(SPOILERS will be found below for Game of Thrones and HotD.)
House of the Dragon‘s second season finale was more about moving chess pieces than executing dragon action, although the show did perk up the audience with those unexpected cameos when a Weirwood tree took Daemon’s mind tripping through visions of Daenerys and her dragons. That sequence also included imagery of what looks like the wreckage of the battle over Gods Eye, and oh look, White Walkers and Wights:
The vision later led Daemon to actually utter “winter is coming,” and he was stirred up enough by what he saw to swiftly kneel before Rhaenyra. So much for that season-long uprising in the making, and yikes, the show really wasted the rogue prince for an entire season of hauntings. Still, there is a silver lining to be had here, which is that people are very entertained by the thought that this white walker-general type ^^^ happens to look like Daemon.
Am I trippin or does this White Walker look like Daemon?! #HOTD #HouseOfTheDragon pic.twitter.com/Tead7AuBlm
— Chalupa Batman (@CoreyCarmona) August 5, 2024
This has led to a flurry of tweets, perhaps serious and perhaps joking, suggesting that Daemon is somehow “turned” into a White Walker.
That white walker sure does look like daemon…..hmmm
— AD | Domin8rGaming (@Domin8rGaming) August 5, 2024
So Daemon is 1 of the white walker generals? Lol, the long haired one looks like him
— Cal Bundy (@BKFlatbushRep) August 5, 2024
So Daemon becomes a white walker ? #HouseOfTheDragon pic.twitter.com/e0cfZLgO1q
— In StoryFlix (@instoryflix) August 5, 2024
So Daemon is confirmed as the white walker? #HouseOfTheDragon
— Childish Weeknd (@jbake17) August 5, 2024
Is Daemon going to turn into a white walker? #HOTD
— Team Mess (@AusBossin) August 5, 2024
This is ultimately a fun theory but probably not true? Surely not.
Then again, in George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Blood book, Daemon’s body is never found after his battle with Aemond. I had assumed that he was either incinerated or managed to survive and sneak off with Nettles, but it’s also a trip to imagine that he somehow turned into a White Walker and later terrorized Game of Thrones characters. That’s a complicated prospect since the first Walker was created several thousand years before the events of HotD, but also, Game of Thrones did include the Night King presumably turning babies into recruits, although the details of that process remained unclear.
In summary, it doesn’t seem likely that Daemon could be “turned” into a Walker, but hey, HotD is already switching up details in other areas, so people are running with it.
Also, we’ve got two years until the third season arrives, so the theory won’t be proven or disproven anytime soon:
daemon targaryen is the white walker king ! pic.twitter.com/eKMftsZTv2
— LatinosActinBlue (@Viralwizard07) August 5, 2024
House of the Dragon‘s full second season can be streamed on Max.