Is Alys Rivers Actually Playing the Long Game With Daemon?
Some of us have had enough of Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) stuck in Harrenhal. But NGL, it is fun to sit and dissect what’s been going on in that pretty little head of the most fascinating Targaryen on House of The Dragon. And more importantly, what Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) wants from him.
Spoilers ahead for HOTD 2 x 6 and Fire & Blood!
If the first time you meet someone, they tell you that they know where and how you’re going to die, it’s only fair to see them as a threat. Our first impression of Alys Rivers, rumored to be a bastard daughter of House of Strong, is that she is out to mess with Daemon’s head and put him off his game.
We see Alys mix something in Daemon’s drink, assumed by many to be weirwood paste, which enabled Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) to have his visions in Game of Thrones. Daemon sleeps on a bed made out of weirwood too, a factoid that Alys mentions to him, along with a bunch of other spooky stuff that she keeps telling him, seemingly to feed his paranoia.
Since meeting her, Daemon has the most bizarre dreams, revisiting scenes of his past that include his ex-wife, the deceased Lady Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell), and a younger version of his current wife and queen, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock). The most disturbing of them all is an Oedipal dream in which Daemon is pleasuring a beautiful Targaryen woman as she hypes him up, only to call him “her favorite son” in the end, as he realizes with shock that it was his mother, Alyssa Targaryen.
Daemon doesn’t just dream these weird moments, he blacks out during them too, and suddenly wakes up to find himself in places he has no memory of reaching. He is ridden with anger over what he couldn’t have, guilt over all that he has done to his loved ones over the years, and paranoia that someone at Harrenhal is trying to kill him. In addition, he hasn’t reported back to his boss (the queen), so you can add that executive malfunction to the list.
And Alys is clearly haunting his waking hours, silently watching him go through all of this. For those who’ve read the books, Alys’ role is a tad clearer—she kind of becomes Aemond’s (Ewan Mitchell) “bedmate.” So does that mean she’s Team Green, helping her future honey, and doing everything she can to weaken Daemon?
Turns out, there might be more to her agenda after all. Because in season 2 episode 6, “Smallfolk,” she helps Daemon out in a big way.
Erm … is Alys Rivers secretly Daemon Targaryen’s therapist?
In this episode, Daemon is haunted by another regret from his past. We see him relive the throne room scene with Viserys (Welcome back, Paddy Considine!), where the king calls him out for celebrating the death of his son, Prince Baelon, whom Daemon had called “Heir for a day.” This is also the moment when Viserys tells Daemon he has chosen Rhaenyra as his heir and sends Daemon away.
However, the scene plays out not as it happened, but as Daemon remembers it in his guilt and regret-riddled memory. Viserys is more emotional, heartbroken at what Daemon did, and he even takes off his crown. When asked to leave, Daemon can’t escape. He bangs on the door, and when it finally opens, his dream ends and he lands in the arms of a concerned Ser Simon Strong.
And then something happens that has not yet happened any of the other times. Daemon has another dream, and this time, it’s a scene we haven’t seen before. Viserys is crying over his wife Aemma’s dead body, and Daemon walks in and comforts his brother, telling him that he’s there for him instead of mocking the death of his son. When Daemon wakes up, he manages his composure until Ser Simon (Simon Russell Beale) is out of the room, then breaks down and cries.
The scene is noteworthy because we have never seen Daemon cry like this before. And it makes you wonder, once again, what is Alys River’s endgame here? Is she trying to drive Daemon cuckoo or is she actually trying to make him realize that what he truly wants is not the Iron Throne or power but the love and attention that he never really got from his mother, his brother, and now Rhaenyra?
The many Alys and Daemon parallels in the episode
Earlier in the episode, Alicent (Olivia Cooke) asks Aemond, “Have the indignities of your childhood not yet been sufficiently avenged?” Perhaps, Alys is trying to draw a similar catharsis out of Daemon, hypnotising him into these visions, using these dreams to therapise him, help him heal, and finally be the man that his house and his ruler deserve?
There’s another important parallel worth drawing in this episode between Daemon asking Alys Rivers for help and Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) asking Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) to help him. One is mentally weakened by his guilt and the other is physically weakened by his fear. And they both seek help from these members of House Strong. Both Alys and Larys have been known to be manipulative; yet, this time, they seem to show empathy and offer help and guidance.
Larys stops Aegon from drinking the potion that would ease his pain but weaken his mind. And Alys feeds Daemon potions to dull his sense and lower his defenses so he can finally get in touch with his emotions. She stops him from running out of Harrenhal. She even helps him with his Riverrun problem, as we find out eventually from Ser Simon Strong, who tells Daemon that Lord Grover Tully died after Alys tried to “help heal him”. With his grandson Oscar Tully (Archie Barnes) taking over the lordship of the Riverlands, Daemon has the support for the Blacks that he needs, further proving that Alys is actually helping Daemon.
But why would Alys Rivers help Daemon Targaryen?
Could Alys be playing the long game with Daemon? Did you notice how in episode 6, Alys and Daemon meet in the Godswood again, where the weirwood tree is? It’s the same place she tells him about his death, which in the context of what has happened, feels more like a warning than a scary proclamation meant to intimidate.
Alys berates him for running away at every point of his life when something didn’t go his way, and for the anger he carries that blinds him to the part he must play. When he tries to complain about being haunted, Alys tells him,
“There are older things in this world than you or I, or living memory. You are not the player but a piece on the board. As am I, for that matter.”
What could Alys mean by that? There’s only one answer and it’s a cliché that might make you groan—The Song of Ice and Fire.
Book readers will tell you the long yet obvious connection between two very important people in this Song of Ice and Fire and Daemon Targaryen—Brynden Rivers aka the Three-Eyed Raven (Max von Sydow) who is descended from the Daemon and Rhaenyra’s son Viserys II, and who also wielded the sword Dark Sister that Daemon currently wields. And, of course, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke) is Daemon’s a-bunch-of-times-great-granddaughter.
As for Alys, even after Aemond and Daemon are gone, she survives and rules as a witch queen in Harrenhal, with a rumored son by Aemond from their marriage. Her magic is reminiscent of the Three-eyed Raven’s and of the Children of the Forest, as well as Melisandre’s (Carice van Houten), which means Alys could be much older than she looks. In the scene where she is with Daemon, an owl comes and sits on her arm, which could indicate that she might be a warg, and that’s how she knows everything from within the castle walls.
The weirwood tree has specifically been mentioned in the books in connection to Daemon and his last few days at Harrenhal before the battle with Aemond above the God’s Eye. The books also mention that Daemon’s body was never found, and he was assumed dead but could’ve survived it. If he did survive, and Aemond died, and with Alys having helped Daemon thus, could this mean we are missing Alys’ bigger moves on the chess board?
So many questions!
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