Who is Daemon’s Mother? ‘House of the Dragon’s Latest Wild Incest Sex Scene Introduces the Dead Alyssa Targaryen

House of the Dragon quite simply wouldn’t be a proper Game of Thrones prequel series without incessant incestuous sex scenes and House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 5 “Regent” doesn’t let us down in that category. Beyond the usual, par for the course, Targaryen incest, House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 5 “Regent” pushes the envelope even further with Daemon Targaryen’s (Matt Smith) latest Harrenhal nightmare. In past installments of the HBO show, Daemon has hallucinated beheading a young Rhaenyra, played by returning Season 1 star Milly Alcock, and seeing his second wife, Laena (Nanna Blondell), serving wine. This week’s episode of House of the Dragon however reveals Daemon’s deepest, darkest desires are rather Oedipal…

**Spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 5 “Regent,” now streaming on Max**

In House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 5 “Regent,” Daemon daydreams about a beautiful, silver-haired woman (Emeline Lambert) feting him with compliments while they have sex. Throughout their lovemaking, this mysterious Targaryen tells Daemon how much better he is than his older brother, Viserys (Paddy Considine), and how he should be the king. However, the idyllic fantasy is cut abruptly short by the sight of blood and the reveal that the woman Daemon is fantasizing about is his mother!!!

Who was Daemon Targaryen’s mother — a woman whom the prior scene reveals as the original rider of slain dragon Meleys — and what is so precisely unnerving about this latest nightmare in Harrenhal? Here’s everything you need to know about Alyssa Targaryen, the spirited, beloved princess who gave birth to King Viserys and Prince Daemon…

Who is Daemon’s Mother in House of the Dragon? Meet Alyssa Targaryen, Played by Emeline Lambert:

One thing that should be abundantly clear to House of the Dragon viewers by now is that there are too many goddamn Targaryens. It’s nigh on impossible to keep track of everyone named Rhaenys, Aegon, Aemon, Aemond, and/or Daemon. Believe it or not, but HBO’s prequel series has rather streamlined the family tree by only focusing on the main players in the civil war known in George R.R. Martin’s books as “The Dance of the Dragons.” That said, the spirit of one long-dead Targaryen princess can’t help but haunt the characters in House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 5 “Regent” and that’s Alyssa Targaryen.

In George R.R. Martin’s books, Alyssa Targaryen was the charismatic tomboy daughter of King Jaehaerys “The Conciliator” and “Good Queen” Alysanne. The book version of Alyssa had mismatched eyes, dirty blonde hair, and a broken nose. So not quite the picture perfect Targaryen princess we see in Daemon’s visions. As a child, she followed older brother Baelon around, to his annoyance. When her father considered marrying her to eldest brother Aemon, their mother shot the idea down, explaining she was meant for Baelon. Eventually, “Baelon the Brave” fell in love with his sister and their wedding sparked gossip because of their loud lovemaking on the wedding night. Alyssa claimed the dragon, Meleys, as a young woman and was fond of taking her infant sons, Viserys and Daemon, flying with her on dragonback. She would die of complications of giving birth to her third son, who also died as an infant.

Although Alyssa Targaryen is never mentioned by name in House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 5 “Regent,” she is referenced in two important back-to-back scenes. First, in the scene where Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) asks Daemon’s daughter Baela (Bethany Antonia) to help her convince her grandfather Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) to be her Hand. Rhaenyra opens the strategic conversation by asking the grieving girl if she’s ever heard the story of how her beloved grandmother Rhaenys (Eve Best) tamed the dragon Meleys. Baela makes no bones of the fact that Daemon was furious with his cousin because she had the audacity to claim his mother’s dragon.

The next sequence shows us exactly, uh, how much Daemon’s mother meant to him. As a naked Daemon dreams, a woman’s voice says, “Daemon…You were always the strong one. The finest swordsman. The fearless dragonrider.”

As Daemon starts to kiss this mysterious Targaryen woman, she says, “Your brother had great love in his heart, but he lacked your constitution. Viserys was unsuited for the crown, but you, Daemon, you were made to wear it.”

By now, the two aren’t just having sex; Daemon is performing oral sex on this woman. He comes into focus looking at her just before kissing her on the lips. His hands trace a trail of blood down her chest. She says, “If only you’d been born first, my favorite son.”

As Daemon’s horror descends upon him, Ser Simon Strong (Sir Simon Russell Beale) comes into frame, asking, “Is the duck not to your liking, Your Grace?”  

It is one of the many waking visions that have been addling Daemon since he arrived at Harrenhal. Visions that have only intensified in their hold on him since he drank whatever concoction Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin) made for him.

In Daemon’s past hallucinations, he’s had to deal with his guilt over how he’s not only failed Rhaenyra, but coveted her crown. Meanwhile, Laena appears to him to emphasize how he’s been an absent father to their daughters. The vision of Alyssa is a little bit different. Besides revealing that Daemon sexually desired his mother’s love, he fantasizes about her confirming his deepest wish to be recognized as a more powerful and worthy Targaryen heir than his elder brother.

Besides excavating his “Mommy Issues,” this illicit sequence appears in an episode where Daemon is openly making his own violent moves towards taking the Iron Throne for himself, not Rhaenyra. It’s as if his visions, as unsettling as they’ve been, have emboldened him. The only person at Harrenhal who is questioning his actions is none other than Alys Rivers. When a plea of reason doesn’t seem to thwart Daemon, the witchy woman taunts him with this: “It’s a pity, don’t you think? That you never knew your mother.”

Is Alys responsible for Daemon’s visions? At the very least, she’s aware of them…and she’s aware that perhaps the real Alyssa Targaryen would not have approved of her son’s latest machinations.