WARNING! This article contains SPOILERS for House of the Dragon season 2, episode 5!

Daemon Targaryen has a shocking vision of his mother, Alyssa Targaryen, in House of the Dragon season 2, episode 5, which is now in the running for Daemon’s darkest moment yet. Ever since he arrived at the cursed castle, Daemon has had several visions at Harrenal that seem to be influenced by Alys Rivers’ powers, Harrenhal’s cursed background, and the weirwood bed he sleeps on. Each vision so far has brutally tackled Daemon’s subconscious guilt, fears, insecurities, desires, and resentments, with the figures he sees in such dreams including Young Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell), and Alyssa Targaryen.

While it was initially theorized that the silver-haired woman Daemon was envisioned sleeping with at Harrenhal would be Aemma Targaryen, it actually turned out to be Alyssa Targaryen. His dream in House of the Dragon season 2, episode 5 features Daemon being sexually intimate with a Targaryen woman, who continues to praise him over Viserys and inform him of his strength and worthiness on the Iron Throne. In a disturbing twist, the vision ends when the woman whispers to Daemon that he’s her “favorite son,” revealing Daemon envisioned he was having sex with his mother, Alyssa, who died when he was a child.

Who Was Daemon’s Mother? Alyssa Targaryen Explained

Alyssa Targaryen Was The Fierce Daughter Of King Jaehaerys & Queen Alysanne

While she’s hardly been mentioned in House of the Dragon, Alyssa Targaryen is an important figure in House Targaryen’s family tree. Not only was she the mother of King Viserys I Targaryen and Prince Daemon Targaryen, but she was also the dragon-riding daughter of King Jaehaerys I and Queen Alysanne Targaryen. Alyssa was one of Jaehaerys and Alysanne’s few children to survive to adulthood, though she died from complications after giving birth to her third son, Aegon, who also died only six months after his birth.

Daemon’s mother was married to her elder brother Baelon the Brave, with Alyssa being the first rider of Rhaenys’ dragon Meleys while Baelon rode Balerion the Black Dread. According to George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood book, Alyssa was known for her ferocity, roughness, wit, and headstrong nature. Alyssa died when Viserys and Daemon were young children, which is why House of the Dragon’s Alys Rivers remarks to Daemon that it’s a shame he never really knew her.

Why Daemon Has Sex With His Mother In His Dream

Daemon’s Twisted Sense Of Intimacy & Power Is Highlighted In His Vision

Daemon’s vision of sleeping with his mother is certainly the most disturbing extent to which House of the Dragon has taken House Targaryen’s incest, as impossible as that may seem given the other marriages between cousins, uncle and niece, and brother and sister. Sigmund Freud would be having a field day analyzing Daemon’s psychology. In one interpretation, his dream of Alyssa fits the neurologist’s divisive theory of the Oedipus complex, which suggests that males unconsciously develop a sexual infatuation with their mother and responsive hostility toward their father.

In the past, Daemon has also conflated sex with power. Daemon seducing Young Rhaenyra was a way to try to get himself closer to the Iron Throne and his perceived inheritance, and sleeping with Mysaria gave him more power and influence as the “Prince of Flea Bottom.” Daemon’s superiority complex and sense of power and greatness over others appear to be rooted in the idea that he was his mother’s favorite child, so his vision of having sex with her twistedly brings him closer to the original source of this confidence and authority. Daemon becomes most aroused by dominance over others, and nobody instilled this feeling in him more than Alyssa.

Daemon has become increasingly insecure throughout House of the Dragon as Rhaenyra no longer trusts or respects him, he fails to obtain respect or loyalty from the rest of the realm, and feels an overwhelming loss of power. As Daemon seeks to regain his sense of power, he subconsciously finds himself intimately drawn to the woman who has always given it to him and never looked down on him. Alyssa died when Daemon was still a young child, and whether he wants to admit it or not, he’s always been seeking intimacy from women who remind him of his mother, which includes Rhaenyra.

What Daemon’s Vision Of His Mother Really Means

Daemon Is Losing His Grip On The Power Complex That Began With His Mother

When Daemon wakes up from his vision in House of the Dragon season 2, episode 5, he’s ashamed of imagining a sexual relationship with his mother, but it also inspires him to take action. After this vision, Daemon realizes that he needs to escape his subconscious insecurities from these dreams and take power for himself back in reality, which is why he decides to take up his own claim against both Rhaenyra and Aegon. His vision of Alyssa tells him that he’s stronger than Viserys, Rhaenyra, Aegon, and any other claimant, and he responds with violence and betrayal. Of course, Daemon’s story at Harrenhal will only culminate in further horrors.

Daemon’s vision of his mother also means that his entire conception of himself and facade is slipping at Harrenhal in House of the Dragon. Within the walls of Harrenhal, his solitude and nightmares under the influence of Alys Rivers’ powers revert him to a helpless state in which he seeks the comfort of his mother as his ambition slips away from him, while also having to confront what he’s become since her death. Daemon has been rejected by everyone he so desperately sought power over – Rhaenyra, Viserys, the Black Council, his own children – and now refuses to wash away the blood on his hands as he further pursues the favoritism and superiority he could never reclaim.