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Daemon Targaryen: not a man so admired, so beloved, and so reviled (+book spoilers)


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11 hours ago, Takiedevushkikakzvezdy said:

But at the end of the day, Otto Hightower was right in comparing him to Maegor and doing whatever he could to keep him away from the throne. It's just that the other alternatives weren't much better, as it turned out later.

not really though . Otto didn't compare him to Maegor out of his concerns for the realm or the cruelty Daemon might have imposed . Otto's problem with young Daemon was that he couldn't see himself controlling him the way he was mostly controlling Viserys. as for Daemon , at that point , as much of a jerk as he was , he was not a mad cruel man . I think Maegor , Daemon and Aemond are not that different in their youth . although , even in youth , Maegor comes off as ambitious to a point by waiting for his father's death to claim Balerion and Aemond comes off as a bully when he pushes 3yr old Joff and brutally hits Jace till Luke comes and defends his brother. however , the 3 of them go in very different ways , Daemon is loyal to his brother and grows into a competent cautious man , Maegor grows into a maniac and Aemond commits .. genocide is the word I think. 

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The show makes apparent that he's the point of the Dance of Dragons in character form, and an all encompassing Targaryen.

He begins a Targaryen elitist, he thinks it should be just big brother King Vice and himself yolloing through Westeros like it's their play ground and the people their play things, because they're Targs, royalty, have dragons and are just the best.

Then his life is one big humbling and through the destruction of the Dance he comes to realise (as does the realm, which is the point of the Dance) Targaryens, himself very much included, are every bit as shithouse as everyone else, culminating in Queen Whore's death order.

Along the way he kills some children of his own family, forcing the mother into making a sacrifice of one them, as that will be the primary theme of House Targaryen, they sacrificed children for their ability to ride the dragons from which all their power derives.

But in the end rather than run off with Nettles he goes and ends the war (or creates the circumstances in which it can end) with a straight-forward heroic sacrifice. House Targaryen will not survive the ASOIAF series, their power is ill gotten and should not persist in a realm that aspires to be good and somewhat moral, but before the Targs are done they'll realise this themselves, embrace their just fate, and their power will save the realm.

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On 8/30/2022 at 7:09 AM, chrisdaw said:

The show makes apparent that he's the point of the Dance of Dragons in character form, and an all encompassing Targaryen.

He begins a Targaryen elitist, he thinks it should be just big brother King Vice and himself yolloing through Westeros like it's their play ground and the people their play things, because they're Targs, royalty, have dragons and are just the best.

Then his life is one big humbling and through the destruction of the Dance he comes to realise (as does the realm, which is the point of the Dance) Targaryens, himself very much included, are every bit as shithouse as everyone else, culminating in Queen Whore's death order.

Along the way he kills some children of his own family, forcing the mother into making a sacrifice of one them, as that will be the primary theme of House Targaryen, they sacrificed children for their ability to ride the dragons from which all their power derives.

But in the end rather than run off with Nettles he goes and ends the war (or creates the circumstances in which it can end) with a straight-forward heroic sacrifice. House Targaryen will not survive the ASOIAF series, their power is ill gotten and should not persist in a realm that aspires to be good and somewhat moral, but before the Targs are done they'll realise this themselves, embrace their just fate, and their power will save the realm.

 

Interesting; but how was the Targaryens' power ill-gotten?  Do you mean the power they derived from conquering Westeros or the means they used to make that conquest, i.e. dragons?  And how does that power save the realm?  So far, the key player in saving the realm, as far as we know, in the television version of the story, at least from the White Walkers/Night's King, is Arya Stark and her special Faceless Man training; which has nothing to do with Targaryen conquests or dragons.

But you are right in that it is very true that House Targaryen rips itself apart, sacrifices its youngest children, not (at least as far as I can tell) necessarily for their ability to ride the dragons but for the chance to sit on the Iron Throne and rule Westeros.

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1 hour ago, Raksha 2014 said:

 

Interesting; but how was the Targaryens' power ill-gotten?

It is my theory (on which I've made many topics) that the ability to ride dragons is gotten through the sacrifice of their children (plus magic). What happened with Rhaego/Dany in the tent is what allows Dany to ride Drogon and that's how it was done, purposefully, by Valyrian dragon riding families.

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