shock-value scenes that warped the characters. Hess and Condal are doing the same thing with HOTD: changing characters drastically, pushing extreme interpretations the book never solidifies, and making things worse for certain characters even when the source material doesn’t support it especially in a text like Fire & Blood, which already lacks PoVs and needs careful adaptation. So instead of nuance, they pick the most sensational rumor and lock it in as canon.
Sara Hess and Ryan Condal made Aegon a rapist in the show even though the book never confirms that instead of showing Daemon doing the things the book actually hints at, like his interest in very young girls. In Fire & Blood, Daemon spending time with girls who are “too young” is textually there, the same vibe as show!Meryn Trant in GOT. That’s canon. They flattened Aegon into a monster and polished Daemon into a bad-boy romantic lead, even though the book’s Daemon is far closer to the predatory behavior they refused to show on screen. they invented crimes (just like they did with Meryn Trant) for Aegon while hiding the ones Daemon actually has in the text.
One of the most common defenses of Daemon is the claim that he was "just attracted to younger women," not children or vulnerable minors. But this argument falls apart the moment you actually look at what the book says about him. Archmaester Gyldayn gives us one of the clearest, most damning insights into Daemon's character:
"He sampled countless whores in the city's brothels, and was said to have an especial fondness for deflowering maidens... every brothel keeper kept aside the youngest, prettiest, and most innocent of their new girls for him to deflower. The girl Nettles was young, beyond a doubt (though perhaps not as young as those the prince had debauched in his youth),”
It isn't ambiguous. It isn't "oh, he just liked women in their late teens." It is describing a man seeking out virgins specifically. Preferring “girls” who are "new," "innocent," and “youngest. Being so notorious that brothel owners would reserve their youngest girls for him, because they knew exactly what he wanted
youngest not “young,” not “maiden,” but the youngest available. There’s a difference between “young” and “youngest” here. “Young” could just mean teens or early 20s by Westerosi standards, like someone is kinda youthful. But “youngest” is w//ay more specific it’s the girls at the very bottom of the age spectrum, the ones who are barely past childhood, barely flowered, and still like super naïve. That’s who the brothel keepers would set aside for him.
New girls not “new women.” Girls. the text doesn’t say “new women” or even “young women” it literally says “new girls”. and that’s super important. “Girls” != “women,” even in Westeros. it’s signaling youth, inexperience, and w//ay more vulnerability than a young/grown woman would have. these are ppl who just arrived at the brothel untrained, and basically totally impressionable. and that word “new” is also important it’s not just that they’re young, it’s that they’re fresh to the brothel, so they’ve got zero experience with men like Daemon bc “new” means they just arrived combine that w// “youngest” and “most innocent” and it’s screaming Pedophile. he isn’t just going after virgins or young women, he’s going after the ones who are at the edge of childhood and still super naïve.
Innocent / innocence here clearly ties to sexual inexperience, but when paired with “youngest,” it reads as code for extreme youth, bordering on childlike. That word innocent within the brothel context, signals girls who have never been deflowered, who don’t know the ways of men, who are entirely unversed in sexual knowledge or manipulation. These are girls who haven’t yet been socialized into the sexual world, and thus, in the narrative, they are objects for Daemon’s control and abuse. Also innocence is strongly tied to childhood. It’s not just about being naïve or inexperienced sexually it evokes vulnerability, purity, and a lack of worldly understanding all traits we naturally associate with children. When you put this together, you don’t get a man interested in “young women who happen to be virgins.” You get a man with a predatory fixation on the very youngest girls who could be found in a brothel, barely flowered, barely considered women in Westerosi terms. You don’t get to handwave this away by saying “that’s just medieval realism.” The text doesn’t just say Daemon liked virgins. It says he liked the youngest and most innocent girls. That’s not romantic. That’s not “morally grey.” That’s pedophilic. He’s a monstrous, and this is one of the clearest windows into his monstrosity.
"(though perhaps not as young as those the prince had debauched in his youth)" he sexually abused girls even younger than Nettles, it's implying that Nettles, even at 16, was actually older than some of his previous victims. This makes the reader realize that Daemon's sexual activity was aimed at girls far below the age of consent or what we would consider safe, and that Nettles was almost "lucky" by comparison. The surprise isn't about Nettles being 16 in Westerosi terms (she's technically of age to be a maiden), but that she's older than the children he usually raped!
The word “debauched” is important here. It doesn’t just mean “had sex with” it implies rape, coercion, and corruption of innocence. When the book says Daemon “debauched… in his youth,” it’s signaling sexual abuse of children. It reinforces that his attraction wasn’t to adult women, but to the very youngest, most innocent girls available, and that these acts were abusive, not consensual.
Yes “Debauch” had several possible meanings (from “excessive indulgence” to “seduction” to “sexual corruption”), But when it appears in a context of youth, prostitution, brothels, virginity, innocence, girls and power imbalance as with Daemon in Fire & Blood the meaning strongly leans toward sexual abuse. Modern legal definitions don’t exactly match historical ones. What we call “rape” or “pedophilia” today might have been described with euphemisms like “debauchery,” “deflowering,” or “corruption of virtue” in the past
In many cases of abduction (marriage-by-force) or rape, terms like “deflower,” “seduce,” “ravish,” or older euphemisms equivalent to “debauch” were used partly because terms varied across languages and because explicit legal terminology for “rape” was often avoided or ambiguous. Also sexual crimes were often written with language of “bawdry,” “lie with,” “deflower,” “debauch” or “corruption,” rather than a direct word for rape. Even without relying on the historical or legal meaning of debauch, Daemon’s actions as described in the book make him both a pedophile and a rapist.
