The Translation of What Rhaenyra Tells Daemon Has Surfaced and It’s Making Me Want to Tear My Hair Out

In my book, the whole Harrenhal arc of this season of House of the Dragon is one of the best things to ever come out of the ASOIAF television universe.

This arc gives one of the cast’s most talented actors a chance to really flex his acting muscles as Daemon goes through a whole range of human emotions. It also does justice to Harrenhal being one of the creepiest, most cursed locations in Westeros. And it truly takes us deep into the mind of Daemon Targaryen who, like him or hate him, is one of the most fascinating characters in pretty much the entire Targaryen family tree.

The fourth episode of House of the Dragon’s season, “The Red Dragon and the Gold,” gave us another masterful scene where Daemon confronts his demons—literally—and faces the ghosts of his past actions. Milly Alcock’s young Rhaenyra—wearing however the clothes and crown of Emma D’Arcy’s adult Rhaenyra—descends the steps of the Iron Throne while saying something to Daemon in High Valyrian. Something that clearly leaves him very distressed considering he ends up cutting off her head—not that it helps, since Rhaenyra’s severed head continues talking and haunting him.

The scene would be brilliant already as it is, what with showcasing once more the difficult relationship that binds Daemon and Rhaenyra together as well as the restlessness Daemon feels about his actions. But then there’s the fact that it’s a perfect mirror of the first time we see interact back in season one—when it was Rhaenyra walking towards Daemon sitting on the Iron Throne—and Alys’s “girl child” speech to Daemon when he meets her in the kitchens—which adds another layer of complexity to the whole thing.

And then the coup de grâce, meaning the translation of Rhaenyra’s Valyrian speech. Oh, how delightful. How twisted how wretched how absolutely Targaryen-esque in its being doomed beyond any possible solution—just like the entire family is, might I add.

Rhaenyra starts with quoting the old Westerosi saying that Targaryens are closer to gods than men—something that has always been used to justify how laws that would apply to anyone else in the realm didn’t necessarily have to bind them down. She continues by saying that as a girl, she used to see Daemon as a god. Daemon with his renown, his brutality, his undeniable charm.

Yet Rhaenyra admits that she was naive, innocent, a pawn in Daemon’s games and his push and pull with his brother Viserys. And that same push-and-pull relationship seems to return now in what he has with Rhaenyra, as she herself says—he empowered her enemies with that escapade at the brothel back in season one but he also put the crown on her head. “You created me, Daemon, yet you are now set on destroying me,” she says, which perfectly sums up what is currently happening between them.

And then there’s the real crux of it all. “Your brother loved me more than he did you,” Rhaenyra says, which then prompts Daemon’s violet outburst—proving that she hit the spot dead center. It echoes back to something that the real Rhaenyra told Daemon during their fight back in Episode 2 and highlights once more how the biggest obstacle in their relationship will always be Viserys simply because they both have unresolved issues with him. And those unresolved issues, mixed with the terrible desire that they both feel to be loved by Viserys and to receive his approval, inevitably lead them to clash against each other. There’s no other outlet for them to go.

Sure, it’s good to remind ourselves that these are all Daemon’s visions. It might be his guilt speaking, or even Alys’s magic trying to weaken him for her own purposes—she did give him that cup of weirwood sap, after all, and that can’t be good for your whole “tormented by visions” situation. But it’s clear that the writing room is making the relationship between Rhaenyra and Daemon more complex than it was presented in Fire & Blood and, at least for me, more authentic. 

It makes sense that a wedding born on somewhat shaky foundations—because Rhaenyra was a child, that is undeniable—would crumble when put under the incredible duress that is a fratricide war that could potentially wipe out an entire nation since its main weapon are giant fire-breathing flying lizards. Especially when neither of the parties involved is that good at communicating their feelings and defaults to being aggressive and locking themselves up behind their respective walls.

I, for one, can’t wait to see how it all continues.