#I feel so silly arguing the stances of fake historians lmao

[starksinthenorth]

Timeline wise it is possible. Daemon returned to King’s Landing in 111 AC for Viserys and Alicent’s fifth anniversary tournament. At that point, he returned to his place on the small council.

Six months later he was exiled from King’s Landing. This was prior to Rhaenyra turning 16, which would’ve been in 113 AC. A this point, Mushroom claims that Daemon gave her kissing lessons to seduce Criston Cole. So he was in King’s Landing until either 111 or 112 AC.

His exile doesn’t have clear parameters, only that he returned to the Stepstones. His specific movements are neither relevant to a history book nor the story at large.

throw in the fact that GRRM is notoriously bad at math (Jace is listed as six during the Vhagar Incident but mathematically would’ve been five, for example).

So it is thoroughly possible that he stopped in Driftmark on his way to the Stepstones or returned there to consult with Corlys at some point.

But the release dates indicate that GRRM’s intention is for them to be read as lovers. The Princess & the Queen (2013), The Rogue Prince (2014), and The World of Ice & Fire (2014) all refer to rumors that Daemon and Nettles were lovers.

It’s only in Fire & Blood (2018) where GRRM inserts the notes about Daemon treating her like a daughter. Then Gyldayn, who effectively speaks with GRRM’s actual opinions in his own canon, says the maester’s notes are most likely the truth as an eyewitness account.

And those say lovers, which effectively ends the conversation as far as canon goes.

(Also it’s thematically important that a non-Valyrian can fly a dragon and the other three dragonseeds are all most likely bastards with Valyrian ancestry)

I think fandom needs to accept a certain fact regardless of their bias or headcanons: Nettles isn’t Daemon’s biological daughter. Period. No, there���s not “if” or “but”. End of discussion. She simply isn’t.

I’m not gonna argue about the nature of Nettles and Daemon’s relationship, because that is something that is up for interpretation (even though I think people oversell the idea that George wrote it to be this super ambiguous situation where we don’t know the truth. I think it’s pretty obvious what the truth is about, but I digress).

I’m talking about facts. And here they are:

Nettles was born in 113AC

Daemon was away from Westeros from 111AC to 115AC.

This is stated in several asoiaf books: Fire & Blood, A World of Ice and Fire and so on. It’s simply not possible for Daemon to be Nettles’ biological father, because he wasn’t even in Westeros during the time Nettles would have been conceived.

Fire&Blood is written by unreliable sources, but that doesn’t mean every piece of factual information is suspect. Core dates and events such as Daemon fighting a war on the Stepstones aren’t up for debate. “Oh, but what if he secretly returned to Westeros” “what if her mother was at the war and ran away” “what if” then George would have written it. Because this is all from George’s mind and if he wanted it that way, he would have it written that way. As it is, he hasn’t. And if we are going to bend canon so it can embrace our headcanons, then I might as well go as far and say that actually, Aegon was secretly named heir by Viserys and Rhaenyra was excluded from the line of succession, and are we sure Daemon wasn’t actually a woman and married to Viserys because at this point I’m just making up shit.

These are the facts as they are. Take it or leave it, ignore it or not, they won’t change. If you want to headcanon that they were father/daughter, feel free to do so. But that’s all that will be: a headcanon. It’s not a theory. It’s not a “maybe”. In canon, it’s not a possibility.

Daemon is not her biological father.