Is Daemon Targaryen Evil?

I recently started watching House of the Dragon, and I have to say that Daemon Targaryen is a bit of a nutcase in the show. He is considered to be the rouge prince, the brother of the King Viserys, who is the complete opposite of his brother. He is ruthless and sometimes steps out of line whenever things get out of hand in his life.

His violent side can be proven useful, because he literally won a war for his family, and came back home victorious, defeating a threat that had been around for years.

However, behind this act, there is a heart within him. When King Viserys fell deeply ill later in life, he was there for his brother. He had been bedridden for who knows long how, and Viserys wanted to stand up for his daughter in court, when he learned of the other families that were trying to oppose his daughter as the future queen. Daemon was there to help his weak brother to sit on his throne, and it was hands down the sweetest thing he's ever done for anyone. Despite the heated tension between them, there was love among the two of them.

But there are two reasons why I'm struggling to feel bad for this prince.

1. He murdered his first wife to gain a better and more powerful marriage.

This death was way too violent and pretty evil of the prince. When he was told to go back home after he once again disobeyed the king, he decides to take matters into his own hands. He goes back home to the Vale, to his first wife, where he makes her death look like a brutal accident. He scares her horse, making the animal fall on top of her, leaving her paralyzed.

She mocks him, and then he beats her to death with a rock offscreen.

This was so evil and cruel, and I can't believe that no one else really questioned this mysterious death. Only one person did, but he stopped threatening the prince, in fear that he would die too.

I'm sure that this could have been resolved in a different way. He was willing to help someone fake her husband's death to keep him safe. Why couldn't he have offered the same to his first wife?

2. Daemon fell in love with his niece and married her.

I aware of the creepiness of the Targaryen family, but man, I wasn't expecting this couple to be the main ones. I was so bothered by the realization that he was falling in love with his own family member, his brother's daughter, and he eventually got to secretly marry her years later.

I felt so bad for the king, because beforehand, he was pretty pissed off that he tried to steal the maidenhood of his child. He even dared to ask for her hand in marriage, which angered the king more. Daemon is able to marry his niece years later, because the princess wants a partner that will help her to stay safe among the upcoming war for the throne. She also unfortunately had a thing for him too, and I was disgusted when I realized that they now had kids together.

Even though this is pretty sick, I was also in shock with how normal this creepiness is among the family. There was even another crazy reveal that the king allowed two of his children to marry, to keep the bloodline strong, but surely, they could have found a random person for his son or daughter to marry?

It's odd how this family works, and while Daemon sounds pretty awful, there are still other villains in this show that are still ten times worse than him.

So, to say that he is evil, is still a bit tough for me to figure out.

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Thank you for reading!

Emy Quinn