{"id":107832,"date":"2022-10-25T18:02:29","date_gmt":"2022-10-25T18:02:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/why-daemon-choked-rhaenyra-in-the-house-of-the-dragon-finale\/"},"modified":"2022-10-25T18:02:29","modified_gmt":"2022-10-25T18:02:29","slug":"why-daemon-choked-rhaenyra-in-the-house-of-the-dragon-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/why-daemon-choked-rhaenyra-in-the-house-of-the-dragon-finale\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Daemon Choked Rhaenyra in the ‘House of the Dragon’ Finale"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Spoiler alert for pretty much the entire first season of House of the Dragon<\/em>.<\/h4>\n

House of the Dragon<\/em>‘s season finale grabbed viewers by the neck and took them from one brutal scene to another, beginning with the visceral, upsetting delivery of a stillborn baby and ending with the violent death of Prince Lucerys. It was a rough-as-hell week for Rhaenyra, who also had to process the death of her father and her former best friend’s betrayal while all of this was happening. Honestly, not since the teen years of Sansa Stark have we seen a young woman suffer so much in Westeros.<\/p>\n

On top of all this grief and indignity, though, Rhaenyra also faced dissension among her own allies, including her uncle-husband Daemon. Thanks in part to Matt Smith’s devilish performance, Daemon has been a consistently self-serving, gleefully sinister presence on the show, but ever since he and the princess went Facebook official, he has shown a more loyal side, finally burying the hatchet with his brother and pledging himself to Rhaenyra’s cause.<\/p>\n

That all changed during the finale, when the husband and wife clashed over opposing strategies, and Rhaenyra states her true mission: to keep the realm united and stable in readiness for the coming war with the White Walkers. Knowing what we know from the events of game of Thrones<\/em>this is of course the sensible approach, but in this moment we also learn that Viserys never shared the prophecy with Daemon, and this revelation causes the prince to lash out violently, choking his wife for more than a few deeply unpleasant seconds.<\/p>\n

When he finally relents, Rhaenyra immediately reasserts her power, laughing at the fact that Viserys clearly didn’t trust his wayward brother with information that could save the Seven Kingdoms. And in a recent interview with variety<\/em>showrunner Ryan Condal offered some additional insight into the scheming character’s rare lapse in self-control:<\/p>\n

“It’s a moment that I think is surprising and shocking for Daemon as a character, but I also think it’s one of those things that’s been set up over the course of the entire season,” he said. “Daemon \u2014 while an incredibly charismatic and deeply interesting, complex character, I think \u2014 he’s also capable of great darkness. It’s simmering just beneath the surface.”<\/p>\n