Fans Are Still Reeling From Daemon's House Of The Dragon Sex Scene, But Did The Show Go Too Far?

When you watch Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon, intense violence, sex, nudity and incest are expected. This is especially true in Season 2 of HOTD, seeing as the Targaryen family tree is growing because characters who are brother and sister, cousins/step-siblings, niece and uncle, and so on are married and some have children. However, fans drew a line when it comes to incest when Episode 5 showed Daemon having a hallucination where he was having sex with his mother.

Alyssa Targaryen, Daemon and Viserys’ late mother, appeared in one of the prince’s Harrenhal hallucinations. She noted that he was her “favorite son” as they were having sex, and that made a lot of viewers very uncomfortable, myself included. For example, @LordSnow posted:

While we’ve seen our fair share of brothels, orgies, nudity and sex in HOTD, and just one episode earlier we witnessed intense violence and major tragic deaths on the Game of Thrones prequel, there has to be a point where things go too far. This scene between Daemon and his mom seemed to be that for many fans, and it had folks like @cosmicaraline posting things like:

Viewers were already not thrilled with Daemon’s little haunted sidequest in Harrenhal, and adding this vision made things worse for some, as @ainsleyhcyes posted:

It’s worth noting that George R.R. Martin wrote that incest in the Game of Thrones universe is widely OK because of the Doctrine of Exceptionalism. This makes it socially acceptable for people to marry within their families. As young Alicent said, and @ama_4820 pointed out:

However, when it comes to mother/son relationships that’s typically not allowed. So, I think it’s fair to say that Daemon’s scene went too far, as @dancezwitwolves noted:

If there’s any sort of consolidation here, it’s that Matt Smith’s character was also seemingly thrown off by his hallucination and deeply uncomfortable. However, that’s just speculation and interpretation, he hasn’t explicitly expressed his feelings. However, I hope he was as shook as viewers were by that scene, it’d make me (and many fans) feel better.

Overall, this scene left a lot of people unsettled, and understandably so. Did it go too far? Yeah, probably. However, that also seems to be the point based on Daemon’s own reaction to realizing what was going on.

As the show continues to drop episodes at 9 p.m. ET on Sundays on the 2024 TV schedule, I’m curious to see if this sequence is addressed again, or if they’ll just push it to the side. I’m not sure which is the best option. While I’d rather not think about a mother and son having a romantic relationship, I also would like some reasoning for why this happened to Daemon and how he felt about it.

We’ll find out which road they take when House of the Dragon returns this Sunday, and you can watch it on HBO or with a Max subscription.