Consent is not implied in the book. Getting a period does not magically turn a child into an adult. Being called a “maid” doesn’t mean someone can truly consent. And nothing in Daemon’s brothel scenes even tries to suggest those girls had real choice, power, or safety.
“Maiden” doesn’t automatically mean 15+ in Westeros, a maiden is simply a girl who has had her first period. Girls could flower around 12–14, so being called a maiden doesn’t mean she was older or able to truly consent.
For example, Sansa is a maiden at thirteen:
"You are a woman flowered, are you not?" "Yes." Sansa knew the truth of her flowering could not be long hidden in the Eyrie. "Tyrion didn't . . . he never . . ." She could feel the blush creeping up her cheeks. "I am still a maid."
“How old are you, Sansa?” asked Tyrion, after a moment. “Thirteen,” she said, “when the moon turns.” "You're a child," he said. She covered her breasts with her hands. "I've flowered." "A child," he repeated, "but I want you. Does that frighten you, Sansa?"
So using “she was a maiden” as proof of consent is completely wrong. A girl can be a maiden and still be a CHILD, legally under her family’s control, psychologically unprepared, and unable to refuse an adult with power. “Maiden” describes biology, not consent, or adulthood. In a brothel system where the workers are bought, sold, abused, or trapped, no one is freely choosing a powerful prince. The book never says these girls wanted him and never gives them voices.
Daemon was a prince, extremely powerful, and the girls were low-born or otherwise vulnerable. There’s no realistic way these encounters were truly consensual, especially with children.
That is not normal lust or standard brothel behavior. That is the behavior of a man who is deliberately targeting the most powerless, inexperienced, and vulnerable girls available - girls who are barely into adolescence, and with zero ability to refuse him. Do you honestly believe those innocent girls could say no to a prince like Daemon? Could a serving girl in a brothel openly refuse him without worrying about punishment or violence? Do you think any of them actually wanted their “first time” to be with a man decades older, extremely entitled, and known for ignoring boundaries?
What sort of servile self-denial are you trying to espouse? Daemon doesn’t limit himself to “maidens” the book says he seeks out the youngest, the prettiest, the most innocent girls. Not grown women, not just virgins. Girls. New girls to the brothel. The ones with no experience, no power, and no protection.
Show!Maryn keeps asking for younger and younger prostitutes until the brothel owners brings him the youngest and priciest girl they’ve got. Still, he demands younger, and the proprietor’s sweating buckets bc refusing Trant isn’t really on the menu. So what makes Daemon different? Oh right… he also goes for the youngest and most innocent girls the brothels owners keep specially for him. Again, the youngest! But hey, Daemon isn’t like Meryn he’s not an incestous lizard, and he’s the rogue prince actually riding dragons and fighting for Queen Rhae Rhae.
Book!Rhaenyra is 13/14yo when Daemon begins courting, grooming, or preparing her. A girl who has flowered but is under sixteen is in the “maid” category socially considered marriageable but still part child.
This is exactly the age where manipulative adults often begin non-sexual grooming, because the girl is old enough to understand praise and attention, but still young enough to be easily influenced, flattered, or shaped.
Even in the Middle Ages, nobles often arranged marriages for political reasons at a young age, but actual consummation and sexual activity were typically postponed until around 15–16, when the girl was physically more capable of handling it. Ideally, the couple would also be close in age.
Rhaenyra being 14 when Daemon, 31, begins courting her is well below this standard. Any attention he gives her gifts, rides, flattery, lessons, or more intimate behavior falls into an abusive gray area, even by Westerosi norms. It’s not “okay” or safe; this is exactly why historians and readers note how exploitative it is. book canon shows her as too young to give meaningful consent, and real-world historical context reinforces that this age is inappropriate for sexualized attention.
Marriages where the partners were closer in age were seen as more acceptable, socially and politically. A 31yo courting a 13/14yo would be considered abusive because of the enormous imbalance in power and experience. GRRM explicitly notes that girls are generally married and bedded at 15–16, not younger. Any sexualized attention toward someone below that age even from a highborn man is considered exploitative, Daemon pursuing Rhaenyra at 13/14 is below even those norms, so it’s not a matter of “role reversal” or trying to excuse behavior it’s objectively inappropriate.
Because you people loves to romanticize bad boys. Because you are conditioned to look past predatory behavior if the man is “hot” or “charismatic.” Because “rogue prince” sounds fun until you actually pay attention to what he’s doing. And because there’s a built-in excuse: “Well, in Westeros that was normal.” Sure. In Westeros, incest is normal too. In Westeros, selling your daughter at 12 is normal. Does that make it okay? Does that mean we shouldn’t call it what it is when we, as modern readers, see it spelled out? You don’t get to handwave this away by saying “that’s just medieval realism.” The text doesn’t just say Daemon liked virgins. It says he liked the youngest and most innocent girls. That’s not romantic. That’s pedophilic.
GRRM knew exactly what he was doing when he wrote this line. So yeah. If you’re going to stan Daemon, fine. People have problematic faves. But let’s not lie to ourselves. The “rogue prince” isn’t just some fun-loving bad boy. By the text’s own description, he is a rapist and a pedophile.
Again Tyrion and Daemon are both rapists in the books and they’re two of GRRM’s favorite characters. GRRM has never hesitated to write sexual violence into the arcs of characters he personally likes. Book!Tyrion commits rape outright. Just like Book!Daemon is. But the show removed all of this.
