House of the Dragon parents guide and age rating

The highly-anticipated Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon is nearly upon us! The new successor series is set almost 200 years before the original show, back when the Targaryen dynasty was at the height of its power and dragons soared the skies above Westeros. Though this is an earlier era, it has all the bloodshed, politicking, and betrayals that made Game of Thrones so riveting.

If you’re a parent, you may be wondering whether this show is appropriate to watch with your kids…to which I’d say, “Of course not, are you crazy? This is Game of Thrones!”

But jokes aside, we’ve rounded up the actual age rating information so you can make a more informed decision.

House of the Dragon parents guide and rating information

It should go without saying that House of the Dragon is rated TV-MA for mature audiences. This age rating is used to denote that a show that is specifically made for adults and contains content not suitable for viewers under the age of 17. As of this writing, HBO has only release episode-specific ratings for the first two episodes of the season:

• Episode 1: 1 HR, 6 MIN — warning labels for Adult Content, Adult Language, Graphic Violence, Nudity, and Strong Sexual Content
• Episode 2: 54 MIN — Adult Content, Adult Language, Violence

Like Game of Thrones before it, we expect that House of the Dragon will include plenty of violence, nudity, sex, adult language and adult themes. We do know that House of the Dragon will handle sex more “thoughtfully” than Game of Thrones, and that this season will not depict sexual violence onscreen (though there is one off-screen act of sexual violence, the ramifications of which are discussed). All that being said, series star Matt Smith, who plays Daemon Targaryen, is of the opinion that the show has “slightly too much” sex, at least where his rogue-ish character is concerned. So make of all that what you will.

One very specific thing we know is that since this show is about the Targaryen dynasty, it will feature incest much more prominently than the original show. While Game of Thrones played off the series’ few instances of incest as socially abominable, incest among Targaryens is far more normalized at this point in Westerosi history. If you’re the kind of family where it’s okay to watch that together, please leave a comment with your personal identifying information addressed to the Department of Children and Family Services.

In closing, if Game of Thrones was not the type of thing you considered safe to watch with your children, then House of the Dragon isn’t either.

House of the Dragon premieres August 21 on HBO and HBO Max. Don’t watch it with your kids, you weirdos. (Unless they’re adults.)

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