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Thanks for the question, Anon.

It’s hard, of course, to say much about poor Daeron, because we only see him so briefly in “The Hedge Knight”, and unlike Aerion we’re not teased about his personality and actions either before the Ashford Tourney or much after that story ends.

Prince Maekar was a hard and (largely) unyielding man, that much is certain. It’s notable that Aerion was “all smiles” around his father: Brightflame had no respect for those who had no power over him (the same reason he only yielded to Dunk when he realized Dunk would kill him), and I’m sure Maekar made very clear he was the authority figure in his household. Maekar had very strong notions about upholding duties to House Targaryen, and I imagine he attempted to impart that sense of duty onto his sons (indeed, from the moment of their births, they were marked as true Targaryens, named in honor of the House’s heroes). They would be great warriors, champions of the Targaryen cause, just as he had been on the Redgrass Field; he had been overshadowed by charming, gregarious Baelor, but his own sons would be as great Targaryen princes as their more dynastically important cousins were.

Some people thrive under that sort of pressure, using the constant challenge to push themselves harder. Others, by contrast, respond poorly, feeling their challenges overwhelm them, and that they will never measure up to success. Daeron seems to have been in the latter category. Aware of his dynastic unimportance - two of his elder uncles had sons of their own, so the chance of his ever gaining the throne was a slim one indeed - Daeron likely thought that there was no use in trying to become the best at anything. Drinking and indulging in prostitutes could mask, temporarily, the failure he might have imagined himself to be - a prince without real importance, an unworthy heir of his father. 

It probably didn’t help matters that Daeron suffered from the prophetic dreams that occasionally touched members of his House. We saw another figure whose probable prophetic visions consumed his life - Daeron’s great-grand nephew, Rhaegar - and I could see Daeron feeling burdened by his designation as a seer. At frequencies he could not control, Daeron would receive strange, symbolic visions of the future; it is hard enough for people who actively work at future-reading to interpret such visions, and poor Daeron almost certainly had no idea what most if any of them were supposed to mean. Yet he would have been aware that these visions could have dramatic, even fatal consequences; every Targaryen knew Daenys the Dreamer’s visions had saved House Targaryen from certain destruction in the Doom. So he would have felt even more stressed, aware that if he received a vision and ignored it, he might have resigned himself or his family to equal destruction. Once again,  drinking and indulging in prostitutes could provide a temporary escape from his unwanted status as family seer.

Poor Daeron. Not strong enough a personality to cope with the demands of strictly dutiful and unyielding Maekar, afflicted by visions he did not want whose consequences he knew could be fatally important, aware of his own dynastic unimportance, he spent his life constantly attempting to escape or mask his problems in the hope they would eventually simply disappear. 

The  Queens of House Targaryen {½) .: From Aegon’s Conquest to the Dance of Dragons.

I felt like drawing some gloomy Dark fanart ♥

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