Your Viserys x Alicent breakdown was brilliant! Since youâre open to asks, I would love a breakdown of book!Daemonâs relationship with the women in his life (Mysaria, Laena, Rhaenyra, and Nettles).
As with Viserys, I'm going to be putting my EXTREME distaste for the character aside to be able to answer this as fairly as possible, but please know that I hate this man so much. Like, he's the worst. I hate his book version, I hate his show version, I actually think Matt Smith is a fine looking guy and he seems a decent fellow but the second he puts on that wig and becomes Daemon he becomes so repulsive to me because I hate Daemon. I cannot BELIEVE we have to have another season of him, I want him dead.
Mysaria - To the best of my recollection, I don't think we know a lot about Mysaria and Daemon's relationship. We know that they were longtime paramours, and it seems Daemon was affectionate enough towards her that he gave a dragon's egg for their supposed baby, and given the sacred element surrounding that tradition as well the fact that dragons are closely hoarded by House Targaryen, that seems to speak to some legitimate care on his part. It's not just that he enjoyed fucking her, he was attached in some capacity to want to recognize and honor their child (though how much of that was also motivated by his disdain for Rhea, we can't say). I don't know how much stock we can put into the claim that Daemon and Mysaria were still sexually involved while he was married to Rhaenyra, since the source material is notoriously unreliable and also it's mentioned in the same passage as "and Rhaenyra is also getting even fatter guys because she was repulsive and disgusting and women shouldn't be leaders ever because it makes them gross and Rhaenyra isn't hot anymore like she was when she was fourteen". But we do know that they were clearly on good terms, and Daemon was reliant enough on her. She was an advisor to him before being an advisor to Rhaenyra, and he trusted her enough to have her be the intermediary in Blood and Cheese. It seems clear that he trusted her and relied on her to a certain degree, as well as enjoyed her company on a sexual and personal level. As for Mysaria, I think she might have been attached as well. Again, just by being willing to be in his life for so long, especially since at some point it stopped being something where she was paid for services rendered. She also might have had a bit of a jealous streak to her regarding him and his role in her life, since according to some accounts, Mysaria was the one who informed Rhaenyra about Daemon's relationship with Nettles.
Laena - I actually really like Daemon's relationship with Laena. It seems like it was one of the few where he wasn't being a complete heel. There's probably some credence to the idea that Daemon's pursuit of Laena was partially to further his own ambitions, especially with how powerful House Velaryon was at the time. But at the same time, that's not a sure thing, given the marriage between Rhaenyra and Laenor, and Daemon, now widowed, had his pick of literally any woman from any powerful House. And considering Laena was already betrothed (although a lot of people could tell Corlys wanted a way out of that one), Daemon definitely could have made a smarter decision. I think he and Laena did care about each other, and that there was some kind of love there; like his brother, I don't know how much Daemon is capable of love given the kind of foul person he is, and also how warped Targaryens' sense of love and men in this universe in general with how misogynistic they are. But they were both willing to leave the only home they'd ever really known, without a clear plan of action, in order to be together. And, to the best of my recollection, there aren't any rumors, either pure conjecture or seriously substantiated, that Daemon had paramours during their marriage. So it seems by and large that this is the only marriage that Daemon was actually loyal in, 100%. One could honestly make a claim that, discounting perhaps his childhood, his marriage to Laena and their life together might have been the happiest time of his life, and I find that really interesting for someone like Daemon.
Rhaenyra - OK, so let's just get one thing out of the way: this man groomed her. I don't care how romantic people want to claim it is, or how many Henry Cavill from The Witcher gifsets I have to look at about it, he groomed her. He actively goes out of his way to give them special alone time together, he plies her with trinkets and gifts, gives her expensive jewelry, all with the apparent goal of fucking her one day. It is quite literally grooming, by any definition of the word, and it started when she was incredibly young. I don't think you can decouple that from any analysis of them as a couple, because it's important to that relationship. It's actually something I enjoy the show trying to explore, though how well they do it is up for debate. I also don't really like talking about Rhaenyra and Daemon that much, so I'm just gonna drop this here where I talk about their book relationship (and honestly, I think even if you search up "daemon" on my blog there's a few different things about his relationship with Rhaenyra that pop up). I do just want to take a minute to highlight that he is incredibly loyal to Rhaenyra. Even after the debacle at Maidenpool, he doesn't desert her or turn cloak, he just can't stand to be near her anymore but that doesn't mean he's lost his loyalty to her.
Nettles - I love Daemon's relationship with Nettles, I really do. Whether you view it as a romance or as a genuine father-daughter relationship, it's my favorite thing about him. To put it plainly, Nettles is the only person Daemon has ever been selfless his entire life. Every other relationship he has, including the ones discussed above, has something that benefits him or serves him in some way. But that's not what it's like with Nettles, at all. We know Daemon is incredibly attached to her, and that he cares deeply for her wellbeing. He teaches her things, spends all of his time with her, and genuinely wants to protect her. Even before shit goes sideways with them, there's the fact that Daemon refuses to have them separate to hunt Vhagar in case one of them runs into her alone. And I don't think Daemon is scared of that, so it reads to me like he's really worried that if he and Nettles split up, Nettles and Sheepstealer could come across Aemond and Vhagar by themselves and be in very real danger. And then of course, we get to the debacle of their last night, which really shows the depth of their bond. Daemon never tolerates for a second doing anything but trying to protect Nettles, he literally draws his sword on Mooton's maester and makes it clear that he's not going to let them try to kill Nettles without a fight. And letting her go is, again, an incredibly selfless thing. He doesn't want to, he's grief-stricken the morning she leaves and Caraxes is shattering windows because of how upset HE is through the bond, but Daemon does it anyway. He knows now that wherever he is, if Nettles is with him, she won't be safe. And it matters more to keep her safe and alive, even if away from him, so he helps her flee and it wounds him immensely, to the point where you can even call the battle above God's Eye a suicide mission of sorts because of how upset he is by the situation (his own wife wanting to do something like that to him, and what he had to do in order to make sure that didn't happen). Nettles is the only thing close to "true" love we see from Daemon, whether platonic or romantic, because it's the only relationship where he's not interested in himself, where he puts aside his selfishness and massive fucking ego for the sake of another person. It's incredibly important to me, it's one of the things I really like about his "arc", if anything in F&B can be called an arc.
