(Warning: This article contains spoilers for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 5.)
Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon have been known to push the envelope with their depictions of sex. But in embracing its weirder fantastical elements, the latter series takes things further than Thrones did by giving us an incestuous sex dream.
King consort Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) has been plagued by a series of increasingly trippy dreams and visions bleeding into his consciousness ever since he arrived at Harrenhal. He’s seen his dead wife, Laena Velaryon (Nanna Blondell), roaming the halls and a younger version of his current wife, Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock), taunting him with a crown on her head. He’s heard whispers of his demise, and his many sins and faults have been laid bare.
Some of this has been the machinations of Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin), who’s warned him of his impending death, and a concoction that some believe to be weirwood paste, but Daemon’s surroundings could be as much to blame. Harrenhal is covered in growing weirwood tree roots, and the place is linked with the old gods; Daemon’s bed is also made from weirwood trees.
His latest dream in Episode 5 has him kissing, going down on, and having sex with a blonde woman (Emeline Lambert). This woman feeds Daemon’s ego, telling him, “You were always the strong one. The finest swordsman. The fearless dragonrider.” He should’ve been the Eldest Boy and ascended to the Iron Throne, not his ill-suited older brother Viserys (Paddy Considine).
“Your brother had great love in his heart, but he lacked your constitution,” she said. “Viserys was unsuited for the crown, but you, Daemon, you were made to wear it.”
The woman stroking his ego isn’t Laena or Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), and she’s never named in the episode—though she’s referenced several times. To find her identity, you’d have to travel up Daemon’s family tree: She’s Alyssa Targaryen, Viserys and Daemon’s mother. Daemon looks disturbed upon hearing Alyssa refer to him as her favorite son as he sees blood on her neck and his hands; it’s later revealed to be a gravy with his dinner.
Incest is such a part of House of the Dragon’s DNA—it was key in House Targaryen’s push to keep their Valyrian bloodlines “pure”—that most people no longer blink an eye at it. “The tradition amongst the Targaryens had always been to marry kin to kin,” George R.R. Martin wrote in Fire & Blood. “Wedding brother to sister was thought to be ideal. Failing that, a girl might wed an uncle, a cousin, or a nephew, a boy, a cousin, aunt, or niece.”
Siblings marrying and reproducing? An old hat tradition. Cousins? Also somewhat normalized, such as with King Viserys Targaryen and his cousin-wife Aemma Arryn (Sian Brooke). Betrothed cousins-turned-stepsiblings Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett) and Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia)? Child’s play.
Even Queen Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen’s marriage was side-eyed more for the suspicious circumstances leading up to it than the incest itself. And it’s why Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and Ser Criston Cole’s (Fabien Frankel) situationship, one of the few canonical non-incest pairings in the series, stands out in stark contrast, before the emotional whiplash of many viewers’ burning hatred for Criston sets in.
But pairing mother and son together is rare, even for House Targaryen. The only purported instance of it in Martin’s world comes from Aegon IV Targaryen (a far-off descendant of House Targaryen who ruled decades after the Dance of the Dragons) and one of his mistresses rumored to be his daughter. (In Game of Thrones, incest is between siblings, aunt and nephew, and Caster and his daughter-wives to breed more daughter-wives or sacrifices to the White Walkers.)
Of course, Daemon never actually had sex with his mother. For one, Alyssa has been long dead, which Alys alluded to when she called him out for allowing the Blackwoods to kill Bracken civilians and Rhaenyra referencing her as Meleys’s first rider before Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best). Like far too many women in House of the Dragon, Alyssa died due to complications from childbirth: Her death came shortly after giving birth to Viserys and Daemon’s younger brother Aegon, who never made it to his first name day. Daemon was only 3 years old at the time.
Add in the show-centric detail that Daemon was Alyssa’s favorite son over the studious king in an era of peace, the presence of the old gods and their symbols in Harrenhal, and a witch hellbent on toying with him, and you’ve got a barrel full of mommy issues served up in a volatile dragonlord’s body. This dream is pure Alys, who knows exactly where to dig in when she tells him it’s a pity he never knew his mother while reminding him of how he’s failing in the Riverlands. Her hints of the future aren’t enough; she also must haunt his present.
It’s yet another parallel to Prince Regent Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell), another second son vying for power over his incompetent older brother, this time an incapacitated King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney). They both believe themselves more qualified to rule the Seven Kingdoms than a woman, and they’re not afraid to be ruthless in their policies and dragon warfare. And they both have a lot of complicated feelings about their mothers. Their names are anagrams of each other, and they both want to meet the other on the battlefield; it’s not a matter of if but when.
It’s too soon to know what Aemond’s decisions as the de facto ruler of Westeros will mean for his cause, although the smallfolk didn’t seem pleased at being barred from leaving King’s Landing. But Daemon’s choice to stubbornly cling to a crown that isn’t his is already costing him as the Riverlords whose soldiers he needs to fight for his cause refuse to raise their banners after allowing the Blackwoods to run wild on Bracken land and kill women and children.
And if he can be manipulated into kicking off his own destruction by a particular flavor of incest planted into his head by a witch, what leg does he have to stand on against his queen?
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