Dressing every single day like a fairy and living life as an ethereal creature alongside my whimsical wife while also practising witchcraft on a daily basis by the river outside our home

I really, really liked the Harrenhal sequences, because I thought its purpose was to be an interesting character study into what makes Daemon tick. But the ending felt so flat, ultimately pointless and very much disruptive to future plot points?

Daemon had a very fatalistic approach to his death in the books. The breakdown of his relationship with Rhaenyra was very much brought about by his own boredom / disillusionment with her, by his lack of conviction in her cause or even by disappointment or shock that she should overreact to Nettles in such a way. When he left to fight Aemond, he felt that there was not much else left for him. Which, again, betrays a very self-centered view, as he still had two daughters and a son left to raise, but that's Daemon for you. I think it's fair to say that he must have felt that taking Aemond and Vhagar out would prove advantageous to his remaining son, at the very least.

But, in any case, he was in a complicated state of mind that could have been interesting to explore on screen and one that was still true to the core of his character. Daemon is a trickster! He is never fully in or fully our of anything. He is unpredictable and considers himself the master of his own destiny. He is the last character to acquiesce to some notion of predestination. He is a schemer to the core and, while I do think he loved Rhaenyra in his own way, his marriage to her always retained a strategic element to it.

Having him unquestionably bend the knee to her is so bizarre. Why? That's his arc in S2? It also undoubtedly turns him heroic, because he has relinquished his egocentric pursuits (wanting the Iron Throne for himself) in favour of fulfilling a prophecy that basically gives indications on how to save the world in the future. So, now, fighting the greens is not a personal, petty vendetta, it's literally ordained by the gods, because otherwise the entire Westeros is doomed if his bloodline doesn't continue. For real? 😩

And, coming back to Alys and Helaena, of course that the women have to aid Daemon, because they know that the blacks are on the right side of history and they are ultimately peacemakers, one and all! 😭