Fire & Blood Daemon Targaryen
Daemon’s Relationship with Nettles Analysis
This analysis will expand upon Daemon’s relationship with Nettles, as I offer an interpretation that I haven’t seen, regarding the connection when Mysaria exposes the supposed affair to his wife Rhaenyra.
It is based on Mushroom’s version that alleges Daemon cheated on Rhaenyra, through his relationship with the dragon seedling Nettles. The arguments made to support this claim is to portray Daemon’s character as strictly self-serving, where his desires are influenced by young maidens exerting their power over older men, his supposed continued affair with Mysaria and because in his youth he visited brothels. While it does add some credibility, my interpretation is that it cannot be taken as fact or used to discredit the opposite version, where he is described to dote on her, as one would with a daughter, because of his actions in the battle above the Gods Eye.
By the dwarf’s account, Daemon Targaryen had come to love the small brown bastard girl, and had taken her into his bed.
Nor should it be forgotten that during his youth, every brothel keeper in King’s Landing knew that Lord Flea Bottom took an especial delight in maidens, and kept aside the youngest, prettiest, and more innocent of their new girls for him to deflower.
The reference to Daemon’s actions in his youth is utilized to portray him as a man who hasn’t outgrown his deviant nature, in attempts to bolster Mushroom’s allegation, only my main counter argument to this rumour is Daemon’s relationship with Rhaenyra. We are told in his youth when he was twenty, he was hot tempered and ready to go to war for his brother’s claim. Contrast that to the now more battle experienced Daemon, he matured into a brilliant strategist knowing they could not engage with Vhagar 1v1 and hope to live. His dedication, loyalty and love for Rhaenyra is highlighted in his final act alive, which was to take out the biggest threat to Rhaenyra’s claim, Aemond and Vhagar. If he was so enamored by Nettles and didn’t care about Rhaenyra, after receiving the message declaring for her head, then why go on a suicide mission when he could’ve left with Nettles and sheepstealer on Caraxes.
Lord Mooton’s maester. Maester Norren writes that “the prince and his bastard girl” supped together every night, broke their fast together every morning, slept in adjoining bedchambers, that the prince “doted upon the brown girl as a man might dote upon his daughter,” instructing her in “common courtesies” and how to dress and sit and brush her hair, that he made gifts to her of “an ivory-handled hairbrush, a silvered looking glass, a cloak of rich brown velvet bordered in satin, a pair of riding boots of leather soft as butter.” The prince taught the girl to wash, Norren says, and the maidservants who fetched their bath water said he oft shared a tub with her, “soaping her back or washing the dragon stink from her hair, both of them as naked as their namedays.”
This passage while can be interpreted as Daemon having nefarious intentions in regard to the bathing section, I also want to stress that Daemon is a father of twin daughters. It is not far of a stretch to believe that he could establish a fatherly bond with Nettles, which also contributes to the reason for sending Nettles away, as he did not want to see her die. After having children, he could possibly associate characteristics of his daughters in Nettles, prompting a sense of paternal responsibility to teach her how to take care of her hygiene, as she has never experienced the warmth of a parental figure. Why is it that anti-Daemon stans are so ready to believe that Daemon had nefarious intentions and that he cheated on Rhaenyra, when he literally sacrificed himself for her cause. Why are they so willing to accept that a grown man could not outgrow his exploits during the time of his youth, especially after raising two daughters.
Daemon’s Relationship with Mysaria
I wanted to add this section about Daemon’s relationship with Mysaria, because I feel like her character’s involvement in the whole Daemon and Nettles alleged affair has been overlooked. My belief is that her intentions on exposing the alleged affair to Rhaenyra hasn’t been questioned to the extent that it requires, as some readers are readily accepting of this exchange, instead of looking deeper into her possible motives.
King Viserys commanded him to return the egg, send his whore away, and return to his lawful wife, or else be attainted as a traitor
But Mysaria lost her child during a storm on the narrow sea. When word reached Prince Daemon he spoke no syllable of grief, but his heart hardened against the king, his brother.
It was under King Viserys’ orders that a pregnant Mysaria be shipped back and for Daemon to faithfully return to his wife at the Vale. During the rough journey Mysaria ends up miscarrying their child, something that enraged Daemon and divided the two brothers further at the time. It is important to note that their child would be deemed a bastard if they were born, as the two were not married. Interestingly, we are not told about Mysaria’s feelings toward Viserys nor her views on his children mainly Rhaenyra, who received no punishment after birthing three rumoured bastard children. This opens up the possibility that she despised Viserys and by extension Rhaenyra, as she did not receive punishment for having another man’s child, that is not her husbands by blood. While she suffered a miscarriage as a result of the King’s orders, the princess suffered no consequences and was free to do as she wished. This hypocrisy demonstrated by Viserys likely caused her to despise him and Rhaenyra, as she ended up losing the man she was enamored with and a child, in her view represented their love.
“The girl has already betrayed you, my queen. Even now she shares your husband’s bed, and soon enough she will have his bastard in her belly.”
If Mysaria ended up despising Rhaenyra, this brings a whole other interpretation on her character. This new perspective introduces a nefarious intent to purposefully mislead Rhaenyra by using her own growing paranoia against her, after the betrayals of Hammer and White. Her intentions become far more sinister, and it can only be speculated what was the driving motivation to lie in order to gain something. A possible motivation could be to cause a rift between Daemon and Rhaenyra, allowing her to try and get back together with him, as she remained loyal to him and only became Rhaenyra’s mistress of whispers because of Daemon. Perhaps jealousy and spite played a role, with revenge being the motivation after going through the traumatic loss of a child, indirectly caused by Viserys. Rhaenyra’s reaction to the Nettles affair, contradicts the very idea that she was supposedly okay with Daemon continuing to sleep with Mysaria.
In his youth before ever having any children, Rhaenyra knew about his proclivities at the brothels. If he had kept up with this pattern of behavior there would be more allegations put forth about his later life’s deviant nature, rather than just a supposed continued affair with Mysaria, including unfounded allegations with Nettles. Why would she care about his affair with Nettles when she was allegedly okay with him and Mysaria. Unless he was solely devoted to her and the claim about his continued affair with Mysaria was only unfounded rumours. This could also further support the idea that Mysaria intended to drive a wedge between Rhaenyra and Daemon, not only because of her contempt of Viserys and Rhaenyra by extension, but also to steal Daemon from her as a form of revenge or punishment.
‘A queen’s words, a whore’s work.’
This different interpretation of Mysaria makes Daemon’s dialogue after reading the message so much more complex. Rather than calling his wife a whore, he is indirectly suggesting that the words on paper are Rhaenyra’s, who is the queen, but echoes the whisperings of someone else’s intent, whom he identifies as “a whore”. We can interpret this as being Mysaria the White Worm, as she lived as a prostitute when she first met Daemon. He probably guessed that someone likely Mysaria, has been manipulating Rhaenyra to order the execution of Nettles. He probably didn’t know the reasoning, but the fact is he chose to fight to the death, taking out Rhaenyra’s strongest opponent, despite reading that heinous message. Maybe he did reject Mysaria’s advances, as this affair is just as unfounded as the one with Nettles. If he was speaking solely about Rhaenyra, why would he risk his life for someone he referred to as a whore, someone who anti-Daemon stans claim he has no love for to the point he cheated on her, when he could literally fly off and live happily ever after with Nettles. It’s because his actions illustrated the opposite, it demonstrated his love for Rhaenyra and devotion to her cause till the very end, further weakening the self-serving narrative.
