Ollie Upton / HBO
Then boom, he’s team Rhaenyra. Daemon feels no anger and has no reservations before abandoning his ambitions to support Rhaenyra. He just believes the vision.
Why were there seven episodes of Daemon contemplating a decision if he doesn’t have any choice in the matter?
Ultimately, it seems the writers had no idea what to do with Daemon and picked a safe option that they hoped wouldn’t upset book fans.
The hallucination arc wasn’t completely pointless. It did give us sweet fan service moments where Paddy Considine and Milly Alcock reprised their roles as King Viserys and young Rhaenyra and Daemon’s vision replayed moments from “Game of Thrones.”
But if the show’s writers let themselves be constricted by the book’s narrative, they risk “House of the Dragon” going stale — just like Daemon’s story arc.