Check out the erotic Targaryen tapestries hanging in the Red Keep in House of the Dragon

The first season of House of the Dragon spent a lot of time in the Red Keep, the biggest seat of power in Westeros. This show is set during a time when the ruling Targaryen family is at the height of its influence. They can get away with pretty much anything, and did. Just look at the decor.

Although the show didn’t draw too much attention to it, if you look closely at the tapestries on the walls of the Red Keep, you’ll notice some…interesting designs. And by that I mean that a lot of the tapestries featured full-on erotic scenes like this one, where a male Targaryen and two female Targaryens are having a foursome with a dragon.

You’ll need to click the “view” button to see this, so it’s your last chance to opt out. It’s not too graphic — it’s hard to get detailed on a tapestry — but it’s not ambiguous what these four are getting up to:

"A full image of the erotic Targaryen wall art that was displayed in King Viserys & Queen Alicent’s bedchambers on ‘HOUSE OF THE DRAGON’. The artwork depicts male and female Targaryens having four-way sexual intercourse with each other and a dragon. byu/AdLate3004 inHouseOfTheDragon"

What happened to the naughty Targaryen tapestries in House of the Dragon?

The idea behind including this sort of erotic artwork in the Red Keep is to show that the Targaryens are living in an age of decadence. It’s got a “Rome before the fall” kind of feeling.

It also helps catch us up on how things change in the Red Keep after Episode 6, which ends with Rhaenyra Targaryen and her family leaving the Red Keep to go live on Dragonstone. When they return in Episode 8, all the erotic artwork is gone, replaced by symbols of the Faith of the Seven, which is basically Westeros’ version of Christianity. The implication is that after Rhaenyra left the place, Alicent Hightower changed the decor so it was much less about sex and much more about piety.

This gives us a look into Alicent’s character. Her sex life with her ancient, decaying husband was terrible, so it’s no surprise that she didn’t particularly enjoy looking at all the erotic art. Taking that away was her way of exerting her influence on the Red Keep, and on control of Westeros at large.

Alicent is still in the Red Keep at the end of season 1, although her son Aegon is now king. Will he continue with the holy decor or bring the naughty tapestries out of the basement? We’ll find out when the second season of House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and Max sometime in 2024.

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