House Of The Dragon Director Breaks Down That Brothel Orgy, And I Love What She Wanted To Do Differently From Game Of Thrones
Plus, how Ewan Mitchell felt about the nudity.
House of the Dragon Season 2 has gone a long way to illustrate the differences between the Greens and the Blacks of the Targaryen family tree, and the Episode 3 scene with Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) in the King's Landing brothel really showed off the current messiness of the Greens. It was a complex sequence for the brothers, and according to director Geeta Vasant Patel, it was also complicated to film. She shared a detailed breakdown with CinemaBlend and her intent to handle it differently than Game of Thrones might have.
This of course wasn't House of the Dragon's first brothel sequence, as Aemond's actions continue to parallel Daemon's from early Season 1 and Rhaenyra quite memorably was brought to a pleasure house by her uncle/future husband before the time jump. But the latest brothel scene had me flashing back to the Game of Thrones days of sexposition, which was so prolific that there was a supercut of nude scenes well before the show even ended. I'm not against nudity or sex scenes on TV – could I watch Outlander if I was? – but when it didn't serve the story on Thrones, I didn't love it.
So I wasn't flashing back because the brothel scene of House of the Dragon's third episode felt like it was straight out of Game of Thrones, but rather because the sexual acts and nudity didn't feel gratuitous in the ways that they often did – to me, at least – on the original series. (Remember Littlefinger's scene that was inexplicably set in one of his brothels with naked women around him while he monologued? Or what Emilia Clarke has said about nude scenes and how Jason Momoa helped her out?)
So, when I spoke with director Geeta Vasant Patel about how the Episode 3 sequence was filmed and how Ewan Mitchell felt about it, I noted that I didn't get the same gratuitous vibe that I often did from Game of Thrones. She responded:
Not many TV scenes really need an orgy to support the storyline, but Aegon and his cronies dragging an uncomfortable squire through a brothel so that he could – to quote the king – "get it wet"? That qualifies. The director went on about adding the orgy, citing her collaboration with cinematographer Catherine Goldschmidt:
Catherine Goldschmidt, who also shared her take on House of the Dragon's "Cock Inn" location, and Geeta Vasant Patel framed the orgy and the brothel to be about the story of Aegon... and eventually, both Targaryen brothers. The director continued:
Now, viewers may have seen Aemond confiding in a prostitute earlier in Season 2, but Aegon clearly could not have been more surprised to open a curtain and find his brother in bed with the first woman he'd ever been with. And Aegon... well, he didn't exactly treat Aemond with any dignity, which is certainly a choice to make about a man who rides Vhagar.
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Rarely has Aemond been so vulnerable as he was when he was suddenly faced with his drunk brother and his guards in the brothel, and not just because he was fully nude and not wearing his eyepatch. The director unpacked the scene further:
While I may support Team Black and have limited amounts of sympathy for Aemond after Luke's death, could anybody really watch that and not feel bad for him? Credit to Tom Glynn-Carney for continuing to make Aegon interesting in Season 2, but Ewan Mitchell made the brave decision to film fully nude on camera as Aemond walks away. Geeta Vasant-Patel praised the actor, saying:
It remains to be seen if this encounter between the brothers at the brothel affects them as the season continues, and this second season will be shorter than the first. Fire & Blood readers may have some idea of what's likely to happen before the wait begins for Season 3, but House of the Dragon has made plenty of changes from George R.R. Martin's source material.
If you want to revisit Episode 3 after getting the director's take on this particularly memorable scene, you can find it streaming with a Max subscription. New episodes of House of the Dragon air on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.
Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).