House of the Dragon season 3 kicked off on Sunday with everything fans expected — and a couple of things they didn't.
The Battle of the Gullet lived up the hype, and it was a pleasant surprise to see another cameo from the Green Men. Despite all the naval warfare and draconic spectacle, fans seem preoccupied with one simple moment: Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) kissing his mother, Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke). The scene is awkward and ominous by design, and it does line up with the story we've been told and the story to come as we know it. Still, on some level it feels like a misstep that will vindicate critics of the whole Game of Thrones franchise.
In 2011, the Game of Thrones premiere hooked viewers around by ending on the reveal that siblings Cersei (Lena Headey) and Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) were engaged in incest. That same episode also showed us hints of abuse and incest between Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) and Viserys Targaryen (Harry Lloyd). Those who stuck with the show or delved into the books would go on to learn about why House Targaryen practiced incest for generations, and why Jaime and Cersei carried on in secret.
The shock factor moments in Game of Thrones
However, to many casual viewers or outside observers, the show was defined by these kinds of shock factor moments. They were lumped in with the "sexposition" element of many other HBO productions.
In some cases, the more lurid moments of Game of Thrones are definitely there to hold audiences' attention and surprise them, but die-hard fans of the franchise would argue that most of these moments are important for the plot and the themes of the story.
Author George R.R. Martin explores all facets of the human experience in his writing, including sexuality and how it can be warped by the desire for power — magical or otherwise. That's not an easy case to make to a non-fan, and it only becomes harder when there are new shock factor scenes that don't resonate with the story in an important way.
Is Aemond's plot going somewhere?
That's not to say that Aemond's awkward plot is just there to horrify audiences without going anywhere — in fact, right now it seems likely that all this buildup will pay off in some way. Whether it will be satisfactory is another question. As it stands, it would be easy for a critic of Game of Thrones' depiction of sexuality to look at Aemond's plot and laugh it off. The franchise is known for depicting incest, and in some ways it feels like Aemond's story is just checking that box.
Looking back to season 1, Aemond admitted he would marry his sister Helaena to perform his duty, and he is more interested in Valyrian culture than most characters in the show, which includes a long history of incest. However, he was seen acting out an awkward fantasy with an older sex worker at a brothel in season 2, which seems to imply he has more than magical bloodlines on his mind. The kiss in the season 3 premiere seems to take us in that direction as well.
The actors certainly seem to think this is about more than preserving Targaryen genetics. In the "Inside the Episode" featurette, Cooke said she felt that there was something "malignant" about the kiss, while Mitchell noted that Aemond has always yearned for his mother's love and approval.
Again, it makes sense that a teenage character like Aemond would get his real-life feelings tangled up with his history lessons about Valyrian customs, but from a meta perspective, it could also be interpreted as a contrivance just to put more shocking incest on the screen.
This is one of the many quirks of adapting Martin's fictional history book, Fire & Blood. The scholarly style of the book means that characters and events are described from a distance, leaving lots of room for interpretation. It also comes with the ultimate unreliable narrator, which means that just about any aspect of the book could be skewed or wrong.
Readers may have had their own idea of Aemond which is vastly different from the show, yet still consistent with the book. However, adding in something as salacious as this without any hint from the source material will inevitably come off as contrived to some viewers.
Aemond's endgame
Of course, those who have read the book know exactly where Aemond's story is headed and how all this buildup might tie into it. To discuss that, we need to establish a major spoiler warning, so stop here if you don't want to know what happens next in Fire & Blood.
Aemond has hardly let his guard down at all in this series so far, but he must reveal his true feelings and motivations soon. The prince is clearly power-hungry with his one good eye fixed on the Iron Throne, and he has the means to conquer thanks to Vhagar. However, his quest will soon be derailed when he reaches Harrenhal and meets Alys Rivers (Gayle Rankin). The book clearly implies a sexual relationship between these two, and it seems clear that the show is lining that up.
This is probably the right course of action for House of the Dragon — not only because it will be dramatic to see Aemond ensorcelled and undone, but because casting Alys as a truly powerful witch is more fantastical than making her a simple social climber. It has already maximized the impact of the old gods and related magic in the series. It also means that the magical elements of Aemond and Alys' story are on the table for the end of this series, including Alys' alleged pregnancy by Aemond and her use of strange magic to hold control of Harrenhal when the war is over.
Depending on how far the show goes into the post-war story, this could make for an excellent ending.
The question is whether the show needed Aemond to show interest in Alicent to get to that point, or whether it was gratuitous. There's no objective answer and audiences will never have a unanimous response to something like this, but it's worth thinking about. Expanding a hit series like Game of Thrones into a broader franchise runs the risk of diluting what made it great, and overextending its over-the-top elements could drive some fans away in the long run.
Hopefully the story ahead will be as enthralling for all of us as it will be for Aemond. House of the Dragon season 3 continues on Sundays at 9:00 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.
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