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House Of The Dragon season 2, episode 4 features a vision of Young Rhaenyra speaking to Daemon in High Valyrian, with the translation of her speech revealing more about the deep guilt that Daemon harbors. After Daemon has visions of Young Rhaenyra at Harrenhal in House of the Dragon season 2, episode 3, his waking dreams become more intense in the latest outing. Seemingly influenced by the powers of the weirwood trees and Alys Rivers, Daemon’s past haunts him as he sees Milly Alcock’s crowned Young Rhaenyra, himself as Aemond, and his late wife Laena Velaryon at Harrenhal.
At the start of Daemon’s vision, Young Rhaenyra is speaking to him in High Valyrian, though her words are muffled until the final few sentences. It’s clear that Rhaenyra’s speech, manifested by his own guilt, hurts Daemon at his core, as he responds by beheading Milly Alcock’s Rhaenyra after she mentions that Viserys loved her more than he loved him. While the last few comprehensible and on-screen translated words from Young Rhaenyra summarize much of what Daemon fears and is shamed by, the rest of her High Valyrian discourse cuts him even deeper.
Considering Young Rhaenyra & Daemon would often converse in High Valyrian to have privacy when others were around, the return of this feature is extremely revealing about Daemon’s state of mind after fleeing Dragonstone for Harrenhal. Following the release of House Of The Dragon season 2, episode 4, Game Of Thrones’ linguist and language developer David J. Peterson disclosed the full translation of Young Rhaenyra’s High Valyrian speech. Peterson notes that not all of the dialogue was used, audible, or given subtitles, but he still translated the entire monologue that was outlined for Milly Alcock’s cameo in the episode.
In the extended version of Young Rhaenyra’s High Valyrian speech, she speaks more about her youthful feelings and perception of Daemon, as well as his crimes and wrongdoings against her. This leads into the High Valyrian that was actually translated in House of the Dragon season 2, episode 4 with subtitles, where Young Rhaenyra declares that Daemon created the version of her that he resents, seeks to destroy her, and simultaneously loves, hates, and envies her position. The translation of Young Rhaenyra’s High Valyrian is as follows: “It’s been said that Targaryens are closer to gods than men… In my eyes, you were a god. Daemon Targaryen. The Prince of the City. The Lord of Flea Bottom. I was an innocent. You exploited me and abandoned me. You sullied my name at court. You empowered my rivals. You tried to make my ruin. You put me on that throne. And you love me and you hate me for it. You created me, Daemon. Yet you are now set on destroying me. All because your brother loved me more than he did you. This is what you always wanted, is it not?”
Rhaenyra’s High Valyrian dialogue is conjured from Daemon’s mind as a projection of his guilt and envy, which fully took form when Rhaenyra was at the age when Milly Alcock portrayed her in House of the Dragon season 1. This is also the age at which Daemon had the most influence over Rhaenyra, as it was when he helped set her on a path that would both raise up and condemn her through treachery and selfish desires. Consequently, when these harsh words, said in the language that aided the forbidden, intimate nature of their conversations and interactions, come from Young Rhaenyra’s mouth, Daemon sees his wrongs with more clarity and pain.
Young Rhaenyra’s High Valyrian comments in House of the Dragon season 2, episode 4 begin by highlighting how much she looked up to and admired him at that age. Daemon was a hero to Young Rhaenyra and one of the few people at court who understood her, and he understood the power that he held over her as a young, impressionable, misunderstood teenager. However, as Young Rhaenyra says, Daemon took his knowledge of her infatuation and naïveté and used it to take advantage of her and exploit her for his own benefit with Viserys.
When Daemon seduced Young Rhaenyra at a Flea Bottom brothel and abandoned her there, he knew that it would attract negative attention that could ruin her name. Ultimately, it did. That moment “empowered [her] rivals” like Otto Hightower, “sullied [her] name at court” by ruining her reputation, and “tried to make [her] ruin” by nearly having her disinherited by Viserys. Then, Daemon left King’s Landing altogether, married Laena Velaryon, and abandoned Rhaenyra for a decade by fleeing to Pentos, leaving her to fend for herself alone while the Greens conspired against her.
Daemon’s actions helped turn Rhaenyra into the woman who resents and is unable to trust him, who no longer admires and idolizes him, and who sits as the rightful heir to the Iron Throne instead of him. While Daemon arguably married Rhaenyra and put her on the Iron Throne for selfish purposes as a proxy for giving himself the crown and feeling that her power is his own, he’ll always hate her at some level because he’s not the one who actually wears the crown, sits the throne, and has the title of sovereign. Which, truly, is because Viserys loved and trusted Rhaenyra more than him – the one thing Daemon always wanted above all else.
Ultimately, Daemon’s greatest power in House of the Dragon is his skills as a dragonrider and warrior. Daemon knows that everything Young Rhaenyra says in High Valyrian is true, so he fights back against his vision of her in the only way he knows how: with his sword. Daemon beheads Young Rhaenyra to keep her from saying more of the true, harsh words that cut him so deeply in that moment. But, with Young Rhaenyra’s severed head continuing to talk to him in House of the Dragon's episode, it’s clear that killing her won’t stop these feelings and sentiments from being true.
He can continue to resent her for what he believes she stole from him, but not even in his visions can Daemon behead Milly Alcock's Rhaenyra and stop her from becoming the Queen that he helped her become. While only in a vision, Daemon must also understand that killing Rhaenyra is the only way he could take up his own claim to the Iron Throne in House of the Dragon. However, it still wouldn't accomplish what he wants if he were to kill her. He knows deep down that, for the same reasons Viserys never told Daemon about Aegon's dream or named him heir, he wouldn't make as good of a ruler as Rhaenyra.